Travails of Jayalalithaa in life and in death – a Karmic angle.

This is a blog I never wanted to write.  

I never wanted to write an obituary for her, nor ever wanted to put in writing what I have thought to be her past karma that tossed her into a roller coaster kind of journey in her just ended life.

Never in recorded and memorable history have we come across a ruler very much loved by the masses, emotionally connecting with her as Amma and never have we seen the same ruler very much abused in as many ways as possible by opponents and their brain-washed followers. Such abuses continue even after her death by floating conspiracy theories on every aspect related to her illness and death.

If these conspiracy theories are to be believed, then it means the entire medical fraternity from London Beale to Chennai Apollo to Delhi AIIMS to Singapore physiotherapists have played a big conspiracy on Jayalalithaa!

Her life was an open book, but she was supposed to be secretive in her ways – an impression that continues even in her death.

She has been very frank and vociferous to the extent of admitting a live-in- relationship with a Telugu actor whom she wanted to marry, but the world always connected her with her mentor, MGR. They called her in every possible way – a seductress and a lesbian too. One of her haters, RM Veerappan went to the extent of calling her as a temptress and even telling that she provoked enmity between MGR and Karunanidhi so that she could spend more time with him! But the fact was that she was thrust into film world and then into politics much against her wishes and inherent nature.

When she inherited the party from MGR, she had to inherit his enemies too, particularly Karunanidhi, mainly because she happened to be where MGR was once. No one in a civilised country would have faced the kind of abuses, harassments and name calling that Jayalalithaa suffered in the hands of Karunanidhi and his followers. The kind of negative propaganda spread by them once led her to take a terrible vow – it was terrible because it came from a woman and that too from a person who ruled the glamour world of cinema. It was a vow that she would never wear any jewels until she came out clean from the court cases foisted on her by Karunanidhi. This kind of vow can only be taken by a genuine person who has earned them in rightful ways.

But the sad part of it is that till her death, this case (DA case) was not solved – or rather was not allowed to be solved. At every stage in the cases and also in her administrative decisions, Karunanidhi had thrown spanner in some form with the result that Tamilnadu today is in the lead among all States in the number of cases against the Government actions / rulings.

Coming to her vow on wearing jewels, it was a big surprise to see Jayalalithaa’s body draped in a silk sari and bangles and chain in her body. It was really heart warming to see her make the last journey in those jewels and in a silk sari.

I have read what it would do karmically to a person who has obstructed someone to eat food or drink water. Obstructing a woman to wear her dresses and jewels is something odd. No one judge except perhaps Kumaraswamy who acquitted her in the DA case thought it was odd for someone to spend on buying saris using money through corruption, while it was everyone’s knowledge that her long innings in film field enabled her to acquire all those fancy saris. I am wondering what fate would befall those who steeped to this level to confiscate her saris. Would they ever get atleast a torn piece of cloth to cover their bodies in their next birth?

While the last image of Jayalalithaa draped in silk sari and jewels made me think that her ‘udan piravaa sister’ Sasikala did something right, but the way the final rites were done contrary to the family tradition of Jayalalithaa came as a shock. Having lived a pious life and even wearing Iyengar tilak always, Jayalalithaa would have definitely wanted cremation as per her custom. Why was that not done and who took the decision for burial? All fingers point to none other than Sasikala.

 If Sasikala is a true friend should she not have given her cremation as per Jayalalithaa’s family tradition? Coming to think of it why were all her relatives, expelled by Jayalalithaa allowed to be near her body? They could never come near Jayalalithaa when she was alive. Only Sasikala could get back to Jayalalithaa’s house but that was after she gave an undertaking that she would never be in touch with any of her family members and that she would never aspire for a place in politics, party and in governance. Her letter was displayed in Jaya TV at that time after which Jayalalithaa accepted Sasikala into her household.

If Sasikala had been true to her promise, she would not have allowed any of the expelled members of her family to be near her body. More importantly her husband who was very much banished by Jayalalithaa could not have come near her body if Sasikala had kept up her promise. It is a crass breach of trust by Sasikala.

