01/13/98 - 1496

The True Horoscope of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Prabhupada

USA (VNN) - by Dharmapada Dasa

The other day I came across an article in Chakra to the effect that the horoscope of Shrila Prabhupada does not indicate death by poisoning, such that the case is solved- that is a tidy solution. Personally, I’m not getting involved in that one right now because it isn’t my purpose. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m manipulating charts with an ulterior purpose in mind. At any rate, I’ll assume that the intention of the writer was good; no doubts about that. It’s just that the chart itself was wrong. And that is the issue which I would like to address at the moment because it is an issue worth considering in and of itself; a contention exists about which chart is actually the true horoscope of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Prabhupada.

The chart which is posted on the Chakra website has been championed by a respected astrologer in ISKCON who received training in India. The ascendent of that chart is Capricorn. (By the way, Indian astrology emphasizes the ascendent instead of the Sun sign as Western astrology does). The ascendent of the other chart is Sagittarius. That the Sagittarius one is actually the chart of Shrila Prabhupada was first brought to my attention by Nalini Kantha dasa, another well-known ISKCON astrologer. (By the way, I’m not as well-known as some, but my name is Dharmapada Dasa and I can be reached at: dean@uninet.com.br)

A little bit of background will be necessary to understand the controversy and sort things out. First of all, it does seem that, at least at some point, Shrila Prabhupada identified the Capricorn chart as his chart. Now, what does that mean. It seems to mean that Shrila Prabhupada had his chart calculated, that it was given to him, that he was told that his ascendent was Capricorn and that Shrila Pranhupada basically accepted that. I mean, that’s all anybody can really infer. Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta was a great astrologer, but we have never heard of any discussion between Shrila Prabhupada and Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta about our Prabhupada’s horoscope. And actually, by the time that they met, Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta had left astrology by the wayside in favor of full-time preaching, so the idea of examining the chart may have never come up.

But that doesn’t mean that if someone brought the contention to his attention, and was able to present the case for the Sagittarius chart, that His Divine Grace might not have changed his mind. It’s not as if Shrila Prabhupada affirmed for all time that his ascendent was Capricorn and that that was his divine instruction. If one of us from nowadays had had access to Shrila Prabhupada, we might have been able to present the case and he might have gone along after having some new information presented to him. I think that cases wherein Shrila Prabhupada changed his mind after discussing things with his disciples are not lacking.

The layperson reading this may not understand the reason for the contention, but it is very simple; if Shrila Prabhupada’s reported birth time was off by as little as five minutes or so, then the ascendent would change from Capricorn to Sagittarius. They are not entirely different charts which have nothing to do with each other, although they are entirely different. I’m saying that the planetary positions and everything are the same, the only difference being that if we go back just four or five minutes; a few, small, quick minutes, the ascendent changes and the whole chart gets plotted diferently. The ascendent would be either 29 degrees Sagittarius or one of the first few degrees of Capricorn, the cut-off point being 30 degrees. The two charts are basically only one degree away from each other, determined by mere minutes.

Let’s disect this issue. First of all, what do we mean by “ reported time?” We are referring to a time zone in India where, at the time, the city of Calcutta was on one time zone, and the surrounding province of Bengal on another. That is confusing! I mean, what if you lived in the outskirts of town? Which time zone would you use? Were things strict and uniform in this regard back then in India? I imagine not. Even in America, in those days, from one train station to another, towns were known to use different standard times, what to speak of India.

And then who was it that reported the time? Probably Shrila Prabhupada’s parents. Were Hindus of that time so efficient that they went around documenting events down to the minute and second? Did the clocks of that epoch in India keep good time? How often did they have to be adjusted or re-set? Remember that a few minutes of error and the chart changes. My father was born in Pennsylvania in 1917. His birth certificate says 11:00. It looks real official on the certificate. They put 11:00 because a few days later, when the birth was recorded, my grandmother said that he was born at about 11:00. But she actually had no idea if it was 10:48 or 11:09 P.M. It is not improbable that Shrila Prabhupada’s birth time contains some rounding error, in fact I imagine that it is likely, which means that the true ascendent is most probably up for grabs until otherwise determined. This should not be hard to understand.

