Marriage Compatibility: Forging a Destiny, or Recognition of the Same?
BY: DHARMAPAD DAS
Feb 04, BRAZIL (SUN) — We have heard of Vedic astrologers doing marriage compatibility analyses so often that we have come to take it for granted. After all, we have come across it in India as well as in the West, so we figure that marriage compatibility analysis is the way to go about finding or confirming a marriage partner.
These compatibility analyses involve what is called kuta matching, which refers to a method of comparison of lunar positions in the respective charts of the prospective bride and groom; specifically, the nakshatra (lunar mansion) positions, but including the zodiacal signs. This method gives a numerical result. Since the Moon is an indicator of one's mind and emotions, this is a very nice first step. However, there are a total of seven principal planets, nine including Rahu and Ketu, plus the rising sign. So the numerical kuta matching which is passed off as a Vedic astrology, compatibility test is really not so all-telling. There are other indicators to take into consideration.
And then there is the small matter of one's actual destiny. Compatibility aside, if the house of marriage, the house of marriage from the Moon, the lords of those two houses and the planet Venus indicate a stormy or negative marriage destiny; then all the astrological prowess in the world, including searching through marriage compatibility tests, will not be able to keep such negative astrological indications from manifesting.
Is there really scope in the Vaishnava literature for forging marriage destiny, or any destiny, which flies in the face of the destiny depicted in a horoscope? Is there scope for this in the astrological literature? The kuta matching, compatibility test was first introduced by Kalidas in his booklet Jataka Chandrika. Kalidas was not a Vedic author by any means, he is an author of the post-Vedic period. (I believe he was active about 800 years ago) In other words, he presented this system of matching which utilizes Vedic astrology, but the actual matching is not presented in any astrological writings from the Vedic period. It would not be wholly wrong to say he invented it, but using Vedic astrology.
Kuta matching is an interesting technique and it gives some unique insights, but it was never meant to become the all-telling test that it has become today. The whole conceptual framework that kuta matching exists in today is misleading. Shall we say that the answer is what it is, but that the question is wrong. Compatibility is fine and dandy, but does one's marriage karma include a compatible mate and smooth sailing? A man can be compatible with thousands of ladies but end up marrying a battle axe, and vice-versa; that's life!
When analyzed in this light, kuta matching becomes little more than a footnote, it can become nothing more than a wistful glance at what might have been. Again, we have to look at the chart itself to see how the karmas will actually manifest.
Speaking of karmas in the horoscope, we read in the Srimad Bhagavatam about the astrological visit by Gargamuni to the home of Nanda Maharaj when Sri Krishna was born. But the hard part has to do with interpreting what we read, and actually analyzing what is being depicted and written, both in the text as well as by Srila Prabhupada and the ISKCON devotees who completed his commentary.
In Canto Ten, Chapter Eight, Verse Five of the Bhagavatam, we have a piece spoken by Nanda Maharaj to the great Gargamuni: "Oh great saintly person, you have compiled the astrological knowledge by which one can understand past and present unseen things. By the strength of this knowledge, any human being can understand what he has done in his past life and how it affects his present life. This is known to you."
But the verse doesn't comment that through astrological understanding, an astrologer can weave a person's way around his or her karmas and overcome destiny. Only recognition is implied, that a person will be able to understand how it is that his present circumstances have manifest, or what is going to manifest.
The idea is that a person is born with these karmas, and that they are depicted in the horoscope and come to pass. These karmas are known as prarabdha karmas, or already-manifesting karmas. They are the same classification of karmas as the already-manifesting karmas that were witnessed by Arjuna in the Eleventh Chapter of Bhagavat Gita when he observed the great warriors being gnashed between the teeth of the Kalarupa, the form of time. Sree Krishna explained that they had already been put to death by this form of time and that Arjuna would be but an instrument to their death on the physical plane. This concept of karmas in horoscopes, coming under the aegis of time, is pertinent in our consideration because astrology is a study of time, and Sree Krishna tells us "Time I am" in the first person.
The example of a fan may be appropriately applied to explain the nature of prarabdha karmas. When the plug of a fan is pulled out the blade continues to rotate because of the momentum. This is true even though no new impetus is received. Similarly, a practitioner of sadhana (spiritual life) may incur no new karma, but he will continue to receive karmic reactions from before. Thus it's true that new karmas are avoided though responsibility must be taken for old karmas.
