If karma is everything, what is the need for astrological remedies?
A devotee (Name hidden) asked like this:
Hare Krishna Prabhuji, I read in an article that different astrological signs have different ishta devatas. Lord Krishna is stated as the ishta devata of gemini. But Krishna is the Supreme God then how is He stated as an ishta devata along with other demigods? Does it also mean that those signs which do not have Krishna as ishta devata, should not worship Him? Another thing if karma is everything then what is the use of astrological gems stones and remedies?
REPLY:
I too say, you need not see horoscope except for fixing the marriage, building the house, starting a business, fixing a date for any auspicious functions, etc.
I have already replied that parihars (remedies) will not help for all. It helps only if we do them feeling for all our offenses of previous births and this birth and crying in front of the Lord.
The best best best parihar/ remedy is to truly realize and feel for our past sinful activities and crying to Krishna for forgiving them. You should pray from the heart. It is important.
Just spending some money and buying/ wearing the gems will not give the full results. The gem stones are truly helpful, but, they just do the work of bringing the rays of particular weak planets as per your horoscope to your body. Then, the rays of those weak planets will be absorbed more and these weak planets will make their impact in your body. This may reduce the ill effects of the planets to some extent or increase their good effects, but, can not totally wipe them off unless you cry to Krishna for your past.
Remember, horoscope astrology speaks about your material standing and inclination towards spirituality. Most of the people see horoscopes just to know when and how good things will happen in their life.
Only rarely, the people see whether they will get interest in their spiritual development. Truly rare. I saw that in my horoscope and knew that I will get the mercy of Krishna in this birth because Mercury is very strong in my fifth house. Fifth house is the house of spirituality and the karma, ie, the papas and Punyas derived from previous births. Since Mercury is the strongest planet in my horoscope, that too, in the fifth house, it shows that I had done some services or devotion to Vishnu/ Krishna in my previous birth and died in the middle and hence continue the same in this birth. Only with that strength, I took this preaching service to Krishna as said by Himself in Gita that such preachers will be very dear to Him. Only because Krishna accepted this service, it is running for 8 years with the support of thousands of followers.
Thus, Mercury stands for Krishna or Vishnu. Ishta devatha is a general term used to denote a deity. Those who have materialistic mindset will not worship Krishna. They may go for demigods praying for material benefits without knowing that even those material benefits are offered with the power/ sanction given by Krishna to the demigods. They call the gods as ISHTA DEVATHA in the meaning favourite deity. That’s all. It need not be taken wrong. If they call the deity of Krishna as Supreme deity, it will match only for Krishna. They can’t callother deities as supreme. So, as a common term, they call as devatha meaning deity or god.
Even the term GOD is fully suitable for Krishna. However, they use the term God for all the demigods just for understanding purposes. No more importance for that.
Only those who learn the concepts deeply like we do here and in ISKCON, will learn the difference between the God and demigods. This is just like a chairman, general manager, managing director, senior manager, assistants, etc in an organization. Krishna is considered like a chairman who is the owner of everything. Others are also doing their duties of maintaining the affaairs of various planets.
If some other demigod is strong in the fifth house as indicated by the planets like mars, Venus, etc., they will naturally get interest in worshiping the demigods such as Karthikeya (Mars), Durga (Venus), etc. That’s all. However, if they somehow use their freedom to choose, they too can come to the worship of Krishna because He is the source. Krishna is not controlled by the planets. However, strong association of mercury in the fifth house just indicates that this person will definitely worship Krishna. Choice of Krishna by other cases is possible if they use their free will fortunately by coming across the devotees of Krishna in any manner. It is purely a causeless mercy of Krishna. If Krishna decides to add more devotees, He will make that possible.
Karma may be there. But, Krishna is the source for even that karma network. Krishna has given free will to us to choose a path. If we use that free will and worship Krishna, Krishna takes the responsibility of moderating our karma. The point is that, Only Krishna, who is the controller of karma network can moderate our karma.
Whether a devotee uses his free will to surrender to Krishna or not, is purely the choice of that devotee himself. If he likes, Krishna makes all the arrangements for his devotional development.
Hope this reply has cleared your doubts.