5/8/2020 A Sum of our Parts by Rohini Ranjan

A Sum of our Parts

by Rohini Ranjan

Each of us is made up of thousands of bits and pieces of

matter, attributes and energy. That is how it is when we come
into this world. We do not really add totally new elements to
this inherent composite as we journey along through our
numerous existences. And every single human being has the
exact same collection of such elements; potentials waiting to be
stirred and realized. These parts together make us what we
are, physically, mentally and spiritually.

Scholars through the years have studied these parts and

depending on the type of sample they were studying or their
personal slants and perspective, have sensed the presence of
some of these parts and then tried to fit these into patterns. Or
they attempted to categorize these into subclasses and other
convenient packages that do not overburden the limitations
inherent in the human rational mind. Some of these elements
obviously form what was perceived as personality. Another way
was to break the human psyche into parent, adult and child
compartments or spiritual bodies and the list of lists continues.

Now, if we all have these same parts or components, then why

are we so different from each other?

I suppose what makes us individuals is the unique combination

of those parts that are ACTIVATED! Somewhat like genes: after
all, not all of our genes are expressed. That does not mean that
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we do not have these other genes that do not manifest in this

lifetime. More importantly, ultimately we are the ones that decide
which parts are important for us (rightly or wrongly) and a part
of this kind of selection of traits, attributes, strengths and
weaknesses shows through as our personality. We have been
bestowed with all of these differently shaped and colored
Lego(R) blocks and it is up to us whether we want to put
together a tractor or a tower (or a garbage heap) 'today'. There
are large parts and there are small parts and an endless variety of
projects to be handled.

The psychologists have done a great job, by the way, of figuring

out this cosmic puzzle and by force of circumstances had to
focus on certain areas or certain patterns to a greater extent than
on others, but these scientists were not surprisingly more or less
on the right track! Some of the principles they had discovered
apply convincingly to what is technically known as the
personality (a part of the whole matrix that tends to show
through and hence can be more readily examined, than ones
spirit or soul, for instance).

The fixation theory for instance illustrates one such facet. A

baby who has learned to derive pleasure (when stressed or
otherwise) through the milk bottle or the mother's breast even
before that, excessively, becomes what is known as 'orally-
fixated'. There are certain distinct traits that go with this and the
fixation sort of holds back certain elements of the personality
from growing freely. When all grown-up, this baby would still
need the 'suckling' to deal with its stresses. The bottle would
obviously be replaced with other surrogates but the basic need
would stay the same as would be the feeling of satisfaction when
the fixated need is fulfilled.

This does not apply to just the personality but ones entire being
(including the psycho-spiritual part within us as apart from the
psychological or mental). As we go through life, there is neither
enough time nor resources for us to make sure that all of the
million some parts of our being are growing equally (if such a
balanced and equally proportioned growth indeed were possible,
what a wonderfully-balanced and magnificent being would
emerge as an outcome!). So, there are areas within us that get
arrested or fixated as we continue through the journey of life and
these tiny parts stay stuck and never catch up with the rest of us
during a lifetime, until we learn to focus on these specifically
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[that is what psychoanalysis is perhaps all about, picking things

where we left them, due to fear or other foci competing for our
attention and energy, and helping the weaker (less grown) parts
so that they may catch up and become one with the rest of us].
Incidentally, talking of split personalities (the real ones like the
one described in "Three faces of Eve"). In these individuals
enough number of the 'parts' were arrested in growth to form a
gang to then appear as disparate personalities.

By this description the 'personality' seems to be a group of the

components of our being that can work together or coexist (as a
group or a gang, in a good or bad sense) and can present a
recognizable face (the same jacket or bandana or mascot or
mannerisms or whatever, just as a band of individuals would do
in society). But in most of us garden variety folks, such colorful
disintegration of distinct groups of components of the inner
being does not occur and so we tend not to pay attention to the
tiny holes on the surface that represent some of those parts that
haven't grown adequately to make it to the surface of the rock
formation.

Now, what do these arrested parts represent or do? They hold

images and impressions (without accompanying interpretation!)
from the era when their growth had become arrested. By some
quirk of destiny, when these parts are activated, they project
those images into our psychic auditorium. Just images, mind
you! But now these images and feelings-memories are interpreted
by our mental interpreting mechanism and we choose to see
those images in their true perspective or to twist their meaning
(knowingly or unknowingly) into symbols and sometimes even
distort and de-energize them because they strike within us an
excruciatingly painful chord.

What we really need is to ACKNOWLEDGE the fact that those

parts exist and somehow to help them grow-up so that harmony
within our being may be restored. THAT IS WHAT
SPIRITUAL GROWTH IS ALL ABOUT! Unless those parts
are acknowledged and helped, the rest of us would keep growing
like a big crystal with a tiny fault inside which might one day give
in to stressful stuff that life is made up of, at a time when the
crystal has grown really big, thereby bringing dehiscence to its
entire structure and form. Something like this happens when
advanced religious spiritual leaders are revealed to show the
ordinary even lowly mortals they actually are within when their
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sex scandals or tales of their greed and power-mania become

tabloid news. Although they lose our respect and admiration
overnight, perhaps it is not true that their entire being was as
corrupted as it appears in the light of public defamation, but
evidently they did not take care of the little defect inside and it
showed up at an embarrassing time while breaking apart their
crystal and hurting what they built as well as their admirers. And
the bigger the crystal is the more stress there is on that neglected
tiny part, forgotten and buried within the bosom of the
"magnificent" crystal, waiting like a spiritual time-bomb.

