Astral Factors behind Behavior

Gurucharanam Saranam

Astral Factors behind Behavior

Mukundan P.R.

How should we react to pain and sufferings in life is a question often asked and the answers are not conclusive or satisfactory. Despite our awareness about the unavoidable and impermanent nature of pain and afflictions in life, when we actually see its face, majority of us lose balance and react despairingly. We get into the trap of emotions and may even become belligerent towards God or with people and circumstance that caused suffering. Some people undergo the experience by escaping altogether from the situation surrendering their rights for justice or opportunity for self development. They are like persons who got blows in darkness and unable to react. Very few people are able to intellectually overcome pain. The sublimation of pain spiritually comes only next. Why such a big trap of pain and suffering is put in front of us? Probably it is to teach us how to overcome pain and suffering by our intelligence and spiritual strength of the soul over matter and emotions.

Even those who have intellectually understood the dynamics of pain and suffering confess that when the actual meeting with pain comes, they get shaken at least temporarily and react standing on the platform of emotions. This is because of our intellectual immaturity and ingrained spiritual status and influences reaching out from our spiritual background. Our spiritual background is related to he intermediary region of qualitative attributes - satva, rajas and tamas. This spiritual realm is always unstable and subject to change. Death and decay happens in this spiritual triangle. We all know this state of affairs but still we live hoping against hope. But this will never happen. Nobody can build a peaceful palace on the turbulent waters of the ocean. Strangely we refuse to think why we are in such a funny situation.

It is our worship which is adding fuel to our entanglement with emotional slavery. Vertically, our worship is related to the realm of spiritual hierarchies beginning from the spirit world, ancestral world and celestial world which are under the domain of emotions and the pangs of cyclic births and deaths. Horizontally these spiritual planes are segmented into three broad categories according to the predominance of satva, raja and tama. Just like men in the world, the deities also have been segregated into these three categories. One may find the mention of it in the dialogue of Rishi Vasisht in Ramayana.

Among Hindus there will be a pooja room or prayer place, or a temple, in which there will be various deities. Those who have satvic qualities will get attracted to satvic deities and those who are of rajasic and tamasic nature to such deities. Tamasic plain is associated with utter pain, jealousy, fights, diseases and squalor of all types. By associating with the deities of tamasic plane such as low spirits, ghosts, goblins, souls of ancestors etc. one makes sure of his fall unable to have any reign over his thoughts and behavior. These spirits and deities are worshiped by the name of Matan, Maruta, Mantramurti, Bhadrakali etc. in South India. Their equivalent versions are worshiped in North also by ignorant men and women. Possessions or spirit manifestations are common to this category. Gurus who please the devotees by propitiating such deities through mantra and tantra are considered tamasic gurus. Guru Gita calls them as nishidha gurus or prohibited gurus.

Rajasic plane is associated with angels, devas, devis and other celestial groups such as yaksha, kinnara and gandharva. This is a plane of constant agitation, competition and jealousy. However, there are higher gods like Siva and satvic gods and goddesses such as Vishnu, Laxmi, or Saraswati worshiped by Hindus. One can experience the acme of pleasure in the heaven of gods, except liberation, since swarga or heaven is a plane of subtle spiritual joys terminable with the exhaustion of virtue in the souls getting lifted up there. Ksheene Punye Martya Lokam Visanthi – on the exhaustion of virtue (punya), one has to return from the heaven to the world of mortals for another cycle of births and deaths to earn enough punya to be lifted up again to swarga. It is a vicious circle, which intelligent Hindus may take note of. However, Hindus have every freedom to follow what they feel right or good.

So the behavioral pattern and reactions to life situations of individuals will be according to the predominant qualities in them which are further influenced by the emanations from the corresponding spiritual benefactors they worshiped by himself or by an ancestor under whose rasi, (zodiac) one is born. It is not necessary that one worship a deity at present. The channel of the deity may be active through an ancestral link or in some other mystical ways such as possession. The deities according to their guna, will emit equivalent spiritual rays or vibrations on their devotees. Since satvic deities are associated with positive qualities, the worshipers will have the shades of corresponding qualities. However highest spiritual tranquility is attainable beyond the domain of gunas - satva, rajas and tamas. The Rishis attain immortality after crossing the barrier of trigunas- the three fold quality attributes. Sri Krishna is one such great soul who could transcend the trigunas. It is said that Krishna's dark color denotes to his spiritual status beyond form and qualities.

