Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda seems to be one of the prominent saints who has condemned, openly, the use of Astrology among masses. According to him, 'Will' is everything as it directly comes from God, and God is beyond all planets. Moreover he says, why to rush to Astrology for explanations of our deeds, when our Karmas more pronouncedly present that explanation. It is because of our own deeds what we are built today. And it is the deeds done today, which will make our future of tomorrow. So let us look for the present, as simple as that. Why waste time and energy in Astrology, "these creepy things", as he remarks.It is also to be noted that the India that he saw while on his tour, was very weak financially and most of us had given in to our fate. Our sole dependency on fate was why Swamiji often ridiculed the support of / to Astrology. He often said that the East should exchange their spiritual knowledge with the physical developemnt of the West. According to him India was always rich in Religion and she, as nation, will always be recognised because of her richness in Religion. When that is the case let us not waste our time and energy in mystic sciences like Astrology - so seems to be his opinion.

Moreover, what I have felt is, when an individual is spiritually developed, the predictions which we today seek through an Astrologer, can be easily given by a spiritually developed soul. Because, it is all through the development of the intuition that correct predictions are given, which a spiritually developed soul has a lot in possession, much more than that an Astrologer may have. Above than that, a so developed soul can even overrule planets while an Astrologer may seem helpless there. Overall, the surity of predictions is much, when an Individual is spiritually developed. As compared to such a spiritual evolution, Astrology has no importance.

The main emphasis of Swamiji lies on realising that we are "infinite Souls", and not mortal beings capable of being affected by certain piece of masses like planets and stars.

In a nutshell, there may be persons who feel that planets are affecting them, Swamiji wants to convey, emphatically, that realise yourself as having infinte powers and there is no need to look for an Astrologer or find reasons in Astrology "these creepy things" as they are.

I will now quote some lines from "The complete Works of Swami Vivekananda" in Italics and put up my comments below them in simple fonts.

1...The will is stronger than anything else. Everything must go down before the will, for that comes from God, Himself. A pure and strong will is omnipotent. What we want is strength, so believe in yourselves. We have become weak, and that is why occultism and mysticism come to us- these creepy things. There may be great truths in them, but they have nearly destroyed us. Make your nerves strong. What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel..... Anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject as poison. There is no life in it; it cannot be true. Truth is strengthening. Truth is purity; truth is all knowledge. Truth must be strengthening, must be enlightening, must be invigorating. Go back to your Upanishads- the shining, the strengthening, the bright philosophy- and part from all these mysterious things, all these weakening things. Take up this philosophy. The greatest truths are the simplest things in the world, simple as your own existence. <The truths of the Upanishads are before you. Take them up; live up to them. _{[The complete works ...III. 223-25] & [VEDANTA -Voice of Freedom - Swami Chetanananda-51]}

With his eloquent style, Swamiji makes it clear that it is the "TRUTH", that should be sought for, and anything besides truth cannot give strength but only increase weakness. And a soul, since has infinite powers, should not seek a knowledge that does not reveal it's strength, one of them being Astrology. Also remember that no knowledge of the world is then going to reveal your true nature, but only spiritual knowledge. So every pursuit of yours which is not in the realm of Spirituality is fit for no applause.

Contd....