Robert Svoboda The Majesty of Saturn. healing myth. Saturn's Majesty Saturn's Majesty Robert

First published 1997 by Sadhana Publications,

Translation from English: N. Tandon Editing: A. Blaise

This book tells an ancient Indian legend that goes much deeper than just mind information - it heals you. Saturn is known in astrology as the planet that brings suffering and misfortune. However, one should not avoid Saturn - it is better to surrender to his arms and know his meaning.

Robert E. Svoboda, 1997

The greatness of Saturn "Healing myth" 1

Purvakarma 3

Pradhanakarma 8

Pashchatkarma 40

Annex 74

Foreword

Dr. Liberty has studied many works of astrology and mythology, mostly written in Gujarati and Hindi, and used them in the creation of this book. The story of Shani (Skt. Saturn) is a compilation of many sources.

In all astrological schools, Saturn is given a special place among the planets of the solar system. In India, as in the West, Saturn has long been considered the herald of evil fate. Naturally, any person is interested in averting this fate from himself. By determining the position of Saturn in the individual horoscope and observing its movement through the sky in relation to the various elements of this horoscope - houses, planets and constellations - one can control its evil power or at least weaken its influence. Observation alone, however, is not enough: a man chained in the middle of the road can also watch a truck rapidly rushing towards him, but this is unlikely to alleviate his situation. But understanding the power of Saturn will help to avoid its destructive impact - so to speak, to bounce off an approaching truck in time, having experienced only a moment of fear when it sweeps past, dousing you with a gust of wind. Understanding gives strength, since it establishes a two-way connection between a person and the object of his understanding - a connection in which each of the parties can influence the other. In this case, not only Saturn will influence the actions of a person and their consequences, but a person will also be able to have a certain impact on Saturn. This goal is served by certain strategies of "clarification of relations" with Shani, who in India is considered not just a conglomerate of inert particles, but an extremely powerful living being with his own personal qualities.

In India, where astrology is used primarily for divinatory purposes, many have been, and continue to be, preoccupied with Shani's malefic powers and ways of weakening his influence. Dr. Liberty managed to convey the very essence of this problem. It was for this purpose that he created an easily accessible for Western perception presentation of the popular story in India about the misfortunes and misfortunes caused by Shani that the legendary king Vikramaditya experienced. In addition, in this book, Dr. Svoboda outlines time-tested strategies for reducing Shani's influence on a person and explains how these strategies can be used in our time by people who have only a superficial understanding of Indian astrology, culture and language. This book will introduce the reader to the basics of Jyotish, self-healing techniques and Indian mythology.

Dr. Frederick M. Smith, Assistant Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Classical Religions, Iowa State University.

Author's Preface

My translation is based on that version of Shani Mahatmya written by Pranjivan Harihar Shastri in Gujarati and published in 1950 in Bombay by Natwarlal I. Desai. Although this book is no longer in print and the publishing house has ceased to exist, in 1990 in Bombay, Jaya Hind Prakashan published an almost identical version in the Marathi language, which is widely available today. Miss Roshni Pandey helped me a lot with this translation. Margaret Mahan, Rachel Meyer, Claudia Welch, and several other experts have helped me with their comments on parts of the text. In translating, I have followed the text as closely as possible, leaving out only a few anachronisms; some elements of the play on words were, unfortunately, lost due to their untranslatability. The familiar word "pandita" is used by me as an approximate equivalent for the Sanskrit "pandita" (pandita), from which the first, in fact, came from; however, it must be remembered that the word 'pandita' has conveyed a notion of far greater erudition and intellectual honesty than we are accustomed to invest in the word 'pandit'.

The most significant change I made in writing this book is that I supplemented the stories about the other eight planets (besides Saturn), which were rather superficially described in the original, with stories from other sacred texts: I wanted this book to become a salute in honor of all nine planets. I have put deep respect and sincere devotion into the work on this amended version of the text and commentaries to it. I hope that the result of my labors will serve as a worthy reflection of astrological reality and will allow the reader to be filled with such a pure and positive bhava (“state of being”) that the truth that this story is imbued with will affect not only his mind, but also his heart. I also hope that the Nine Planets, and Lord Saturn in particular, will be pleased!

Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to Miss Roshni Panday for her help with the translation, as well as to many other people - including Mrs. Rhonda Rose for illustrations and work on the design of the book, Dr. Fred Smith for his pointed remarks and Mr. Hart De Fau for his invaluable contribution to the work. A low bow to my mentor Vimalananda and my Jyotish teacher, the incomparable Mantriji. And finally, my respectful gratitude to the Lord Saturn, who gave his permission for this work to be started and completed.

Purvakarma

Introduction

And so begins the "Greatness of Saturn" ...

None of us would deny the reality of the external world: a mango, for example, has a certain shape, smell and taste, which are perceived by different people more or less similarly. However, the inner sensations that we experience when we eat this fruit are unique for everyone. The great sages of ancient India were well aware that the emotions and thoughts that arise in us as a result of interaction with the outside world are the very matter from which our "inner cosmos" is woven. Although this matter is much thinner than the matter of the physical world, it often turns out to be more real and durable than things made of dense matter. We all know how powerful thoughts can be. Although thought has only a very small degree of "reality" in the physical universe, it is the cause of much of the physical activity that occurs in the world. Our thoughts and emotions are constantly transforming into certain physical states - and vice versa, various circumstances of the material plane entail certain manifestations in the mental sphere.

Living history is born where living wisdom is embodied in the subtle matter of human consciousness. Every fiction writer knows how, at some point in his work on a work of fiction, some new character appears and begins to direct the course of the plot. And if even the characters of secular literature, the fruits of the imagination of an individual, begin to live their own lives, then how much more real should the heroes of myths be, attracting the attention of millions of people over the millennia? Living legends continue to exist inside people due to regular "infusions" of human life force. Saturated with the energy of our attention, they, in turn, feed our spiritual beings. When we read or listen to these stories, we give them new strength and "rejuvenate" them. By making them part of ourselves, we become their temples; by telling them to others, we help them to spread in the world. Living legends exist as long as there are people who want to convey them to others, and as long as these others need such stories and are able to perceive them. Like wealth and food, knowledge and children, legends must be continually passed on from generation to generation, from one storyteller to another. The legend dies at the moment when the person who heard it last dies without telling it to anyone - just like every kind of living being dies out if its last representative did not produce offspring in his life.

While living wisdom is a healing metaphysical food, dead knowledge is just a dead weight that accumulates inside you until you drop it - or until it kills you. Knowledge devoid of life weighs heavily on your heart. Living wisdom makes you lighter, helping to free yourself from this harmful burden. Sometimes dead knowledge can bring intellectual satisfaction to its owner, but more often than not it becomes a terrible burden that needs to be shed. A.K. Ramanuyan, who has spent much of his life among living folklore, tells the story of an old woman who was very plump, although she did not eat much. The more troubles and misfortunes she experienced, the fuller she became. In the end, in despair, she told about all her misfortunes to the walls of an abandoned house - and these walls collapsed, unable to withstand the suffering that her words were filled with. And the woman immediately lost weight. There is also a story about a barber who could hardly restrain himself from laughing at the shortcomings of his clients. When he was no longer able to restrain himself, he told these secrets to the trees. But the trees also could not be silent: when drums were made from their wood, in rhythmic combat they betrayed all the secrets entrusted to them.

But perhaps the most dangerous and, in fact, the original one is the myth, the emergence of which was facilitated by materialistic scientists and the so-called rationalists, who declared that human society has come out of the age of myths and no longer needs them. To believe that no myths, beneficent or pathological, no longer affect us is a dangerous delusion. It only increases the likelihood that we will fall into complete dependence on some myth. Although Joseph Campbell and some other anthropologists warned parents against imposing their stereotypes and outdated patterns of behavior on children, in practice it turned out that the role of educators of the now growing generation was taken over by the media, which offered no other models of behavior than those based on sex and violence. For the most part, modern children see nothing but the virtual world of television, the tech industry, video games and the Internet. People selflessly dive into the electronic network, sacrificing their human world for the sake of a fictional world of alternative reality, about the inexhaustible possibilities of research of which no one has ever told them. Campbell presciently warned of the danger of believing that the established social order was established for centuries and nothing could shake it. The trend towards asserting individualistic values ​​that run counter to the public interest is growing and is already beginning to acquire serious consequences that threaten the existence of our entire civilization.