In practical terms, a worshipper of kaali or durga may behave highly emotionally and furiously at times, whereas Hanuman devotees might display the qualities of devotion, love and renunciation. Likewise, the devotees of Laxmi or Saraswati may be of satvic mind and intelligence. The behavioral pattern of individuals gets influenced by spiritual practices as there is an exchange of spiritual emanations. To understand the true state of affairs, when confronted with conflicts in life, one has to ascend the pure plane of intelligence or soul consciousness. Reacting emotionally dissipates the soul virtue and consequently peace and growth of the individual. Only by crossing the vertical and horizontal spiritual planes connected with triguna, a person or society can prosper. Parallelly speaking, the poverty and squalor in a society has a relation with its spiritual status.

When a person functions remaining in the domain of clear intelligence he can correctly assess the causes behind life-experiences and act positively for his own advantage as well as others. Such a person will not get carried away by the floods of calamities in life, not even by the good tides in life, because he or she would have rightly established in the tranquility of the soul. We can get access to that pure plane of intelligence by the guiding force of a person, who himself has crossed the gross spiritual domains as well as three dimensional qualities. Such a person is called an Atmajnani Guru who can understand the intricacies of a soul, its propensities, its spiritual connections, ancestral influences and the resultant field of karma (prarabdha) in life. An Ashram is the abode of such an Atmajnani Guru. When one tunes one’s life and family life with the guidance of such an Atmajnani Guru, life becomes focused to higher spiritual experiences and evolution. Santhigiri Ashram is blessed by the physical presence of such an Atmajnani Guru – Her Holiness Sishyapoojita Amrita Jnana Tapaswini, the spiritual heir to Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru.

Astral Causes behind Diseases

Gurucharanam Saranam



Astral Causes behind Diseases

Mukundan P.R.



Health is the natural expression of the soul, the emanation of values lived and virtue earned in synchronization with its evolutionary process. It is true of any system or organization too. Therefore, a person or a society cannot be made healthy by treating the symptoms alone which is mostly the current practice among health activists. The vision of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru has opened a new school of thought on the problems of health and astral factors behind diseases.


Whatever little awareness there is today with regard to the subjective causes of diseases, it is confined to a secondary level of causative factors such as wrong lifestyle, food habits, environment, etc. The analysis does not go beyond the physical and mental levels. The spiritual or subjective aspect of health is not given enough attention, despite the fact that the basic issues of health are rooted in the soul of man.

Our sages have mentioned that diseases – vyaadhi, are the result of worries, i.e. aadhi. We all know that peace is the precondition for health. The subjective person, the soul is ever pure, blissful consciousness. But the tranquility of the soul gets dissipated by the push and pulls of actions arising out of one’s vasanas or inner tendencies. The soul loses its tranquility because of its confinements with ego, mind, and senses. Once this confinement happens, the soul starts running outwardly, never to experience peace again.


This worrisome status, along with unhealthy actions disturbs the flow of prana – the rhythmic flow of vital energy in the body. Once the rhythm of prana is thus disturbed, it destabilizes the bodily fluids and vital airs causing malfunctions in the body. The food may get over-digested, digest irregularly or not digest at all. When the digestive system is affected, diseases also rear its head. Therefore, diseases have their origin in the subjective aspect of a person.


Though Ayurveda and Siddha, the Indian systems of medicine developed by the sages acknowledge the relation of diseases with the soul aspects, they have not been able to provide a remedy to problems arising out of karmic, ancestral, and spiritual pollution.


The focus in actual Yoga practice is to bring this subjective aspect, i.e. the soul into equilibrium through the control of prana. It means a lot of spiritual regimentation, physical discipline, and long continuous practice. It may be, therefore, suitable only to a small segment of people in this fast track of life, who have leisure and a suitable environment. Moreover, if yoga is not practiced under an advanced master with self-realization, it may also lead to physical and mental complications.


