Does Astrology Work?

Questioner: I have studied Vedic astrology and I am wondering, does astrology work? Are we defined by the stars, or by intention and mind, or by the self?

Sadhguru: You need to understand, India is not just about the Vedas or Vedic culture. Sage Vyasa, the person who compiled the four Vedas – his father was an Aryan and his mother was a Dravidian. In spite of that, in South India, they don’t ascribe to the Vedas.

Dravidian culture never went for astrology by looking at the stars, they made predictions by looking at people. Here, we have what is called Nadi Joshyam. But the Aryan culture came with astrology. Astrology is an interpretation of astronomy. If you try to interpret something, invariably you miss a lot of points. So it is a mis-interpretation because you missed a lot of things.

The reason why the Aryan culture looked at the stars so much is, they were nomadic. They were always travelling. Since there were no roads, they needed to figure out which is north, which is south, which is east, which is west. When the sun was up, they knew. Once the sun set, there was really nothing except fire and stars. So the Aryan culture revolved around fire and the stars. Even today, if people want to get married or do anything auspicious, they go around fire because nomadic cultures lived by fire and stars. Fire gave you light, heat, and protection from wild animals. The stars told you approximately which way to go. Slowly, observing the stars, they figured which way to travel. They kept looking up and their knowledge of the stars increased. Interpretations started, and they developed a certain mastery and knowledge about the stars.

Look up or look down?

The indigenous people of this land did not look up. They always saw the earth as their mother and paid attention to her. Because they looked at the earth, they developed agriculture, almost before anyone else on the planet could think of it. That means, they had food growing in one place. They did not have to chase anything. They did not have to go around picking something. They knew how to reap from the earth. Once they knew how to reap from the earth, they stayed in the same place. They started building homes; because they started building homes, they started singing. Because they built homes and they had to count how many bags of grain they had grown, they started arithmetic. Mathematics, music, aesthetics, agriculture, and the spiritual process developed in this culture because they paid attention to the earth. These are two different kinds of cultures, even in today’s world: One is always looking up, not at the stars anymore, but at the one and only God up there. The other one is always looking down.The looking-down cultures live more sensibly because they consider Mother Earth as God, so they walk a little more gently on the planet.

Anyway, the choice is this: either you try to live your life by predictions or you have the capability to make a plan and fulfill the plan. All those minds which are incapable of a plan will look for a prediction. The stars that you see in the sky are far away, so very far away that they have nothing to do with you. Just one star has a big influence upon you – the Sun. And its satellite, the Moon, also has some influence upon you. This planet has an even greater influence upon you. But above all, what is within you has the biggest influence upon you. All those who are incapable of committing themselves to a plan and fulfilling it, want a prediction. The advantage with predictions is, you can keep changing them. But if a plan has to work, you have to pay enormous attention in creating one. Then you have to stick to it.

I only hope all predictions go wrong for you. Then it means your life is happening wonderfully. Otherwise you are going by the script that was written by some fool. In India, for twenty-five rupees, or fifty cents, they will write your life. Let your life not be so bad. It does not matter what the hell happens, let something other than the prediction happen to you. Is that okay? May your predictions and dreams not come true. Because a prediction is just a compromised dream.

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