A leading astrological researcher, based in Hyderabad, India.
Ram says: "Like every one else, I too am a traveller adrift in this journey of life, in the quest for the Truth. Circumstantially, I am a graduate in Mathematics and worked as a computer analyst programmer for 15 years before giving up all commercial activities to take up full time astrological research, which I have been doing for more than a decade now."
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The Gospel of Grandpa [part seventeen] The Happisad Theory
In this latest installment of the Gospel of Grandpa, Ram Ramakrishnan, our correspondent from Hyderabad, outlines Grandpa's views on the way our experiences balance out, evening up the joys and the sorrows. He explains that consciousness experiences ongoing strands of phenomena, that may be seen from different perspectives.
Balance. Equilibrium. Stability. These are the watchwords of nature, as we see and understand it. Every moment, the environment around – both physical and emotional – is subject to the processes of imbalance, inequilibrium and destabilization which are constantly endeavoured to be set right by all entities at various levels. As we delve deeper into this phenomenon, the distinction between processes and entities gets increasingly blurred. That which is an entity to a process becomes a process to another entity. A perceived process that appears to restore balance to one entity seems to destabilize another.
This was the subject of discussion between Grandpa and the children as they lay in their sickbeds tended to by Grandma. There had been an outbreak of a viral infection in the neighborhood recently and the three were its hapless victims. Grandma was made of sturdier stuff. The most virulent of infections would be wary of her. She was capable of exorcising all instability from herself by thought alone. She firmly believed that nothing could affect her and it had indeed been so!
The manner of thought of the children were now increasingly being tuned to ways of science as they progressed through school and they asked Grandpa whether the observable fact of this persistent and seeming interchange between balance and inequity could be quantified and expressed in terms of mathematically workable laws. Grandpa immediately warmed up to the thought. He said that all effects on us or for that matter on any being can be expressed in terms of the resultant happiness or sadness. This feeling could perhaps be quantified.
A situation could be said to instill a certain number of units of “happis” or “sads” in a being. As long as the count of happis and sads are balanced there is equilibrium. In the event of an imbalance – which is constantly happening – we endeavour to restore parity. There is perpetual interaction of beings or entities of all kinds in this never-ending process. For instance, said Grandpa, there is a glut of sads in our respective kitties at present because of our sickness which we seek to address by taking medicines and also eagerly consuming the liberal doses of affectionate tending by Grandma!
Could this theory be linked to astrology? – asked the children. Yes, of course, said Grandpa. It will be possible to work out from a birth chart the time periods in an individual's life when there is to be a dearth or excess of happis and sads. It should also be possible to express a given situation in terms of the number of units of these two measures existing in one's account, if positional attributes of celestials can be directly linked to them.
Just then, there was a call at the gate. It was a Thursday and time for a mendicant who came regularly at this appointed hour seeking alms – a sight quite common in the developing world and maybe not so uncommon in the developed ones as well. He was a leper, with deformed limbs, slurred speech and a grotesque face. Grandma would not send away anyone empty-handed if they sought anything at her door and so it had become a routine.
What about such people? – asked the children. Would their account ever attain a state of equilibrium? There would always be a surplus of sads only. Yes, said Grandpa, it certainly appears to be so. But there are two points of view to this. The first is that we cannot judge another person's level or state of equilibrium. What is sad or happy for us need not be so to another. If this argument were to be correct then perhaps for all beings, a state of equilibrium is observed considering their whole life span. The possibility of this not being so, is what gives rise to the idea of re-incarnation – which is accepted by some and not by others. This idea looks at a probable scenario where account balances are carried across births. Since nothing from the material world can be carried between each naissance in a series, it has to be the mysterious entity referred to as consciousness that has to do the monitoring of accounts. This will in turn necessitate defining a law of conservation of happisad
accounts, which are accessed by entities termed consciousness that represent a material body in each naissance. Astrology does provide a platform for exploring such a theory too, but here we step in to the realm of the unknown and not easily verifiable deductions, with all its pitfalls and weaknesses.
If the idea of reincarnation were to hold water, thought the children aloud, then it seems to be such a waste of time for learning everything from scratch in each birth, only to forget all at the end of every lifetime. But Grandpa had another opinion on this. He said that knowledge too appears in many garbs, each of which could be termed an entity. Each such entity has a definite period of relevance, after which it decays and dies only to be born again in a different garb. Lifetimes of such entities span many human generations. It is not humans that contribute to knowledge. It is a body of knowledge that uses humans as cells in its period of growth and decay. For us, learning of a particular body of knowledge and its application merely constitutes a means of balancing happi-sads in our continual attempt at achieving equilibrium. This argument is applicable to the bodies of knowledge as well.
It had been almost a week since the children had been to school. The following day they felt that they had sufficiently recovered to attempt an attendance. Unfortunately for them, an examination was scheduled for the day for which they weren't prepared but had to take. There were two glum faces that returned in the evening to confide in Grandpa that they could manage less than 80 percent marks in their respective examinations. But they also realized that this is what their Grandpa meant by saying that the learning and use of a body of knowledge was only to set the level of their individual happisad accounts!
Here ends this chapter of a continuing story. Read more from
Here ends this chapter of a continuing story. Read more from 
