Would you believe that Jyotisha, the ancient Vedic system of astrology, has been scientifically validated? The story of the scientific work done in Bangalore by Dr Rameshrao N, a Jyotishi (Vedic astrologer) with four decades of experience in assessing birth charts is extraordinary. A very senior academic from Pune who visited him opined that it was the best PhD work that he had ever seen; it was of such quality and originality as to be worthy of a Nobel Prize.
I was first introduced to Jyotisha in 1988 and was deeply impressed by its accuracy in predicting events that would happen to a person, and their timing. At a meeting with a friend in the US in 2004, I said that I would really like to be able to conduct research on Jyotisha. Then, some three years later, it was my good fortune to meet Dr Rameshrao. It happened in the following way — Swami Vivekananda Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA), the Yoga University in Bangalore, had offered me a position, which I took up on 1st September 2007. At midday, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr HR Nagendra, told me that he was going to their city office that afternoon to interview possible PhD students.
We accordingly drove to Eknath Bhavan on Gavipuram Circle in south-west Bangalore, where the interviews commenced around 3.30 to 4.00 p.m. The first few were successful, but then a series of aspiring students had their proposals rejected. Finally, at the end of quite a lengthy meeting, the last candidate entered. Rameshrao, as he then was, explained that he had completed an MSc in Yoga at S-VYASA and that, as an experienced and expert practitioner of Jyotisha astrology, for which he conducted numerous consultations every evening after his work teaching Veterinary Science at the Veterinary College in northern Bangalore, he would like to do his PhD on the system of Vedic astrology. Dr Nagendra and his sister, Dr Nagarathna, the Clinical Director, immediately said, “No”, no one at S-VYASA was qualified to supervise it. To their astonishment, I raised my hand and said that I had studied Jyotisha astrology since 1988, knew enough to supervise research, and would be happy to guide Rameshrao as the faculty responsible. Then another seeming miracle occurred. Another member of the PhD Research Selection Committee, Dr Ramachandra Bhat, who had founded and was Director at two local Gurukuls, stated that, as it so happened, he had had a Jyotisha consultation with Rameshrao the day before; he had never previously met him, and that he should meet him again the following day was unplanned and quite by chance. He had been deeply impressed by the depth and accuracy of Rameshrao’s reading of his Kundali, and he would happily support his application to do a PhD in Vedic astrology. By this combination of coincidences and Divine Grace, Rameshrao was able to start his PhD.
Rameshrao’s proposal had been to do a study of veterinary science of sheep and goats on a farm owned by the State of Karnataka, for the purpose of breeding sheep and goats. Since small ruminants, as they are technically known, are susceptible to a range of diseases, their vaccination is mandatory. Normally it is carried out by the professionals at the farms in order to prevent mud and dirt from other farms being tracked onto the breeding sites. Rameshrao was able to obtain special permission for his research to proceed; for the vaccinations to be done, and for the subsequent assessments to be made at predetermined times.
Early the following year, however, a massive and unexpected storm ravaged the farm. Although all the goats survived, being naturally hardy animals, one-third of the sheep succumbed and died, and their loss destroyed the validity of that half of the study.
We were very concerned as the remaining data was favourable but not decisive enough for a PhD to be considered worthy in a revolutionary field (later, with more experience, we did find a better way to analyse it).
However, God works in mysterious ways, and this turned out to be a blessing. Rameshrao was forced to consider further possibilities. Discussions with his great friend, the Director of the Veterinary College Vaccine Institute, Dr Renuka Prasad, led to them deciding to measure the success of growing veterinary vaccines starting under different Jyotisha Muhurthas. A first experiment produced mildly significant results, but, most importantly, succeeded in demonstrating that the time of infection of the tank, in which the vaccines were to be grown, was a good choice for the Muhurtha-the starting time-for such experiments.
Rameshrao and Dr Renuka Prasad rethought the protocol for the next series of experiments, selecting specific times for infection of the growth flask, mostly times convenient for the staff of the Vaccine Institute. At some times, the planet Jupiter, Guru, was in the rising sign, and at other times the North Node of the Moon’s orbit, the extremely inauspicious Rahu. Some of the selected times were during Rahukala, the inauspicious time associated with Rahu, different on different days of the week. The experimental hypothesis was that Guru would improve growth results, i.e., vaccine production, and that Rahu and Rahukala would spoil it.
Interestingly, results seemed to be mixed: Guru was always effective, but on some days, Rahu and Rahukala had far less effect than on other days, their worst. While we were pondering this anomaly, Rameshrao observed that this occurred when the Moon, Chandra, was strong and more than usually auspicious. Either Chandra was in its own house, Kartika (the Jyotisha equivalent to Cancer), ‘exalted’ in Vrishabh (Jyotisha equivalent to Taurus), or at Full Moon, or nearly Full Moon. Why on earth should that be?, he mused. Overnight, possibly at Brahmamurti, the answer came to me. On the Nine Days of Mother Divine, Navaratri, each of the three forms of the Divine Mother slays a great demon: Mahasaraswati, the Goddess of Wisdom, slays the Demon of Ignorance; Mahalaxmi, the Goddess of Wealth, slays the Demon of Poverty and Hunger; and, finally, the greatest, Mahadurga, slays the greatest demon of all, Mahishasura. Chandra, the Moon, is the representative of Divine Mother among the Grahas, so it falls to her to disable Rahu and render his presence and influence null and void!
This realisation left us in awe-struck silence. The influence of one Navagraha on another, stated in the Vedic texts, could be realised in such a dramatic experimental fashion in scientific experiments. We felt truly humbled by this result. In this first week of experiments, this was an unhypothesised discovery, that scientists call ‘Ad Hoc’. The next week’s study included it among the experimental hypotheses, so its verification transformed it into a genuine empirical test, and therefore another discovery in addition to the others. Next week’s article will relate stories about the effects of Grahas on viral infections, and also the effects of solar and lunar eclipses-truly extraordinary!
(If you are interested in knowing more of the details than those contained in this article, you may like a copy of the short book Proof of Jyotisha Astrology, available on Amazon.)