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Rick Archer: Welcome to Buddha at the Gas Pump. My name is Rick Archer. Buddha at the Gas Pump is an ongoing series of interviews with spiritually Awakening people and discussions about spiritual topics. I’ve been doing this for this will be the 10th anniversary in the fall, and there are nearly 500 of these. And so if this is new to you, and you’d like to check out previous ones, please go to batgap.com and look under the past interviews menu, where you’ll see all the previous ones categorized and organized in various ways. This program is made possible by the support of appreciative listeners and viewers. So if you appreciate it and feel like supporting it to any amount, there is a PayPal button on every page of the site and also a page suggesting other ways of doing it without pay pal if you don’t like PayPal. My guest today is an old friend of Irene and mine named Prasanna. We first met Preston on about 20 years ago, at an AMA event in Chicago, I believe, when I first met him, and had seen him over the years many times since then, and I’ve stayed in touch with them even in between those events. All this time. For reasons that we’re about to explain in this interview, which will be about the Vedic Science, or our discipline of Jyotish, which is the Sanskrit word for astrology. person that had a fascination for astronomy from an early age. In fact, there’s a picture of him when he’s 15 years old, on his website, in his bedroom with all these astronomy posters on the wall. And he built his own telescope and spent his teenage years studying the stars and planets. He was the president of the astronomy and photography clubs in high school, he always understood that what we see is only a tiny portion of the totality. And obviously, that has meaning in various other realms other than astronomy. In 1987, he attended a retreat which resulted in a spiritual awakening, leading him to conclude that he had always been on a spiritual path. As a result, he adopted a celibate Brahmacharya lifestyle. Can you say a word or two about that spiritual awakening before we move on?
Prasannan: Yeah, it was a it was like, an intensive retreat for four days. And basically, it was like a silent retreat with with controlled communication, like back and forth communication. And it was the purpose of it is just to really to get out of the mind and see where it was. It’s the person who designed the technique wasn’t around, but it was like, his that was being, you know, offered.
Rick Archer: And so you got out of the mind. What what did you actually experience?
Prasannan: Absolute unity with everything. You know, like, I’m looking around that I’m seeing only myself and the universe is smiling at me from all directions.
Rick Archer: Sounds good. Okay, so that caused you to shift gears a bit in your life? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Big change. Yeah. All right. So then you went on to study the teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahansa Ramana Maharshi. And Swami Shivananda. And then you heard about Mata heard my name. And you met her during the her 1990. North America, that’s for sure.
Prasannan: She came to Vancouver that year.
Rick Archer: Yeah, that was pretty early in the game. She’d only been touring for about three years at that point. Right? Yeah. Okay, and so that at that time you held a senior management position in corporate finance. Sounds exciting. About that. Okay, I read your bio, obviously, but I’m changing the pronouns a little bit as we go. So you had a natural motivation towards engaging in selfless service seva. And that’s what the word saver means helping others have compassion without a conscious thought of receiving personal benefit. You move to almost ashram Amritapuri in India, in 1992. And on arriving, you were placed in charge of the computer room and developed a new accounting system, and you train the Brahmacharya is the monks in its use. At the same time, a Jyotish software program was acquired, which you became responsible for and Adamas direction you began the practice of Jyotish which continues to this day, and it’s basically your full time profession, isn’t it?
Prasannan: Yeah, that’s what Have
Rick Archer: you traveled around the world with ARMA, which is where we first met you, providing Jyotish interpretations during your programs, and other times conducted sessions in India raising funds for on this charities. After 19 years in India, you returned to Canada established your independent Jyotish practice. And after more than two decades of Brahmacharya, you married Maya, the love of your life. I’ve met Maya, she’s a lovely person. You have consulted with more than 60,000 clients throughout the world. And you answer questions about all areas of life material, familial health and well being as well as spiritual. Good. You know, marshy used to talk about some of the development of something called Jyotish, Motti Pragnya, that you would get after you did enough Jyotish readings? Can you define what that means? And have you developed any of that?
Prasannan: Yeah, so the Joe tear video is like, you could say, it’s like the deity of Jyotish, or the deity of light. Jyotish means light. And, and Jojos is not just astrology, it’s also astronomy, meteorology, numerology, anything that we use to apprehend the nature of the universe. So the Joker videos, this, you could say, like a subtle being, that apparently whispers in your ear and tells you things when you’re tuned in. And I know this works, because there’s been times when someone has come back to me years later and said, you know, you told me this, and this and this would happen exactly like that. And, and it did exactly happen like that. And, and I’m thinking, I don’t remember saying that. So like, who said that? So there are definitely times so I mean, for the most part, it’s very much looking at and delineating and reading what’s there in a sense, you know, picking out what is relevant. But sometimes, yeah, there’s this other element that supersedes. Okay,
Rick Archer: good. So we’ve given people the indication obviously, that Jyotish is Eastern or Vedic Astrology. Everybody has, has heard the word astrology maybe not everyone listening has heard the idea of Eastern Astrology or Jyotish. What’s the difference between Jyotish and Western astrology?
Prasannan: So actually Western Astrology is originally comes from the east, it all starts in the okay there is no like separate Western astrology that you can date back far enough to go back far enough in Western astrology merges with Eastern Astrology. So, there was a point because for 1000s of years, I mean since the time well before Krishna, because in Krishna, they talk about in the Mahabharata and in the life of Krishna is talking about certain nakshatras combination stars and it the science of Georgia is already fully established more than 5000 years ago, because it was mentioned in those texts. And so the origin of it is really sage, Prussia for the most part, who was the father of VEDA Vyas so maybe people know that VEDA, Vyas was the codifier of the Vedas. And so he’s he was a Rishi. And and you can buy the you can buy the two volume set the Parashara Hora shastra, which is basically the Bible of Vedic Astrology. But in terms of how it’s different when Western astrology began the service at the time, about 1500 years ago, they diverged from the the view of the cosmos as being centered around the stars. Because you know, if you think about it, astrology should have something to do with the stars. But actually, the astrology practice in West really has more to do with the seasons than the stars. In other words, this the seasons means like Aries in Western Astrology is just referred to as the beginning of spring. Right? So on March 21, Western Aries starts, but the actual stars the constellations that the astronomers are keeping track of are slowly moving over time. So the sun doesn’t even reach Aries these days till around April 14. So as a result, 80% of the population have a different sun sign in their Jyotish chart versus their western chart because we’re looking at the actual stars, not the seasons. Okay, that’s one big difference. It’s based on the actual stars, the sidereal zodiac. It also has many other differences. In other words, the division of the sky, not just into the 12 signs of the zodiac, which Western astrology board from Hindu astrology, but also the division into the 27 nakshatras. nakshatra means star and so everyone’s born under a certain star, and the star is basically that you’re born under is the star where the moon was at the time you were born. So there’s these finer divisions in this system that make it quite different.
Rick Archer: Okay. So to my mind, all of this begs the question we need to get into the mechanics of a little bit because, you know, many people will feel like so what were the stars are where the planets are anything else what, how could that possibly influence an individual’s life? You know what sort of influence is that how is it propagated? You know? Yeah. And is there any proof for it in terms of anything that that’s measurable?
Prasannan: Well, actually, so it’s not, we don’t actually think of the planets as causing anything, or directing anything. It’s not like Jupiter’s making something happen, literally, right. But everything is interconnected, right there because the whole universe is like a holograph. So when you look at one part of the system, it reflects another part. So there’s a reflection everywhere. And what happens is at the moment of birth is a reflection of what the incoming soul is bringing in is reflected in the position of the planets and the stars, right, according to the according to the position at the time of birth. So there’s this this this idea of synchronicity, synchronicity, as without so within, it’s not like, one is causing the other they’re just reflecting each other.
Rick Archer: Yeah, so it’s, it’s sort of like a, a template or something, a configuration that is going to have significance. You could if you can read that configuration, you kind of know what, how an individual’s life is gonna go. But it’s not like that road figuration is causing it.
Prasannan: Right. It’s bit like a roadmap.
Rick Archer: Yeah. Okay. So as I incidentally, I should add here that, you know, I don’t have a real good. Well, to put it mildly, I don’t have a good mind for astrology, for of any of for Jyotish. It never sticks when I hear something about it. But I read it’s very good at it, actually. And she has been largely responsible for developing most of the questions that I’ll be asking today. And she’s sitting right here, it might add a few more questions as we go along. So here’s one she wrote out, you know, the birth chart is significant in Jyotish, as I understand it, and the planets position on a date and time and location, when a person is born. So explain how the birth chart forms the basis for everything that gets interpreted for each person throughout their lives. What the font and also what defines the moment of birth, the first breath, and I was born by cesarean, I don’t know if that has any significance boost it when I first breathed, and in Why is it so important to birth?
Prasannan: Well, yeah, so at the moment of birth, there is a, again, there’s a configuration of the stars, the planets, the heavens, and the angle with which the horizon intersects all of that, okay. So there’s a pattern, it’s basically and it’s a, it’s an astronomical pattern that can be can be calculated without, you know, it’s a totally scientific thing. But the what, as far as the moment of birth, it’s always been considered to be the first breath. And sometimes in hospitals, they they write down something different, they might write down the cutting of the cord, or they might write down when the first when the head first emerges, but it’s the first breath that counts. And it’s because breath is associated with life. before birth, the child is breathing through its mother through the umbilical cord, right? And then there’s that expression, he breathed his last, right. So if the if the end of life is the last breath, that means the beginning of life must be the first breath. It’s simply about breath. Yeah, independent breath, there’s if there’s a there’s a physical vehicle, and the breath is in, when it’s alive when the breath is out when it’s not. So that’s why the breath is so important. So sometimes
Rick Archer: when you’re doing somebody’s chart, and it doesn’t seem to make sense, like, you know, you’re seeing one thing in the chart, but another thing in a person’s life, do you suspect that the birth time might have been recorded improperly, and then you have to somehow figure out what the actual birth time probably was?
Prasannan: Actually, even if a person’s birth time is recorded accurate? I normally check to see if it’s correct. So I’ll ask them a few things like, did your father’s father died before you were born? Which would be maybe the case if your time is what you say it is. But if it’s two minutes earlier, it could be something different. So but we can we can pretty quickly find out what is going on. By checking if you events Yeah, and when people don’t know their time of birth also, then we calculate their time by, they can go through make an exhaustive list of life events, and we can use it to find the starting point. So when the time of birth is correct, everything does fit in life.
Rick Archer: Okay, good. So on your website, you say we were born at a particular space time in the universe, when the soul takes birth that descends through the heavens and the atmosphere before reaching the earth. And when I read that, it kind of made it sound like souls are going around look around satellites or something and they come in through the atmosphere. So what are you actually saying they’re about the souls location before birth.
