The weather is not at all uniform through out a year.We come across spring, summer, autumn, and winter seasons. Even in summer the temperature does not remain same on all the days. There is variance in temperature every day. We do not find any two days alike. Each day is different from the other day. During rainy season we come across heavy down pour only on some days.On some days rainfall will be normal and on some days there will be no rain. Similarly, winter too, on some days we find biting cold and on some days cold is a little. The length of a day and a night also varies through out a year. Further the weather is different in different parts of world.
Similarly, life varies from person to person. Some live for a long period. Some live for a short period. Some are rich and have all comforts and some are poor and do not have any comforts at all. Some are hard working. Some are lazy.Some days are joyful whereas some days are distressful or sorrowful It is not possible to describe life fully.Days are not alike to everybody. Days vary from person to person. Ups and downs are there in everybody’s life. Of course, there are people who are born to suffer through out.Their number may not be much in number. Similarly a few people may be there who are always happy in their life.There is a saying which conveys that grandmother is worried about her clothes, daughter is worried about her husband and grand daughter is worried about something else. Everyone has one or another problem or problems in their life.
Everybody's life appears outwardly beautiful. So is this world.Many link variations that take place in one's life to their fate. Here,they call or name fate as stars. Many hold their stars responsible for all the ills that they face in their life.They contend that when stars are bad one comes across failure in every field and life becomes miserable.When stars are bad, mind does not work and proper thoughts do not emanate in it. Peace of mind is most affected at that time. In fact,peace of mind is rare at that time.What would happen when stars are bad that nobody can foretell .It is beyond one's imagination. When stars are bad one couldn't attempt even that which they are normally capable and confident of doing also. Whatever step that one takes however calculated and well thought that may be,it turns out futile at that time. It is when one has to use an axe where otherwise normally a pin would be used. Even if one touches gold at that time it turns out to be mud. However good one’s intentions may be at that time they would be misunderstood. It is when one gets unnecessary blame. At that time ,their friends not only desert them but also sometimes become their foes too. Any good that one does at that time would not be recognized at all. Besides, everything turns unfavorable or works against them and they become unpopular and disliked too. Under such circumstances they exclaim "My stars are bad "How long such a situation would prevail to them. It could not be said also. Further, as long as stars are bad uncertainty plagues them . Often,whether to rely, not to rely " stars is a dilemma that one faces in life.
My stars are bad. It is one's thinking only.It is psychological. At times one even blames or holds responsible their previous life or birth for same too. It is their belief. It is their faith. It is their view or opinion too. Others may or may not agree with them.When one comes to conclusion that their stars are bad ,they blame poor stars unnecessarily for everything. Such people are less confident. More than their efforts they rely more on their stars. They rarely give credit to stars whenever something good takes place to them. On other hand, whenever something bad takes place that too due to their fault, they promptly without any delay blame poor stars. “My stars are bad” This thought makes round and round in their mind. Can we blame our stars for all that we come across in this world? In life there is good times and bad times just like good monsoon and bad monsoon. Mostly, they are our making only. We have to adjust ourselves to them. That is life. It's man important not the stars.
A child always gets elated when it sees diamond like stars in the sky. It sings the poem
“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.”
Why even grown up rejoice the presence of stars in a sky. But what worries a man or a woman is position of planets & stars in their horoscope. Many are under a belief that it is the positions of planets & stars in their horoscope that causes them anything good or bad. They are under a belief that stars decide course of their life. As such, if anything adverse happens to anyone of such believers, immediately they exclaim “My stars are bad”. Once the concepts “my stars” and prospects get entrenched in one's mind, every happening in their life is linked to these stars & planets. All stars of an individual need not be bad, even a single star can cause chaos to an individual. Even in a family; stars of an individual can affect the fortunes of that entire family. Why even a non believer in astrology also cries out “My stars are bad "If something happens to them just before they were about to clinch a deal or if they meet with an accident just before an examination etc. That is whenever something unfavorable takes place to them at the nick of moment.
My stars are bad means that I am unfortunate or unlucky. Nobody can be unfortunate or unlucky always. We have to remember that without the dark, we'd never see the stars. Stars glitter. They are deceptive in their appearance itself. Stars do not remain what they are. They change either for good or bad. Shakespeare says "It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves." The time has come now when men control the destinies of stars and gradually the belief that stars and planets influence one’s life is waning. Atheists do not believe either in God or stars.Many believe in God only .