Tranquility is achievable with the highest virtue and purity in the soul. Yoga has been reduced to mere physical and mental exercises today. However, despite the question of its practicability in this age, Yoga remains the ancient Indian science of self-realization, very authentic and liberating in its vision.


When we talk about the health of our soul, three important factors are to be thought of; the soul’s karmic, ancestral, and spiritual influences. Unless a person is able to liberate him from the binding effects of these three factors, the hope of immunity from diseases, mental and physical problems becomes impossible.

The karmic residues of the soul earned over multiple births are recorded as karmagati. According to the auspicious and inauspicious nature of karmagati, corresponding effects will manifest in life as diseases and other misfortunes and vice versa. Unless the karmic element is understood and appropriate rewinding or rehabilitating karma is performed, the disease cannot be successfully tackled. These imprints in the soul are subject to the vision of seers – an Atmagyani Guru. Medical science and its methods of diagnosis are helpless in this area. All medical systems today concentrate only on the symptoms, not on the root causes related to the spirit inside.


Secondly, there are also a person’s genetic links which also become the source of certain diseases – mostly hereditary in nature. Mental retardation and other such misfortunes have a genetic link. It is known as pitru dosha in astrological terms. The spiritual and genetic contamination in the ancestral soul affects the health of progeny too. Here too, medical science is helpless because karmic and spiritual bindings of ancestral souls are beyond the scope of science. This soul science is subject to a spiritual regime and therefore under the purview of spiritual science and spiritual masters.


One of the important contributions of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru, the founder of Santhigiri Ashram in the area of healthcare is His thoughts on the astral causations behind diseases which He referred to as karma dosham, pitru dosham, and Aradhana dosham. Mention has already been made about the Karmic and Ancestral problems. The third aspect, Aradhana Dosham is related to deviated spiritual practices and the consequent debilities, deformities, and devolution occurring in the individual’s soul.


Aradhana Dosham is also related to spiritual mobility through spiritual zones of varying evolutionary nature with their peculiar color, effects, and hierarchies. Though the sages have mentioned it, the concept of spiritual zones and their relation to health issues is an area that has not been yet explored properly.


It forms part of the discourse on spiritual pollution, which directly and indirectly affects the measure of virtue and the evolutionary orientation of the soul. Spiritual pollution is the stagnation of souls in lower astral planes with its adverse effects on health, one’s progeny, and family life.


The tranquility of the soul is experienced in higher spiritual planes above the hierarchies of spirits, celestials, angels, gods, and goddesses. The astral planes up to heaven are related to pleasure and pain, name and form. By their worship and spiritual practices, the souls get connected to these lower astral planes, which produce only dual experiences of pain and pleasure, sorrow and happiness. In other words, it is the abode of base desires or ashta raga- the eight-fold bindings of the soul.


So long as the soul is subject to ashta raga, there will be imbalances and variations in the karmic and spiritual earnings affecting the measure of the soul’s virtue and evolutionary growth. At the present time, mankind is mostly related to these lower spiritual planes; hence the possibility of enduring health remains an unrealistic dream.


We have mentioned that enduring health is the result of tranquility arising from the soul’s composure in higher spiritual planes where all dualities disappear and the soul remains in its state of purity and positive spiritual emanations. It is the plane where Oneness of God and Oneness of Humanity become an actual experience. This spiritual transition is the basis for a healthy society and necessary to achieve lasting peace, enduring health and progress.


Mankind, therefore, requires the guidance of such a spiritual master, who has transcended the highest spiritual planes. The Supra-mental evolution mentioned by Sri Aravind Ghosh is related to this spiritual transition. Before embarking on this path of higher spiritual transition, one has to get rid of the karmic, ancestral, and spiritual baggage by rightly establishing oneself in the path of such a spiritual master.


The dialogue on human health can become more meaningful only when the subjective and astral aspects mentioned above are given due attention and thought. Santhigiri Ashram beckons each and all to such a practical path of higher spiritual transition, health, and peace.