Prasannan: Okay, well, maybe that Forgive me if that’s perhaps a bit of poetic license. They’re actually really what it is, is the souls exist in the astral plane, okay? The astral plane is another plane, there’s the physical plane, there’s the astral plane, which is also superimposed on the physical plane, there’s also the causal plane, which is beyond that, okay? And so they exist in the astral punishments, they exist right where we are, except they’re, they’re out of phase with physical reality. So they’re not visible to our senses, right. So they’re actually they don’t really descend from it’s poetic, I really around just floating around. But now you see, when a soul is kind of becoming in this is very important, because actually, we say we don’t have any control over when we’re born. And it’s true from the person from the point of view of the incoming soul that that is true. But then there’s also this notion of conscious conception, right? Like in India, you find that people will visit temple and do prayers, and, you know, do all their rituals in order to, you know, and pious actions in order to bring in a spiritual soul. And it said that, in that instance, the soul that’s destined to be born may be hanging around the parents, even long before conception, because they’ve already identified Oh, this is where I’m going to go, right. So so there’s like, this notion that the souls do have, like, a higher soul is always looking for a higher birth, right? If you want to have a good birth, you’re going to go and come into the body of a yogini, you know, someone who’s spiritually alive, you know, and whereas souls that you know, are brought in, in sort of ordinary terms just through, you know, normal human interaction, they’re there, they’re not going to have as much freedom you see, so they, sometimes the soul may be picked out well, before even the conception. And sometimes it’s just a last minute sort of luck of the draw.
Rick Archer: Yeah. My sister and her husband, her husband, in particular, had vivid experiences of when both of their children kind of came in, as it were, you know, they, it was a real clear experience. And so the understanding is here, just to reiterate, is that, well, for one thing, in some cases, at least we choose our parents, which, you know, many people say, Well, you have no choice over your parents, but actually, perhaps you do, by your
Prasannan: actions in the previous life, you set up a vibration, which draws you into the conditions which are suitable.
Rick Archer: Yeah, yeah. And I’ve talked to some people on this show who say that, you know, sometimes we intentionally choose very difficult circumstances, because it’s going to teach us certain karmic lessons like we might be born to alcoholic father, you know, a parent who’s alcoholic, or in some poverty or some such thing, because those hard knocks are going to actually work out some karma for us. You concur with that?
Rick Archer: Yeah. I agree with that. I think that that old expression sort of brings you closer to God is, is absolutely true. And in fact, we find that even when people have awakening experience, it’s often through some tragedy or loss that those are triggered.
Rick Archer: to just get back into the mechanics a little bit, yes, Joe does jibe with the modern understanding of the Solar System, or is it based on kind of a more archaic Ptolemaic view? Go ahead and answer that.
Prasannan: Well, I actually, I mean, I think Jyotish is based on the the exact understanding of the solar system. So it’s not it’s it’s completely, it’s completely scientific, and has been since day one. Some people, you know, argue that, well, because Jyotish is incomplete because it doesn’t include the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The reason the ratios didn’t mention them is because they weren’t visible to the naked eye. So people couldn’t see them without a telescope. And there were no telescopes in those days. So they weren’t mentioned. But it does say in the scriptures that new planets will be discovered in the future, and they should be studied and incorporated. So it’s not like Jyotish is incomplete. It is actually completely complete. And it’s in fact, I would say it’s always an evolving science.
Rick Archer: That’s good to know. Yeah. That’s a good attitude that it’s evolving, you know, that it doesn’t consider itself fixed in stone. While
Prasannan: some people consider fixing some, but I certainly don’t, yeah.
Rick Archer: So, do you take the outer planets into consideration in your work?
Prasannan: Well, when we talked about the you know, the in the mechanics like one thing also that Jyotish has which Western astrology doesn’t have is the the the the understanding that there are cycles in life right? When each planet is active, right, you come under Inputs of a certain planet. And the cycles last like the cycles are long cycles and the total of all the sort of 120 year cycle right means all nine planets take 120 years to complete one cycle. So we’re going through this cycle. Now of course, the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto don’t have a cycle, right? So we don’t have like, you know, somebody might be in their Saturn period or their Mercury period. It can be Their Pluto period at the same time. The other way that impact happens is through transits. Right, there’s the cycles and there’s a transit transit means where the planets currently. So I’m quite sure that the impact of the transits of the outer planets is significant. I can speak from my own personal experience the the when Pluto transited. Exactly, exactly square to my moon to the degree exactly, that’s when my mother passed. And of course, Moon represents mother Pluto is you know, in the fourth house from the mother, my mother passed at that time, Neptune was transiting my ascendant exactly to the degree the first time I met them. And Neptune is about spirituality. So I mean, yes, the transits of the outer planets are worth looking at. Interesting.
Rick Archer: We know now that there are probably trillions of potentially inhabitable planets in the universe. Do you think that your Jyotish, whatever it might be called, in these other places, is a universal science and that each solar system, if they’re intelligent beings, there would have its own Jyotish that was, you know, modified according to the planetary arrangement in that solar system.
Prasannan: Of course, they would have the receipt there Rishis would have investigated, probed and discovered what those vibrations are. And given the science of how that could be delineated. And even here, like what happens if we go to Mars, they’re talking about going to Mars. So like, what if what if they go to Mars and colonize Mars, and then a child is born on Mars? Well, like astrology that will be different, right? Because you won’t have Mars in the chart, you’ll have Earth in the chart, right? Yeah. That’s interesting. Think about that. And you’ll have to calculate we wonder we wonder if oil born were on Mars, what exactly what was it? What was its ascendant and all that?
Rick Archer: Yeah. Well, in, you know, whenever there’s a, an eclipse in the world, particularly in the US, I guess it was last summer, the summer before the total solar eclipse. And it was a big excitement. Everybody migrated to the place and stayed out in campus so they could watch it now. In Georgia, as I understand it, the Vedic system eclipses are considered to be kind of inauspicious, and you don’t want to go out and watch one. What would be the impact of actually being born during one sun or moon?
Rick Archer: Well, basically, you must understand that eclipses are times when there’s a lot of energy, a lot of power, a lot of Shakti, okay, why? Why? Because it’s an alignment, right? Because Rahu and Ketu, the eclipsing bodies are lined up with the sun and the moon. Whenever planets line up, they become powerful by being joined. Okay, so this is a union, right? It’s like a yoga, it’s a union. It’s a union of energies. Right. So they’re magnified. It’s like a magnified energy.
Rick Archer: Right. But even through gravitationally, we can have higher tides when things are love, of course,
Prasannan: yeah. The Asian tsunami that affected the ashram in 2004. December, right. That was that occurred on the full moon at sunrise, I mean, that the earthquake that caused that occurred at the full moon at sunrise, you know, where Son of the Moon are basically pulling, like a tug of war across the plates of the earth. And that plate in Sumatra collapsed and caused the tsunami which killed 1000s of people. Yeah. So it’s even it’s even, you know, geologically sound that that reasoning. So there’s this, this power? The question is, how is it directed, if someone’s born an eclipse of the sun, there’s this tremendous power, if they adopt a spiritual life, they can be a real light to the world, you know, they would be like, they like shining, they’d be shining, shining being they be an example to society. On the other hand, if they’re not focused on spiritual life, especially, you know, as they’re growing up, they can become very destructive. In other words, that power can go either way, positive or negative, right? So they either become a beacon of light to the world or they become like a darkness, right? So they can go either way. And eclipse of the moon. If someone is on a spiritual bent, then people born in a lunar eclipse would be sweet and pious, and a blessing to the world they would their love for divinity would they’d be great buches right, because there’s this power there. Right? This is magnified power of the eclipse. If they’re not on a spiritual path, then they become aloof, withdrawn, kind of lazy. drowsy, sir, like you know, the little out of touch with reality. Okay, in fact, the current president was born during a lunar eclipse. I was just gonna say that sounds just like
Rick Archer: Hi. Can you get Think of any other famous examples of people who were born on eclipses?
Prasannan: Well, the Prophet Muhammad is said to have been born on a solar eclipse. And whatever one might think, you know, he’s definitely a powerful person. Yeah. Yeah. Influenced millions of people and still does. Yeah.
Rick Archer: So we touched a little bit about, you know, on the fact that the planets don’t deliver karma to us, they are more like a, I don’t know, they’re a sort of reflection, a reflection or a pattern of things. You do mention that each planet has a deity, and let’s define what a deity is. And who are what these deities are, that are supposedly, you know, that planets have been there just to throw in a few more questions. Are they embodied in the planets as our souls are in our bodies? Go ahead with that.
Prasannan: Okay, so date but the planetary deities I guess, that the date is associated with each planet. They really, they I mean, they are celestial beings, in a sense, in terms of their impact in the cosmos, more sort of close to home they’re like, you could call them powerful psychic forces that represent different elements of you know, the different Davis right so there’s so there’s a de t for compassion, there’s a day T for right you know, there’s a day T for different things day two, for strength for courage, there’s all these different forms, these are just aspects of divinity. Right? So like the Hindu pantheon, right, but they are some of them are associated particularly with a planet like like Mars is Lucia with Lord Subramanya. Right. He’s like the God of, you know, like in our Juna kind of figure, right? The warrior, right. Son is Shiva. So
Rick Archer: how are you?
Prasannan: Well, Shiva, ultimately, serie is an aspect of Shiva. Okay. Yeah. Sorry, is the Sanskrit word for the sun?
Rick Archer: Right? All right. All right, let’s probe into that a little bit more. So, you know, we see in all these pictures of Superman, yam and Shiva and the Vedic deities, and are we you’re implying here, obviously, that they have some reality. They’re not just sort of fictional characters or folklore kind of things. They, they represent some deep principle, as it were, or impulses, impulses that have some kind of function, governing function of some sort in creation. Is that fair to say? Yeah, right. And would they have would that function, the universal or just exclusive to our solar system are what
Prasannan: I think the qualities are universal, but how they’re embodied would be unique to our solar system. In other words, the moon embodies certain qualities and compassion, empathy, Mars and body certain qualities, Mercury’s for communication, so embodies certain qualities of mental agility facility. So when we see those planets in the chart, we’re looking to see well, in what state are they, if a person has a well placed moon, they’re gonna have a calm disposition, be in a relaxed, you know, compassionate content, self contained, if the moon is under negative influences in the chart, the person will be more restless, agitated, etc. So it’s bide by the position of the planets, whether they’re, you know, well placed Well, aspected, in good houses, etc, that shows how those energies also play out in the person. Now, nothing should be seen as cast and cement. Everyone can, through their own effort through their own spiritual practice, go beyond what the whatever, you know, is shown in the horoscope, we shouldn’t think that we’re just tied to, you know, that’s it, buddy. You know, you’re like, you’re like when you’re when you’re in poker, right? You’re Delta, you’re dealt a hand, right? You don’t have any control over the hand you’re dealt, but how skillfully Do you play that card? Right. It’s like, that’s also how skillful you use what you do have. Yeah, big part of this.
