There is a charge against astrology.

The charge is that it shows the excessive r ole of destiny in human life and dissipates the role of freewill. Now to conside r this charge from a critical point of view, we should first know what destiny i s. In religion,destiny means predetermined laws of universe which has been forme d by God himself. According to this view every event or happening in the world t akes place according to the fixed rules made by God. Now the birth of a man is a lso an event in the universe. So every event of human life is predetermined. Man is not free to disobey the destiny rather he is bound to obey it. From Spiritual point of view the supreme consciousness or Brahma, which is unqua lified is absolute reality. God or Ishwara which is qualified Brahma, is respons ible for the creation of the whole cosmos. He is also responsible for arranging the laws of universe. God has special power by which he can create the laws of t he universe and at the same time he has also the power to lift the laws of the u niverse at his freewill/ Choice. It means the destiny or the predetermined laws of the universe are within the control of God and God is not within the control of Destiny. It is a well known fact that man is the most complicated being in the Universe. This complication seems to rest on the fact that God has provided man with a mix ed kind of life i.e. human life is the mixture of both matter and mind. Here, ma tter stands for the physical elements like, earth, water, fire, wind and space a nd mind represents consciousness which is all pervading in the Cosmos. So far, t he creation and function of the body of the man is concerned, we may say that it works according to the pre-destined rule. Because, matter is guided by the blin d force of the nature so, matter has no freewill, no option. In other words, we can say that matter has no ability to distinguish between right and wrong, true and false, good and bad, vice and virtue etc. Again, if we consider man as a conscious being, we find that reason is the speci al feature of man that distinguishes it from other things of the world. This fac ulty of reason serves the very basis for man being him a moral person. As a mora l person, he is able to distinguish between right and wrong, true and false, goo d and bad, vice and virtue etc. This ability of making distinction involves that man is endowed with freewill. Freewill involves choice and choice implies freed om. It means that man is not merely a servant of destiny. Rather he is the maker of his own destiny. The concept of destiny and the concept of freewill both do not exist in the outs ide world. They rather exist within man in himself. It means that there is const ant struggle within a man. This struggle is nothing but the struggle of mind and matter, the struggle of spiritual force and physical force, the struggle betwee n conscious force and the blind force of nature. A man applies both forces while he does a karma. Through the story of Blind man and lame man this can be unders tood very clearly. Blind man is blessed with physical power to walk while lame m an is blessed with eyes to know the direction. Both had to go somewhere, so lame man opined blind man that he would sit on his shoulder and guide him. And thus both would complete their journey. Likewise, human also completes his journey or achieve his goal using these two types of energies. Spiritual force is a refined form of rational force which always inspires man to go from lower to higher. It means that reason is a faculty that makes man able to improve his condition. It means that if we are in lower condition under the i nfluence of destiny, we can free ourselves from the influence of destiny by usin g rational faculty to improve our lot. On the other hand, destiny compels us to follow the pre-established law or rule. Thus we see that the struggle between fr eewill and destiny continues in every man life and this very struggle is the ver y ground on which the grand edifice of personality can be erected. A person, who dominates his destiny by his strong will power, is a real Pursharthi i.e. he is a man in the real sense. Man is known for his reason, not for his body. In the

struggle of the life, it is reason which makes him victorious. Taking this mixed kind of life of man into consideration, if we think about the relevance of astrology, we shall find that the charge is baseless. So far, man s l ife is an event in the universe, it must be guided by the rule of the destiny. T his is why astrology considers man s birth, death, marriage, progeny, education, j ob and other events that concern the physical life or existence of man come with in the range of destiny. Astrology also considers man as a spiritual being. In t his sense, man has the capacity to improve his personality through the different stages of development such Annamaya Kosh, Pranamay Kosh, Manomay kosh, Vigyan M ay Kosh, Anandmay Kosh. It means that man is free and he can breach the boundati on and can achieve the blissful state. A person, in which spiritual thought domi nates, can change his destiny and this very change of destiny involves freedom o f will or self-determinism. In Indian Philosophy one thing is remarkable that is the Karma Theory. Almost al l branches of philosophy believe in the theory of Karma. This theory of Karma is a wonderful mixture of destiny and Purshartha. Theory of Karma prescribes two r ules - Akritapbhyugama and Kritpanash.) Akritapbhyugama means whatever has not b een done, can t bear fruit in any form. Kritpanash means whatever has been done, t hat s result cannot be destroyed. According to this theory, the formation of man s d estiny depends on the very work or Karma performed by him. So, in the beginning a man himself is the maker of his destiny. Later on, when the impression or sams kara of various work become so dense and thick that, more often, he finds himsel f under the influence of those samskaras. In that condition man seems to act as to be the slave of the destiny. But the same theory of Karma says that man can i mprove his lot by doing good works, charity, propitiating planets, wearing stone s etc. The provision of propitiation of planets and other remedies etc in astrol ogy are proof of it that astrology recognizes the power of will of human. Simult aneously, it gives message that by doing purshartha or efforts, in consonance wi th the indication of planets in the astrological chart of an individual, man can ameliorate the situation brought by destiny. In this way, it can be concluded that human destiny and freewill both work in ve ry harmonious way. As long as we will look destiny and freewill in isolated mann er and try to discuss them separately, sometimes destiny would seem all pervadin g while sometimes freewill would seem to overpower the destiny. These two are ne ver against to each other. Destiny is playground of freewill. Freewill is Player . Destiny provides ground on which freewill architects the castle of Karma. Dest iny provides platform to freewill to actualize the matter as per human choice. I n terms of energy, destiny has physical nature of energy that has creative power but freewill has conscious energy that has power to direct the physical energy. In fact they constantly interact with each other very harmoniously. As and when in a moment when we opt or choose (applying freewill) any karma to p erform immediately it is transmitted to the cosmic data bank or quanta field whe re man s will is assessed and permission for required amount of flow of energy is granted or rejected as per the balance or potentiality of destiny. If man s will i s granted, in the course of time or dasha and transit of planets, he is allowed to draw the required energy to accomplish the will-generated-action. Thus, Astro logy explores scope in the harmony of destiny and freewill to guide a man when t o draw energy from quanta field to achieve the goal to become successful.