Astrology is a science. Astrologer is one who professes to divine future events by the appearance of the stars. Some are professionals in astrology and some are amateurs in astrology .It is a pastime or hobby for amateurs. .Astrology needs deep study. Whether one belongs to west or east, their views on astrology is more or less remains the same. Many consider belief in astrology as superstition .Some people believe in astrology and some people do not. Horoscope or birth chart is one which shows the position of planets at the time of one’s birth. It should be drawn perfectly. One should have exact date, time, and place of birth for that purpose. Planets are not stationery. Positions of planets change from time to time. One can calculate and say which planet is where. Based on their position astrologers predict. They predict whether our stars are good or bad. According to those who have belief in astrology, day and time could be auspicious or inauspicious. They choose and perform anything only on an auspicious day at auspicious time. Stars are bad on some days and why at a particular time of a day even. Their opinion is that which is performed at inauspicious moment is likely to fail miserably in all respects.
Whereas according to Basavanna, the founder of Veerashaiva philosophy there is no such distinction like auspicious and inauspicious time and the moment that one comes to a decision is itself auspicious. In arranged marriages horoscope of bride should match with that of bridegroom in all respects and that is ensured through astrologers. A wedding is always held only on an auspicious day and that too at auspicious time only. Yet, we find that lot couples do not get on well in their married life . Unfavorable, undesirable developments take place. Mother-in-law and others hold poor daughter –in-law’s stars responsible for them. Whether, poor daughter -in – law should say “My stars are bad "?
When life becomes miserable and unbearable, when nothing augurs well and when one is desperate, one generally blames their stars for all the ills. What one remarks or utters at that stage is “My stars are bad”. It is then only one cannot differentiate what is good and what is bad and whatever good one does to others is not recognized at all at that time. When one, stars are bad one generally faces complex situations, one would not know what to do. One would be often like a person who is between a devil and a deep sea during such periods. According to elders and astrologers it is nine planets namely Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, North Lunar Node and South Lunar Node and 27stars namely Ashwini, Bharani, Krittika,Rohini,Mrigashirsa,Ardra,Punarvasu,Pushya,Ashlesha,Magha,Poorvaphalguni,Uttaraphalguni,Hasta,Chitra,Swati,Vishaka,Anuradha,Jyeshta,Moola, Poorvashada,Uttarashadha,Sravana,Dhanishtha,Satabisha,Poorvabhdrapada,Uttarabhadrapada,and Revati that are responsible for all the ills that we face in our life. The nine planets are worshiped by Hindus as Gods especially when they feel that their stars are bad. We find idols of these Gods in majority of Hindu temples. It is their belief that green gram is favorable to a God/planet or in other words represents a planet; similarly jaggery is favorable to another planet and represents that planet. Likewise all the nine planets have their own favorite. When stars are bad these planets/Gods are worshiped and their favorites are given in charity to priests.Various religious formalities and modalities like Homa and Yagna, lighting of lamp in front of idols of God or Goddess through out day and night continuously for twenty four hours without a break , going round a banyan tree and charities are also performed to mitigate the evil effects of stars.
Even in epics we come across various stories wherein great kings and emperors suffer on account of evil influence of stars. We are all puppets in the hands of planets. During Gochara when Saturn traverses fourth house from natal moon, invariably man leaves his existent place of stay. Many a great kings had to face exile during this period. Rama went to forest in ardhastama. Pandavas went to vanavas when Saturn was in Aquarius.
Often we come across many who exclaim “My Stars are bad . It is due to vulnerable situations in their life only. Sometimes we too exclaim that our stars are bad. If we ponder about the same, many thoughts arise in our mind. If we do not play well, we are bound to lose a game. Further, winning and losing are always parts of any game. Always a better player wins. Whether we can blame our stars for losing a game? Definitely, we cannot blame our stars. Similarly, we cannot hold our stars responsible for our fault or faults and say that our stars are bad. How can we for our undoing or incompetence exclaim that our stars are bad? It amounts to one saying that floor is not well laid though he or she themselves cannot dance well. We must put in all our efforts .We must have all the competence. We must deserve success. Despite our best of efforts and competence, if something happens in the middle whereby if we get defeated or lose, our stars are really bad.Under certain circumstances, stars must favor us .