But the living myth remains the most effective means of protection and therapy against pathological stereotypes. It provides healthy food for our minds and serves as a universal vaccine against the ubiquitous ideological viruses. Wise use of the knowledge we inherited from our ancestors could heal us. But the modern Western worldview is too rigid, and the habit of eradicating traditional beliefs has taken root too deeply in our society. Even such a field of modern science as the psychology of archetypes uses only their lifeless formal schemes instead of living myths. People no longer believe in the ability of myth to penetrate into the true, indescribable nature of things and miss the state generated by myth, which is living wisdom. Having opened up to modernity, we fenced ourselves off from antiquity, and until a breach is made in this wall, we are doomed to remain outside ourselves, cut off from that eternal Reality, the vision of which was once bequeathed to us.

Sincere prayer could save us, but few now believe that prayer can change something: we have ceased to see in Nature a living being that can be asked for compassion. This attitude towards Nature went out of fashion in Western culture the day the philosophers of ancient Greece announced that they no longer knew how to interpret the oldest sacred texts, rituals and symbols. Instead of turning inward and trying to find the meaning of the primordial wisdom, lost in the ages, these "saviors" turned their gaze outward, to a one-sided contemplation of the material Universe, and concluded that only that part of nature that we can hear, see should be considered real. , taste, smell and touch. As a result, even thinking about the possibility of the existence of such a phenomenon as living mythology has become illogical. The gods were declared to be exaggerated images of famous people in the past. Greek myths, having lost their essence, began to be perceived simply as artistic allegories. They have come down to us in the form of fables and fairy tales, which everyone is free to interpret as they please.

Society's departure from the mythical and sacred is exacerbated by the notion, typical of modernity, that progress can only be linear. This position, according to which the new is always superior to the old, is a natural consequence of the Western habit of linear thinking. Assuming that new forms of seeing reality must inevitably crowd out and replace older models of perception, the dogma of linear progress blocks the path of ancient wisdom into modernity. From a superficial point of view, there is a great deal of truth in this, since myths are constantly finding new ways to carry out their mission, corresponding to the time and the conditions in which they find themselves. But, acquiring new forms, myths do not change their essence (no matter how hard, for example, representatives of "liberation theology" try to put a new meaning into the Christian myth); they only develop new ways of communicating unchanging, eternal knowledge.

healing myth

You can not "transplant" myths from one culture to another forcibly, in droves; nor can one accept all the living traditions of other cultures indiscriminately. Not all traditions are worth reviving. The bloodthirsty culture of the Aztecs, with its human sacrifice, is an example of such a heritage, which, in all likelihood, is better off dead. We should open ourselves only to healthy, life-affirming traditions whose living wisdom could help us become "more alive" and "wiser." The human race has not yet forgotten about those truly cultivated plants that grew on a common heap of "mythological compost" in time immemorial, but still bear fruits with exquisite taste and healing properties. Just as material Nature seeks to survive by creating various combinations of DNA, so the Nature of myth seeks to preserve and increase its living wisdom. And just as the flora and fauna of one continent often successfully take root on another continent, so myths that arose on one cultural soil can be transplanted to another and, interbreeding with local traditions, form unpredictably expressive hybrids, some of which will flourish. Perhaps these new "shoots" of wisdom will not return to us what we once lost, but some of them can successfully graft onto the tree of our collective mythology and bring us juicy fruits.

One of the potential sources of such "escapes" is India, because a characteristic feature of the Indian spirit is the ability to link many, sometimes contradictory, aspects of "givenness" into a single multidimensional substance. Most of the founding Indian myths were originally intended to convey knowledge of cosmology and medicine, ideas about archetypes and socio-cultural norms, as well as elements of spiritual and mystical teachings to those who are able to use them. But even if you cannot fully understand them, healing traditions such as "The Majesty of Saturn" will give you reliable protection against the pernicious delusions of the pathological myth - provided you open your heart to them.

A myth will not be able to enter your soul if you habitually fence yourself off from it with a barrier of intellectual analysis. If you try to rationalize your experience of the myth, calmness and confidence will come over you only for a brief moment and will not penetrate deeper than the conscious level of your being. Only if you dare to fully immerse yourself in mythical reality will you have the opportunity to return to its source - to enter the territory where, perhaps, the secret of your integrity is hidden. Trying to comprehend the experience of a myth without first allowing it to penetrate into the depths of your being and appeal to your soul is like trying to interpret a dream that you have not yet dreamed. The natural order of things requires that the sense-perception of experience precede its comprehension; this is why beginners are more receptive to myth - the less you know, the easier it is for you to open up to something new. By abandoning all philosophies and opening up to the myth, as an innocent child opens up to the world around him, you allow the myth to penetrate you. If you want the myth to do its job, you must let go of the control of the mind and surrender to the hands of the myth, as the protagonist of our story, King Vikramaditya, had to do. Once you learn this, the Universe itself will become your teacher.

