Shrila Prabhupada on Astrology
BY: PATITA PAVANA DAS AKHIKARY
Feb 28, 2012 — FRANCE (SUN) — From: 'Memories of Shrila Prabhupada, Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint'.
Shrila Prabhupada often called Pradyumna das Adhikary his "Panditji." Beginning from 1968 Pradyumna was the first among the Western disciples to learn Sanskrit. Under the guidance of his spiritual master, he lent his expertise into all of Prabhupada's literary projects. A natural scholar, Pt. Pradyumna Prabhu traveled the world with Shrila Prabhupada carrying any number of weighty tomes with him. He assisted with the Bhagavatam project right until the last days of the pure devotee's earthly manifest appearance.
The following conversation with Pradyumna was recorded several years ago by the innovator of the Memories series, Shriman Siddhanta das.
(See Tape 16, Order here: PrabhupadaMemories.com)
Pradyumna: "Once in Hyderabad I asked Shrila Prabhupada about astrology. I was interested in Indian astrology and I was trying to understand how one's life is determined or not determined, what you can and what you can't read in a chart, what was there and what was not there spiritually. I asked Prabhupada, "What about astrology? Is it part of Vaishnavism? Do we use astrology?" …Because Nilambara Chakravarty, Lord Chaitanya's maternal grandfather, did an accurate chart for Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Shrila Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati and Shrila Bhaktivinode Thakur also knew astrology very well. "What's its validity?" Prabhupada said, "The Vaishnava attitude and siddhanta is whatever may come, may come. We don't care. But if you know it's going to rain, it's better to have an umbrella." Again he repeated it, "So our philosophy is as Maharaja Kulashekhar said, ‘Whatever may come by Your mercy, let it come.' That's our philosophy. That's our siddhanta. But if you know it's going to rain, it's better to take an umbrella."