This breach of trust could become a boon for the conspiracy theorists of her illness and death. These conspiracy theorists won’t accept any explanation or logic except one idea that Sasikala conspired to kill Jayalalithaa. It is not for love of Jayalalithaa they are viciously and vigorously spreading this rumour. All they want to prove is that Sasikala called the shots and that Jayalalithaa was a mere puppet in her hands till her death.

It is sad that even Jayalalithaa admirers feel like buying this theory. Their apprehensions are not without basis, for, to the shock and dismay of all, the entire Sasikala clan who were expelled by Jayalalithaa a few years ago, were seen surrounding the body of Jayalalithaa.

Though there were ups and downs in her relationship with her, Jayalalithaa made sure or thought that she knew where to keep her. But alas, that was not to be so. That sister who promised not to have any truck with others whom Jayalalithaa had thrown out earlier was back with a bang with them, the moment Jayalalithaa was gone. The further happenings also show that Jayalalithaa remained unaware of her designs and was cheated till end. The one whom she embraced as sister, at the cost of losing her own brother and other relatives, was the cause of everything that damaged her life and name.

This is the most shocking of all incidences that happened in Jayalalithaa’s life. A person known for her intelligence and capabilities of sorts, the idea that she had trusted a person all her life without knowing that she had an agenda in her mind makes me wonder what blinded her vision.

I used to be amazed by the kind of Moksha combinations in her horoscope thinking that she would complete her birth as Jayalalithaa with a fulfilled feeling and satisfaction. But no, the developments known after her death make think that she has some unfulfilled issues.

This thought propels me to think whether it was Jayalalithaa’s Prarabdha karma that made her stick to this person unsuspectingly till the end. Not just one but there are five issues that have karmic connection to Jayalalithaa’s past.

Of them (1) Getting cheated by one (till her death) whom she trusted  and (2) the continuous bombardment of whatever she did by a ruthless opponent supported by a sold-out media are spent karma now.

But (1) Not getting the last rites as per the Kula smapradaya of her birth,

(2) Her departure without clearing her name in DA case and

(3) Her feeling of despondency that she could not live a normal life of a girl with normal aspirations on education, family and kids are in the pending list.

Though the first one (not getting the last rites as per her tradition), is also due to a Prarabdha karma, it is a different issue if she had wanted it to be so. But in the absence of any information on her wish on how she wanted her last rites to be performed, it should have been taken for granted that she must be cremated. It happened so with Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. That it was not done so is something that would linger on and would have to happen in the normal way for her in a future birth. This is so since she is known for her piety, respect for tradition and enormous work she has done for the upkeep of temples and tradition. She is even comparable with Ahilya Bai of Indore who was known for renovation of temples and care for the poor and needy.

Ahilya Bai

Taking a look at the Moksha combinations in her horoscope, she has her 12^th lord Venus exalted in Pisces, the zodiacal 12^th house. Venus also goes into the 12^th house to Karakamsa lagna, in the Navamsa. Incidentally, the Karakamsa lord Saturn (Atma karaka) occupies the 12^th house in the Navamsa. Saturn is also the lord of the 12^th house from Venus (12^th lord) in the Rasi.

Jupiter, the lord of the zodiacal 12^th House has exchanged its star dispositor with Ketu, the Gyana karaka. Ketu which is in the star of Jupiter occupies the house of Venus, which happens to be the 12^th lord.

With these combinations, her thinking came to be tinged with equanimity and compassion as years progressed and particularly once Jupiter Dasa started. Compassion to all beings, both animate and inanimate and a mind not disturbed by pleasure and pain (sthitha pragya) are the hall marks of one rising towards Moksha. Jayalalithaa exhibited these traits and was a picture of composure and satisfied mind after she won the recent elections. She had no other karma to be done than serving the people who reposed immense faith in her – which she herself expressed after the results were out.

Disease is part of shedding Prarabdha karma and I think she braved it with calmness of mind. Her end came at a time which did show a trigger effect in the Heavens (horoscope).

