Finding Guru and Seeking

Knowledge
by Sanjay Rath

Dr. Andrew Foss: Sanjay, we were wondering, if someone does not have a guru to teach some
Jyotish, how today he can start it?
Pt. Sanjay Rath: Guru as such means anyone or anything which removes the darkness of ignorance.
In the West there is a concept that guru must only be a living human being which is not really-really
right. The guru is a book, the guru is knowledge. The person who carries the knowledge is called a
guru for he is carrying the knowledge in his head. As I say, that all charts have Jupiter. And if all the
charts have Jupiter so everybody has a guru. That guru is already there in your chart from the day
you are born. And what you are looking for is a human being who already has this knowledge in his
head. When you mentally accept somebody as a teacher, a guru, then only will the knowledge flow
towards. Water always flows from a higher level to a lower level. For that you have to accept that
you are at a lower level. When that acceptance comes in the student that ‘I do not have this
knowledge and I go to the knowledge’, then that knowledge will flow to you.
Then, when you start learning – it is like learning ABCD; you really do not need a Ph.D. scholar
teaching you ABCD. You go to a school like so many other students and you learn your ABCD, you
learn your language, you learn your various subjects. A stage comes in life where you are now ready
for that level of Jyotish, which is called the classical top level like, let us say, you want to now study
Parāśara Hora Śāstra. Parāśara Hora Śāstra is not the beginning of Jyotish really, Parāśara Hora
Śāstra has to do with a slightly more advanced level, not a beginners’ level. At that point of time
you could consider taking a Jyotish guru who walk you through the course. And that is how the first
guru comes. Then there is a very high Ph.D. level, like the Jaimini sutras. These are sutras for which
you need maybe a higher level Jyotish guru. You seek the permission and basically the contact of
such a high level guru from your first guru and then go to him and learn. So, gurus will come one
after the other and teach you. If you have the ahaṁkāra, the ego, you believe that you have the
knowledge, it is tilted the other way. The water is flowing away from you, it is not flowing towards
you. It is your own ego, which is chasing the knowledge away. That is how we have a Jyotish guru
and we gain some knowledge from the Jyotish guru. The guru is the same for all students, it is the
individual student’s level of ahaṁkāra that decides whether you really get the knowledge or do not
get the knowledge.
Sonal Sachdeva: Is there something in your chart – whether it is a yoga teacher or a spiritual guru
or Jyotish guru – is there something in the chart, that is point to the master coming to you?
Pt. Sanjay Rath: Yes, that is true, also levels of Jyotish. Levels of Jyotish is what we are talking
about. Are we talking about Vedic Astrology at the level of the fifth grade, tenth grade or are we
talking about Vedic Astrology at the level of a PhD scholar? What we call the Jaimini scholar
program is like a PhD scholar program.
So, when we are talking of levels, we have different levels of knowledge and we say:
• one is a body level knowledge;
• then there is a mind level knowledge, where you are playing with things in the head to
understand the logic behind things happening;