Rick Archer: Yeah, the guy that John Hinckley shot when he was trying to shoot President Reagan used that very metaphor about the hand had been dealt and he was doing his best to deal with it. fact that people often use that metaphor. So as we talk along here, try to keep in mind, people who might have a hard time accepting or believing or understanding this, let’s kind of flesh it out for them as we go along. I mean, because there may be many people listening who are very spiritual people meditating or whatever they do, who might still think, well, you know, these planets are just hunks of rock circling around the sun, and we’re anthropomorphizing them by attributing the all these you know, all these personal qualities to them and these influences to them. What more can you say to help clarify that for people who might be thinking along those lines?
Prasannan: again, just to reiterate, the planets aren’t actually doing anything, they are just a reflection of what’s in us. So we have these patterns in us because of our background because of our previous life tendencies or vasanas, or, you know, the conditions that we created in a previous life are reflected in our current life. Right. And so, the planets also reflect something about that. It’s, it’s a, it’s a reflection, it’s not a cause and effect. Okay, it’s a synchronicity. It’s like a synchronicity, a holographic universe where one part reflects the other. When you look at one part, you see the other part. So it’s, it’s not like Mars is doing anything. On the other hand, there’s a very, there’s a, there’s this giant clockwork in the universe, which is like these energies have their time when they come to the surface. And they, they and then they act, and that they compel people to act in a certain way or a certain direction. And if you understand what that energy is, then you can channel that in a very productive way.
Rick Archer: One thing that helped me understand this, and perhaps others will help it help others too, is just that the universe is not random or accidental, or really even inert. The whole thing is just sort of a play of intelligence. And if we look closely at anything, we can see that talent, intelligence at play, it’s all pervading, and just orchestrating everything. So things are not sort of capricious or random or accidental. And what what you’re saying is that this orderliness or intelligence has actually taken a form that we can observe and understand in the arrangement of the planets just as it has in many other things. The functioning of an atom or of a cell or of anything, I can see that intelligence this is just one more way of seeing it, seeing it if handiwork
Prasannan: it said that the Creator leaves secrets to the creation all over the place. It’s up to us to discover them like they’re also in the palm of the hand. A good palm is can just look at the Palm and see what’s going on for the person and even the thumb itself can be enough. And numerology plays a role there to Omen ology in India, there’s a lot of astrologers, who will do a reading based on simply by their as they are talking to the person, they watch what’s going on around them. And it’s like a crow comes from the southwest corner, that will mean something right? Or if ik eco trips in the northeast corner, it means something else, you know, and but nature is all always speaking, it’s just do we have the ears to hear it?
Rick Archer: Yeah, I remember one of the Carlos Castaneda books. Carlos and Don Juan. Were talking and the coffee pot started to whistle and Don wanted all the coffee pot agrees. You know, he saw that it’s significant that it started with at that moment, right. All right, let’s talk about karma for a while you talk a lot on your website about karma. And obviously, the topic of karma is very germane to this whole discussion. So let’s define what term is first and then we’ll unpack it from their
Prasannan: karma is basically in a broad sense. It’s often translated as action. So it’s not when people hear the word karma think, Oh, something bad. Actually, it simply means action could be good action could be bad action. It’s also by extension, the fruit of action. So as the Bible says, As you sow, so shall you reap. So if you perform sweet loving, kind actions, acts of kindness, then you get good karma. You get what’s called puniet, which is Meritus. Karma. If you if you do unkind actions, then you get what’s called Papa Papa means negative karma be he a Papa pa, pa. Oh, Papa. Papa. Papa, um, it’s called actually pap am public good. All right, so so so. So Karma means action, and also the fruit of the action at the same time. So we’ve done many actions, some of them good, some of them not so good. And then by the balance, we see where they’re where we’re going.
Rick Archer: Okay, and that, again, gets us back to the whole intelligence of the universe thing because it’s, it couldn’t just be like billiard balls where you roll a billiard ball, it hits the other billiard balls, the influence of that doesn’t necessarily come back to your hand or something. Right? Oh, it’s immediate. Yeah. And but with karma, you know, we’re talking about things we might have done 10 lifetimes ago that they could still come back to us, or whatever. Right. Sure. And
Prasannan: in fact, it’s not just what we’ve done because It’s also there’s there’s personal karma, for sure. But there’s also familial karma, right? Because even the Bible says, you know, the sins of the father go to the next seven generations. Yeah, I think, this idea that. So is this idea that if you have, if your ancestors have done something, like, say unkind, that karma is also being carried by the souls that are in that line, and they have to also work it out. So you’re not working on just personal karma. If people if someone is suffering, they shouldn’t think, Oh, my God, I must have been really horrible person in my last life. Like, why would it be suffering? Well, it could be working out some family karma. So like, just understand that you’re working out what you’ve been given to work out because you’re able to work
Rick Archer: it out? Yeah. In a way, that doesn’t seem fair, you know, why should I work out my uncle George’s thing, but on the other hand, it does seem fair, because it’s like, we’re all kind of climbing the mountain together. And we’re all roped together and we’re helping each other out if one person is struggling a bit, the others help them along.
Prasannan: Right? I’ll got you all riser all fall together, you know, in the end, yeah, some respect.
Rick Archer: But again, to my mind, when we talk about karma, it brings back to my awareness, the notion that it’s an intelligent universe, it’s all all pervading intelligence. Yeah. Because otherwise, how could it possibly be calculated, it’s beyond human intellect, certainly, to calculate all the ramifications of every little action and have them all come back properly.
Rick Archer: Ya know, it’s a, it’s an incredibly complex and deep thing, and people say that astrology isn’t, you know, 100% accurate, I would say astrology is 100% accurate, but the human mind can only contain so much. So astrologers are not going to see 100% accuracy, because they are just simply not able to access 100%, they could access the good vast majority of it. But in the end, only, only the Creator will actually know what’s going on. Right? In the end.
Rick Archer: Do you think they’re they’re kind of like Lords of Karma? Or we talked about deities earlier? Are there sort of subtle beings whose job it is to administer karma? Or is it more something that’s just built in, intrinsically built into the mechanics of creation, that everything is calculated and comes back? I think meant to,
Prasannan: everything is balanced, everything gets balanced by the laws of nature, essentially. So yeah, we think of it like cause and effect. But really, there’s this again, it’s just a synchronicity. Everything is synchronized. So the deities are there. They can be anybody can access any of the deities. I must says that too, right? All the all the Deities are within us.
Rick Archer: Right? They’re not just off on some planet or something there. And yeah, they’re actually in
Prasannan: principle, their principles, their principles, their laws of nature, we can invoke them, we can use them, we can be conscious of them. Yeah, yeah. So the whole point is astrology, I think is not to see because it’s not really, when you I would say astrology is not so much understanding who you are, because actually who you are as the divine, blissful self, beyond all of these things. So it’s actually astrology is defining something about who you think you are, like, like, the version of the version of illusion that we are living under, right? Is to get us out of that trap, basically, get us out of that illusion, right? It’s it’s like this, it’s the vehicle for getting out like a roadmap, if you if you get if you get your roadmap out, and you use that roadmap to drive, say to Boston, you know, then you’ll get there pretty quickly. Because you you’ve got a clear path, right? And once you get to Boston, you throw away the map, you don’t need it, right? So it’s like Joker’s is also a map, but it’s not the ultimate because the ultimate is to go beyond once you’ve reached the destination, the ultimate destination? There’s no need. Yeah,
Rick Archer: and yet, even people like Arma consult Jota she’s sometimes for different things. Why would she if there’s no need for jeevan mukti?
Prasannan: Well, she consults because she’s asking about her children who aren’t at the ultimate.
Rick Archer: Okay, so it’s no wonder
Prasannan: she’s asking about one of her followers,
Rick Archer: the judges would have no usefulness for a liberated being, it would just be for there.
Prasannan: It’s still I mean, the karma still acts. I mean, I’m still has a physical body, it goes through, you know, physical things. And you know, and even in her chart, when there’s certain cycles, come on, you know, there was that one year where she was wearing the neck brace the whole year, that was clearly you know, 1999 I think it was, you know, there was like something in her chart. That was yeah, that would be the time. You know, it would be more challenging there. So even the physical even even, you know, anybody there’s still the physical karma applies to the physical body. She may be completely unaffected by it, beyond it, but still, the physical body has to Experience the karma of the physical world of the physical world.
Rick Archer: Yeah. And so an awakened being might also find it useful, for instance, to for Jyotish, to say, well, this would be a good day to leave for a journey or, you know, that kind of thing. Maybe?
Prasannan: Well, exactly. I mean, in fact, I’m often would say, No, we, you know, like, she’s going on a tour shoots, and we can’t leave now, you know, it’s like, not the right time. You know, and then she’d say, Okay, now we can go like, a couple hours later, you know, it’s like, very specific, and or, you know, so it’s like, it’s very specific. Yeah, if you’re tuned in, then you would naturally spontaneously act in accordance with harmony, the harmony of nature.
Rick Archer: So would she say those things? Because some judges or judges he also or just because
Prasannan: she would, she would, she would say those things because of her own intuition telling her and later on, I check the chart, and I would be that would make that make sense. Yeah.
Rick Archer: That’s interesting. Okay, it seems to me that some karma is heavy duty, very compelling, you know, it’s like coming at you like a Mack truck. And others is looser, lighter, you know? Would you concur with that?
Prasannan: Yeah, yeah, karma is has, I would say degrees. And it comes down to, basically, because when we look at the chart, we’re looking to see certain indications, right, certain factors. Now, any particular condition may be seen by a variety of different factors, right? But like if, for example, all the factors for a particular condition are simultaneously in the negative, then we’d say that’s pretty heavy karma. In other words, like, let’s say there was a case, for example, let’s say, as a case of someone who couldn’t have children, for whatever reason, okay, well, the fifth house is the house of children. So we’d find that the fifth house might have malefic planets in it, that we’d also find that the fifth ruler is under malefic influence, then we might find also that Jupiter is the general indicator of children is also under malefic. Influence. So like, if all the factors are negative, you would call that a confluence of influence, right? So then, it still might not be impossible, it would be extremely difficult, like and would only happen through some kind of a miracle. Okay. So on the other hand, most people don’t have that kind of severity, right? There’s usually a mix of influence, positive and negative. So then it’s a matter of understanding. Okay, well, if it is difficult, but when is the best time and so there is like, there’s still going to be opportunities, right? So understanding that understanding when is a lot of this has to do with, when is the right time to do something, for the best result?
Rick Archer: Yeah. Can there be things like, let’s say you had some karma coming, which was going to cause you to have a serious car accident and get injured. And but then you engage in spiritual practice, you do other things, which kind of diminish the, the momentum of the karma, right. And instead, you stub your toe, or, you know, you have a fender bender, instead of fender benders something small? Oh, that’s
Rick Archer: true. That’s true. Because you see, when you do positive actions, when you do acts of kindness, right, when you build up karmic merit, that acts as a sort of a larger protective shield around the person. Right, so then the karma, the intensity of that, that may still be an accident, but it won’t be as severe.
Rick Archer: Yeah. But then still, I suppose there are some types of karma that are just inevitable, Christ got crucified Ramana Maharshi got cancer, you know, things like that.