Her dasa  lord (Jupiter – Baadhaka and Maraka) and Bhukthi lord (Saturn – Maraka and Ashtama lord) were aspecting the 6^th lord of disease (Mars) posited in the natal 8^th house in exact degrees of coupling at the time she suffered cardiac arrest. At that time her Moon joined Mars and Venus (22^nd Drekkana lord) in the natal 8^th house only to be in the exact degrees (13 degrees) with Rahu (13 degrees) in 6-8 axis. Mars (6L) and Saturn (8L) which have exchanged houses in transit were aspecting Rahu in the house that signifies heart.

Therefore there was no foul play in her death and in the news that she died of cardiac arrest.

But further developments that led to the revelation that she was perhaps cheated by one whom she trusted and the fact that she was not given a religious cremation as per her tradition (since she deserved to be a moksha stuff) makes me think that though they are part of her Prarabdha karma, she would get in her next birth what she couldn’t get in this birth.

Before going further into her life as related to her previous karma and as causative for her travails, let me give a brief on Prarabdha karma and how it can be manipulated.

Everyone’s life is hugely a product of Prarabdha karma and to some extent Sanchita Karma. Sanchita Karma is the total karma that has been accumulated until the present birth while Prarabdha Karma refers to those deeds whose effects have begun or are going to manifest definitely in the present birth. Prarabdha Karma is part of Sanchita Karma and part of Sanchita Karma can be manifest in the present life through Purushartha or human effort.

Prarabdha karma can be further divided into 3 parts –“‘Dridha’, ‘Dridhadridh’ and ‘Adridha’.  ‘Dridha’ means that which is fixed or that which is firmly established or which cannot be bent or cannot be altered. ‘Adridha’ means ‘not firm’ or ‘not decided’.  ‘Dridhadridh’ means both dridha and adridha combined. It is not exactly fixed or not fixed. That means it is liable for changes. Those karmas or past deeds whose results are not exactly formed come under this category. They can be influenced or changed by strong will and determined actions. The last two types namely Adridha and Dridhadridh are subject matter of remedies. They can be altered by appropriate propitiation / remedies assisted by Purushartha (Human effort) and Samskaras. The following schematic diagram explains this.

The Kriyamana Karmas are those which are done by a native during present birth. Part of it is controlled by Prarabdha or fate and part is in the area of free-will of the native. In this limited area alone one enjoys freedom of action as represented by the 10^th house. It is here that one can make or mar one’s destiny. The best course is to enjoy / suffer Prarabdha willingly and do good deeds or charities in the area of free-will.

Looking at Jayalalithaa’s life, this is what she had done – undergo Prarabdha karma and manipulate the changeable part of it.  She herself remarked once that she was controlled by fate and nothing in her life was as she wished. But that did not stop her doing what is required in any given situation. She did them with equanimity – like ‘come whatever may, this is what I have to do here.’ This is exactly as per “Karmani eva adhikaraste, maa phaleshu....” (Gita 2-47) As time progressed she learned to face brickbats and bouquets with equanimity. 

Her 10^th house being Pisces owned by Jupiter, the lord of Dharma, her conscience propelled her to go after Dharmic ways. The laws against conversion and animal sacrifice are something unimaginable for anyone to enact in the present day India. But she did them because she possessed enough conviction on Dharma. Had she succeeded in ban on animal sacrifice, she would have been hailed as a Buddha of the current era, but her Prarabdha karma did not allow her all that. Instead it brought her disrepute and loss of votes.

Though the 10^th lord Jupiter endowed her with Dharmic sense, it being a Baadhaka and subject to Kendra- Adipatya dosha, Jupiter played havoc in her life in its significances. Looking at her life, one can see that  Jupiter related features have played a role mostly negatively.

Her birth itself was on a day that is celebrated for Maha Maham and Mahamaham is determined by the location of Jupiter in the zodiac. Her sacred bath on a Maha Maham brought her disrepute when many people died on a stampede. Though that was not due to her, critics made it an offence done by her.

