Category Archives: jiva

Jupiter and Pranayam

It sure is interesting that the planet Jupiter, commonly called “Guru”, is exalted in the sign of Cancer. Guru means “heavy” (read more about this name here). This implies that Jupiter is the planet that is the most heavy with life experience or knowledge. Of all the different yogic practices and paths that are available to take, a competent Guru can discern, one way or the other, what path and practices are best for the particular person in question.  Because each person is different, each path will be a little bit different.  Just like some people make a better runner than a swimmer, it is the same with spiritual paths. converted PNM file

One of the things that Gurus frequently advise for most serious aspirants are pranayama practices.  Pranayama practices are essentially breathing exercises and techniques that are used to expand consciousness and awareness. Everyone knows that states of mind relate to our breathing…but often we leave it at that. The Yogis took it much further and fully explored the relationship between breath, life-force, and awareness.  [Fun Fact: The word “Pranayama” itself comes from the Sanskrit “Pran” which means “life-force”. Pran, or Prana, is similar to “Chi”, or “Qi” in Chinese thought,  and to “Ka” in Egyptian philosophy.  Yama means “restraint” or “suppression”, and many of you may know that Yama is also the name of the God of death.  The single letter “a” means “not” in Sanskrit. Now you can fully understand the word Pranayama, as “Life-force Not Restrained”, in other words, “Life-force Expansion”.  Does that make sense? ]

Pranayama is, therefore, a practice that slowly infuses the body with tremendous amounts of life force energy, purifying all of the bodies subtle energetic channels and pathways (nadis), in turn leading to more rapid awakening and clarifying of awareness.  There is of course much more to it than that, but this should explain the concept sufficiently for now. It really is a great practice. In my opinion, we should learn it from people in person, one on one, and not try to practice it straight from books, which I think are great but should be used more as a reference. (There are different opinions on this, and as I said above, everyone’s path is different. I am not making a blanket rule here.)

So now we are all on the same page about pranayama and why Gurus tend to advise it so often.  Now, when we look at the exaltation and debilitation signs for the planets, Jupiter may pop out at us. Notice that Jupiter, the planet of Gurus and wisdom, is exalted (meaning in its strongest possible sign) in the sign of Cancer, the sign of the breath. Cancer is the sign of the rhythm of life, the waxing and waning of the Moon, the inhalation and exhalation of the breath, and the high and low tides that regulate the growth of life on Earth. This clearly shows that the Guru is most “exalted”, or most awakened through the Cancerian environment of the breath.  Jupiter is our wisdom, so another way to see this is that our wisdom is most exalted (able to produce fortunate results) through the faculty of breath expansion (aka “ayama”- non-suppression, in other words, expansion).

It should be no wonder now why the Guru so often recommends pranayama, or breath (Cancer) expansion (Jupiter). If you follow me, the very term “breath expansion” is a synonym for a healthy Jupiter in Cancer.  This is clear “astro-logic” for why breathing exercises are so important for spiritual awakening.  Cancer is a brahmin rashi as well, and a sattvic one at that. Only Pisces and Cancer are both sattvic brahmin signs, which means they are signs most naturally inclined towards spirituality and seeking liberation (moksha). These qualities also show how Cancer is connected to spiritual development.  Jupiter will only be in Cancer 1/12th of the time, so most people are not born with this blessing innately. But if we practice pranayama every day, it is like we are exercising the karmic muscle that would make our Jupiter exalted, or at least strengthen it, which is why pranayama is such a great remedial measure as well. When we strengthen Jupiter, we find more grace in life. It is said that a strong Jupiter can remove 100 blemishes from a chart. I do not think this is because of some magical rule, I think it is because a strong Jupiter will use wisdom and knowledge to make life better and to avoid 100 other mistakes that easily happen to a person who is not behaving wisely. And of course, a really strong Jupiter will use Pranayam as well.

Some Thoughts About The Moon

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“The Moon reflects the Sun’s light and it does not emit its own light.”  -Rig Veda 1:84:15

“The Sun is the upholder of all light. The Moon and all other planets do not possess light of their own. All of them shine with the light of the Sun.”  -Atharva Veda 14:1:1

 

The Moon is the brightest object in the night sky. With its fascinating luminescence and mysterious waxing and waning behavior, it is no surprise that it has been the subject of great interest for practically every culture on the planet.  It has probably been an object of contemplation ever since humanity expressed such an ability, and for good reason,  as there are so many interesting qualities to appreciate about this luminary body.

To fully understand the Moon, we must first look to the Sun, the other great luminary, and the source of the moons reflected light.  In Jyotish (vedic astrology), each planet represents an aspect of our own self.  The Sun is the symbol of the real Self (note the capital S, referring to our eternal Self or Soul, not the impermanent and always changing personality self).  As the body that the rest of the planets revolve around, it signifies the real and eternal “Soul of All”.  The Sanskrit word used to describe the sun in this context is “Sarva Atma”. “Sarva” means “all”, “of all”, “everything” and “all things”.  “Atma” means “soul” or “self”.  So the Sun is the life of everything.  All is one with the Sun at the deepest level of existence.  The Sun relates to that pure consciousness that manifests everything in existence.  Mathematically, the Sun is like the number 1.