One may ignore these blemishes and progress very highly on the
spiritual path but eventually, these very imperfections tend to tug
at the growing crystal and pull it back to painful focus. it is
absolutely vital to recognize these and to do something about
these, to think about these, to analyze and to make adjustments.
Merely observing these and recognizing those would not be
enough, though better than just ignoring and forgetting about
these through denial. These crevices of imperfection are a result
of ones karma, the ethereal trace of continuity that remains
recorded in the journal of the soul. This can be addressed by
astrology.

Unfortunately, these parts are not unitary and do not control or

represent only one attribute or function. When something stops
growing and functioning, there could be several parts of the
personality that could become affected. Let us take an example,
our first REAL love in life. Blessed are those of us who have
experienced this all consuming experience. It actually carries a
lot of our child (the creative part) into it. We long to see the
person, to touch them, desiring not necessarily to talk with them
as much as to simply be with them. We experience all the exalted
feelings that also occur in a deep devotional bhakti experience
(love can only be divine!).

Many of us, unfortunately, cannot manage to transform this

relationship that really exists in our soul into its social form of
marriage (and all of the other new surrogate arrangements of
same, all of which can potentially work). However, a liaison
between two beings that might have started with this blessed and
pure phenomenon of love often degrades into something of an
ongoing tirade that alternates between the hurling of saucepans
or insults and the deadpan cold bouts of silence. That is not very
helpful! But when, as in many cases, the love is not fulfilled and
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carried on, a part of the 'child' within gets fixated and even
withdraws. The memories surface every now and then and we
neither really forget the person we initially loved, nor the
experience. But, unless we do something about these memories,
the fixation remains unabated and gets bigger because it feeds
upon through the very act of our recalling it. Soon it starts
draining resources from other areas of our being and this leads
into unhealthy situations and even disruptions in our normal
functioning (to describe the worst-case scenario!). It is like a
wailing baby who needs to be changed and fed. The mother
(self) hears it, feels badly for the baby, but unless she actually
moves over and attends to the baby, the wailing is not going to
stop and the mom would increasingly be unable to do whatever
else she wanted to do instead of tending to the baby's needs!
The mom could go shopping or go into a fugue so as not to
have to hear the wails (forgetting, repressing, denying) but the
deep guilt would not go away and would not let her enjoy the
"shopping spree" until she returns 'home'!

Perhaps what I am saying is or is not making sense to you but

you are the only person who can judge that. Memories are magic
things and events and occurrences of very unrelated kinds trigger
them. Often, these first love-memories are triggered when some
of that painfully-pleasant gemish of feelings of waiting,
anticipation, unfulfilled desires to maintain contact with a being
are activated. We must also realize that the fixated or arrested
part (that was activated during the actual earlier incident) also
holds back our creativity because love after all has only one
pragmatic purpose in nature's cookbook, namely: creation, and
this need not be confined to those tiny cuddly bundles of joy, as
usually becomes the mode of expressing creativity in most
cases, but other creative acts as well.

More individuals turn into poets when they are experiencing this
all-consuming love or sometimes become artists, instead. In
order to make all these parts that had fixated to grow up, one
way would be to pick up the pieces from where one had left
these. Sadly, this could be disastrous to ones present situation
and everything that had been done to build up to whatever the
present status is. However, if one does that regardless, he/she
might soon find out that horrors the person they had once loved
was so different at the repeat encounter, because our
perceptions and expectations have changed over time.
Remember that the other person also went through a similar
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experience of fixation and coping with it. So that kind of

chemistry is fated for a fall! What do we do with the arrested
part, then? By actively exercising its other attributes (creativity,
pure selfless love, trusting) we can still make the part grow. We
do not need the original stimulus (the lover for instance or a mid-
age rekindling of traditional expressions of youth!).

In astrological parlance, creativity is deeply ingrained in the fifth

house. This is not just signifying our external children (progeny)
but the child within as well with all the arrested parts and other
deficiencies. Through a study of this house, one can begin to
understand and decipher the path of karmic future. I call this
preventative karma. This is another way of saying that this is the
path of free-will; right actions carried out today to reduce the
burden tomorrow.

Our past actions have brought us to the current point: the

present, or the first house. Then based on our state of growth
and development we must proceed further through the key that is
revealed in our horoscopes by the area known as the fifth house.
The obstacles to these, the influences that pull us back from our
resolve are seen through the houses that are 12th and 8th from
the 5th. These happen to be the 4th and the 12th houses in a
horoscope, particularly when these represent malefic or negative
influences vis a vis the 5th and the planets that represent this
house. These considerations (the fifth, fourth and twelfth houses
and their interplay) are focused even more sharply from a karmic
viewpoint in the vimshamsha chart (D-20 or V-20 as this varga is
called) a chart that shows ones spiritual growth and spirituality.
Also helpful is a consideration of the D-27/V-27 or
nakshatramsha chart that shows the intrinsic strength of the
incarnated soul. Unless the strength of will is there, free-will and
freedom of choice are reduced to being merely hollow
possibilities if not empty promises.

In subsequent articles, I will discuss charts to illustrate this

further. Hopefully, it will all come together and begin to make
sense.

Please do not post reading requests in the comments section

here. ONLY comments on the contents of this article are
welcome here.

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