You are born WHEN you are because of WHAT you are; so challenged a horoscope analyst in Europe some time ago. The traditional view is that you are WHAT you are because of WHEN you were born. That is, your time of birth was not random. You would thereby look at, not the readings offered on a per-month basis, as is done in the popular press of the Western world, but look for readings based on the minute of birth.
That is the Hindu perspective. I became a Hindu by being born into a Hindu family, with its ancient cosmology and traditional cultural values and practices. These practices will vary to reflect geographical and linguistic divergences originally, but also those incremental modifications which somehow occur over time.
As I understand this cosmology, all that is in the universe are projections from a cosmic ocean. The process of projection is normally presented in a symbolic fashion. This may appear somewhat convoluted, yet be essentially simple. What is significant in this cosmology is that this ocean is ever-existing, all-pervasive, implicitly insubstantial, and is also present within its projections.
In modern times, this seems to be the aether of Western cosmologists. The concept of aether was reportedly accepted initially, then ignored. Initial acceptance seemed logical, especially in the circumstances of the need for a medium through which light is transmitted. Why the rejection? Because the Michelson-Morley experiment (a very long time ago) could find no evidence of the aether. Therefore it was deemed not to exist.
Consider then those academics and writers who claim that there is no God, because no evidence has been produced to show that such a Creator exists. But, can one prove the negative; that something is not there or does not exist? An example? My little son claiming that his soccer boots were not in his bedroom because he could not find them; they were there, as shown by his mum.
Now there are researchers arguing in support of the existence of the aether. This suggests – as with the challenge to the popular Western view of horoscopes – that challenge may be overdue in this arena of cosmology.
My experience with the Chinese horoscope (based on the characteristics of specified animals) suggests that, having regard to the way past lives would have shaped the soul-characteristics of individuals, that you are born when you are because of what you are. I have found that displayed (and inferred) personalities tend to be somewhat congruent with the animal associated with one’s birth-year.
It could be that I was born into a Hindu family in a year of the dragon because of what I brought to this life. By further inference, it could also indicate the direction of my future learning. This is possibly why I feel that that an aether sea may be the same as the Hindu Ocean of Consciousness.
It would seem that the aether could have initially projected spontaneously the particles necessary to evolve into the universe – so suggest a few accepted scientists. Does not an all-pervasive aether, with neither origin nor end, make sense, were it also to provide the medium necessary for light to wave itself through? Could this aether be comparable to the consciousness which we accept as part of our existence?
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 