Because most of us have been trained to appreciate only those experiences that are understandable to the conscious mind, everything else gives rise to fear in us: the mind always feels danger when something is out of its control. Try to soften this fear, let your mind get used to it. Imagine that you are a deer in the forest, and the myth is a wise old man who appeared nearby. Approach him carefully so that you have time to retreat at the slightest manifestation of hostility. Do not rush your intellect, give it enough time to yield some of its powers to intuition. And when you finally see that the heart of the myth is transparent through and through, and its tenderness and compassion are boundless, you can calmly bow your head on its knees. Just absorb every sensation that comes to you and you will find yourself entering the myth instinctively and naturally, without the slightest effort on your part. But before you remove the protective barrier, be sure to make sure that you are not influenced by any cult forces. This will give you confidence that the legend of Saturn will not overwhelm you with astrological superstition and turn you into a zombie enthusiastically shelling out money to some scammers.

"The Greatness of Saturn" is a life-affirming legend, it gives healthy ideas about man, the cosmos and the interaction between them - and these ideas penetrate into the very depths of the consciousness of those who open themselves to it. When reading or listening to this story, try to heed the feeling of unity and integrity of being that it generates in you. Good doctors and astrologers are already using the therapeutic possibilities of storytelling everywhere, and stories, favored by Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) and Jyotish (traditional Indian astrology), primarily help to recreate a holistic perception of reality for those whose consciousness is used to working in one direction. As you acquire this inner sense of all-encompassing unity, you will feel how it will begin to manifest in you and affect your entire life.

jyotish

The hymns of the Vedas were not invented by people. They were perceived or "seen" as embodiments of Reality by inspired Seers - rishis (lit. - "seers"). From time immemorial, it was believed in India that the only real “thing” in the Universe that existed before the creation of the world, gives life to everything in this world and will exist after our manifested Universe perishes, is a homogeneous “Spirit” that is outside time, space and cause-and-effect relationships. This universal soul, also called paramatma or purusha, is the Absolute, the universal Reality, the indeterminate and unlimited "fundamental reality" from which all other realities flow. It is the source of all knowledge and the potential of all that is possible. The Vedic hymns are inspired expressions of this Ultimate Reality as seen by the Rishis; all Indian vidyas (forms of living wisdom, including Ayurveda and Jyotish) grew on their fertile soil. Each Vidya is a kind of goddess, a muse who requires patient and tireless worship from her disciples until a personal relationship is established between them and her, a mutual bond in which one belongs to the other. And then the veil of mystery is lifted, and understanding comes to the student. Until the muse has mastered you completely, you will not master wisdom.

Jyotish is one of the varieties of sadhana (spiritual practice), a method of comprehending Jyotir Vidya ("Knowledge of Light") and, ultimately, the universal Reality through the medium of the Nine Planets. An important part of this sadhana is the planetary myth. Most of us "know" that nine planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto - revolve around the Sun. From the point of view of the Sun, this is true. However, from a terrestrial point of view, it is obvious that the Sun revolves around the Earth. The famous physicist Ernst Mach once stated that, according to the principle of relativity, there is no reason to adhere to any one of these points of view as the only true one. We can choose the one that is more convenient and applicable for our purposes. Since in this case we are more interested in how the planets influence us, and not how we influence them (although this influence takes place), it is more convenient and useful to look at the sky from our human position, from the point of view of an earthly observer. Five planets are visible from Earth to the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Adding to them the Sun and the Moon - two luminaries, one of which seems to revolve around the Earth, and the other really revolves - we get the same seven "planets" that almost all ancient civilizations began to distinguish no later than 1500 BC.