We need not go to an astrologer to come to know whether our stars are good or bad. We realize ourselves. Incidents or happenings make us aware or feel that our stars are good or bad. Situations foretell us. There are occasions when others also come to know without our telling that our stars are bad too. When stars are bad everything goes wrong. Our friends become our foes. Everybody finds faults in us. Nobody recognizes any good qualities that we may have. It is when we have to toil to do something that we could have done easily. Even our small mistakes are not overlooked. People make mountain out of a molehill. Our thinking goes wrong. Our intelligence does not work. All our plans go awry. Nothing takes place as expected instead we receive several bolts from the blues. Enemies and rivals get upper hand. Everywhere we face failure. Nothing favorable to us takes place. Nobody understands us properly. Instead of bouquets we receive brickbats. It is when we are insulted. It is when we are humiliated. It is when we commit blunders. It is when we are under a cloud. It is when we feel that entire roof is coming crushing down upon our head. Boss is never pleased. He always finds faults with us. Frequent quarrels take place at home as well as at work place. Our juniors get promoted. Unnecessarily we face charges. Our hard work goes unnoticed. We get frustrated. We are transferred to hardship areas. Children become disobedient. They lose interest in studies. They fail in their classes. They do not get jobs. We incur losses. We lose confidence in ourselves and others too lose confidence in us. We become depressed. Our health deteriorates. Health of our kith and kin gets affected. Deaths of our kith and kin take place in family. Expenditure exceeds income. We come across hardships in every field. We meet with accidents and sustain serious injuries. Our life itself will be in danger. Pandora Box is opened and all sorts of trouble arise but no solutions would be in sight. Life does not seem to be a bed of roses. Mind is full of negative thoughts. We have to share blame for no fault of us. We become a scapegoat.None of our anticipations materialize. We have bad dreams only. We pray to God not to turn them into reality. We feel that we are let down by God even. All that is said above need not happen but at least some of them coupled with other incidents of similar nature do occur. As a result only aggrieved screams within or openly “My stars are bad”. It is undoubtedly a bad period in one’s life. Its duration we cannot predict accurately. Sometimes the duration is short and sometimes it is long. When one’s stars are bad, it is always better to for one to postpone major decisions. Further one should not be adventurous and should keep their activities to barest minimum during that period. When one's stars are bad, one has no other go than to suffer in one way or other and grumble” My stars are bad"
When stars are good, nothing bad takes place. This is a wrong notion. If one does something bad when their stars are good definitely they would be caught and punished. Similarly, there are people who think that their stars are bad. That is also always not true. Stars are not always bad. Stars are sometimes good and many times, one suffers because of deeds which they rendered with or without their knowledge during their previous birth. Deeds which one renders during their previous birth do not leave them. One has to pay for those deeds unfailingly. One certainly reaps what they sow. One cannot blame stars for everything. Other factors also subscribe to their difficult times.
My stars are bad is undoubtedly a negative thought. An Optimist replaces this negative thought with positive thoughts and faces bad time boldly. An optimist also always remembers the quote "When you laugh the whole world laughs with you, when you weep you have to weep alone" An optimist overcomes a bad time successfully. Whereas a pessimist becomes desperate, disgruntled and downs to earth. There is a saying that when our stars are bad whatever we touch becomes mud whereas when our stars are good whatever we touch becomes gold. In this context we can refer to Mahabharata where what happened to Dharmaraya who king was of kings namely emperor and on whose feet one used to find glow on account of diamonds, gems studded crowns of innumerable kings bowing. When his stars were not good, he became a servant in the court of Virata. Similarly, Nala maharaja became a cook in the kitchen of an ordinary king and his wife Damayanthi a maidservant. Why Harichandra Maharaja became a watchman in a burial ground and his wife Taramathi a housemaid, Sri Ramachandra was exiled for fourteen years. Whenever they were in such a plight, their stars were bad. Generally whenever we are under influence of Saturn as per our horoscope, we generally come across various difficulties of similar nature. Reign of Saturn spans over a period of seven and half years. Saturn is in predominant position in one's horoscope at that time (Shanidasa or Sadesathi).
Stars are not stationery. Stars make movements periodically. Their movements affect every individual either favorably or adversely. Thus Ups and downs are common in one's life. Everyone has a good or a bad period in their life. There is nothing unusual in it. There has to be sunshine after rain, there has to be laughter after pain. Managing these ups and downs articulately is life. We should not blame stars. We should not leave it to destiny. As Swami Vivekananda says, “We are the maker of our destiny". We should stick to our ideals come what may. Truth always triumphs.