Destiny is supposed to bring opportunity in the form of event or situation by fu nctioning on subtle, gross and other various levels related to an individual. In particular situation how a man reacts it depends on his basic traits, belief sy stem, personality and wisdom. Basic traits are result of our past karmas and ten dencies (Samskara). As per basic traits and belief system an individual manages

to get wisdom and develop his personality. So, in these areas destiny prevails m ajorly. But there are scopes also to upgrade wisdom, personality and then basic traits gradually by using Freewill. When anybody comes to know reliably about his future by the way of astrology or other, he prepares himself to cope up with the changes going to take place in fu ture. As and when he intends to change, transformation begins to take place with in him as per his will and wisdom. This transformation brings change in his atti tude, thinking pattern, belief system and many other things responsible for brin ging change in his personality overall. And ultimately with these new elements i n personality he becomes able to handle his all those future affairs guided on t he pattern encrypted in the destiny. Now, if he meets, with a debacle, his devel oped & matured personality begins to work immediately like shock absorber and th us he becomes capable to evade the negativity that was to tell upon his being. N egativity through misfortune was to come, it is destiny. He transformed this neg ativity positively, it is his karma in this life. Now karma is positive, so its result will also bear positive fruits in near or distant future. Since he is positive and has managed to channelize his energy in positive direct ion so now his karma is also positive. When karma became positive, there would b e positiveness in the result of karma also. Remember, it doesn t mean that circums tances will definitely change. Actually, it is his perspective that has changed on being person of positive attitude. With changed perspective his enjoying capa bility of the promises of destiny, indicated in his unique horoscope, gets enhan ced. Now Karmaphala does not afraid him. Nor his energies drain in odd time. Lik ewise, in his heydays also, he remains moderate without being overwhelmed. However, the term destiny is very complicated to understand fully as its encrypt ion is very unique in respect of every unique individual. In no case, its patter n remains same for all. But one thing is crystal clear that it is one s right Karm a being done presently (which are dependant upon his personality, developed by d oing karmas previously) leads one to a zone where one begins to operate in such a fashion which is neither against to one s destiny nor against to one s personality through which, on the call of destiny, further he has to act in harmony with th e demand of situation. This is the state of perfect harmonious communion of dest iny of freewill. From here another principle also begins to work. Likewise energy attracts likewi se energy. Now his projected positive energy in macrocosm will harmonize with sa me kind or frequency of energy present in wave form and will transmute into part icles which will attract additional particles that harmonize with it and his lif e will meet with those things for what he was wishing. Very truly, Paulo Coelho, in his book The Alchemist has said, when you want something, the entire universe c onspires in helping you to achieve it . In fact, this is basis of principle of cre ative visualization. It has been experienced widely that Intense Creative Visual ization (ICV) turns dream of an individual into reality. It is one aspect of destiny that is understood to be modified using freewill. Wh at will happen when freewill or self-determinism does not remain functional? In such case destiny only prevails. Suppose an individual was operated upon his bra in to remove tumour. Tumour got removed it was remedial measure. But he could no t gain full consciousness or remained in coma. In the condition of semi-consciou sness or coma, he is unable to exercise his freewill. How will he modify his des tiny? In such condition he acts as per his core of basic traits only. And this f orm of basic traits belongs to destiny. So in such case, undoubtedly, destiny wi

ll overpower self-determinism. It is remarkable to mention here that through true astrology a veteran astrologe r can do prognosis whether a person is prone to serious illness, if yes then whe n. Or, whether operation will also take place or not, if yes then when. Or, whe ther the individual will recover or not. Now think a bit, if these could be pred icted this means these were pre-determined. It implies that if recovery is promi sed only then the native would be in position to use freewill. It, therefore, si gnifies that sometimes destiny overpowers or limits the power of will but not al ways. We have earlier discussed about Intense Creative Visualization (ICV). Here I wou ld like to add that as per our experience or common sense, we know that everyone is not capable to perform ICV to get everything in this world. An individual wi ll perform ICV for only those things that he likes very much. This liking or cho osing sense is not freewill, try to understand. Such liking is guided by our bas ic traits, belief system, wisdom and personality, which, to a large extent, are subject matter of our past karmas or destiny. Paulo Coelho has named it personal calling. He says, We all need to be aware of our personal calling. What is perso nal calling? It is God s blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on E arth . What is your path that God has chosen for you? How will you know? Who will tell you? There are two ways. Ask yourself do meditation try to listen your inne r voice in deep silence. If you can do, it is well and good and nothing is so go od like this. Otherwise, there is astrology that can help you.