She had a powerful mentor (Guru) in her life in MGR without whom she would not have come to politics. She herself has said that her life was controlled by MGR during her film career and later in politics. From him she inherited his enemy Karunanidhi and an agenda to keep him away from power. In nearly a quarter century of political war with him, she suffered a lot due to machinations by Karunanidhi and his media men, but managed to reclaim TN from the so-called Dravida Maaya. 

Bhakthi flourished under her inspiration. It appears that her Prarabdha- induced suffering in that war was intertwined with Tamilnadu’s destiny. From what she was described as an arrogant despot, she came to be adored as a benevolent leader by a majority. This transformation is certainly a long march from a bad Prarabdha to a reduced baggage of karma due to her sufferings in this birth.

She was influenced by Kanchi Acharya and she almost treated him like a Raja Guru, but she found herself in a place where she had to initiate criminal action against him. This wiped off any support from her own community and from the faithful.

It was in her tenure that a worst tragedy of fire accident in a school happened that killed many children. School is related to Guru.

The two persons who went against her by court cases that almost ruined her bore the name related to Guru. One was Subramanian Swamy. Swamy is a reverential name to Guru. Another was Acharya. Acharya also refers to Guru. The wrath of these two Gurus wrecked her many a times.

At last she was convicted and lodged in a jail in a place called Parapanna Agrahara. This seems to be a corrupt form of Prapanna agrahara. This refers to a former location of a group of Prapannas (those who have surrendered to God for Moksha) who had lived there. Now a jail had come up in that location. A probe into the origins of this place might perhaps throw some interesting history of why this agrahara came to house a jail. And that history might have a connection with Jayalalithaa in her previous birth.

A life where Guru was inimically disposed to her, had found her waterloo in a place once occupied by Guru like people. So what was the offence done to Guru?

These correlations connect with other dots in her life, prominent being the adoption of a well grown man, under the influence of Sasikala whom she trusted till her end. It is normal to expect a childless to adopt a child. In most cases, the children of near and dear would be adopted by the childless one. But strangely enough, Jayalalithaa discarded her only close relatives born to her brother and went on to adopt a grown up man, a relative of Sasikala and even did a grand wedding for him. That was the singular event that brought her grave disrepute and downfall. That wedding was part of the accusations in the DA case that was unsettled till her death. The important part of it is that she was blind enough to be influenced by someone whom she considered as sister!

Was Jayalalithaa that foolish to believe her? But her decision to adopt a well grown one at the behest of that sister shows that the Prarabdha karma of Jayalalithaa blinded her vision. If Jayalalithaa wanted someone to call her as Mother, she could have adopted a child left in the cradle of her scheme. Or she could have adopted her niece or nephew. But such an intelligent woman that Jayalalithaa is, that she behaved like a puppet in the hands of one whom she trusted as a sister, only goes to show what a strong Prarabdha could do to one. The influence of Sasikala in making her go for that adoption is strong proof of the hidden agenda of Sasikala which has reared its ugly face now after Jayalalithaa is gone.

Jayalalithaa has had some obsession with the identity as Mother. That must have come inherent in her birth due to some Prarabdha karma. She adored her mother very much, but her mother made her do what she didn’t want to – that of acting in films. That mother was not there with her right from childhood whenever she needed her. And when that mother left her, Jayalalithaa was like a fish that had fallen on land. Her travails started because she had none to fulfil the role of her mother. That is what propelled her to blindly depend on someone whose cheating became known to the world without doubt only on Jayalalithaa’s dead body.

All the above events in her life had connection to some event of her past life.

In the end, all that she yearned for is an acceptance as a Mother. What she thought that she would get from an adopted son, she got from the masses.

AMMA is the ultimate honour that she earned upon spending out the Prarabdha karma.

In her previous birth something  that she did for the sake of her son, a la kaikeyi like thing, which impelled her to do many things that invited the wrath of the Gurus or Brahmins who were ultimately curtailed by her, had given what she underwent in this life. Beyond this I don’t want to connect these dots into a life in the past, but leaving it to readers to develop it according to their understanding.