Some blame their stars always. They always say, “My stars are bad ". If they make this statement once or twice , one may believe but one would not believe always.They would stop sympathizing also. One concludes that theirs is a never ending story and it is only a lame excuse put forward by them. Generally, such people have more vices than virtues. They never aim sincerely and honestly at anything good .They always indulge in something bad. Those persons are not capable also. How can they succeed? They always fail and grumble, “My stars are bad “. My stars are bad means that they are very unfortunate. That is when one when do not get opportunities which they deserve. But this is not true in majority of cases except in a few cases. Generally we spoil the opportunities and blame the stars for our failure. In case of a few people, all events in life go adversely to them and they cannot raise their head in their life at all. They are born unheard and die unheard. Life is very strange.
Those who are worried much about their stars and their positions in their horoscope approach astrologers. A few astrologers guide them properly whereas majority of the astrologers who are there for their livelihood try to swindle them. They utilize the opportunity to their advantage and the saying “Make hay when the sunshine” applies to them. They exploit poor clients with expensive rituals. Only if the stars of people who approach such astrologers turn out to be good everything ends well. Otherwise they have to say once again, “My stars are bad". The excuse that the astrologers give is that the rituals are not performed as desired by them and they come out with a fresh list of rituals and the aggrieved has to repeat“ My stars are bad ." When stars are bad, our realizing capacity, judging capacity, thinking capacity do not work at all. Our common sense, presence of mind, intelligence quotient etc. become useless. We cannot make out what is good and what is bad. We cannot make out what is right and what is wrong. When we are walking on a road, branch of a tree falls on us, instead of minding our own business, we unnecessarily involve in others affairs and get our fingers burnt. Further, it is during such a period we approach astrologers. God only must save us when our stars are bad. Nobody can change our stars. When our stars are bad, we have too much of intelligence. It is known as perverted intelligence and it is always bad. We do not think properly. Our thinking itself would be completely wrong.
Every conjunction of planets has significance. Every conjunction bodes either good or bad. Further, every conjunction is time bound. When conjunction of Mars and North Lunar Node planets takes place, it is called Kujarahusandhi. It is said it is not good for the person when one’s horoscope predicts such coincidence of two heavenly bodies at the same celestial longitude. It is a bad period for him or her. Those who have belief in astrology get some rituals performed through priests just before such conjunction. Priests are of the opinion thereby evil affects of stars can be subdued.
About sixty years ago, we were at Nagappanakeri in Shimoga. My father had a little bit knowledge of astrology. He had predicted such a conjunction in the horoscope of my sister Vijaya. Otherwise her stars were very good. It is after her birth we prospered a lot. Mother got diamond ear studs. We secured a landed property measuring over 60 acres at Belanje in Karkala Taluk. She was barely only three years old then and I was less than six years old. It was her third birthday. We had a feast on account of it on that afternoon. She was wearing a new blue frock and looking like an angel on that day. She was very beautiful. Sanna Thammanna and Dodda Thammanna were living next to our door. There was a guava tree between our house and their house. They were good neighbors. Whenever they were plucking fruits from guava tree they used to share them with us. Some of the fruits that they threw were ripe and some were half ripe. Unfortunately one that Vijaya had in her hand was half ripe. Even half ripe guava bears taste. She was chewing. It was 5 p.m. School was over and my elder sisters returned home. They were hungry. Whatever that was left in kitchen did not satisfy them. They wanted to have dosa from nearby Baikady Annanthaiah's hotel. Our Vijaya also wanted to go to the hotel along with them. The young kid started crying. They did not want to carry her to hotel and bring her back. She was a little bigger to be carried at that time. Nobody noticed that half ripe guava was in her mouth. The guava got down into the throat. The throat was choked and she could not breathe properly. Mother tried to take it out. We went in search of a doctor. We could not get proper medical aid. She breathed her last. This incident naturally enhanced my faith in astrological predictions. Here our stars were really bad.
Stars do play an important part in one’s life. Stars do have a say on one’s fate. But nobody can change one’s fate. Fate is always written by Him. Too much of belief in stars is always foolish. There is a saying “Man proposes and God disposes “. Remarking that my stars are bad is an excuse that many people find for their lapses, undoing etc. Is it not? The fault is not always that of our stars. Sometimes fault lies in us only. Just because one’s stars are good or situation is favorable to them, no miracle would take place unless one puts in their efforts. Similarly if one stars are good, if one steals they may not be caught only once or twice,they cannot remain Scot free for ever , they would be definitely caught while trying to steal one whose stars are better than that of them. Then there is no other go to them than to exclaim “My stars are bad”. When there is a calamity or a catastrophe, whether one’s stars are good or bad everyone would be affected. At that time one would certainly realize "My stars are bad" is always a futile uproar. Shakespeare has rightly said "There is nothing good or bad thinking makes it so".