Next to the 10^th, the house of karmas, the 7^th is the most challenging house in today’s context. Here’s why. Our basic instincts and sensuality attract us to many opposites, including, most importantly, the opposite sex. This natural stirring of love and passion, brings joy, often changes lives in fundamental ways.

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You may not run the 100 meter sprint. But you are competing. Try tracing a moment when you are not in competition? As a child, even before you were able to walk you were hit by a psychological phenomena-`sibling rivalry’.You compete with your siblings for more attention from your parents. You envy your friend’s new dress or his toy and you want it for yourself, often at any cost. The competition in you is always active. It never seizes even for a moment. It goes deeper and deeper into the subconscious mind. And you are condemned to compete in your youth, adulthood and even in your twilight years.

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The consequences of an action that takes a few seconds to complete could impact you after a thousand years. Hard to swallow! But the mechanism of　 human action is such that the results could remain suspended for years and may manifest themselves after a millennium. Hence, whether you believe in reincarnation or not, think before you act. This debate on the moral consequences of our actions surely will lead us to a better understanding of our own self and of natural and karmic justice.

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Reflect on this: A hit on the heart or a blow to a fragile home leave many　vibrations ! Why? This letter takes you to the core of a horoscope – the 4^th house that governs the heart and happiness. Did you know that at the end of each of the first two phases of life governed, respectively by the first to fourth house and the fifth to eighth, alarms ring for a lifestyle overhaul? These alarms gear you up for the periodical reforms. They reveal that the actions at the appropriate time is life’s call, perhaps its purpose. Significantly, the third phase of life (related to the ninth to twelfth house) does not come with much opportunity to reform. It ends, without forewarnings, in death either with moksha or another life attached after death.

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What was infancy is childhood today & the childhood of yesterday is perhaps adulthood today: How soon does a child get attracted to what others have but he doesn’t? The fascination for goodies and the sense of the having or not comes faster to him now, perhaps than ever before, for he watches TV from birth and possibly registers the sounds of mobiles and advertising jingles in his mother’s womb. Earlier, it was a gradual process to the 2nd house stage, governing wealth and possessions, from the 1st house, representing physique and initial period of life in a horoscope. But no longer. The 2nd house, among many areas, importantly governs wealth, the fascination for which perhaps is now activating a child sooner than ever before.

In earlier times, people reached the phase of fascination for wealth only when exposed to youthful pastimes like the cinema. In pre-independence decades, it was perhaps in early youth. We are assaulted with advertising images of goods to be desired from childhood now. We perhaps need to redefine and re-age infancy and childhood.

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Have you ever thought how many living beings surround you?  On one belief there are  84 lac different yonis (living beings) that live with us. This belief goes further and claims that human beings take birth in the body of each of these yonis to experience their plight. Close your eyes under the sky and you will feel them. Go to the mountain top to feel  nature living and talking to you. Life vibrates. The earth rotates for us to glimpse the entire universe in 24 hours.

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An old man lived all alone and had no one to ask him even whether he was dead or alive. He survived on memories of the good old days and the time that he had spent with his family. One day while exploring the forest he found an immaculate horse grazing leisurely. The horse had such a stunning appearance that the old man was compelled to stop. He sat to observe this aesthetically crafted creation of God. He patted the majestic horse and the horse responded affectionately. He was surprised to find the good looking horse following him to his door step. He arranged water for the gorgeous horse and got what he knew the horses like. He slept dreaming about the good looking horse. Next morning he was surprised that the horse had not moved from his door step. He rode the horse and it was a wonderful ride. He went deep into the forest and covered great distances to locate the owner but no luck. With the attention and affection that the old man gave the horse started to become more and more beautiful. The old man came to be known as the proud owner of lovely horse. People requested rides on the attractive horse and he obliged. He earned from the rides. From an unfortunate old man be became a fortunate horse owner. People called him lucky for they knew the horse came from his destiny. One morning the horse disappeared. He waited for hours, and then days, weeks and months passed. The horse had simply vanished. People enquired and sympathized with him. He was sad and became sadder and weaker than ever before. Were they right or were they wrong he thought, in consoling him for he thought everything seemed arranged and predestined. It is sequence of events that unfold, he told himself.

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Where is my real self and can my credit card buy a new me?

Are we being watched and judged?  Can we escape our immoral deeds? Will retribution come in this life? These are some of the questions that haunt the conscientious in kaliyuga and cause stress. We are assessed by our neighbors on the façade of our house, the behavior of our children, the car we drive and the visitors we receive. Similar assessments are made wherever we may be- in office, in the club or the neighborhood park. This prompts a tendency to project ourselves as larger than we actually are. We go for beauty aids and expensive clothes, swiping credit cards; and borrow funds for the car we can ill afford. We are encouraged to do this even more when our posture gets a positive feedback from society. It improves our reputation and goodwill. We do this with  rooms in our workplace, our business, our possessions, and in fact with everything that impacts our image. It is the interface between us and society that matters. It takes us to places we envy and gives us in excess of our wants. But not without stress and tension.

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The fascination for numbers and dates is perhaps as old as the evolution of Man. Animals too have the sense of numbers for they certainly keep a count of their children and siblings. The camel who roams in the waterless desert for days surely assesses the water stored in his body and perhaps creates a numerical value for it. Does human counting do more harm than good? Most of the counts we engage ourselves in cause mental stress and suffering. Count your age, you can at best get to 122, the age of the world’s oldest person. The number for average longevity scares you. Counting money makes you envious of the wealth of others, which results in frustration. Waiting and counting is worse.

“Marize Ishq se waida kar gaye 5 din ka kisi se sun liya hoga ki zindagi 4 din ki hai”. 
( The lover promised 5 days of love, perhaps knowing life itself would last 4 days)

Counting scares you and makes you think you may not get the most desired and the most cherished.

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Did you know of a fountainhead of blessings eternally spouting goodness?  It seeks the deprived and has loads and loads of happiness, wealth, knowledge and bonanzas stored for all. It is of course the most benefic planet, Jupiter, that showers blessings always. The flow is unending but needs to be harnessed and harvested. Jupiter as the giver sits in the skies but as takers we have to be deserving to maintain its flow or else the bulge of Jupiter will simply expand with goodwill and we will remain dry of its munificence.

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November began with a change that occurs every one and a half years- the shift of a sign by Rahu-Ketu on 2nd November. The mention of Rahu-Ketu brings images of something wicked, weird, witchy, perhaps from wonderland. Something detestable and negative. The image of a monstrous dragon from China perhaps, for Rahu-Ketu are also called Dragon’s head and Dragon’s tail. Something mysterious and cruel – the image of a dragon chopped in half, still alive, and slithering to take revenge with a jaw eager to bite and a tail whose wag could cause fatal damage. This illusion, scares the victims, particularly of `Kaal Sarpa Dosha’, visualized, conceived, devised, designed, produced, spread and marketed by the Ponga Pandits.

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