Ram Ramakrishnan is a leading astrological researcher, based in Hyderabad, India. This article, an account of his experiences with a Naadi Reader in India, was first published in The International Astrologer,
the quarterly magazine of ISAR, the International Society for Astrological Research and is republished here by permission.
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 about a decade now."
You can write to Ram: Click Here |
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 An Amazing Encounter With Destiny... part 3
This article by Ram Ramakrishnan has been describing the author's experiences with the Naadi Readers of India. Part 3 continues the exploration of this remarkable encounter, taking up the story where the reader is in the middle of making some extraordinary statements about the author's life.
Naadi Reader: You would have three children and the first would not be surviving now. The eldest of the surviving ones is a girl followed by a boy.
Ram: Yes.
Naadi Reader: You should have been born in the year 1955 in the month of 'Aadi' (July 14th to August 14th)
Ram: Yes.
Naadi Reader: You should have been born on the 5th night.
Ram: Yes.
(Indian astrology reckons a day to be from sunrise to sunrise. I was born just before daybreak on the sixth of August, but by this norm it was the 5th night).
The reader then went on to describe the sidereal planetary positions corresponding to my birth time and poetically said that the planets in these positions were witness to the birth of the entity that was me. He also mentioned the year up to which life has been granted to me. And then, all of a sudden, we descended from the exalted heights of astrology to the mean domains of monetary mechanics.
The reader declared that this is all that can be said from the general section of my Naadi leaf, for which the charges were Rs.300 (approx. US$6). There were 13 other sections -- a section corresponding to each of the 12 houses and one pertaining to the previous incarnation. Each section would be read for an additional payment of Rs.275 (US$5.50). Thus, if one were to have all details narrated, it would cost Rs.300+(13xRs.275)=Rs.3875 (US$77.50). That was quite a packet and something that I could not afford.
I thought that there was a gleam of anticipatory glee in the reader's eyes, or perhaps it was all an imaginary reflection of my own meanness in suspecting meanness in others. In any case, I told the reader that I would come back for more some other day. It was about an hour since I had gone into the room. He asked me to wait for an hour more outside in the lounge, which was a long aisle leading to the door with one side open to the elements and a long wooden bench placed against the wall on the other side. This wait was for a cassette in which he would record whatever that he told me. As I was conversant with the Tamil language, he would record it in Tamil. For those who do not understand it, he could do the recording in either Telugu -- which was the local language, or Hindi -- the national language of India, or in English.
When I stepped outside to join others waiting in the makeshift lounge, I found my sister already there. She had had a much easier time in an adjoining room with her palm leaf having been found in the very first stack that was taken up. We exchanged notes about our encounters and it took us a while to come out of the bewildering experience. What was much more astonishing was the indication that we could not have come to the Naadi reader at any other time but now.
Consider the question that was put to my sister. Are you widowed? And the question that was put to me: Did your first-born not survive? My sister lost her husband 16 years ago. If she had come to the Naadi reader before this time, this question would have been irrelevant. Had I come to the reader 15 years ago, the question of my first born not survivng too would have been irrelevant. The statements that were read from the palm leaf stated the situation of the person in the present time. (At least this is what was mentioned by the reader). This would mean that we had a meeting with Destiny by appointment -- and not because we sought it !!
Before I wrote this article, I thought that I would seek a few more opinions from others and instigated friends to take the plunge and tell me how they viewed the entire matter. The point was not to debate on whether such a thing was possible astrologically. Those amongst us who are students of astrology are convinced that it is possible. In fact, I have been working on evolving standard mathematical procedures for computing precise dates related to genealogical events, for the last few years. The point was to make sure that this particular Naadi reader was not being devious and somehow managing to obtain a general idea about our background from the 'Yes', 'No' and the occasional 'Maybe' answers that we had been giving during the interactive sessions and make up our life story from those answers.
The unanimous opinion was that it seemed to be genuine. That our mind continues to harbour a shade of doubt can be noticed from the qualification 'seemed to be' for the verdict 'genuine'. For is it not a little difficult to digest the idea that the names that my wife and I chose for our children after much deliberation (and heated arguments) were the names they were to have anyway and this had been decided even before we ourselves or our parents and their parents came into existence?!
This concludes the article.
Return to the start of the Amazing Encounter with Destiny
| History of Naadi Shastra
The origins of the Naadi Shastra (energy-channel treatises) are shrouded in the mists of time. This marvellous system of prediction has been used for many centuries to give reliable guidance: knowledge about ourselves (past and future), our relationships and our destinies. Research shows that this system has been in use for at least 4000 years, since the treatises were first written (on palm leaf scrolls) in Sanscrit, the predominant language of ancient India. The original transmission was by oral means, before the committal of the texts to writing. The shastras are believed to have been first composed long ago by the Sapta Rishis (seven sages) -- Agasthya, Kausika, Vyasa, Bohar, Bhrigu, Vasishtha and Valmiki.
The primary centre for Naadi Shastra is in Vaitheeswarankoil, near Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, a state in South India. Here Lord Shiva is said to have assumed the role of a vaidhya (a doctor), who alleviated the miseries of his devotees. Until the 1930's, Naadi remained an ancient legacy, hardly used or even comprehended by the majority of Hindu Astrologers.
The preservation of the Naadi palm leaves and the translation from Sanskrit into the Tamil language was undertaken on a large scale during the regime of the Kings of Tanjore (9th-13th Century AD). When the leaves started disintegrating with age, the Tanjore rulers appointed scholars to rewrite them on fresh ola (palm leaves). Some of the Naadi Granthas were also translated into another South Indian language, Telugu. The Maratha king Sarabhoji and the Chola kings patronized these translations.
Each Naadi is made up of a particular ola or palm leaf, written in vatta ezathu, Tamil script, with a sharp, nail-like instrument called ezuthani. The palm leaves are preserved by rubbing peacock oil on auspicious occasions. These palm leaves are still preserved in the Saravasti Mahal library of Tanjore, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The predictions in the Naadis are in a commentary form, though in Shiva Naadi these predictions are presented as conversations between Lord Shiva and Mata Parvathi, expressing concern for and blessings on their devotees.
The Granthas are a set of highly organised manuscripts divided into sixteen chapters or kandams. These Kandams serialize the various aspects of materialistic and spiritual life of an individual such as family, marriage, profession, wealth , luck etc.
[Editor's note: The section in this box is based mainly on material from Naadi-shastra.com] |
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