Prasannan: Right? Right. If some, somehow the way to the karma may be more than human effort, you know, to lift it, or it could just be part of the divine plan. You know, it could be necessary for the divine plan for the, as they say, greater good. And also that buildup of positive karma could be from past lives.
Rick Archer: Right. She’s saying her
Prasannan: build up for a positive comment could be, yeah, as shown on the chart as the port of opinion. Yeah, as
Rick Archer: a matter of fact, in terms of past life, I mean, some people are born in, you know, very auspicious circumstances with comfortable homes who have great educational opportunities and all the rest good help. Other people are born with serious health problems and poverty, you know, yada, yada. We all know the story. Yeah. So I guess we would attribute all that to karma.
Prasannan: Well, if you didn’t believe in reincarnation, you’d have to think the universe is pretty cruel place. Yeah. Because how would how would that be fair? But if you understand the law of cause and effect, well, the souls that are working out, you know, what, what karma? Are they working out? They’re working out the actions of the ancestors, their own actions in the past and their ancestors are being worked out?
Rick Archer: Yeah. Yeah, it’s interesting how things are kind of lined up in a chain like if you don’t believe in reincarnation, then you’re then all kinds of conclusions.
Rick Archer: You know, come out becomes impossible becomes impossible, right?
Rick Archer: Even it might even be hard to believe that there is any sort of God or however you find it if Well, of course there are a lot of Christians who believe in God but don’t believe in reincarnation somehow they work
Prasannan: that out. Yeah, well, the Bible used to have all kinds of references reincarnation, but the early church removed them.
Rick Archer: So right Council of Nicea and all that. Okay, before we move on from the top from this aspect of, oh, we can keep going. We’ll bring more things in. So on your website, you talked about how karma includes acts of commission and omission. In other words, things we could have done, but didn’t do.
Rick Archer: Right. Right. Yeah, so people, most people, I think, understand that if they do something, you know, like, let’s say they do something bad. And there’s, they would understand that there’s a karmic consequence to that, or if they do something good, there’s a karmic goodness that comes out of that. But there’s also times where there’s something that we could do, but we don’t do. In other words, let’s say, we, we know something, or we but we don’t act on it. We know something should be done, but we don’t act on it. So by not acting, we could also be incurring karma.
Rick Archer: Yeah, like, I don’t know, we have an opportunity to save some, somebody from drowning or from injury or something like that. And we choose right. Yeah. Right.
Prasannan: I mean, if you know, if someone’s an able bodied swimmer, obviously not someone who is gonna drown all who’s gonna drown also, yeah, make a lot of sense. But I always say if someone’s if someone’s drowning in the pool, you know, you throw them a LifeRing and pull them to the side, right? You don’t if you jump in, you could they could take you down too. So like, you want to also be anchored. Like to help someone you have to also be anchored on the shore yourself somehow. Yeah. To for not necessarily.
Rick Archer: That’s a good metaphor for being anchored in the self, or in pure awareness in order to really be of great, greatest help to others. Yeah. So how do we balance acceptance with initiative, you say that if you know external events of our lives are ruled by past karma, karma. This requires an attitude of acceptance, but then we don’t want to be fatalistic or passive or something, we want to assert it. There’s that whole Shakespeare thing of, you know, whether it is nobler in the mind to you know, take take arms against a sea of troubles or by opponent and by opposing end them, and that whole thing? How do we balance that?
Prasannan: Well, I think it’s, it’s really the dialogue of fate versus free will that comes up, and people have debated as to whether or not things are faded, or if we have free will. And my conclusion is that both exist, we have fate and we have freewill. And it’s in proportion. And, in fact, Yogananda as gurus Guru is reported to have said that when we’re born 75% of our karma is our fixed, and 25% is where we have room to, like room to grow with, okay, or where we have free will, yeah, were you free will. That That doesn’t make sense. You know, a lot of things in our life are fixed, like the conditions were born under, etc. But then that portion where we can, that 25% is where we can evolve. I believe also that the more the soul evolves, the bigger that 25% can come, right. In other words, you can increase the 25%. If, on the other hand, if someone doesn’t lead a life according to spiritual principles, and may even lose their 25%, it may be even become less, you know, even more faded. In fact, there’s people who seem to be totally faded, because they don’t have any understanding at all about spirituality. So it’s like we were starting with a certain mix of fate and free will. And through our own conscious effort, we can expand the freewill part.
Rick Archer: Yeah, there’s the forgive them father, they know not what they do thing. But on the other hand, if you to whatever extent you do know what you’re doing, you have to exercise that knowledge to the best of your ability, and then that sort of moves you in the direction of greater and greater freedom. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, to take a practical example, let’s say a person, we all know how many people are getting addicted to opioids these days. And, you know, so at this point, if someone says, Hey, I think I’ll try some opioids. Probably before they’re addicted, they have a lot more choice in the matter, then a year later when they’ve gotten really strung out. So it’s going to be a lot easier to choose not to do it than it will be if they’ve already been doing it for a year. Right. Course. Yeah. So just a little bit of an example, I guess. So now, one thing that’s interesting to me on the freewill issue is that the more we move toward God or enlightenment, or whatever, it seems to me the more it’s the will of God that is actually directing our life. You know, Not not, you know, thy will be done. And in a way that might seem like less freedom because God has kind of taken over the reins, or the divine intelligence is, and he’s calling the shots more and more. But actually, when the divine intelligence is calling the shots, that’s kind of the way we like our life to go, usually. So there’s this funny kind of contradiction between we’re actually getting more free, but we’re actually succeeding are our individual willpower at the same time.
Prasannan: Yeah. I mean, that’s an interesting way of looking at it. But the Divine Will is actually, basically what’s there when the ego gets out of the way. Yeah, kind of what I’m saying. And the ego is kind of the problems, right. But the ego doesn’t really want to get out of the way, in a lot of cases. And so there’s, that’s the battle that’s the age old battle like this, this illusion of the separate me, you know, that wants to have it my way. And then the divine, which is saying, hey, you know, do what you like, but what do they say? Tell? If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
Rick Archer: Yeah. Yeah. There was some kind of Rumi or Hafiz thing where he talks about how, you know, I forget can you know, that thing I’m alluding to where he says, You know, God, I think I still have a million moves, you know, but God’s basically already
Prasannan: got Checkmate.
Rick Archer: Checkmate, right. Um, but, okay.
Prasannan: The thing is, you know, at that stage, the bliss of experience so far outweighs any thought of like, what might have been had I not gone this way that, you know, it’s becomes a moot point. Yeah. So by external circumstances, the person might think, Oh, well, that person doesn’t have a lot of choice, because they’re just in this, you know, they’re in this other place. But you know, like, from the point of view that other places like they’re in bliss, so who cares? Like they
Rick Archer: just need to ponder though, because there are a number of voices that are quite articulate that argue that we don’t have freewill. People like Sam Harris and many others. So many people I interact with through BatGap say that, so I’m glad we’re talking about it.
Prasannan: It’s a continuum. It’s not black and white, right? Nothing is black and white. It’s a continuum. At some places, there is no free will. In some places there is. Yeah. And it’s just understanding the difference. Like that’s like the Serenity Prayer.
Rick Archer: Oh, yeah, exactly. Yeah, the wisdom to know the difference. It’s know the difference. Yeah. Um, let’s say two people are born at the exact same date, time and place. Let’s say somebody else was born in the same hospital. I was born in the next room at the same time, a moment Yeah. And yet, their lives go in quite different directions, they don’t seem to coincide very much, is that they don’t perfectly match up with this be due to genetics, and freewill or, or what or what else might be a factor?
Prasannan: Okay, so they’re, well, there’s lots of I mean, there’s lots of cases of twins where they’re born like virtually at the same moment, and they have very different lives. But there’s also a different principles for you know, interpreting twins, horoscopes, where you can tell them apart. But, but in for in terms of individuals born at the same time, in the same place under largely the same, you know, basically having identical charts as it were, there’s still the first principle of Jyotish is to consider the background, you know, the family the place, the time you know, where that person’s born, the conditions are born into, right there was a there was a famous story of a one of the you know, kings of England where they were they were the son was born he was going to be the future king of England and just outside the castle walls it was a ordinary you know, common are born at the same moment. Well, on the on the day, you know, they they both married on the same day. The commoner God, his biggest break in his career, the day that the king became crowned their children born on the same day, their wives had the same name, you know, and they died within one day of each other. So, there was like, interesting, you know, so there is like, there is like this potential for the pattern to be quite specific.
Rick Archer: Yeah. Interesting. It’s a true story as
Prasannan: far as you know, I haven’t researched myself but
Rick Archer: that’s very interesting. Yeah, the cool to do some studies on Jyotish I mean, you could do be easy enough to find out what when
Prasannan: when and when, you know when you said before, but is it scientifically provable? Like you wouldn’t go back to that point you made about is it sign for approval? I’ve been actually had this idea For more than 20 years to scientifically prove Jyotish. And in fact, I wrote a couple of articles for the Journal of astrology in India. And what I did was I found charts, which had, you know, a particular thing in common, right. So I would like extract a group of 180 charts. And the thing that those tribes had in common is they all lost their father, at a young age, like before they were adults, or another group of 100 charts with all had death of a sibling. Okay. And I studied those charts in like, massive detail, to see if there’s patterns that would be appearing there that aren’t in the sort of general population. And sure enough, there’s lots of things that came out of that. So those those researchers were done, they need to be done with bigger numbers and bigger control groups. But basically, I’m sure it’s provable scientifically, that, you know, you could look at a chart and say, well, if those factors are, you know, considered, then the probability, let’s say, of that particular occurrence in the person’s life is going to be much higher than the norm. Right?
Rick Archer: Yeah. You could also do a study where you get data from hospitals, you know, when people were born pretty Yes, time, and then get in touch with those people and see how their lives have been going. Yeah.
Prasannan: They wanted to do a study of that, at AIMS. But the problem was a hospital in Cochin, yeah. And they sent me some data, they were gonna, they actually wanted to look at the charts of people who had like some kind of a condition, let’s say like they wanted, they wanted to more from a practical point of view, like, we have all these types of people who are people who have had amputations or something and they wanted to deal with something in common in their charts. The trouble is, the trouble is that in Kerala, most people don’t have accurate birth times at all. So then they would, you know, they would, they would give their details, but they wouldn’t know their birth time. Or they would mention their birth star. But then when you look up the date, that they say they were born, that wasn’t even that star, so even the birthday is often not right. So we had lots of trouble trying to get actual data to work
Rick Archer: with that. I should think Indian parents would keep track of that thing, because Jyotish is so significant in that culture.
Prasannan: Well, yes, and no, because the you know, they’re just as likely to pick up a, you know, Western astrology book at the bookstore, you know, because they have this notion that everything Western is better in the kind of in not that much have they embraced their own tradition there. Some do. Certainly the Brahmins do, but not everybody
Rick Archer: I see. Anyway, possibilities for research there. Yeah. So as I understand it, there’s something called pious and Jyotish, which are remedial measures. And these include, like poojas, wearing certain gems.