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 • and then there is a supreme level, which we call the soul level where the knowledge is just
expanding inside you.
For the body level we look at what is Lagna, or the first house, and from there we look at yogas,
which will give you this knowledge. And there are yogas which can give you this knowledge, for
that we need a yoga of the Sun. Unless there is a yoga of the Sun or yoga of the eyes… You see, we
say that Jyotish is the cakṣu, or the eyes of the Vedas. In Vedic Astrology, we know that the eyes
relate to the 10th house. So, unless there is the yoga, which is giving the knowledge of the eyes,
Vedic eye, to you, it does not show getting the knowledge very well at the body level.
Then we go to the mind. There are yogas, which will show getting this knowledge at a mental level,
when you are talking about yogas, the combinations, deciding what is right, wrong, working with a
teacher, who is guiding you through the nuances. You are working very hard, making notes – that is
the second level. There are yogas for that.
And, finally, the topmost level, I say, is coming from the soul. Do you have a strong enough desire
from your soul? Because if you have that, you can continue Vedic astrology maybe 20 years, 40
years, it can become your life path. We know that this is a knowledge of the Sun God. And the Sun
God has his natural house in Leo, which is the 5th house of the natural Zodiac. And desire as a
function for any planet or anything has to do with the opposite, the 7th house. If my soul has a link
to the 11th house then the knowledge should be in the opposite, my desire should be in the opposite.
So, if the Ātmakāraka has an association with the 11th house or is in the 11th house, then naturally
it will push you towards the 5th house to get that knowledge, your desire will be on the 5th house.
So long, when people asked me what is the sign that you choose somebody learning Jaimini, I gave
a very small dictum – the Ātmakāraka must be associated with the 11th house. I said try it out
all the charts and tell me whether I am wrong. They were surprised, they said: ‘No, no, this is
wrong.’ I said: ‘Why did not you try it?’ When they tried it, they were surprised – it was there in
their charts also. You cannot become a Jyotishi at that level if your soul is not dedicated to the
knowledge, if that is not what your soul is seeking.
Beautiful statement I have read: ‘Every sinner has a future as every saint has a past.’ There is no
saint, who does not have a past, there is no sinner in this planet who does not have a future. That is
the whole concept behind rebirth and reincarnation. Why are we born again? If you talk of rebirth –
why? Let us say, there is rebirth, then why are we being born again? Let us come and play soccer
and go away.
Sonal Sachdeva: So, essentially we are in the territory of Rāhu-Ketu, when we talk of
reincarnating…
Pt. Sanjay Rath: That is nothing called a territory. It is all about – why are we coming, why are we
coming back? For what purpose? Because there is hope for a better future. There is hope that we
can overcome ourselves. ‘Give me another opportunity.’ Use another opportunity, do good karma
and overcome you sins. Simple like that. That is why we are being born. If there is no hope, you
would not even have agreed to being born again. Because there is hope that is why we have been
reborn. That is essence. Rāhu, Ketu, that, this – that is the Jyotish aspect of it, that is the
mathematical aspect of it, where we are synchronizing star positions and planet positions to what
we are talking about. Let us be clear about the theory in the first place. All nine planets are involved
in our rebirth, not just Rāhu-Ketu.
Religion is a language to talk to God. God is one for all human beings and the religions are nothing
but different languages to talk to that one God. Are you trying to tell me that just because you call
bread as ‘bread’ in English and I call it ‘roti’ in Hindi it is a different thing? No, the thing is the
same. You see the point here. So long as I know what I am asking God, I will get what I am asking.
Let us assume that you do not know any of the languages. Are we saying that you cannot address?

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You can address. Are we saying that some of these Vedic vibrations will not work? The advantage
of Vedic mantra… See there is a difference between a prayer from the Rig Veda or a hymn from the
Rig Veda and others, because the Rig Veda is not a smṛti*[1], it is not something which was
remembered, it is a śruti*[2], it is something which was heard. Nobody really knows who first said
it, but we know who recorded it. For example, the famous mantra*[3]:

