Oh, Rahu! Astrologers are waiting to unleash horror, all along. A highly biased, immature and agonizing characteristics of portraying Rahu in the worst possible light, astrologically. Yes, to an extent they may be right, out of practical experience. Well, one will have to be contended with their reasoning from a democratic perspective. What is that democratic perspective? Fifth or sixth decimal place of population hold/rule the life of almost the entire society. Ironical but true.
Astrology is a divine science but the divine ingredient has perhaps hit extremely low levels already only because of erroneous interpretation by Astrologers. Thus, it is possible that many a comment made by our age old sages, ascetics and people who were diligently following spiritual discipline has not been taken in proper spirit or misinterpreted. We cannot or should not take them wrong but we have to apply mind taking a holistic view of the subject collating a number of aspects of a birth chart in its ultimate entirety.
We can have a 360 degree view of all about Rahu through spiritual realms instead of falling back only on Astrology for the simple reason anything on this planet earth has its roots in Brahmanda. For that matter, be it science, technology, medicine, name anything that human beings are aware is emanating from Brhamanda. Therefore, lord Brahamma is the nucleus of all knowledge and nothing happens in this planet earth without an ingredient of Brhamma. Thus, Brahamma Gnana (knowledge of Brahamma) is universal, however silly a point that is involved.
The architecture of this wonderful human body is beyond our comprehension and we have not explored even a fractional digit percentage of human capability. Of course, the highest level of the fact that the life on earth is a grand illusion or Maya. I do not think that we will have few people to buy this argument at all despite the fact that everything on this planet earth is absolutely temporary while we are looking for permanency no matter what the subject is. The fact that this world is an illusion can only be experienced either after death or when a mystic attains the state of ‘Samadhi’, that is, when he becomes super-conscious.
Rahu, astrologically called the North Node has its mythological origin in Samudra mantana, that is, churning of the ocean as we all know. Cutting short the mythological perspectives and moving on to spiritual perspectives, it has to be noted with keen interest that on the top of a number of Hindu deities we find the snake hoods and the maximum number of hoods is Adi Sesha with 1000 hoods. Verbatim meaning of Aadi Sesha is – Aadi means from the root or from the bottom and Sesha means balance or left over. As per Karma theory, when one is able to finish the Karmas of past so many lives it may be possible to attain the super-conscious state and continue the spiritual journey. You may please recall the para just preceding this wherein I have referred to the human body, the temple of the living God as mentioned in the bible and Hindus have called it the ‘Nar Naryani Deha’. Human body is the Microcosm and the entire universe is Macrocosm which means that the entire universe is projected or reflected in the human body.
Walking a few baby steps further, it is also within our knowledge that there are seven Shakthi Kendras or energy centers or Chakras in the human body. Although the medical professionals may be apprehensive of calling it Chakras, perhaps they do subscribe to medical equivalents of that directly or indirectly. For example, the Agna Charkra is called medically as the pineal gland. Further, starting from the bottom of the body, Pingla nadi representing the solar energy on the right side of the body and Ida nadi representing the lunar energy on the left side of the body first crisscross at the bottom most point of the spinal cord which is called as Sushmna Nadi. The first point of intersection is called the Mooladhara Chakra. Likewise it moves up the spinal cord and finally ends up at the Eye Center or the Agna Chakra and further up it the Sahsrar Chakra, the 1000 petal lotus, the hood of the serpent. Why serpent? The two nadis from the bottom viz., Ida and Pingla twist themselves up at six points on the spinal cord, the Sushamna nadi like two serpents and moves upwards and ends up at Sahasrara chakra, the hood of the serpent. This is Rahu, astrologically, the shadowy planet.
Why Rahu is ever retrograde? The answer is very simple. When human being is born, the spiritual energy or the soul enters from the Sahsrar Chakra as attention current and gets spread all over the body through the same Chakras. When the soul has to go out of the body either at death or during meditation which can be said dying while living, it has to retrace the path back. The typical significance of Rahu’s retrograde motion is that the soul has to go back to its origin or else it has to remain in the giant wheel of birth and death with no guarantee of human life again. Rebirth need not mean reincarnation as human being.
In conclusion, Rahu is a planet signifying the soul’s natural inclination or destination of going back to its origin. Therefore, in delineation of astrological charts the position of Rahu is of utmost importance. When we say soul going back to its origin either voluntarily through meditation or at death, in either case, one meaning a reversible death and the other meaning permanent death, meaning the expiration of the current term of life, may be inflicted by Rahu. Permanent death inflicting characteristics can even be virtue of human beings catching up with terminal diseases. However, it is wrong to infer that Rahu is a deadly planet.
Moving further, it may be noted with extraordinary interest that Rahu depicting Sahasrar Chakra is the fountain head of knowledge, contextually. For worldly matters it may mean research and development, innovation, creativity and host of other mental faculties. Of course, the author is refraining from commenting on the doshas as an aftermath of all planets hemmed in between Rahu and Ketu as it is conventionally called as Kala Sarpa Dosha.
K Jagadish,
Bangalore, India.
January 9, 2016.