Prasannan: Yeah. Okay. So like, like we’re doing a ceremony like a Yagi or a puja or a ceremony is a way of, again, it’s just a way of invoking energy. So let’s say we see something in the chart where there’s a negative influence. Well, if there’s a, if there’s a specific ritual performed, it could be it could help alleviate the effects of that condition. Okay. But if very much depends on the intention, and the consciousness of the person performing at the Pujari. Right, they have to be clear in their own right, they have to be clear themselves in order to be able to get that energy to flow. So it’s, yes, there is there can be great benefit from these poojas. Yeah, because if they’re done with proper intention by people who are in the right space for it, as far as the gemstones, the scriptures actually very specifically state that the planetary energies are most strongly reflected in certain pure substances on Earth. So for the sun, it’s the stone Ruby. For Jupiter, it’s the Yellow Sapphire for Saturn, it’s the blue sapphire. And so by wearing the stone of that planet, you actually increase the quality or energy of that planet, for that person. But of course, not everyone should wear blue sapphire, because for some people, Saturn has a very positive role. And for some others, it’s quite the opposite. So you have to understand for each person, which ones they should strengthen, and which ones they should avoid. So that’s also part of of course, what we look at. So that if you were the right stone, if you were the right stone, it really does dramatically change things. I mean, there was a give you for instance, there was this guy, Leo rising. So he’s ruled by the sun, and his son was debilitated in Libra. So like the worst possible place for the sun is Libra. This guy came to consult with me every year for years. In Germany, he runs the school he has a him and his wife run a private school. And every year he came to consult and every told him he should wear Ruby. Well after many years, one day he went to the bookstore and picked up a Ruby and put it on he came to back to me two days later and says you know from the second I put that stone on I felt different I still feel different. So yes, the right stone in the right place. Ace can actually make a huge difference.
Rick Archer: Have you seen examples of let’s say famous people like Elizabeth Taylor or something who have a great big giant diamond, but they’re not meant to wear a diamond and you can kind of see how it’s negatively impacting them?
Prasannan: Well, actually, Princess die was given a huge blue sapphire, which is actually deadly for her. And obviously wasn’t a good thing. Also, apparently, this is something I heard, like, somebody gave Muktananda huge blue sapphire and he died shortly after. And it’s not good in his chart either. So yes, I think the wearing the wrong stone is actually could be seriously damaging.
Rick Archer: So is it that the stone serves as a kind of a receiver as it were, you know, like a radio receiver. magnifier. influences are energies which are energy,
Prasannan: yeah, magnifies certain energies. Okay. And those energies, like,
Rick Archer: like radio waves are kind of everywhere anyway, but it sort of picks up against friends and focuses them.
Prasannan: Yeah, absolutely. Powerful contents force. Yeah. The pure stones. Yeah. Interesting.
Rick Archer: I’m laughing because I keep having in mind, you know, certain people who watch the show who are skeptical about everything, and I’m wondering, they’re probably gnashing their teeth right now. But all I would say is keep an open. I’m just speaking from
Prasannan: my experience, you know, yeah. Yeah. I, you know, I when I used to do all the shopping for the jewelry for Amman, right. So I spent many, I mean, I was in Jaipur three or four times a year, testing out stones, and I got to be very sensitive to the vibration of the stone, in fact, blindfolded, I could separate the blue sapphires from the yellow sapphires just by putting them on my hand. And then I could separate the heated from the unheated because they all have a different vibration. So, you know, if you’re tuned in these things are pretty accessible. Yeah.
Rick Archer: So, you know, the average person listening to this show is a spiritual aspirant. And I want to talk about the significance of Jyotish, for spiritual aspirants, but also the average person listening to the show has things practical things in their lives, you know, marriage, or buying a house or career issues and things like that. So, let’s talk about both the practical and spiritual implications or applications of Jyotish.
Prasannan: Yeah, it’s true. I mean, Jyotish is actually really excels at. Timing, timing, like, it’s just, it’s probably its greatest strength is timing. So the person wants to know, you know, is this the right time for me to sell my house? Or should I wait? Or is this the right time for me to change jobs? Or should I wait, you know, is this the right time to commence something? Or should I wait, you know, is it the right thing? Is that the right direction? Is that the right time? These are like, things that come out of the chart? So people use this in order to get clarity, they’re already thinking about something, but they’re not sure. Or they’re facing a decision. I could go here, I could go there, which is the better option? Well, you know, I don’t know, I need a third, I needed another outside opinion, you know, yeah. So this is a way of invoking that. And spiritually to people want to know, what kind of, you know, what can they do to advance spiritually? Like, what what is the what is the best practice for them? You know, this is like, also a common question, but most people ask about mundane things. First, they ask about their family, they asked about their job. You know, I always joke that in Indian, when Indian families come to consult, all they want to know is when will the daughter be married? And when? And when will the son get a good job? And, you know, it sounds like they’re really concerned about their children. But honestly, you know, in Indian culture, the daughter is a burden until she’s married, then she’s, you know, in another family, right. And the son is going to take care of the parents when they’re old. So they want them to have a good job. Yeah. So it’s, you know, so it depends. The questions are very much, you know, have to do with the background of the person asking to
Rick Archer: Yeah, I know, in our case, you told us a couple of things that panned out. One was regarding the purchase of at least a couple of many others, but at least one was regarding the purchase of our house. How do you remember, you told us the time period, you would probably find a house? And we did. Yeah. told us the time. Well, in fact,
Prasannan: I’ll give you another example. You sat with me one time. Maybe maybe what the first time we talked was the first time you had a reading was 2001. I just looked it up in my database. And it was it was I don’t know if it’s the first or the second reading. But you were you talked to me about this little idea you had about starting a little program called BatGap.
Rick Archer: I didn’t get that I did about two 1009 I must say,
Prasannan: okay, but you did, but you did consult with me about it at the time. Yeah. And you’re wondering about when was the good time to to launch it?
Rick Archer: You actually took no but no, wait a minute, because I remember you asked me about that before. Maybe I said a spiritual interview show or something. But yeah, the name of Buddha at the Gas Pump didn’t come up until 2009. Yeah,
Prasannan: we did discuss it. Yeah. Yeah.
Rick Archer: I mean, I guess you mentioned that I would be doing a different career thing than I had been doing at the time. And it was a spiritual orientation to it. Yeah,
Prasannan: yeah.
Irene Archer: And we kept wondering, well, how’s this gonna happen?
Prasannan: And who would have thought 500 interviews later? Yeah.
Rick Archer: We probably thought, I’ve already done the spiritual thing for a living, you know, teaching meditation that that didn’t pay the bills.
Rick Archer: So people probably come to you, you know, like, thinking of getting married to one another. And you look at both charts and see how compatible they’d be.
Rick Archer: That’s a lot of what we do a lot of compatibility questions. Mark, people have questions about whether or not they’re the how charts line up. And it’s not like everyone’s charts line up beautifully. But the point is, it’s good to understand how they line up. In other words, where are the strengths or the weaknesses? If you know those weaknesses, you can understand that and work around it and accommodate, right? Whereas if you just go in blind, then you’re going to be surprised by well, how come this person doesn’t think the way I do? Or
Rick Archer: do you actually, sometimes I say to people who really want to get married to each other? And I don’t think that’s such a good idea. That’s happened. And then how do they take that? Oh, there was there was,
Prasannan: there was this there was this guy, and there was this guy in in the ashram who wanted to marry somebody and I, I told him, it was the worst possible combination that just don’t do it. Don’t do it. He went ahead and got married, had a daughter, then in the end, you know, of course, they’re divorced. And now she’s like, trying to get him for every penny he’s got and using the daughter and manipulating anyway. Yeah, it’s a very unhappy situation. It would have been better if you’d listened in the first place. He admitted afterwards, he should have listened to me. Yeah.
Rick Archer: Have you ever been wrong about things like that? You’ve told people and turns out later that you realize you were wrong. And then you look back at the chart, and you think, Oh, I see how I got that wrong. I missed this or that.
Prasannan: I think nobody is going to be 100% predicting accurately, you just have to go by what is like basically the higher probability. But there’s always, you know, there’s always like divine grace. I mean, someone someone could have some divine grace happen that wasn’t, you know, foreseeable. Yeah. Well, or, or some word the other way someone might look like they’re completely safe. And yet some accident happened that I missed, maybe because I wasn’t looking for it. I wasn’t expecting to see it. Oh, it’s like 1000 page book, you still have to open it up at a page and read, right?
Rick Archer: Yeah. So what about the people, you know, a lot of people who listen to the show are really keen on the idea of enlightenment, or awakening or realization, or however they conceive of it. And obviously, the other things are important to them, too. But that’s really their burning interest in life. How is Jyotish significant are useful for them?
Prasannan: Well, Jyotish, can show when are the best periods, you know, for intensifying spiritual practice, and also, which kinds of spiritual practice will be most fruitful at different times. Like the kind of spiritual practice that’s good for the person, whether there, maybe, maybe some people are more suited for a path of knowledge or path of devotion, or a path of saver or yoga or whatever, you know, these these are indicated in the chart. And they may also change. Right as the cycles change, there could be a time where the person’s supposed to focus more on Sega, and then another time where they’re supposed to be more inward, reflective, contemplative, not as much externally engaged. So like timing of that. I mean, most people who are on the spiritual path already have some kind of a sense of you know, what that is, but it’s nice to have it just sort of independently confirmed even in the chart. Yeah.
Rick Archer: Can you think Jyotish could help people choose a particular guru or teacher, you know, can you like, do an individual’s chart and then do the chart of some teacher that he or she wants to go and be with and
Prasannan: I’m often asked, I’m often asked, you know, that question like, is that how is that teacher for me? Or how is that guru for me? Or do I have karma positive or negative with that particular individual? So yeah, it’s it’s it comes up as a question for sure. And I think the chart will also show you know, whether or not the person is meant to be focused more on the like, external physical ratio, but the guru or you know, some people’s Relationship with divinity is is not really through the physical form even, you know, they could be just inspired by a picture of Ramadan or, you know. So it’s a, it’s individual.
Rick Archer: So in addition to like the kinds of consultations, we’ve been talking about marriage and spiritual advice and employment things seems like, as I understand, there are other kinds of things you can do, like, for instance, this thing called Astro location that would actually help you determine where a good place for you to live would be.
Prasannan: Yeah, yeah, the principle, the principle there is that the planets exert maximum force, right? When they are doing one of four things either rising, setting straight up or straight down, right. So if we can then look at where on earth, those planets are doing that for the individual, right, we can see where they’re going to be particularly strong, where they’re going to have things go easily other places where they might have more trouble. And so Aster location is really looking at where geographically is not just good for me to say, live, locate myself, or you, but also even like, knowing where good places to travel for vacation, or which places to avoid. And I can’t count the number of times I’ve talked to someone and said, you know, well, yeah, gee, if you go to this country, you know, you’ll have your money stolen, or you’ll get food poisoning, because you’ve got Rahu going right through there. You know, on the other hand, you’ll do really well in this other place, because you’ve got, say, a Jupiter line or something very good for the person going right through that place. People people
Rick Archer: again, that’s more likely to happen anyway.