त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सग
ु न्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम ्
tryambakaṃ yajāmahe sugandhiṃ puṣṭivardhanam
That was first recorded by Vaśiṣṭha*[4] and Śiva says, that whoever shall be the student of Vaśiṣṭha
– that means whoever shall hear this mantra – will be healed and protected all the time. An
experiment was carried out where people who did not even understand, who did not even know that
Sanskrit as the language exists, there were terminal patients and some of them they put headphones
and they played the mantra – they started healing. And many of them have benefited very much
from merely hearing this sound. So, there are certain Vedic prayers, which are originally from the
Rig Veda, those are absolutely different from the ones which have come from smṛtis. Because those
hymns have a different level of power, they have a certain chandas*[5], which is the vibration,
which we really do not fully understand, but the way that works is that, it works absolute miracle.
And it cuts across all languages. Honestly, Vedic Sanskrit is not fully understood by anybody. So,
even today on this planet there are very few who really understand what that means. It works, but
how it works? So, there is no restriction, the beauty about a Vedic mantra that there is absolutely no
restriction, anybody can do it and it will work.
Again, the second part is the faith. The lady who is in a semi-conscious state, who can barely even
know where she is and is listening to the mantra playing through a headphone or speaker on the
side. She does not even know she just thinks it some sound happening on the roadside. She gets
cured. Why do you need belief for it to work? That is my question. People say: ‘You do not believe
so it is not working’. No. When you take a medicine you believe that the medicine will cure you?
No, you take the medicine because the doctor gave you the medicine. You have belief on the doctor
not on the medicine. You see the difference between the two? Here you have come to a Vedic
astrologer, because you have faith or belief on the Vedic astrologer, that he knows his subject and he
is giving you some medicine. The believe is with the astrologer, the believe is with the doctor,
because honestly you do not understand the medicine here or here.
Sonal Sachdeva: So, the patients or the persons believe in the…
Pt. Sanjay Rath: … in the doctor that cures him. The patient must believe the doctor. In the villages
of Orissa in India sometimes the person comes and says ‘I have got a terrible fever, I have got the
stomach upset’. Doctor listens to him calmly, he says ‘you need an injection immediately’, he takes
distilled water, gives him an injection, the fellow becomes OK next day. What cured him? It was a
distilled water? Distilled water does not cure. It was faith in the doctor. See the point. Human. There
is an energy, which we do not understand, we call it a psychic energy or whatever energy, when we
have faith in someone, that faith is faith in God, for God sits in the heart of the doctor. You go to a
guru to learn; if you have faith in the guru, you are having faith in God – it is that, that teaches you.
Sonal Sachdeva: And then the remedy will start working.
Pt. Sanjay Rath: Everything will start working. The problem comes when you do not have faith in
the teacher or on the doctor and you are looking for faith in God. You know, sometimes I joke to the
students – you cannot trust a human being, you really think you can trust someone you have never
seen?

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Sonal Sachdeva: On technical level or even on emotional and psychic level, what are those
qualities that you think have to be there for a successful Jyotishi to heal people essentially? Quality,
which is not just as learning Jyotish, but as practicing Jyotish, like giving people the remedies.
Pt. Sanjay Rath: There are two things in Jyotish: one is healing and one is predicting. You could be
a very good predictor, but you cannot heal anybody; you could be a very good healer but you cannot
make a single prediction. Or maybe you can do both. You see my point? For prediction you need to
be technically very strong, you need to have a very well-grounded system of studying a certain
aspect of astrology or Vedic Astrology which focuses in a certain type of prediction. Then your
predictions will be right. You may be able to predict the disease of somebody – ‘such and such
diseases coming’, but you will not be able to heal it, because to heal you first need to have faith in
your own self. Because God is in your heart. If you do not have faith in yourself, you do not have
faith in God. And if you do not have faith in God, your healing powers are absent.
Such a faith can only come when you are pure enough. See, you can lie to a hundred people; you
cannot lie to yourself. We all have belief systems. If in my belief system I believe that consuming
alcohol is spiritually not good, let us say, if somebody is taking – it is his problem, not mine; it is his
wish. I am not being judgmental, whatever you want to do you do, I do what I want to do. If I have
faith, let us say, in my guru and my guru says that ‘look, do not take this because you lose your
spiritual bounds, you cannot heal anyone.’ So, having faith in my guru and faith in myself, I do not
take that. Then what happens in due course of time is I build my faith in myself, ‘look I have not
taken that, I am following the rules, I am doing my prayers.’ That is nothing but faith building.
When you do your mantras, you build your spiritual energy. They are like building blocks, each
mantra is an energy, energy packet. I built it up over time and that places back on me. Therefore, I
will have the faith. When you give a mantra, that mantra has what we call an energy transmission. It
is like shining a torch, you take a little torch and the battery is half dead – nothing is going to be
visible but if that torch has a battery which is absolutely as powerful as the Sun, it cannot fail. So,
for healing you need personal spiritual energy, that is the difference.
Sonal Sachdeva: So, then that leads me to the other question on karma. Can that karma actually be
altered?
Pt. Sanjay Rath: The question you asking me is basically that: can we overcome this karma?
Rephrase the question in simple way – can I burn all the trash in this world at one go? Forget about
karma, this is a complicated concept. Think of all the trash that is collected in London every day.
Can you burn all of it in one go? Some people would say: ‘Oh my god, that is impossible task.’ But
someone said: ‘Maybe it can be done.’ Because there is a possibility, it can be done, if you have the
technology. Maybe I have a very powerful laser beam and I can send it over there, and it will just
burn everything out. Right? So, that is a possibility and that shows that, yes, all karmas can be burnt
in one stroke and that burning of all karmas in one stroke is what we call the Third Eye of Shiva.
Just as it destroyed Kama Deva. People translate Kama Deva as the God of Love. I would look at
him as more the God of Desire. It is desire that causes rebirth. What is the root of desire? The Deva.
So, if in one stroke I destroyed the very root of desire, then from where will desire come? There is
no desire left. That means no more karmas. It is the third eye, that can do it. So which part of your
body is the third eye? It is agya chakra, keep that in mind. So, when we study chakras and we need
focus on chakras, focus on the agya chakra for the agya chakra has the power to destroy all sins. All
the sins in one stroke – that is the power it has. There is a beautiful prayer:

