Astrology interests everyone especially in India for we all are curious to know our future in advance, right from the birth of a child in the family, their marriage alliances and so forth. During ancient times, it was mastered only by a few people who had a complete understanding of mystic science but not astronomy. Astrology is the occult science that is mystic in nature, based on calculation concerned with the movement of the planetary positions and their influence on humans. It was an expertise in the hands of only a very few in the ancient India and it is said to be accurate than the Western way of predictions by zodiac signs, which correspond to constellations that appear in the sky, most prominently around certain dates that leads to people being labeled as the sign or constellation in the sky when they were born. Modern day scientists mostly refute the validity of zodiac signs' ability to predict the future and describe a person. Astrology in India was a lifetime study and not a freelance course that could be acquired in a brief period. Inquisitiveness to know the future in advance is the weakness among many Indians. I too had this weakness to know my future beforehand and whenever I approached the astrologer, he would highlight some brilliant qualities that I would acquire and the success that I would enjoy in the future. There was a sense of momentary satisfaction and pride as if I had already achieved them at that point and an assurance that everything will be all right, but most of them turned untrue for my path had been driven by threats and dire necessities. Even though I was expecting favourable predictions, somehow I was aware of the perils in the wait if I do not make suitable measures to thwart them. This weakness to heed to astrological predictions to comprehend the future without laying foundations results only disappointments for the very planet we are living on has no future.
Stephen Hawking, the renowned theoretical physicist, had predicted that humanity has a deadline of another 1,000 years only to colonise on another planet. Hawking forecast that humanity is at great risk of encountering another mass extinction. Hawking's theory is that the rise of artificial intelligence added with the ravage of climatic change and a probable nuclear terrorism in the coming century is a threat to survival of the human race on this planet. Hawking recommended that the human race should continue into space exploration for its future for the sole reason that our planet Earth has become fragile. Once during a speech at Oxford University, the Cambridge Professor declared that Earth’s cataclysmic end is hastened by mankind only as he will continue to devour the planet’s resources at an unsustainable rate. Hawking spoke about the origins of the universe, Einstein’s theory of relativity, as well as humanity creation of myths and God. Hawking states that the picture of the universe has changed a great deal for the last 50 years, hence leaving planet Earth behind was the best hope for survival. The Professor’s keynote was that humanity has to survive a precarious century ahead.
Astronomy is a science that was also evolved in India during the times of Aryabhata in 476 BCE, and since then the sciences that branched out of astronomy have developed immensely by the Western countries over a period of time to rocket science and they are now even travelling to far away planets. It all began when in 1898, a Russian school teacher, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), proposed the idea of space exploration by rocket. Later, it was Robert H Goddard, the American who was the pioneer of rocketry, with his first liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926. Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard is considered the Father of Modern Rocket Propulsion. Since 2009, NASA has been hunting for Earth-like planets with the potential for human colonisation. The researchers had discovered more than 4,600 potential planets and another 2,300 confirmed planets. According to NASA, the first exoplanet orbiting another star like our Sun was discovered in 1995. These exoplanets are small Earth-size planets, but Hawking forecast another threat about artificial intelligence. He stated that there is a potential threat created by technology, for artificial intelligence would spell the end of the human race. Once humans develop AI, it has the potential to take off on itself and redesign at an ever increasing rate. The Professor warns that humans are limited by slow biological evolution and cannot compete with AI which can supersede and dominate the human race.
When such rapid changes are witnessed by the astronomers, physicists and researchers forecasting the reality, I feel astrology has to be kept aside as an obsolete science considering the changes within the universe since the last 50 years, the predictions of any renowned astrologers such as Nostradamus are also turning to be untrue. Nostradamus had predicted the third world war between the USA and a possible middle-east country, assumably Iran, the war which would destroy half the population on Earth by the end of the last century, but it did not happen. In my lifetime, I have seen many of my own family members who relied upon astrological predictions and ruined their happiness and to start with it was my uncle who contested for the first Mayor election at Vijayawada in the year 1981 that turned out to be the catastrophic blunder in his life, for he could not even earn back his deposit. Likewise, I have been witnessing many sad instances where even the young have ruined their life careers giving away golden opportunities for some illusory placements, that is only due to lack of minimum degree of wisdom.
It is high time that we believe in the present opportunities and live every moment rather than have hopes on astrological predictions. Greg McKeown, the author of The New York Times bestseller ‘Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less’ said, “Take a deep breath. Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is important this very second.” There are three deeply entrenched assumptions we must conquer to live the way of the Essentialist: “I have to,” “It's all important,” and “I can do both.” Unknowingly, I have been chanting this mantra for the past many years and rebounded from hardships at every point. Even now it lingers in my consciousness all the time and in the middle of this year, during the COVID time, the perseverance escalated the anxiety within me, leading to diabetes. Only after I consulted a renowned Diabetician, I had cured the anxiety and stuck to my path steadfast.
Three decades ago, I once asked an astrologer friend of mine very amateurishly, “When shall I retire in my life?” to which he quipped immediately, “You’ll never. You will work until your last day of your life” That was the most accurate prediction (until now) that I have ever been told by an astrologer. Pondering about it, now I feel a little ashamed, as to how I could pose such a silly question, for retirement comes only when one becomes fully disabled. On the contrary, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease at the age of 21. ALS is a neurological condition that causes people to gradually lose control of their voluntary muscles. At just 21, shockingly, doctors told Stephen he only had two years to live. While Stephen soon had difficulty walking and his speech became almost incomprehensible, his disease progressed more slowly than the doctors had predicted. Despite ALS usually being fatal after three years, Stephen managed to prove the doctor’s diagnosis wrong – and passed away at the age of 76. For 55 long years Stephen Hawking contributed whatever mightily to society and became the greatest world-renowned physicist and a cosmologist, all because of his determination.
The astrologer’s predictions that come true are only a lottery and the belief in it cements with it not knowing that no outcome is assured for the simple reason that in the very same exercise there are other players too with different intentions. It is a stimulant which promotes inaction defusing diligence in the subject. It is only the perseverance in true spirit that is required to achieve a part of the goal or thwart a threat. Seeking astrological predictions about one’s future is a disastrous exercise without any performance or actions, for aren’t our present actions which decide our future? “If life is predictable, it would cease to be life and be without flavour,” said Anna Eleanor Roosevelt the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, making her the longest-serving first lady of the United States. Eleanor was also an American political figure, diplomat and activist.
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