What I do when I’m faced with a rising sign on the first or last degree of a sign is, first of all, put on the brakes! I ask the native of the chart what the source of the birth time is. Then I probe by asking about indications which could only be true in one chart or the other. For example, let’s say that one chart supports the existence of younger brothers, while the other does not. If the person tells me that yes, he or she has younger brothers, that helps me to make decisions on the margin. It is more accurate to start with the chart, interrogate, go backwards and adjust the birth time rather than to take a borderline birth time for granted. There is even a term for this; it is called chart rectification. All practiced astrologers understand this problem, experience and common sense make it incumbent upon them to understand it and how to rectify it.

So the task becomes quite simple; since there is a photo finish between the two ascendents, we have to find out which facts from Prabhupada’s life correspond to one chart and not the other? It’s not as easy as it might seem because a lot of times, a phenomenon might seem justifiable from both charts. And such is the situation in this case. I could argue for the existence of children and business along pharmaceutical lines from both charts. But there are two blatant things about Shrila Prabhupada’s life which can only be explained by the Sagittarius chart: Shrila Prabhupada’s authorship and the type of success that his Hare Krishna movement had during the Seventies.

First of all, when we examine any affair, there are two basic elements of a chart which we must consider. On one hand, we look at the house which stands for the thing in question, its occupants, any aspects which it might receive and the position of its lord. On the other hand, we examine the karaka or natural significator. I will give a few examples of karakas to show the reason what I mean. The moon is the karaka of one’s mother, the sun is the karaka of one’s father, also of the king, Mars is the karaka of brothers and Venus is the karaka of one’s love life. So just as any issue has a house which represents it, there is a corresponding planetary indicator which naturally represents it, too. With this in mind, let’s examine the authorship issue from Shrila Prabhupada’s charts two supposed charts.

The karaka in the Capricorn chart is Mercury. The Vedic astrological literature unequivocally indicates Mercury as the indicator of writing, authorship and books. In this chart, Mercury occupies its sign of exaltation, Virgo, in a benefic and pious house, the ninth. It forms raj yoga there with Venus, raj yoga being a tremendous combination for power and influence. So at first glance, the Capricorn chart supports the type of religious authorship that Shrila Prabhupada enjoyed.

But the lord (Jupiter) of the house of authorship (the third) occupies the eighth house. The eighth is the most evil house in any horoscope. The affairs represented by any planet or lord who falls there are said to disintegrate and the strength of such a planet is described by adjectives such as “ feeble.” In spite of the strength of the karaka Mercury, and the fact that Mercury aspects or throws its influence the house of authors, the absolute weakness of the lord of the house does not support the idea of a world-famous author who wrote and organized the distribution of so many millions of books.

And the nature of any religious writings indicated by Jupiter in the evil eighth house afflicted by the Rahu - Ketu axis would not be of the nature of the pure Krishna bhakti of which Shrila Prabhupada wrote. The Rahu-Ketu combination together with Jupiter goes by the name of Guru-Chandala yoga in Vedic astrology, and is indicative of dharmas of lesser understandings. For example, when this combination is prominent in a horoscope, the traditional texts indicate that the person takes up Islam or Christianity, religions of the meat-eaters. I have seen this combination indicate comprehension troubles in the charts of many regular devotees, without carrying the added affliction of ocurring in the evil eighth, as in the case of the Capricorn chart. In other words, the evil can be corrected if the combination receives other benefic influences, such as good association or aspects. But this combination doesn’t cut the mustard because Jupiter is himself afflicted by being there and is the lord of bad houses. So this afflicted third-lord Jupiter with the Rahu-Ketu axis, in an evil house is not indicative of Shrila Prabhupada’s pure writings. The degenerate influence of Rahu and Ketu over Jupiter have gone off the deep end by being in the eighth house.

On the other hand, the Sagittarius chart has four resounding indications which suggest great literary success, with no blemishes. They are:

1. Again, the natural indicator Mercury occupies his sign of exaltation- that wouldn’t change over a few minutes! Mercury occupies the house of occupation and career, which is certainly a natural place for it to be in Prabhupada’s chart, for obvious reasons.