ॐ द्रत
ु मं मञ्
ु च उड्डामरे श्वर आज्ञापयति स्वाहा
oṁ drutaṁ muñca uḍḍāmareśvara ājñāpayati svāhā

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The Uddisa Tantra, there is the prayer that is given. ‘Lord open that third eye and in one stroke
finish it.’ Beautiful. HAUṀ bīja is this Śiva bīja. Why is it so auspicious? Because it is one of the
petals in the third eye. The other side is the KṢAṀ, which destroys everything and you put them
together – HAṀṢA.

[1] smṛti [ स्मति

॑ृ ] – remembrance, reminiscence, thinking of or upon, calling to mind, memory;
Memory (personified either as the daughter of Dakṣa and wife of Aṅgiras or as the daughter of
Dharma and Medhā); the whole body of sacred tradition or what is remembered by human teachers
(in contradistinction to श्रुति or what is directly heard or revealed to the Ṛṣis; in its widest
acceptation this use of the term Smṛti includes the 6 Vedâṅgas, the Sūtras both श्रौत and गह्
ृ य, the
law-books of Manu &c. [see next]; the Itihāsas [e.g. the Mahābhārata and Rāmâyaṇa], the Purāṇas
and the Nītiśāstras; the whole body of codes of law as handed down memoriter or by tradition (esp.
the codes of Manu, Yājñavalkya and the 16 succeeding inspired lawgivers, viz. Atri, Viṣṇu, Hārīta,
Uśanas or Śukra, Aṅgiras, Yama, Āpastamba, Saṃvarta, Kātyāyana, Bṛhaspati, Parāśara, Vyāsa,
Śaṅkha, Likhîta, Dakṣa and Gautama; all these lawgivers being held to be inspired and to have
based their precepts on the Veda. Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (MW)

[2] śruti [ श्रति

ु॑ ] – hearing, listening; the ear, organ or power of hearing; that which is heard or
perceived with the ear, sound, noise &c.; an aggregate of sounds (whether forming a word or any
part of a word); rumour, report, news, intelligence, hearsay; saying, saw, word; that which has been
heard or communicated from the beginning, sacred knowledge orally transmitted by the Brāhmans
from generation to generation, the Veda (i.e. sacred eternal sounds or words as eternally heard by
certain holy sages called Ṛṣis, and so differing from स्मति ॑ ृ or what is only remembered and handed
down in writing by human authors; it is properly only applied to the Mantra and Brāhmaṇa portion
of the Vedas, although afterwards extended to the Upaniṣads and other Vedic works including the
Darśanas; pl. ‘sacred texts, the Vedas’, also ‘rites prescribed by the Vedas’). MW
[3] mahāmṛtyuñjaya mantra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahamrityunjaya_Mantra
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasishtha

[5] chandas [ छन्दस ् ] – deceit, desire, longing for, will; intention, purport; a sacred hymn,
incantation-hymn; the sacred text of the Vedic hymns; metre (in general, supposed to consist of 3 or
7 typical forms; to which Virāj is added as the 8th [ŚBr. viii, 3, 3, 6 ]; छ॑ न्दस ् opposed to गायत्रि॑ and
त्रिष्टु॑भ ्; metrical science. MW