Meeting With Raman

A meeting with Dr Raman

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A meeting with Dr. B.V. Raman (Article written in 1990) Dr. B. V. Raman has recently been appointed Honorary President of the Danish Association for Hindu Astrology. In this connection I would like to present him as I met him in Bangalore on the 17th of January 1990. One week before our meeting I made an appointment with Dr. Raman on the phone, and my wife, Arlette Gürtler, and I were very excited and full of expectations, and naturally we wanted to make sure that we arrived at the meeting in due time. We hired one of these yellow three-wheeled scooterlike autorickshaws, which are quite common in the major cities of India. It was a rather short trip according to the map, so we were quite astonished when after one hour of driving the driver suddenly said: "House is gone". I became angry with this hopeless driver and said that would stop the first person passing by and pay him 50 rupies to show us the way. Dr. B.V. Raman is quite a celebrity, so everyone ought to know him. This we did, and 10 minutes later we arrived at his place. It was quite embarrassing to be 40 minutes late, but Dr. B. V. Raman received us at his house, "Sri Rajeswari", in a very kind manner.

Astrology during childhood Bangalore Venkata Raman was born in an old, Brahmin family in the Kanataka State in South India on the 8th of August 1912. His mother died before he was two years old, and so the grandparents took care of his upbringing. This proved to be his fortune, since his grandfather was no other than the very famous south Indian astrologer B. Suryanarain Rao. So in fact he was really brought up with astrology. Later on, as a grown up man, Dr. B. V. Raman took over the editing of his grandfathers monthly magazine, "The Astrological Magazine", which is now distributed not only in India but almost worldwide. Besides this, Dr. B. V. Raman happens to be the author of more than 20 titles on Hindu astrology. I believe that his most well known book is "Hindu Predictive Astrology".

Mundane predictions Dr. B. V. Raman is extremely famous in India for his mundane political forecasts, which have seldom failed. Because of this, I felt it quite

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A meeting with Dr Raman

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natural in January 1990 to inquire about the political changes in the communist countries. Dr. Raman told me that already in the middle of the 60ties he predicted all these events on the basis of the horoscope of the USSR, which is now running Saturn period. His predictions at that time were that these changes were of a permanent character, and would mean the final end of communism. He also predicted the unification of Germany, but according to Dr. B. V. Raman the united Germany will not function properly until 1993/1994. He pointed out that the united Germany will never again become a war threat. But on the other hand he said that there will be a serious war around 1998/1999.

Correspondence with C.G. Jung Dr. B. V. Raman has been travelling in Europe and the USA, and has been in connection with quite a number of wellknown figures. Not only astrologers, but also philosophers and scientists. Dr. Raman has had a correspondence with the phycologist Carl Gustav Jung, and he permitted me to publish a letter that he received from Jung: Kusnacht-Zch., September 6th 1947 DEAR PROF. RAMAN, I haven't yet received THE ASTROLOGICAL MAGAZINE, but I will answer your letter nevertheless. Since you want to know my opinion about astrology I can tell you that I've been interested in this particular activity of the human mind since more than 30 years. As I am a psychologist, I am chiefly interested in the particular light the horoscope sheds on certain complications in the character. In cases of difficult psychological diagnosis I usually get a horoscope in order to have a further point of view from an entirely different angle. I must say that I very often found that the astrological data elucidated certain points which I otherwise would have been unable to understand. From such experiences I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological experience which we call "projected" - this means that we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations. This originally gave rise to the idea that these factors derive from the stars, whereas they are merely in a relation of synchronicity with them. I admit that this is a very curious fact which throws a peculiar light on the structure of the human mind. What I miss in astrological literature is chiefly the statistical

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A meeting with Dr Raman

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method by which certain fundamental facts could be scientifically established. Hoping that this answer meets your request. I remain, Yours sincerely, (Sd.) C.G. JUNG

Definition of a good astrologer I asked Dr. B. V. Raman what he considers the qualifications of a good astrologer. He explained to me that he more or less agreed with the qualifications described by Varaha Mihira (4th century A.D.). And he emphasised that a good astrologer has conquered his hatred, his envy, and his egoism. The astrologer should be cultivated and satisfied with what he has got. He knows the Vedas and Sastras. He should be able to give clear, concrete pre-dictions. He should be of humble mind and know his own limitations. But at the same time he must have confidence in his astrological and occult knowledge. Dr. B.V. Raman was of the opinion that an astrologer who masters the astrological knowledge, and who is also initiated in Mantra-Siddhi, seldom makes mistakes.

Hindu versus Western Astrology Dr. B. V. Raman feels that Hindu astrology appeals to the Westerners. And he thinks this is because India has had a continuous astrological tradition, while in his opinion the development in the western astrology almost stopped around 17th century. It was, however, his hope that western astrology would one day rediscover his own roots. He gave a warning to the western astrology against listening too much to the philosophy of psychology, in which the human being, with his own perfect free will, can do whatever he likes. This attitude gives too much arrogance and removes the awareness of the astrologer from more essential matters.