2. Rahu occupies the house of authorship. Rahu gives very good results from that house, no question about it.

3. Jupiter and the Sun aspect the house of authors from the ninth house, a very pious and benefic house, wherefrom they form a great raj yoga. This greatly strengthens the house.

4. Finally, the lord of the house of authors occupies his sign of exaltation; I am referring to Saturn in the eleventh. Not only is Libra the best sign for this planet, but the eleventh is the best house!

Now these are the kind of indications which would (and did) make an author a million-dollar seller over and over again. You just don’t see planetary combinations like that every day.

The other issue has to do with the fact that the heyday of the Hare Krishna movement took place during the major planetary period of Ketu. The idea is that during the period of a planet, the indications promised by it in the chart become activated. The Ketu period started in May of 1971. Previous to that, the major period corresponded to Mercury, the minor period belonging to Saturn from August of ‘68 until May of ‘71.

Well, in the Capricorn chart, does Ketu in the evil eighth house with the Rahu - Ketu axis indicate any great spirituality? We have already responded to that question, the answer is no.

Does Ketu in the eighth even suggest any type of strong success? Allow me to make a long story short for the reader- especially next to such a weak Jupiter, the answer according to general astrological principles is also no.

In the Sagittarius chart, however, any natural evil of the Rahu - Ketu axis would be overshadowed by dint of the fact that Ketu sits in the pious house of religion, by the fact that Ketu is with a strong Jupiter, who is the karaka of religion and spiritual understanding ( Jupiter is Brihaspati ), and by being with the lord of the house of religion, the satvic Sun.

Ketu would not only reflect the piety of this ninth house situation of the Sagittarius chart, but would reflect and intensify the force and power of that combination, and give success in his period. I say this because it is the nature of both Rahu and Ketu to reflect the results of the planet in whose sign they are placed. They are, to a large degree, cameleons in this respect. They soak up and intensify the indications around them. Remember the story from the Puranas about Rahu? Although he was not one of them, he went to the assembly house of the gods to drink their nectar. He disguised himself as one of the gods in order to do this. In other words, he reflected his surroundings. In predictive astrology also, Rahu and Ketu act like the planets with which they are associated and reflect the qualities of the house that they are in. So in the Sagittarius chart, it is only natural and consonant with general astrological principles for Ketu to reflect and intensify the great success and piety of the raj yoga (Jupiter and Sun combination) of which he forms a part. Ketu’s inherent materialism is not reinforced as in the case of the Capricorn chart, with Ketu in an evil house next to an afflicted and weak Jupiter. It is a whole different story from Sagittarius.

The intensifying nature of Ketu would account for the results which were not given in the major Jupiter period by itself. The major Jupiter period took place in the 1920s, but Shrila Prabhupada didn’t have such success back then. In other words, Ketu was able to synthesize and intensify the combined effects of Jupiter and the Sun in a synergistic way. This is typical of the nature of Rahu and Ketu and requires no great stretch of the imagination on the part of any astrologer; we are used to seeing planets manifest their results through Rahu and Ketu. In the Capricorn chart, however, everything requires a bit of stretching. A much more tenable and natural interpretation results from the Sagittarius chart.

In this way I hope that the answer to the question about which chart is the real chart of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has become revealed on these pages of VNN.

As far as the controversy between the proponents of the two different charts are concerned, one group has overlooked a few things. But just because some astrologer makes a mistake, has an opinion which is off-kilter, or has a prediction has gone wrong, is not cause to pass judgement over him or reject him. B.V. Raman is India’s most well-known astrologer of this century; his achievements are fantastic. His accomplishments have some interesting paralells to Shrila Prahupada’s, only in an astrological way. It was he who carried the message of Hindu astrology to the West in the English language, who wrote a whole set of books on practically every facet of Vedic astrology and who carried his astrological journal to national heights- and he had already achieved all this long ago when none of his contemporaries had even been born yet. (He is quite aged now) Even so, he has made a few mistakes, and holds an opinion or two for which history may not be kind to him, and as you might guess, he has detractors. Every astrologer has a prediction go wrong or some kind of skeleton in his closet. Therefore, let’s not hastily judge any astrologer who has favored the Capricorn chart.

I thank you all for the attention and look forward to hearing from you all.

Your Servant,
Dharmapada Dasa
dean@uninet.com.br