In the backdrop of all these in her previous birth, she must have remained with a hidden agenda as a friend to someone important in those events. Till the end in that birth, she must have managed to conceal her mind from that someone and got her agenda done. A replicating karma of that is what she underwent in the birth as Jayalalithaa!

In this life as Jayalalithaa, Kala Purusha had found a greater utility  in her to influence the lives of many and also the nation. This can become possible only if she had done greater good to a nation in the past inspite of all the karmic issues detailed above. In her past birth, she might have even ruled a country somewhere in nearby Karnataka where she had her genesis and also nemesis in the birth as Jayalalithaa. The events done in the course of that life that affected some Gurus / Raja Guru / and his Guru kul, found a replication in the next birth. That is why she could get a strong band of people who loved her blindly and emotionally and also a band of people who blindly hated her.

With all that she must have realised her mistakes soon in that birth and repented for them and even done lot of propitiatory works. That gave her some elbow room to manipulate the adridha and dridhadridh part of her Prarabdha karma.

The wrath of Guru and a personal desire to favour a son (la kaikeyi) – both combined made her do things that formed the foundation of the Prarabdha karma in her birth as Jayalalithaa. Her innate nature must have been spiritually inclined, otherwise she could not have developed the equanimous tendency after her tryst with the marriage of the adopted son.

Certainly she would not have liked to leave without getting her name cleared in the apex court. The denial of proper final rites is another issue. More than all these, her desire for a normal life of a homely girl is something that must heavily weighing in her mind. With the kind of Moksha related features in her horoscope as Jayalalithaa and the equanimity and complacency she has attained in this birth, she is likely to make one more birth in a Divya Desa like Srirangam, in the family of a pious archaga devoted to the service of God, she is likely to lead a calm and quiet life enjoying all round happiness of family and friends – TRUE friends.

While I wanted to end this article here, new thoughts and correlations cropped up in my mind when I heard that Cho Ramasamy’s health deteriorated at the moment her cremation was done and he passed away within hours after that.  

Cho and Jayalalithaa were known to each other right from their younger age though they hailed from different places. They shared a good rapport and friendship despite all odds right from their younger days. Cho had always been a kind of inner voice or a cautioning voice for her. But he dealt her a grave blow after her first tenure when all that was wrong with her happened. This had a premonitory beginning in the first ever stage appearance of Jayalalithaa. That was when both Jayalalithaa were acting in the stage play of YGP as a couple. In that play Jayalalithaa was killed by Cho who acted as her husband.

Jayalalithaa suffered similar kind of blow after her first tenure and lost elections.  Cho had a major role in giving her that blow. That blow was so severe that all her Prarabdha related sufferings started only from that blow and culminated in her conviction in the DA case. Though Jayalalithaa was upset with Cho for having worked against her, contrary to her nature, she mended ways with him soon after that. From then onwards their friendship and understanding had continued till her death. It is no secret that Cho also had a soft corner for her and wished for her well being.

Now when Cho is gone, it looks he too shared an agenda with Jayalalithaa in stalling the common enemy Karunanidhi. He had played a hand in glove role (without even knowing that it looks so in hindsight) with Jayalalithaa and made sure that Jayalalithaa succeeded in her political agenda. It looks now that he had worked as shadow conscience of Jayalalithaa.

His departure following Jayalalithaa’s demise seems to follow a script of having accomplished a common karma. This shows that they could have had a connection in the previous birth which might even go over to their next birth.

The underlying truth is that Kala Purusha is a wonderful script writer and only those who can read his mind might perhaps escape from his plays!

Ending with somewhat a calm mind I wish AMMA a wonderful time in the Higher realms that she would be in by now. 

My hearty kisses to you, dear AMMA!

Post script:-

The developments in AIADMK post Jayalalithaa's exit look shocking and horrifying. If Jayalalithaa and Cho had been conversing in the other world about what these selfish people are doing, I think it would be something like the film in which they acted.

Updated on 20, Dec, 2016.