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Astrology Is An Aspect Of Spirituality

Astrology Is An Aspect Of Spirituality, A Dimension Of Spirituality

Osho on Astrology
Astrology Is An Aspect Of Spirituality
A Dimension Of Spirituality
Osho, Hidden Mysteries, Ch 5, Part 6 of 6.

Osho states, “The centers that exist deep within this body alone, which Yoga calls chakras, are the accumulated forms of many lives.”

Astrology is not merely the study of the stars, although it includes that. We will talk about this. Besides the study of the stars, there are other, separate dimensions by which astrology tries to probe man’s future, by which it can get hold of the future.

To become aware of the future, it is necessary to become aware of the past. To be aware of the past, it is necessary to read the inscriptions traced on your body and on your mind. On your body there are inscriptions and on your mind there are also inscriptions. From the time astrology became obsessed with these bodily inscriptions it could not go very deep, because these bodily inscriptions are very superficial.

If your mind undergoes a change, then the lines on your palm will immediately change. If under hypnosis you are assured that after fifteen days you will die, and if every day for fifteen days you are made unconscious and assured in your unconscious state that after fifteen days you will die whether you like it or not, then by the fifteenth day your age line will be broken. A gap will have appeared in your age line; the body will accept the notion that death is on its way.

The lines traced on the body are a very superficial phenomenon. Deep within is the mind. The mind with which you are familiar, however, does not exist deep down; it is superficial. Deep down there is a mind which you do not know at all. The centers that exist deep within this body alone, which Yoga calls chakras, are the accumulated forms of many lives. One who knows can, by placing his hand on a particular chakra, discover how active it is. By touching your seven chakras, it can be known whether you have ever experienced them or not.

I have experimented with the chakras of hundreds of people, and I have been surprised to find that at the most one or two – and only rarely three – chakras have begun to be activated; generally, they remain dormant. You have never used them, but they are your past. If a man who has experienced them comes to me and I can see that all his seven chakras are in motion, then it can be said that this is his last birth. Then there will be no next birth, because if all seven chakras are in motion, then there is no possibility of a next life. This life will be nirvana, this life will be liberation.

If anyone came to Mahavira, he made it his concern to discover how many chakras were active in him – how much work must be done with him, what his possibilities were, when and whether his labor would bear any fruit or not, and how many more births he would need.

Astrology is an attempt to probe the future by many, many paths. Among these – the most commonly used path – is the study of how the planets and stars influence man. For this, more scientific evidence is becoming available every day. This much has been decided – that life is affected and cannot avoid being affected by these influences. Only the second part remains difficult to determine – whether each person as an individual is also affected. It worries scientists a little whether each person is affected individually – whether the three or four billion men on this earth are each affected as individuals. But they must realize that this is so.

Why are they so troubled? Nature can give each man a thumb that is uniquely his, that is individual and unrepeated. Nature can keep such a subtle account that it gives to each man a thumb which is uniquely his and a thumb print which can never belong to anyone else, neither now nor in the future. Several billion people may have lived on the earth, several billion people may live in the future on the earth, but my thumb print will not be repeated. You may be surprised to learn that in the case of twins born out of one egg, which I have spoken about, even their thumb prints will differ from one another.

If nature can bestow so much individuality on each man with regard to a worthless thing like a thumb – a thing which is of no special value and which seems to fulfil no special purpose – if nature can even give a thumb a uniqueness, then can’t it give each man a unique life and a unique spirit? There seems to be no reason why not. But science moves in slow motion – and it is good! For science, slow motion is good. Until a fact has been completely proved, it is not good to move forward even an inch. But prophets can take a leap. That which will happen a thousand or even a hundred thousand years later, they can declare right now.

Science moves forward inch by inch. It sees only facts – facts, that can be experimented upon. Dreaming is of no use to science – but prophets can discover truth even in dreams. For them, even the future is just the expanded present.

Astrology is basically the investigation of the future. And science is basically the investigation of the past and the present. Science is the investigation of what is today and what is its cause. Astrology is the investigation of what tomorrow will be and what will be its consequences. Between the two there is a huge gap. But every day science experiences new things, and theories to which it has become attached can never be proved absolutely correct – they only seem correct.

As I have said, science has only recently accepted that every man is born with built-in individuality. For a long time it has been reluctant to accept the validity of this idea. But astrology has always been saying this. Just try to understand….

For instance a seed, a mango seed: when we sow the mango seed there must be contained within it some sort of built-in program, there must be a blueprint. If this were not so the seed would be helpless. It neither takes advice from a specialist nor does it study at a university. How then can a mango tree develop out of this seed? Still, it produces the mango tree leaf, it bears the mango fruit. In the stone-like seed there must be concealed a complete program. If not, without such a program what can the seed do? Everything must be present within it. Whatever the tree will be must somehow be concealed within the seed. It is not visible to us. We can smash it and dissect it, and still it will not be visible. But it must be there somehow, otherwise a neem tree might possibly emerge from the mango seed…!

It seems that there is never a mistake. Only a mango tree emerges; everything is repeated correctly. In this tiny seed is stored all the information which relates to what the seed must do. How it must sprout, what type of leaf, how many branches to produce, how big a tree to become, for how long it will grow, how tall it will grow – all this must be hidden within the seed. How many fruits, how sweet, whether they will ripen or not – all this must be concealed within the seed. If all this is concealed within a mango seed, then when you come into your mother’s womb will there be nothing latent in your seed?