Each of these "planets" governs one of the days of the week:

Sunday - Sun

Monday - Moon

Tuesday - Mars

Wednesday - Mercury

Thursday - Jupiter

Friday - Venus

Saturday - Saturn

It is not known whether the seven-day week was used in India during the Vedic era, but in any case, Jyotish accepted it cordially. Given that the number seven plays an important role in numerology (for example, we can recall the seven notes of the musical scale, the seven colors of the rainbow, or the "seven seals of the Apocalypse"), this number of planets suited astrologers for centuries. But at least fifteen centuries ago in India, two more "heavenly bodies" were ranked among the planets. These were Rahu and Ketu - the so-called lunar nodes, two points of intersection of the plane in which the Moon revolves around the Earth, with the ecliptic (the plane in which the Earth orbits around the Sun). Rahu and Ketu are immaterial and cannot be seen. However, these points at which solar and lunar eclipses occur still affect us. With the addition of Rahu and Ketu, the number of "planets" increased to nine: now these are, as it were, seven colors of the rainbow, located between infrared and ultraviolet radiation invisible to the human eye. Despite the fact that our decimal number system uses nine digits. Nine Planets symbolize, from the point of view of numerology, the totality of possibilities in the Universe.

For many centuries, Indian astrologers have been convinced that the greatest, most influential and most dangerous of the Nine Planets is Saturn, and they have spent much of their time and effort in search of methods that would help man to restrain the harmful effects of Saturn's influence.

One such life-saving remedy is the living myth "The Majesty of Saturn" which is about to begin for you in your personal "now".

How to use Saturn Majesty

Choose a time of the day or night when no one will distract you; while reading, try to isolate yourself from all worldly influences (turn off the radio and TV; turn off the phone or put it on the answering machine; if necessary, hang a warning note on the door). Try to sit down to read at the same time; in this case, it is desirable to turn the face in the same direction every time. If possible, take a bath or shower before reading. If this is not possible, at least wash your hands, face, and feet. Light a candle or lamp. Fill the room with incense. If there are flowers, they will come in handy too. When you sit down to read, put a piece of something sweet in front of you. The delicacy will absorb some of the vibrations that will come from you while communicating with the book. When you eat it, having completed the reading, these vibrations will penetrate deep into your body and begin to gradually transform your consciousness from the inside.

Sound is very important. The sound of a word constitutes its semantic side, which goes beyond the limits of the conscious mind. The perception of a word simply as an intellectual form destroys those of its deep semantic vibrations, which, being pronounced, it conveys to its listener. Those with ears will do better by listening to this story or reading it aloud to someone. Even if you read it to yourself, try to pronounce the text in your inner speech. Pay attention to all words, including proper names. Don't try to remember them, try to feel them. You can move on to intellectual analysis later, after you "feel" this story in its entirety. Get into it and let it get into you.

Working with a healing myth is similar to many other healing procedures that exist in the traditions of different peoples, such as, for example, Indian steam wigwams or Ayurvedic cleansing methods, collectively referred to as panchakarma. Any such practice begins with a preliminary stage (Skt. purvakarma) - preparation for the main action. This is followed by the actual procedure (pradhanakarma), which should lead to a kind of catharsis, deep cleansing. In terms of physical cleansing, Ayurvedic practices are perhaps more effective than reading The Majesty of Saturn, which is primarily focused on achieving catharsis in the emotional-spiritual sphere. However, if you prepare for this stage properly, the myth will certainly show its healing properties. The final stage is pashchatkarma, the purpose of which is to restore integrity and rejuvenation. This book is also divided into three parts. The introduction should help you prepare for the perception of the myth, the reading of which is the main stage; the final part of the book will help you make sense of what you read and find the best practical application for it.

By undertaking to read this legend, you thereby assume the responsibility for passing it on to other people. This book is my way of conveying to you the knowledge it contains. A.K. Ramanujan, in the preface to his book "Folk Tales of India" wrote: "Words and legends not only have weight; they also have their own desires and passions; they can take various forms and take revenge on those who do not retell them to others ... They live only when they are transmitted, otherwise they suffocate and die. That is why books like this one arise. If you know any living history, you are responsible for its transmission not only to others, but to itself ... Traditions should not stay in place.

Like all living things, they need movement. And the one who keeps them in captivity risks incurring their disgrace" (Ramanujan, 1991, pp. xxx-xxxi). Further, Ramanujan tells about a man from the Gond tribe who knew four legends, was too lazy to retell them. One night, when the whole tribe was sound asleep, the legends got out of his stomach, sat on the snoring lazy astride and, after conferring, decided to kill him because he did not retell them to anyone. The lazy man survived only thanks to his servant, who wanted to take the legends for himself and, having overheard their plot prevented them from killing their master Elsewhere tells of a song that a woman never sang and a legend she told no one Once, while the woman was sleeping, they came out of her mouth and turned into a man's coat and boots , which caused in her husband an attack of violent jealousy.