The Moon is the other main source of light and luminescence in our world.  As the above quotes from the ancient Rig Veda and Atharva Veda explain, the moon has no light of its own, and is merely reflecting the Suns light.  In the Indian tradition of astrology, the moon is the planet (astronomically it is considered a satellite, but for astrological purposes it is considered a planet, as it behaves like other planets from our perspective on Earth) that represents the ego-mind and the incarnated human being.  It is the reflection of the Sun, the Supreme Self.  Human beings can certainly be reflections of the Supreme Self, but not all the time, just like the moon, who can sometimes be full and reflect the Suns light perfectly, and other times be so dark it cant even be seen.  The sanskrit word given for the Moon is “Manas”, which means “mind”, but not in the western sense of the mind as the intellectual processor, but as the thing that is experiencing life. The mind is what experiences life through the five senses.  Interestingly, because the English language has roots in the Vedic Sanskrit language, this Sanskrit word “Manas” is the root origin of all three of the English words “man”, “mind” and “moon”.

When we think about the Sun, how hot and bright it is, how intense and draining it can feel to be exposed to it for long stretches of time, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by it.  Just as Man cannot easily perceive the Sun for more than a moment without having severe eye damage, he likewise has difficulty perceiving God in daily life. It really is logical to correlate the Sun with the Supreme Self, or God, as it is the sustaining source of all that is living in our world. Its course is so regular and unchanging, and we live our lives by it….yet we cannot understand it or even look at it normally.  Life cannot exist on Earth without the support of such a powerful solar body.

In the same way, when considering the Moon, its constant waxing and waning, changing signs, moving to and fro, and occasionally being eclipsed… It is much more symbolic of a human beings awareness. We wax and wane, have good days and bad, seem to go through cycles we have little control of and in an overall sense are very changeable by nature.  Hopefully this symbolism is making itself clear now.  Our ego-mind is just like the changeable moon.  The ego-mind can be thought of as merely a composite of personality characteristics, that we do or do not like, that are taken from a VAST amount of experiences we have had.  So it is always changing as well, as we have new experiences and out grow old experiences that we previously identified with.  For example, someone may not like spicy food, but then one day they have a delicious spicy soup in just the right quantity, and fall in love with it, and how it makes them feel. Then their ego mind will say, “Now I LIKE spicy food”.  Their ego has changed and adapted just like the ever changing moon.

And that brings us to another interesting thing about the moon, or ego-mind; its adaptability.  Each planet is said to relate to the other planets as being a friend, neutral, or enemy to them in the Vedic system of astrology.  And these relationships are based on the natural energies, or “rays” of each planet.  Like how certain colors just go well naturally, and others “clash”.  And when it comes to the moon, it is the only planet that has no enemies, only friends or neutrals.  All the other planets have at least one, two, or three enemies.  What does this tell us about the ego-mind?  Contemplating this reveals many things, but particularly significant is that the moon, or ego-mind, will latch on to and feel comfortable with anything it can in order to survive as the individual ego.  Even if that thing is not good for it and harmful.  This is why the separate egoic sense of self is such a source of pain and suffering.  It will not refuse identifying with even the worst elements of life in order to keep growing and experiencing.  The Moon with Jupiter for example, is showing that a persons mind is comfortable identifying with Jupiterian things such as knowledge, wisdom, a sense of purpose in life, and optimism.  The Moon with Saturn, on the other hand, shows a person identified with suffering, pain, lack, hard work, and the difficult sides of life.  Oftentimes they will actually be somewhat comfortable with the painful sides of life. They will be used to struggling, and enduring. When things are going great in life, they may actually think, “something isnt right”, but it is because they just are not as used to life going so easily.  The Jupiterian-moon person may be the opposite, and when life is going right, they will stop and think “life IS going right”.  This shows us that some things are naturally more beneficial for us to identify with than others, but if we decide to, we can latch on to even the harshest aspects of life, in order to keep growing and experiencing life as it is happening…

The moon, or mind, can therefore work out well for a person, or not so well for a person, depending on what they are identifying with, as revealed by asessing the moon in a horoscope.  But either way, whether ones mind is more comfortable with wealth or poverty does not change the fact that they are identifying with a temporary and changeable sense of themselves, which waxes and wanes.  It is still not the real Self.  So from the Yogic viewpoint,  identifying with this passing sense of self that one is comfortable with can bring happiness or sadness, but will still invite suffering to the “moon-identified”, or ego-minded person, until they are able to become “Sun-identified”, or “Soul-minded”.  We know already that the Sun is the “Self of all”, hence the emphasis on “Self-realization” from the yogis and enlightened ones.