Words cannot describe the shock, despair and helplessness that we are experiencing ever since visuals and news of the flash floods at Kedarnath started coming in. The suddenness of this event which no one predicted – not even through astrology which I used to blabber for any and every event – just made me numb for a few days initially. Just a month ago, I wrote a series on how to predict rainfall in which I showed that Venus- Mercury conjunction which is crucial for plenty of rainfall, continues for most part of the rainy season this year. But should it rain like this and cause a havoc of the millennium? Where did we miss the hint for this rare event?
I started going through the literature and what I could locate was a verse in Brihad samhita that said that when Venus is defeated in planetary conjunction with Mercury, the people of the mountainous country would suffer (Chapter 17 – verse 23). Defeat in conjunction means a planet trailing behind another within one degree. Venus had been in close degrees behind Mercury since 15th June. On 16th when the cloud burst happened, it was within 3 degrees and on 19th and 20th it was within one degree of Mercury. The two were transiting Punarvasu nakshatra which indicates North eastern mountainous regions of India as per Kurma chakra of Brihad samhita.
The day had all the indications of a earthquake connected with danger from water, but we least expected an earthquake because the thithi was ashtami. Usually intense or deadly earthquakes are rare to occur between Saptami to Ekadashi. But here what happened was a landslide and not an earthquake. This is a different event and we have to look for different set of rules to predict this kind of event. Absence of precedence and lack of case studies hamper our understanding of how this kind of events is related to celestial combinations.
However, a unique combination can be noted on the day flash floods struck Kedarnath temple. Seven planets were casting their aspect on Sagittarius on that day and continued to do so till 22nd of June.
The 7th aspect of Sun, Jupiter, Venus and Mercury, the 8th aspect of Mars, the 3rd aspect of Saturn and the 11th (in reverse) aspect of Rahu were on Sagittarius.
The above chart can be shown as follows wherein one can see that the focus of aspect is on the centre of our Milky way Galaxy.
Sagittarius lorded by Jupiter. Sun which is the focal point of our existence was about to enter Arudra, the star of Shiva. Both Sun and Jupiter were casting their aspect towards Sagittarius. Importantly, the Venus- Mercury conjunction was also happening in the star of Jupiter, namely Punarvasu! The affliction seems to be on Jupiter or Guru- oriented significance.
With this thought in mind, I felt that the foremost loss or impact of this event seems to be on Guru. The flash floods had swept away the samadhi of the foremost Guru of the current era, Sri Adi Shankara Bhagavad Pada! To understand this further let me explain a s follows.
What has happened at Kedarnath is not a"Himalayan tsunami", but a "Pralaya" caused by Rudra Tandava that vitiated three elements of Nature. The nature of the world is such that it experiences cyclical events of growth and destruction that facilitate jivas to work out their karma, both positive and negative mixed. In the case of destruction, it occurs globally on a large scale or locally in a small scale. Globally it occurs in sequential order of the 5 elements namely, Akasha, air, fire, water and land. (So told in Paripadal -2, a Tamil sangam text). Locally it occurs with more than one element diffused. The Tsunami of 2004 was a pralaya caused by earth and water element (earthquake at the ocean floor triggering the tsunami) and affected a part of the globe. The Pralaya at Kedarnath was caused by akash, water and earth elements with the initial trigger coming from the sky through a cloud burst.
Usually a pralaya happens at the end of an epoch. Which epoch was ended now? Of all the events of destruction and suffering that we heard from this pralaya, the most painful and shocking one was that of the loss of Adi Shankara's Samadhi! Humanity of the present times owes its legacy of Vedic tradition to Adi Shankara who restored it to its past glory at a time when Jainism and Buddhism were threatening to usurp Vedism from its own land. It was Adi Shankara who identified or restored numerous places of Divinity and codified the methods of worship. But for him, our Sanatan religion would not have come out of the declining phase and the grip of other religions. The loss of his Samadhi seems to be something that we cannot cope with.
Infact there are no mortal remains of Adi Shankara in that Samadhi. But it was the place where he attained Mukthi. That makes that place a unique one beset with some higher energy.
Nothing of this remains now.
Similar event happened in Mantralaya on October 2nd, 2009, when Thunga badra inundated the Jiva Samadhi of Guru Raghavendra. The sky map of that day also showed affliction to Guru.
Mars in the asterism of Punarvasu (Jupiter star) was aspecting Sagittarius lorded by Jupiter. Saturn in 2 degrees Virgo was casting its 7th aspect on the Purva bhadrapada (Jupiter star) in Pisces. Jupiter was in debility and in retrogression.
Coming to the pralaya in Kedarnath, it is difficult to come to terms with the loss of the Samadhi of Shankara.
God has always been there as an eternal entity. Even before mankind came, God was there. Even before our world came into existence, God was there. God was the substratum in which all the worlds grow, die and re-grow. Our existence is in Him and by Him. But to know Him and to know that all these are because of Him, we need a Guru to tell us so. In that sense all sages of the Upanishads and Puranas and the creators of the Epics namely Valmiki and Vyasa are our Gurus. At a time when the deep impact of these sages in our society was in the decline, Adi Shankara appeared and filled the need and refurbished the system that could withstand the disturbances of Time that saw invasion of Mleccha religions in our land.
The havoc caused at Shankara Samadhi makes me wonder whether an era of influence by Shankara is coming to an end. Somehow I cannot desist from recalling Mr Dieter Koch discounting the authority of Adi Shankra in matters of understanding terms and concepts found in Sruti texts. (Here). Like him there are many who are twisting and undermining the basics of Vedic religion. Our people are also falling a prey to their preachings. The Mleccha religions are also working in full swing to cut off our people from Vedic religion. Does Shankara mean anything to these people? Does this pralaya indicate an end to the popularity of Shankara? Or the pralaya signals the revival of a new order that would re-establish the glory of Adi Shankara and Vedic tradition?
I hope that this Pralaya signifies the coming of a new Epoch where the Eternity, Universality and omni-science of the Vedic Thought and scriptures would be revealed through the modern tools of investigation of the current times. Let me say how in my next post.
(continued)
