Thus spake the old curmudgeon
Rants, raves and rambles about the god of sorrow…
That dangblasted Old Curmudgeon who is me has just embarked on his third “Saturn Cycle,” the official entrance into old age. According to most people who follow “The Astrology of the Hindus,” a Saturnian time of planetary involvement, especially Sade Sati Number Three, is generally described thusly: #@%^&*/><@! .
What great maha-yogis and devotees all know, but sinful demons do not comprehend, Saturn can actually be one of the greatest benefics. Take India, for example. This great Saturn-ruled land has Saturnian influence in all in maximum extremes both vertically and horizontally. India has great self-made magnates and industrialists (Saturn’s power to give great heights to the worthy), great penitent yogis (Saturn rules austerity) and philosophy borne out of experience. India’s very poor and impoverished are legendary, too, (the “lower octave” of Saturn rules extreme forms of filth and decay; wasting diseases, breathing disorders of all sorts, slow and painful death; rot, garbage; loss of social status, family and friends; isolation, etc.) So, although Shanideva is known as a paapi, or sinful planet, this is just not the case. In truth, we are the paapis, and the bad karma that can follow in a waltz of Shanideva is not Shani’s, dear reader, but ours alone.
Shani’s job is to let us know in no uncertain terms that, yes, we really do live in the world of vikarma-phal or painful fruition of sinful deeds performed in this and other lives. The retribution is ours to enjoy. One of recent history’s very-Saturnian saints was Isha Putra Krishna-Rishi, otherwise known as Jesus Christ in the dialects of the mlecchas. And as Jesus summarizes Shanideva’s grim portfolio, “As you sow so shall you get yours.” Shanideva is precisely like the tick tock of the inevitable clock of karma, telling us at every moment that the final moments of judgement are steadily approaching. So Vaishnava astrologers recommend one cure and one cure only for a negative Shani cycle, one that is superior to all forms of austerity or yogic exercises. He who enters into malefic (1.) Shani dasha, or bhukti, (2) Sade Sati or Ashthama Shani, etc, should always chant:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Ram Rama Rama Hare Hare.
This mahamantra is unsurpassed for preparing for any kind of malefic transit of Lord Shanideva in one’s life because it is meant for liberating the entire world from the bonds of karma. Who is there who can escape Shanideva and the laws of Nature? Only the devotee succeeds. Since we are all subject to the laws of Nature until the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna grants us release by His Own Sweet Will, then, the best path is to take refuge of the holy name of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Shri Shri Radha-Krishna.
Since everyone is bound by the stringent laws of karma as read through the position of Shanideva in a natal kundali or horoscope, then hari nama sankirtana is the only recourse. Unless this world takes to the sankirtan movement, its struggling citizens are doomed otherwise to unlimited rebirth here in this cold, dark material prison. Therefore, the conclusion is that any one who tries to appease the demigods with some mantra other than the one prescribed by Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is simply wasting his time by spinning his wheels here in Time’s eternal wheel of samsara. As Shrila Prabhupada often advised, “Water the root.” Since Krishna is the root of all that is, the only means of pleasing the demigods is to please the Supreme Lord.
In the Puranic glorification of Saturn mentioned above called the Shani Mahatmyam, the description Lord Shri Krishna’s sade-sati cycle is given. Yes, you read that right, Lord Shani is so powerful that he even vexed Shri Krishna Himself. Of course, no demigod or devata can ever overpower Lord Krishna. The Supreme Lord is not overpowered by mere planets as we fools of planet Earth. However, in order to appear as an ordinary man and thereby cheat the atheists who did not have the “good karma” to view the Supreme Lord, Krishna in His divine lila glorified His devotee Shanideva, just to teach foolish mankind how stringent and powerful the laws of Nature are.
Brothers and Sisters, the only way out of this painful mohajala, or web of illusion, is to surrender at the lotus feet of Shrila Prabhupada. None of those “fashion yogis” preaching in the sixties granted even one of their doped-up followers any one of the five liberations. Yet we have seen a few pious and sincere devotees achieve liberation in this lifetime due only to Shrila PRabhupada and none other. A few whom I am presuming to have become liberated whom I knew well come to mind like my Prabhu Shriman Suhotra das Maharaja. I knew Suhotra when he joined us in Boston, and now I’ve heard that he disappeared from this world at such a divine moment, in such a blessed way that he could only have achieved the anti-material Vaikuntha realm. I know a few “God-nieces and nephews” (actually, I consider us all brothers and sisters and do not like the condescending pomp associated with anything else) who remained faithful to Suhotra Swami as he tried to convey Shril Prabhupada’s wonderful message without any guile or motivation. So this is all due to the blessings of Guru Maharaja, that the Great Liberation of Kali Yuga, nama-sankirtana, is working as predicted by the great Shrila Shri Bhaktivinoda Thakura.
We are all so blessed just to have the darshan of Prabhupada’s lotus feet, or—better yet—to have understood the value of his teachings as revealed in the Purports of the Gita, Bhagavatam, Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita, and other Sanskrit and Bengali classics belonging to the periods of Sage Vyasadeva (3100 BC and earlier) and the modern Gaudiya Movement of Bengali Vaishnava that has continued to grow from the divine advent of the Golden Avatar in 1486 to the present. And which, it goes without saying, continues to grow around the world all thanks to Shrila Prabhupada. For Prabhupada alone can teach any unfortunate soul how to unlock himself from the iron grip of Shani and transfer to the shelter of Lord Krishna’s twin lotus feet.
Now Shani is so powerful that he even vexed Shri Krishna during the Supreme Lord’s advent upon this planet. Actually Shri Krishna was intent on not making waves and appearing as an ordinary human being to cheat the atheists, that he allowed Himself to be overcome by Sade Sati during His Shyamataka Jewel episode when many around the Supreme Lord as Dwarakapati actually came to doubt the Supremecy of Yogeshwara Shri Krishna. Lord Krishna was so kind to His devotee Shani deva that He allowed Himself to appear as though He was under the spell of material nature. I need not remind you devotees that Shani and all the other planetary deities are under Durga or Mahamaya, and Devimata is none other than the shadow of Shrimati Radharani, Who none other than the Supreme Gopi of Vrajadham and the Divine Beloved of Shri Krishna.
Tags: astrology of the Hindus, karma, Sade Sati, Sankirtan, Saturn cycle, Shani, Shani-dasa
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.