ASTROLOGY IN HUMAN LIFE by Thinesh Silvaraju

Astrology is an elaborate system of knowledge and there are voluminous treatises containing very

intricate calculation based on the position of stars and planets and the inter-relation existing between them and the various phenomena

on earth including human life. Because of the evidence at hand, several scientists regard this branch of knowledge with reverence, although they cannot explain its rationale. Carl Jung, the renowned psychologist, was inspired to evolve his ideas on synchronicity from his serious studies of I Ching, a book on ancient Chinese astrology. As long as modern science has not reached a final conclusion about the nature of mind and matter, the scientific methodology or the conclusions of science cannot be taken to be the only means to acquire knowledge or as the final word.

The practice of astrology involves many years of intensive study like any of the professional courses of modern science. Some of the astrological observations, of course, go wrong; but errors happen in every sphere of human activity. Doctors often fail to diagnose correctly despite their intensive medical training. Let us think of those investigators who involved astrology as a system of knowledge.

No man of thought worth his salt would consider savants of yore like Varahamihira to be of lesser intellect; the difference is that they employed their intellects in different directions. Savants like Varahamihira earnestly sought to discover the holistic relations between man and nature and revealed what they found out with utmost humility, unlike some of the modern scientists who specialize in some particular field and tend to believe they are competent to pass judgement on everything. We also are often prone to consider a Nobel-prize winner in a particular subject to be omniscient.

NEW SCIENCE

There are indications that a new scientific thinking is also veering round the ancient perspective that the universe is both mental and material. The view of the ancient biologist Sir Julian Huxley that all the activities of the world-stuff are possibly accompanied by mental and material happenings and his preference to name the possible low intensity mental happenings in matter as 'psychotic' happenings is indication of this new line of scientific thinking.

The trends indicate that the emerging new science will be taking a more balanced view of the two aspects of Reality--mind and matter. Sri Roger Penrose, Professor of Mathematics at the

University of Oxford, revealed that what prompted him to write the book The Emperor's New Mind was the reaction against people making rather outrageous statements about the capacities of computers assuming all we were doing with our minds was computation. The emergence of the new science calls for a deeper comprehension of the nature of mind. In this context, the following observation of Sir Roger Penrose in the Interview assumes much significance: “Whatever that future science is--and we can point to the direction it may take --it will have quite a different character from the science of today. What we have today cannot come to terms with what mentality is."

In the evolution of this new science, the critical research of the ancient knowledge which gives much emphasis to the ancient knowledge which gives much emphasis to consciousness is likely to contribute a great deal for a better understanding about ourselves and the universe. If the teaching of astrology and allied subjects is conducted with a research orientation, it may indeed prove to be an advantageous 'leaps backwards' for humanity.