Rick Archer: It’s true enough, but and obviously, it has to be practical to you know, you, if you have a good line going through the middle of you know, Mongolia, you’re probably not going to move to Mongolia anyway. Because, you know, it would be impractical. But, but you know, most people live in most people have some degree of freedom as to where they could live. I mean, even the United States, we got what, three different time zones plus Hawaii. So you know, if people aren’t good on the East Coast, they may be good on the West Coast, or vice versa. Right. So they can figure that out. Or they find that out from the chart pretty easily. Yeah,
Rick Archer: I think we have four time zones. We have Pacific mountain Central and East and in the US probably
Prasannan: plus Hawaii. Yeah. Plus. Yeah. Yeah.
Rick Archer: Okay. So let’s talk about Dasha periods a little bit. Tell, tell us what they are. And they might have a second question. Okay, tell us what they are.
Prasannan: So the doshas, the way the Dasha scheme arises, it gets back to the notion that we’re born under a certain star, right? So you’re bonded to a certain star, and that star that you’re born under, has a ruling planet. And whichever ruling planet, that star has that planet rules, your birth, It rules the the time that you’re born. And because each of these cycles are fixed, like the Dasha of Mars is always seven years, the Dasha of Rahu is always 18 years and then follow 16 years of Jupiter, this is a fixed thing, which totals 120 years, right, so it’s 120 year cycle. And everyone, everyone is somewhere in the 120 year cycle, the difference is, the starting point depends on your star where you’re born, what star you’re born under. So, for example, if someone’s born under a Mars star, then they’ll have Mars right at birth. And but they won’t have all seven years of Mars because when they’re born, the moon was partway through that star. So we’re born partway through that seven year period, right? So they’ll have the remaining portion after that they’ll have Rahu for 18 years to put for 16 years. So that’s like you step. It’s like 120 year wheel and you step onto the wheel at the moment you’re born, and then just follow along the wheel after that. So the doshas are those cycles, right. So people come into different cycles. And different cycles have different properties, qualities, and of course, the planets don’t mean exactly the same thing for every person, because depends on where they’re placed in the chart. But typically, Rahu can be a time of more Rahu, which is the North Node, right? One of the eclipse points. In Western astrology, they call it the ascending node, sometimes called the dragon’s head. So under Rahu, for example, person might have an awakening, spiritual experience and awakening, but because it came under Rahu, it’s, it’s very likely to have some kind of twist to it, or that the mind is going to creep back in more more easily or, you know, it’s not going to be like complete necessarily. So, like, the kind of experiences one has in different cycles is, you know, is also determined by like, what what planet is operating in which, you know, how, how durable that experience will be? Right? So, so these cycles are always unfolding. So, you know, like, let’s say one is in a cycle, but you know, like, what, let’s say ones in a Jupiter cycle, which is a 16 year cycle. Well, just to know you’re in Jupiter for 16 years doesn’t tell you a lot because, you know, that’s a long period of time. But then within each cycle, there are sub cycles. So within Jupiter, there’s Jupiter, Jupiter. than Jupiter, Saturn, Jupiter with every other planet. Then within Jupiter, Saturn, there’s Jupiter, Saturn, Saturn, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury. So the Sub Sub Sub Sub Sub Sub, it gets down, it gets down to the fifth level. So basically, at the Fifth Level, you’re like, practically day by day, something is changing. So if you want to really get down to the specifics, you can really nail down, you know, and that’s how we can find out that the time birth is accurate, because if the time is accurate, things fit right down to the subtle level. Otherwise, they don’t
Rick Archer: Yeah. It’s kind of a big deal when you change my doshas, right. I mean, I’ve, you know, since I married, I mean, I think I’ve had a couple such changes, maybe, and it can be quite turbulent as you make these changes. And sure enough, it sometimes has been for me. No, she didn’t cause it, I probably caused it myself. No, in fact,
Rick Archer: it is a big deal. Changing major cycles. Even if you’re changing into a good cycle, still, there’s an energy shift. Right? Yeah. Something something is shifting the person’s orientation is shifting. Yeah. And it’s it requires, you know, in fact, one of the one of the things we look at when we look at relationship compatibly, like for marriage, one of the one of the things, one of the red flags, let’s say is that in a, in a couples future life together, they shouldn’t be major cycle changes at the same time, like within the same year, that’s considered going through going through going through the same time, like if one is going through triples, the other one is steady, they can support each other through their turbulent times. If they’re both going through turbans at the same time, it’s considered a negative. Yeah.
Rick Archer: And if and if they, if they are matched up in that way, then every time there’s a Mahadasha change, it’s gonna happen for both of them, you know, simultaneously, right? Because they all
Rick Archer: know only if they’re in the same dasa. Right, right. So there could be they could if they’re both changing the Saturn Mercury at the same time, then they’ll always have the cycles change at the same time. But if one is going into Saturn at the same time, the other one’s going into Venus, then that will coincide. But then Saturn and Venus are different lengths, so they won’t coincide the next time.
Rick Archer: I read an hour talking the other day, and she said that she heard that. If you die, let’s say you’re halfway through your Mars, Maha Dasha, then when you’re reborn, you’re actually going to be at the same point halfway through where you had died. No,
Prasannan: no. Okay. No, that’s there’s no, there’s no scientific evidence to suggest that or even then the charts where we have the reincarnated persons chart, there’s no, there are obvious signs that that person is reincarnation of the one before but there that Dasha thing doesn’t quite work out. So there must be some intervening time in the loca where something is playing out.
Rick Archer: Yeah. Here’s a question from a listener Kranti from freehold New Jersey asks, a lottery winners often decided by a complex algorithm run by a supercomputer, if it is actually usually decided by those little balls that come down, but maybe the generation of lottery numbers he’s he means, if it is true that the winner got it because of his karma, it makes me wonder just how complex the karma machinery could be just by looking at how many things had to be set in place to make this this event happen, or does it not work that way?
Prasannan: It’s true, it’s very complex. And I have been asked before to pick the lottery numbers, and I don’t do that. Frankly, if I could, if I if I could. I wouldn’t. Yeah, I would argue probably wouldn’t even need to do anything. Yeah. I think it’s a miss. I actually think it’s a misuse of the science, right? In fact, in fact, even if it is possible to do I think, and it gets back
Rick Archer: to just using Jyotish to pick the lottery. He’s talking about, you know, the, the, you know, just the way lottery. Why did that person Yeah, the mathematics behind the choosing of lottery numbers, but you know, that are many other complex mathematical things. Right, that there’s a similar mathematics or similarly complex, vastly more complex mathematics behind the, the karma of
Prasannan: someone who’s gonna win the lottery, yeah. Or no, he’s gonna win, or whatever that will be in their chart. Yeah. Like, they’ll they’ll have that influence in their chart to win the lottery. But see, anything that I guess it comes back to that anything can be seen, the question is, will it be seen? Yeah. Like, will it be seen will the will the divine allow it to be seen? You know, and that gets back to this tournament? You know, because even in astrology, you’re playing with forces that are quite subtle and quite powerful. And you know, what one astrologer sees and other astrologers might not see. Right? And I can give you an example of this. There was a this is a true story from Kerala. There was a couple Who went to an astrologer to get their charts matched for marriage? And the astrologer looked at the chart, and he was just absolutely horrified. He said, No, no, don’t, don’t do it don’t get married. And then they went away. And then they went to his guru. And the guru, this astrologers guru, gave the blessing for them to get married. Then, two weeks later, the astrologer is walking down the street, and he saw a funeral procession. And on inquiring, he found out there were two coffins, and it was this couple. So he went to his guru and said, You know, I saw death in the chart. And that’s why I told him not to get married. But you told them to get married. So what gives? And the Guru said they were destined to die anyway, at least let them have two weeks of wedded bliss. That’s interesting. So it’s like, what can be seen? What will be seen? You know?
Rick Archer: Yeah. So my understanding, not only individuals have just charts that can be analyzed, but countries do and perhaps a lot of other things. Companies, maybe companies have charts. Yeah. I mean, maybe even towns or families or various figurations of individuals, right?
Prasannan: Yes, that’s right. That’s called mundane astrology. Why they call it mundane, but has to do with the world
Rick Archer: world. Okay. So the USA then has a Jyotish chart. And apparently, we’re in a Dasha rah rah cycle, right? So Rahu cycle? Yeah. So how is it that a country has a chart? What is it determined by like, when the Declaration of Independence was signed?
Prasannan: Signed? Yes, on Fourth of July 1776,
Rick Archer: I made a in Philadelphia,
Prasannan: I make it 6:25pm. I used to, I used to have a little bit different time. But after 911, I corrected it. Based on the event of 911. I corrected it to 6:25pm. And boy, does that fit perfectly, because in fact, on October 19 1929, they would have entered their Saturn Maha dasa. Well, Saturn brings like, The Truth brings up our stock market crashed within two days, and the Great Depression ensued. Yeah, yeah. So that’s interesting. It’s that chart? Yeah,
Rick Archer: yeah. So. So you’ve looked back at historical events?
Prasannan: Yeah. Worked out the exact birth time of the US. Yeah, yeah.
Rick Archer: And so now what do you see coming? I mean, things are a little crazy, right. Now, does that sort of jibe with the Rahu phase we’re in and what else do you have? Yeah, what
Prasannan: did you predict? Yeah, when Rahu is in the eighth house, then you if a person has Rahu in the eighth house, in their birth chart, then during the time of Rahu, they may act sort of irrationally unpredictably, you know, as it so when an insert a country’s chart, the whole country may be in that sort of unpredictable irrational kind of state. Currently, the sub period is Jupiter. And Jupiter is a highly beneficial force in the US this chart because the US chart has Sagittarius ascendant. So Jupiter is the ruler of the charts. It’s highly benign, and Jupiter is always expensive. In fact, the Jupiter main period was running in the 20s, like the roaring 20s Right, it was this expansive Jupiter, right. But now it’s Rahu, Jupiter, and Rahu. Jupiter finishes in November of 2020, and then starts Rahu Saturn. So just in time for the next election, we Rahu Saturn starting. Now, it’s not the same as Saturn, Saturn, which was 1929. But it’s definitely significant. So I’m expecting downturn in the economy, somewhat at least on par with 2008 happening in 2020. In the second half, maybe not exactly in November, because I think if something big is coming, probably there already have been sort of signs of it beforehand. By the summer probably so I think right now it’s Rahu Jupiter, so for the most part, there would be an expansive force. I had predicted in my annual forecast that the downturn there would be a small downturn in October 2018. Because it was Rahu Jupiter, Saturn at the third level, Saturn always brings a correction. But the the the worst of that was basically over by Christmas. And so now it’s basically an uptrend since Christmas, and for the most part will be a positive year, I’m predicting a good year for 2019 overall for the markets, even though the world seems to be in a bit of a turmoil, but the US economy is still going to look good at least. And what happens is when Jupiter is running, people have kind of euphoria. You know, they feel optimistic, even if they even if all signs say they shouldn’t be shattered. Like it’s about mass consciousness. And so when that euphoria turns to pessimism like it will, when Saturn comes in November 2020, then it’s like it just goes. You know, the wind goes out of the sails and the market corrects. So if you have stocks, sell them before June 2020 would be my advice.