This actually occurred in the case of the Avanti (district of Malwa in India) brahmin mentioned in the 11th canto of the Bhagavat Purana. This brahmin had been materialistic but renounced the world to practice sadhana on the banks of a holy river. For all his efforts he was rewarded by being beaten up and tormented by hooligans. He was not sorry for that, however; he blamed it on his previous impious activities and the root cause of these, his mind. The point is that although he was engaged in spiritual practice, not all of his karmas dropped off immediately.
The astrological indications of the horoscope of Maharaj Parikshit, analyzed by the astrologers in the court of Maharaj Yudhistir, are another point of reference; those astrologers were able to foretell specific things and events. But there were no indications for side-stepping these karmas or anything like that. In fact, Parikshit's death by the bite of a snakebird was simply depicted as astrological destiny and left at that.
And specifically in relation to marriage, we may examine the purport to Canto Four, Chapter Thirteen, Verse Thirty Nine of the Bhagavatam, wherein A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Prabhupada, states: "If according to the astrological calculations the combination is perfect, then the marriage takes place. ... Sometimes the Lord arranges an unfortunate wife for his devotee so that, gradually, due to family circumstances, the devotee becomes detached from his wife and home and makes progress in his spiritual life."
One point mentioned here is that the Lord makes what we may loosely call "karmic arrangements" for a devotee for his coming birth. In this regard, in a purport to Canto Six, Chapter One, Verse Forty-eight, Srila Prabhupada explains: "One should not consider Yamaraj an ordinary living being. ... He has the complete cooperation of the Supreme Lord, who is situated in everyone's heart ... Yamaraj can decide in consultation with the Supersoul … the actual decisions concerning the next lives of the living entities are made by the Supersoul, and they are carried out by Yamaraj." The actual verse mentions that Yamaraj can observe the activities of a living entity even from his own abode or from everyone's heart, just like the Supersoul, and that he can thus understand how the living entity will act in the future.
Now, if the Supersoul and Yamaraj understand the future actions of the living entity, and these actions are indicated in the horoscope, then one's horoscope has to be seen as something engineered by the Supersoul and not something that ended up on the agenda thanks to the decisions of lesser demigods; also, that such horoscopic destiny is nothing that someone's astrological prowess can overturn through compatibility tests or prescribing gems. So when Srila Prabhupada Bhaktivedanta spoke above of marriages taking place in India when "perfect matches" were found, then we have to understand that what he is actually referring to is that the astrologer is merely recognizing the interlocking pieces of a karmic arrangement coming together; an arrangement that was put into place before the person's birth under the Supersoul's authority. In fact, Srila Prabhupada even expressly stated this in the Canto Four, Chapter Thirteen purport when he wrote: "Sometimes the Lord arranges an unfortunate wife for his devotee so that, gradually, due to family circumstances, the devotee becomes detached from his wife and home and makes progress in his spiritual life."
This is to say, the Supersoul arranged it and it is depicted in the person's horoscope. Surely the astrologer is not the doer, nor is the astrologer an earthly god who modifies the Supersoul's arrangements of destiny. The astrologer who thinks along these lines fools himself. As evidence, we have just seen two examples of Srila Prabhupada Bhaktivedanta indicating that events slated to occur in life are ordered by the Supersoul/Krishna.
Even in terms of the nakshatra-matching compatibility tests (kuta), at most they can only help us to recognize destiny when it comes, or recognize what would have been a nice match when it comes and goes!. What actually happens is that one's marriage destiny, as depicted in the horoscope, manifests itself in one's life, and this happens irrespective of any kuta matching or compatibility tests.
Truly, kuta matching is simply one indicator included in an array of indicators for recognizing marriage karma, (not forging it). And it is stressed quite a bit less in the astrological literature than the mainline indicators mentioned at the top, i.e., the planets, signs and houses of the horoscope.
Thus the kuta matching, compatibility test becomes more of a matter of recognizing destiny than of piecing together an alternative destiny, especially a marriage destiny. After all, astrological symbols indicate one's destiny as decided by Yamaraj in consultation with the Supersoul, and this is something that cannot be taken lightly or circumvented by astrologers who step out of bounds.
Dharmapad das
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Astrovedica