Now scientists agree that even at this stage the color of your eyes must lie concealed, that the color of your hair must lie concealed, that the height of your body must lie concealed, that the possibilities of health and ill health must lie concealed, and that even your I.Q. must lie concealed – because without it how will you develop, and by what means? You must have a program that is built in advance. How will certain bones join together as a hand, others as a foot? One bone will begin to see, another bone will begin to hear. How can all this be?

Scientists used to say that it is just coincidence. But the word coincidence seems very unscientific. Coincidence means chance. By chance a foot may begin to see and a hand to hear. But there does not seem to be much coincidence; everything seems to be in order, prearranged.

Astrology says a more scientific thing. It says that everything is available within the seed. Astrology says that if we can study the seed, if we can discover the language of the seed, if we can decode this language – if we can ask the seed, “What is your intention?” – then we will be able to draw up the complete blueprint of a human being too. Scientists have already begun to draw up such blueprints for plants. Up to now we have considered astrology to be superstition, a matter of blind faith. But if science draws up such blueprints, then it will in fact become astrology – and science has certainly begun to draw up such blueprints.

Astrology declares that if by divine grace we come to know the whole, then the future as such will not exist at all. But because we do not know the whole – only a little fragment – what we do not know becomes “the future.” We are obliged to say, “Perhaps it may be like this,” because much is unknown to us. If the whole were to be known then we could say, “It will be like this” – and it will be exactly so.

If everything is latent within the human seed, then it is only a matter of studying the seed. What I am talking about today must in some form have existed in my seed as a potentiality; otherwise, how can I talk about all this? If some day it becomes possible to observe a human seed, then after observing my seed, a blueprint could be drawn up indicating what I will say in this life, what I will become, what I will not become, what I will make of myself, what I will not make of myself, what will happen. All this could be forecast. It will not be surprising when tomorrow, if not today, we have the capacity to peep into the human seed. The first steps have already been taken in this direction.

Birth charts and horoscopes are only for probing into all these matters. For thousands of years we have tried, when a child is born, to find out what will happen to him. If we could get some estimate, then perhaps we could make some arrangements, perhaps we could increase the child’s opportunities. Then whatever is to happen, we could become accepting of it.

Mulla Nasruddin declared towards the end of his life that he had always been miserable, but that suddenly one day he had become happy. The entire population of the village was struck with wonder that a man who had always been depressed, who always used to see the dark side of things, should suddenly have become cheerful. He was a man who had always been pessimistic, who always used to look for thorns.

Once there was an excellent crop in Nasruddin’s garden. There were so many apples that the trees were overloaded. In the neighborhood, one man inquired whether Nasruddin could now possibly have any complaint. He said, “This time the crop is such that it will rain gold. What do you think, Nasruddin?”

Nasruddin, in great sorrow said, “Everything is okay, but where will I get rotten apples to feed the animals?” This man remains miserable: “Where will I get rotten apples to feed the animals…!” All the apples were good, none were rotten – this was his difficulty.

This man suddenly one day became happy, and so the people of the village were curious. They asked, “You are happy, Nasruddin? Has the kingdom become yours?”

Nasruddin said, “I have learned to cooperate with the inevitable. After many years of struggling, I have realized something. Now I have decided that what must be, must be. Now I cooperate with the inevitable, so now there is no reason to be miserable. Now I am happy.”

Astrology investigates many things. To whatever is inevitable, it lends a cooperative hand. Whatever is to be, it does not madly struggle against. Whatever is not to be, it does not demand, does not reach out towards.

Astrology was a means for making man religious – for bringing him to suchness, for bringing him to an ultimate acceptance. It has many dimensions, it has many aspects. We will gradually discuss each dimension. For today, just this much – that the universe is a living body, an organic unit. In it nothing is isolated, all is joined together. Whatever is far away is joined to that which is near – nothing is separate.

So no one should misunderstand this. No one is an isolated island, no one is aloof. Each is joined to the whole, and each one is all the time affecting the other and being affected by the other. Even when you pass by a stone lying on the road, it is throwing its vibrations in your direction. The flowers too are throwing out their vibrations. And you are not just passing by, you too are throwing out your vibrations.

I have said that we are affected by the moon and the stars. I also wish to say that the moon and the stars are affected by us, because influence comes from both directions. Whenever a man like Buddha is born on the earth, the moon may not realize that it is because of him that storms are not arising on its surface – that because of Buddha, storms are subsiding. The moon is affected and the sun is also moved. When spots occur on the sun and storms arise, disease spreads throughout the earth.

When a person like Buddha is born on the earth and a current of peace is flowing, and the pillar of consciousness grows strong, and the deep beauty of meditation moves over the earth, then too a storm spreads throughout the sun – a storm of peace, bliss and consciousness – because all is joined together.

A tiny blade of grass has an impact on the sun, and the sun has its impact on the blade of grass. The blade of grass is not so tiny that the sun can say, “I do not care about you,” nor is the sun so big that it can say, “What can this blade of grass do for me?” Life is joined together. Here nothing is big or small; everything is one organic unity.

Life is a whole. If you can perceive this wholeness, only then will you understand astrology; otherwise you will not. Astrology is an aspect of spirituality, a dimension of spirituality. It is the science of wholeness, unity, nonduality.

Osho, Hidden Mysteries, Ch 6 (excerpt)
Source: www.oshonews.com
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