Rick Archer: Do you actually do any stock trading yourself based upon this stuff? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You pick up a sideline as a Stock Advisor?
Prasannan: Well, I do I mean, yeah, you’re right. I my clients love and call me just for that financial advice thing. Where should put my money? What currency? Should I put it in now, you know when I’m in my background is finance. So that’s true, right.
Rick Archer: I find it rather discouraging that things are going to get worse. Are people going to get pessimistic in November of 2020? Because I was kind of hoping someone would get elected that would make us more optimistic.
Prasannan: Yeah, well, the car the karma of the country is like some some correction has to happen. You know, so
Rick Archer: that’s been happening. More correction,
Prasannan: more correction.
Rick Archer: Yeah. Well, I mean, on this theme, you successfully predicted the elections of Obama and Trump very early on in their campaigns. And from the chart from their charts, I made the country’s chart as well. And so what else can you predict? I mean, do you have any prognostications about the next presidential election?
Prasannan: Well, I will publish that next year.
Rick Archer: Okay, well, too early.
Prasannan: A little too early for that. But, but I don’t think I don’t think we’re gonna have a second term for Mr. Trump.
Rick Archer: Okay. That’s good, in my opinion. Okay, so I’ve gone through all the questions that I had written down here. And so I want to give like, either listeners who are sending in questions you have tunity to send in any if they have, they have any or Irene to ask anymore, or you to say anything you want to say that we may not have brought up that you consider important.
Prasannan: Well, we talked we talked a little bit about, you know, and I think a lot of your listeners are interested in awakening. And we talked, you touched briefly on sort of, you know, like awakening may occur in different under different kinds of planetary influences. And also, of course, there’s, it’s, I think, well understood that there’s different sort of intensities of awakening, right, someone may have an awakening experience, and, you know, have like, a heightened awareness and, or they may even, like, you know, start seeing, you know, everything as one, but then the mind might creep back in, you know, and so they can sort of they get, they, they believe they’re sort of at a place, right? But then there’s still, there’s still the mind, there’s still remnants, let’s say, remnants of the mind, remnants of the ego, that are at play. And so it’s like, it’s, it’s a tricky thing, you know, in that whole realm, like, people, people, I don’t claim anything, but you know, people make certain claims about their state of awakening or realization. And, and I think a lot of it is, is a bit of a mind trap can be a bit of a mind trap, you know, so I think the more clarity we can have, the more real we can be about it is good, you know, if someone’s really beyond if someone’s really in total wakefulness, and they’re beyond and all the vastness of being burned at the root, you know, which is like the full total awakening, well, yeah, those people won’t need to promote themselves, because everyone will be coming to them to be like, you know, Buddha or Jesus or, you know, but somewhere in between the rest of the world, you know, finds its place.
Rick Archer: Yeah. Well, it’s interesting point. I mean, there are all kinds of people who start teaching and sometimes getting big followers. Right.
Prasannan: They may still have, they may still have ego, you know, oh, yeah,
Rick Archer: well, that’s what I’m getting to that there’s, there have been all sorts of train wrecks, where people have gotten very often their behavior, I’ve had to take down a number of interviews of people who, you know, really started going off the rails. So I guess,
Prasannan: I think one of the things is that, you know, if people have an awakening experience, but then they don’t integrate it, you know, integrated properly through sadhana. Then it just becomes it can be just come another power trip.
Rick Archer: Yeah. And if they don’t realize that there’s no integration yet to achieve, right, they think they’ve arrived, they think they’re right, they think they’re finished. They don’t think it’s beneath them to do sadhana, you know, because, hey, we’re already enlightened. Why should we need sadhana? That kind of stuff. It causes problems.
Prasannan: I think it causes a lot of problems.
Rick Archer: Yeah. Yeah. And so again, how Jyotish helped to circumvent this kind of problem. Well, I
Prasannan: guess it gives you a reality check.
Rick Archer: So you know, get somebody chart and say, Well, you mean you may not be as enlightened as you think you are, buddy.
Prasannan: Well, I was thinking more in terms of people who are attached to particular teachers. You know, like if we looked at their interaction with that teachers chart and say, like, what’s really going on? You know? Are you putting your eggs in the wrong basket? Because you know, maybe the baby, the person you are idolizing or putting up on pedestal isn’t all there.
Rick Archer: Yeah. Until you determine that by the juxtaposition of their chart and their teachers chart.
Prasannan: Yeah. Presumably the teachers try it would be available. Not all of them are right. Some people, some people keep their data very secret. But
Rick Archer: they were available, would you be able to determine are, you know, with some degree of accuracy whether a teacher absolutely had really solid the arrived or yet to?
Prasannan: They’re putting on a show? Yeah. Clear on the chart?
Rick Archer: Yeah. I mean, my philosophy BatGap is just that everybody’s working progress. Yeah, pretty much everybody all. Yeah. I don’t know if there’s any. And that’s what we used to say, interviews whatsoever here, awaken the people, but we change it to Awakening people, because seeing that process never ends.
Prasannan: The continuum. Yeah. Not black and white.
Rick Archer: So I’ve been sent over a question, and maybe we’ve just covered this, but in case we haven’t would it would would such a person, as you described as fully enlightened, or in a very high state, have that very clearly reflected in their chart?
Prasannan: I would say their chart would show the promise of that. And then their, their how they exhibit to the world would be the proof of it. That’s good. You know, because at a certain point, at a certain point, the chart really stops acting. I mean, yes, there’s still karma at the physical level, like we said at the beginning, there’s still karma at the physical but the person is completely beyond the effect of that in terms of their where they’re at in terms of their consciousness. So there is no one left. There’s no ego left in that case. So there’s just clarity, there’s just being this just being just being and happening. And I think when you meet people like that, it’s
Rick Archer: don’t need a job to see to know whether someone’s in that state. That’s a line from Dylan. In case you don’t know. Don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind was. Right? It didn’t react. I thought maybe I’d heard the line. Okay, so is there anything else rain or crossing honoree? Anybody? Is there anything else you want to cover? Speak now or forever? Hold your services? Oh, yeah. Let’s cut let’s Well, yeah, anything else you want? Say, but let’s cover your we’ve talked a little bit about your services. But let’s go through them again, just so people have an idea of what the options are? And whether
Prasannan: Yeah, sure. Well, most people consult the first time they consult most people consult by phone or Skype. And that’s just because there’s too much to explain in a written form, you know, so they would have a reading. Most people do like a one hour, what we call a one hour full life reading, but it’s not like it because people write say, Oh, should I have an annual reading cuz it’s near my birthday? It, it can be whatever. So it can be a combination, that one hour can be a combination of current as well as life patterns. You know, it’s basically the focus is wherever that person is most interested in understanding what’s going on. So a lot of people just have questions about what’s going on, or they want to ask about their family members. So when asked about their children, yeah, so fine, you can ask but anybody, there’s not like, it’s not fixed. Like it’s got to be about just this, this chart. It can be about people around you. So that’s the reading then. And then sometimes it arises that people might have a question. They don’t really need a reading, but they’re just facing a decision. Like, gee, now I’m going to I’ve got these, I’ve got this choice I’m going to buy I’m going to take one of these two jobs, which is better. Well, they don’t necessarily need a reading for that. They could just look at it from the point of view and single question by email, or muhurta. Someone might want to know, okay, we’ve decided to get married. We’re going to get married sometime between say April and June. Find us the best date and time for that location for it to happen. So that a Horta is Yeah, or I’ve met someone I want to know how compatible we are. So the relation compatibility comes in there. So there’s this was the kind of the way it goes, but most people Yeah, most people just start out with a conversation, and then take it from there.
Rick Archer: Do you ever get bored with this? Or is it endlessly fascinating for you?
Prasannan: I never get bored with this. It really it’s just the most amazing thing. It’s much better than corporate finance.
Rick Archer: Yeah, I feel that way about this. I mean, sometimes people have listened there’s been so many hundreds of interviews, it’s really getting boring, but for me,
Prasannan: it is really endlessly fascinating. And everyone is different. Everyone is unique in some ways. So these these these things we talked about the principles and the yeah, there’s there’s there’s the principles are the same. You know, the principle of Saturn, the principle of the planets is the same, but how they manifest is unique in some way for every person in a different way. You know, that’s Like, the beauty of it, yeah, like really a picture of what’s going on.
Rick Archer: Remember Nancy Reagan consulted some astrologer she got a lot of flack for that. It was like a big brouhaha because
Prasannan: yeah, yeah. Well, it’s It’s powerful. It’s a powerful. I mean, Vedic Astrology is the most, I think the most powerful, you know, prognostication technique around on the planet? Definitely, you know, there’s some, there’s ample proof of it. I mean, I mean, people say, Where’s the proof? Well, you know, I mean, just look at the look at the track record of people who do predict, you know, accurately. You know, this can’t all be just coincidence, right? Yeah. I used to think it was just coincidence, because I grew up in a very scientific, rational, logical, Western mindset. And I just when I first heard about Australia, that’s ridiculous. But then when I went to India and told me to study it, it was like, wow, it is scientific. This is great. Like, it’s all based on rules. I mean, I’m used to rules astronomy is old rules. Accounting is all about rules. And now we got all these rules of astrology. It’s great. Like, what Bring it on, you know, as always mathematically minded. And it is very mathematical. So it’s funny that it’s like, seems so different than finance. But actually the guy who studied with an in Delhi, who wrote those journal articles for kn Rao. He was the Auditor General for India, before he retired, so it’s finance guy. Yeah. And then he runs he runs the Bharatiya vidya Bhavan, the biggest charter school in the world. Interesting on the weekends, you know?
Rick Archer: Yeah. So he is a computer program to help you calculate the chart, could there be a part do you know like, in your, in your dreams, vision, a computer program that could go way beyond just the simple calculation of the chart and help you figure out all kinds of stuff that you know that you’re that you now have to use your own mind to figure out?