Three kinds of Karma According to Dr. B. V. Raman we have only got free will up to a certain degree. This is because everything is interconnected and

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A meeting with Dr Raman

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controlled by a kind of cosmic intelligence. In order to understand this one has to study the law of Karma a little closer. Dr. B. V. Raman explained that there are three different kinds of Karma: 1) Sanchita-Karma (operative karma) 2) Prarabdha-Karma (accumulative karma) 3) Agami-Karma (karma created in future) Dr. B. V. Raman said that the operative karma, whether good or evil, cannot be avoided, for the simple reason that we were born because of it, and we shall have to experience it. The accumulative karma, on the other hand, can be postponed to future reincarnations, and because of that it is of a more voluntary character. The horoscope in this connection becomes quite a useful tool, a kind of blueprint, just like the way the knowledge of the seed leads to the knowledge of the plant and of the developments that it is likely to have.

Nadi astrology After this very philosophical talk about free will I told Dr. B. V. Raman about the encounters that I have had with the palmleaf horoscopes in North India called Bhrigu-Samhita. At this point Dr. B. V. Raman laughed, and said that the British astrologer Sepherial was equally astonished when, many years ago, Dr. B. V. Raman's grand-father, the late hindu astrologer B. Suryanarain Rao, presented for him a completely correct life reading of his horoscope, including his own name, his parents name, life events, etc., found with a local nadi-astrologer. Dr. B. V. Raman has personal experiences with more than 50 different collections of these peculiar horoscopes. He explained that in North India they are normally referred to as Bhrigu-Samhita or RavanaSamhita, while in South India they are called Nadi-Granthas. Dr. B. V. Raman was in possession of the original palmleaf manuscript of a collection named Dhruva-Nadi. These horoscopes are claimed to be written by Sage Satyacharya thousands of years ago. Dr. B. V. Raman fetched some horoscope bundles and showed me. I am myself in possession of quite a number of these horoscopes in English translation, made especially for me by friends in India. I sometimes use these horoscopes in my consultations, and therefore it was quite strange for me to have in my hands Satyacharya's own handwritten Sanskrit Nadi-texts.

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A meeting with Dr Raman

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Dr. B. V. Raman explained that in Dhruva-Nadi each sign is divided into 150 small parts, named Nadi-Amsas. Belonging to each of these Nadi-Amsas there were certain planet combinations and an astrological reading in bird's eye view, with a description of the most vital points of each person's life. As an example, Dr. B. V. Raman gave the name of a certain Nadi-Amsa, the one that I was born in. This was based exclusively on my looks and appearance. That kind of person, he said, would be born when Jupiter was in either Cancer or Pisces, in the 1st, 5th or 9th house. I could only confirm that according to my horoscope Jupiter is actually placed in the 9th house in Cancer. He emphasised this Jupiter position as an essential factor in my horoscope according to DhruvaNadi.

Predictions made from Mantras At this point our conversation took an interesting turn, as Dr. B. V. Raman explained that there were two different kinds of palmleaf horoscopes. One based exclusively upon nadi-astrology, and Dhruva-Nadi belonged to this category. The other type, more mystical, and based on magic, he referred to as Mantra-Nadis. He said that the astrological type gave more reliable predictions regarding the future. No matter whether it was based on horary or natal charts the predictions would be about 70-80% correct. Mantra-Nadis, on the other hand, gave very unreliable predictions regarding the future. However, the past and the present would always be 100% correct. The very near future could also be described correctly. At this point, Dr. B. V. Raman told about an episode in 1935, when he met a Mr. Nadar, who was in possession of Agastriya-Nadi, and Dr. Raman was of the opinion that it was a Mantra-Nadi. Mr. Nadar studied Dr. Raman's thumb very closely, and based only on the lines of this finger he found a palmleaf on which the name, the birthday, the horoscope, and the life reading were all correctly described. Also it predicted that Dr. B. V. Raman would get a son in about a week, who would only get medium longevity. Actually, his son was born 10 days after, and the son died much too young. Experiences of this kind really mystified Dr. Raman until 1953, when a Nadi-astrologer having a collection of palmleaves called Guru-Nadi gave the answer. When the astrologer had to make the horoscope, he gave Dr. B.V. Raman an empty palmleaf with no text.

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A meeting with Dr Raman

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Dr. Raman was then asked to close his eyes while some mantras were recited. When he opened his eyes the horoscope and reading slowly became visible. The reading was in the Kannada language. Then Dr. Raman was asked to close his eyes once more, and when he opened them again the text was translated into Tamil language. At this occasion, all the peculiarities of Nadi-astrology were explained to Dr. Raman. Our conversation ended, and we said goodbye. We found a new autorickshaw, but this time, the same ride took only 10 minutes.

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