Prasannan: It’s a good question, like the computer programs, when they started out, we just put basic calculations in, right. And then as the program’s got more advanced, they got more and more refined. And they brought in more and more things, you know, so there’s more calculations, you can see, I think one of the great strengths of computers that would have been impossible before computers, I think, is the whole idea of birth time rectification, right? Because you know how when you’re in a particular cycle, like when you’re in a cycle, and a sub cycle, and sub sub cycle all the way down to the like, nth degree, right? So those are those changes, if your birth time changes, they all change instantly, right? But modern programs allow you to see what would be the cycle, sub cycle sub cycle, etc, for every single minute for every single second, just by zooming in and out of a particular window. And then you can narrow down and find out what the person’s birth time is, you would never do those calculations. If you had to do by hand ever. Yeah, wouldn’t be possible. And they’ve been a real blessing. It was a real blessing to the computer probe, well, you still need to apply your intelligence. But the facility of doing the calculations is there in the computer. But as far as the interpretation of it, I think it’s it’s, I mean, the program I use has canned interpretations, which I don’t ever give people because they’re way too general. And they don’t really apply because they’re, they’re like, little pieces, like little pieces of the puzzle, but not the big picture, right? So if you look at anyone’s chart, there’s going to be combinations for poverty, there’s going to be combinations for kingship, well, are they going to be a popper or a king? Well, you have to look at the thing in synchronicity, you can’t just look at one thing. Oh, that’s in your chart? What maybe there’s things that cancel it right. So you have to look at the big picture. And I don’t know if there’s software, there’s certainly no software yet that can see the big picture. And maybe, maybe it’s something that’s beyond computer and maybe not maybe I mean, when AI comes, maybe some AI program will come along to do better than modern Jota. She’s in predicting.
Rick Archer: It’s true. And it might actually be self improving. As it learns, it learns, yeah. Do you use that software that’s written by the guy in Fairfield?
Prasannan: Brush was late? Yeah.
Rick Archer: No blocks from us. We often walk by his house, when I
Prasannan: will say hi, say hi to him. For me. I’m wondering, I’m wondering, what should upgrade to version, I think is a new version. I’m using version seven still so okay. But you know, the reason I’m using that software, I’ll tell you, quite honestly, because I had this software that came to the Ostrom in 1992 in Kerala, from a from a local company in Ernakulum. That made this you know, very basic calculation software. And then I was touring with Shama in Chicago, and in I think it was 1994 or five. I was sitting there at the Chicago program, and Michael Bender came by, and he knew me to heard of me, and he gave me five member floppy disks. Yeah, he gave me five floppy disks with crushed red light on it. And I loaded them. And I’ve used them ever since. And every single trade I’ve ever created, since then, since like, more than 24 years, is in one, zip file, one database. And they all work on that. And he’s upgraded the software course many times since then. But the basic charts, I’ve got all those charts saved from like that time onward. Cool. So when people consult, they can always I can always pick up their chart from where we left off,
Rick Archer: hope you have them backed up as well. Oh, very well. Whatever. Irene sent over another question, she says, accuracy is so important and can greatly vary with different judges can shell consultants? Should people not be wary of that?
Prasannan: I think when you go to an astrologer, I mean, you’re you’re going to be getting there, you’re gonna get a reading based on their background experience, you know, how much they’ve seen how much they’ve understood who their teacher was, you know, so it varies, right. And a lot of the see a lot of the, like the use that we talked about the scriptures like the scripture of Prussia, right, that that even the scripture was initially meant to be only passed down by word of mouth, from Guru to disciple. And then the Sanskrit language was actually codified, because the ratios could see that in the future, there’d be loss of knowledge. So they wrote things down before that there was nothing written down in India. So they wrote things down. So we have it written down in Sanskrit, but even then, they didn’t want it to be abused. So they wrote it down in completely, so that you would still need a guru to, like, bring out the meaning, right? Because Sanskrit is very subtle language, right? So they wrote it sort of with with gaps, so that you couldn’t just take it and abuse the knowledge, right? So it’s always meant to be passed on in a sort of a secret way. And even now, in India, there’s there’s families have their little secrets, where they pass them on generation generation, these little tricks, these little techniques that, you know, aren’t part of the general mainstream pool of knowledge and Jyotish. You know, and, and they, and they seem to work, you know, I mean, these things seem to work in in that context. So, yeah, accuracy depends on the background. It’s a vast science, nobody has 100% picture of it. You know, I’ve been doing it for 27 years now. And I don’t claim to have 100% accurate view of it. But I’ve seen a lot of charts, a lot of charts.
Rick Archer: There’s certain things that you don’t feel comfortable telling people like when they’re going to get enlightened or when they’re going to die or something like that.
Prasannan: And so the two, those are the two. Okay, let’s do Yeah, enlightenment is not an answerable question. Because when you’re enlightened, there’s no one left to ask, Will I be enlightened? Right? So the person asking isn’t even around to enjoy their own enlightenment. So what’s the point like who actually wants to know? And death is just too difficult topic for people to get their head around, that there could be a moment when you know, that’s what’s to happen. I think it it does slip out sometimes, like I was doing a reading for somebody whose mother was terminally ill. And the doctors gave her six weeks to live. And this was in July. And I said, No, she’s gonna live till March, sometime in March the following year. From the chart, I just, it just came out. And she actually died exactly on the day that I had said, and the woman came back later and said, she was so grateful because all this healing happened, because they had time to like, really heal old things in the family. Everyone came to see her and so but normally it’s not. It’s normal. It’s not a good topic. Yeah, definitely. Enlightenment. Yeah,
Rick Archer: I think I have heard you say things like, well, you’re gonna live a long life, you’ll live into your 90s or whatever. But yeah, you wouldn’t say somebody’s
Prasannan: got something. I wouldn’t get it. That’s No, definitely not. But the thing is, even if someone was going to die next Thursday, probably wouldn’t see it because I wouldn’t be looking for it. Really? Yeah, it’s not like I guess the jump out if they’re supposed to. And if they’re not, then they don’t
Rick Archer: well. But wait a minute. I mean, if something that momentous is gonna come up in a week or two, wouldn’t it’s and you’re doing a reading wouldn’t any momentous thing in a person’s life, anything really major, somehow become? Well,
Prasannan: there are always these market periods, there’s always these markets, market periods come from time to time. So market period means a period where there’s potential for death. Right? But for that to actually be the one that the time when actually the person does die, all these other factors have to also be there. So if you suspected something, you might go and look for all the other factors. But I mean, if you’re talking to a young person, you’re not going to be suspecting that. Oh, I should look for all these factors. I mean, it wouldn’t be on your mind. Yeah. Some guys, you had some suspicion. I mean, if someone is terminally ill, then you’d be looking for the factors because you know, but there’d be there’d be evidence that it could happen soon. Right. But if there’s no evidence that it could happen soon, then you wouldn’t be looking for those combinations, either. I mean, you would just, you know, it’s because you can’t, nobody can see everything at once.
Rick Archer: Sure. There’s some guy here in town who predicts that Trump is going to die of a heart attack. He said, It’s not a matter if it’s a matter of when would you consider irresponsible to make predictions like that?
Prasannan: I don’t think it’s I don’t think that’s a good way to use the science. You know, I think that’s wrong. Yeah. Yeah.
Rick Archer: Yeah. It almost sounds like you know, somebody who says the thing like that is sort of has a political agenda. And that brings up an interesting point, too. Do you find yourself completely objective? Or do you ever feel you’re getting swayed a little bit by your own proclivities or opinions about things?
Prasannan: Well, if I had if I had my own opinion, so I’d look 99% of all astrologers did not pick Trump to win. It’s true. last election, yeah, I was, I was I was unbiased looking at the chart saying, well, he can’t lose. I mean, as much as I may not want to say that. I couldn’t not say that, because that’s what the chart said. Yeah. Look, the countries in Rahu period. Rahu makes you act irrationally, it makes you go away from the status quo. Well, if you compare the two candidates, he’s clearly away from the status quo, okay. Then Clinton’s charge, she was in a period, she was at the date of the election, she was in the worst possible phase. I mean, she wasn’t exactly the same kind of negative phase that what’s his name, Tony Blair was on the day of the Brexit vote, he couldn’t win either. Like if he had consulted, he wouldn’t have made the Brexit vote that day, because he just he couldn’t win that day. So she couldn’t win, then the the country’s going to reject the status quo. Then Trump’s trade was showing he was about to enter his Jupiter period, just like give some kingship so Okay. Well, there was like, there’s so many. I mean, how did anybody even think that she could win by looking at honestly looking at the chart, but I think people were swayed by their own personal bias. Sure. And so therefore didn’t predict.
Rick Archer: Yeah, well, that’s a good answer. It’s an interesting answer. So you just have to, like a doctor like any other profession, we have a wide your personal biases. And
Prasannan: hell it like it is. Yeah. as gently as possible. Yeah.
Rick Archer: Well, it’s fascinating. How much do you use Jyotish? To look at your own life and your wife’s life? Do you kind of like, check things quite frequently? Or, or whatever.
Prasannan: I don’t obsess about my chart. I know, I know what cycles going on. But it’s like, I don’t like check my chart every time I go out to make sure it’s like, okay. No, it’s I don’t do I know, it’s okay. Somehow I’m living the chart. I don’t really, you know, needed. Yeah. Good. In that sense, you know, every person something major is happening, then, you know, I would, of course, pay attention to what’s going on in my chart. But like, even the fact that we live here now on the West Coast, I mean, we were actually looking at houses in Niagara Falls, we actually made a couple offers, we made a couple offers, and how’s the Niagara Falls, and it just never felt never came through? And then it just, well, somehow the universe has wanted to see in the west coast. So. So here we are. And we’re glad you know. But I mean, if I had if I had been serious about my chart, I might have perhaps avoided, you know, a couple of years of searching in the wrong place for us. I don’t know. Yeah. But maybe it’s just something I had to go through.
Rick Archer: Well, you’re getting better weather there than you would be in before falls.
Prasannan: Before the before the before this house came along. So anyway, we’re waiting for the right house.
Rick Archer: Great. Well, thank you, Preston. I’ve really enjoyed talking to you. It’s a bit of a stretch for me to talk about. engage somebody in a conversation about Jyotish because
Prasannan: it’s all good. It’s all it’s all one anyway.
Rick Archer: It often sounds like baseball to me, you know, like such and such as on first and so and so’s on second. On the fourth base is happy. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve learned something I hope that my audience has, and you’ll probably get a lot of people getting in touch with you. In a pleasure. Yeah. So just to wrap it up. I’ll be linking to ProSolutions website and from his page on batgap.com. And this is an ongoing series. As you know, if you’d like to be notified of future ones, you can subscribe on YouTube. You could also subscribe to our little email newsletter that we send out whenever a new one is posted. You can do both. If you listen to the podcast, it would be great if you were to leave a review on Apple iTunes, preferably a five star review if you feel motivated to do so that kind of helps the popularity of it on iTunes. Next week, I’ll be speaking with a fella named Mark Gober about a topic that’s very dear to me about that inspires me and interest me a lot about whether consciousness is fundamental to the universe or merely a product of the brain. And he’s written a book all about that, which I’ve already read, because I couldn’t wait to read it. So I think that’s going to be a lively conversation. And there are many other interesting ones coming up. There’s a upcoming interviews page on batgap.com. And if you want to see what’s scheduled, just look there. We we update that all the time. So thanks for listening or watching. And thank you again, processing on mistake. I must stay. It’s been good talking with you. And we’ll see you all next week.
