Why I don’t believe in astrology, numerology and Vastu anymore

There was a time, not very long ago, when I had a team of 'advisors'.One was a Vastu consultant, another was a Feng-Shui expert and the third was an astrologer.Which direction I faced when I was sitting to make important decisions, what would be the prescribed direction of the door to my house, the direction of my bed, and matters like where the money of the house should be kept - all of these decisions were made only after consulting my Feng-Shui consultant.Interestingly, a Vastu consultant also was used for a 'second opinion'.

And then there was the astrologer. Charts were read and re-read. Predictions were made. Prayers, poojas and havans were done to appease the right kind of planets. Charity was offered on the right days. New cars were booked only on auspicious days and then brought into the house only on other auspicious days. New business ventures were launched at auspicious times. In fact, most important life events had a correct time, one that was suggested by the astrologer.

And then Kundalini Yoga happened to me.

Overnight, my perspectives changed, and I realized one critically important aspect of life, which I would like to share with you.

The simple truth is that our life is the journey of our soul. Our soul is meant to experience, learn and grow in its dimension and in its depth. There are experiences that our soul must endure so that it ends its journey with a profound understanding of what it has come to learn on this earth by way of taking a human body.

By interfering with that charted course for your journey, you only prolong the time and number of lives taken to allow those experiences to naturally happen to you.

I have a friend who is single at the age of 36. Not that it is unnatural to be single at that age, except that he has desperately wanted to be married from the time he turned 24. Handsome, very well-off and from a well-known family, he has no dearth of interested girls that a lot of men would give their left arms for.

The problem is that if he does end up liking a girl, he has to send her horoscope to be matched with his by his astrologer, Acharyaji. If Acharyaji says that the horoscope is not a good match, well, it's adios amigas for that young lady. So out of the eight-odd girls that my friend fell in love with, ALL were rejected on account of planetary mis-matches.

The tragic/ comic story of my own life is that I was married once before, for nine years. I did what guys like my friend, and also most of India, does, and matched our horoscopes before our marriage.

According to the three astrologers I showed our horoscopes to, it was the most perfect match they had seen in a long, long time. 34 out of 36 planets matched, which was incredible.

To cut a long story short, we got divorced after nine years of trying to make this marriage work. Today, I am happily with an amazing woman whom I married without bothering to match our horoscopes, simply because I knew that I had to commit the rest of my life to being with her.

Kundalini Yoga, and the realisations that have dawned on me in various meditations, have taught me that there is no experience that is good or bad. It is our reactions to those experiences that alters the course of our lives and determines whether we live a happy or morose existence. By living in constant dread of astrological events, charts, numbers and directions, we inhibit our lives, which were designed to be ones of freedom and joy. By allowing the stress of following dates as per our charts, and surrendering the control of our lives to religious dogmas and superstitions, we effectively disconnect from the cosmic vibration that guides us and leads us to bliss by way of intuition and divine light.

All we need to do is to surrender to the goodness within and believe in our own divinity. Because the simple truth is that the God that we seek in the church, temple, mosque and gurudwara actually resides in us.

When you realise this truth and know its power in totality, all beliefs, customs and religions fall by the wayside. What emerges then is a new you. It's what some people call "enlightenment", though I myself prefer the term "self-realisation".

Before I sign off, there is one aspect of both Vastu as well as Feng Shui that you must know about. Both propagate a home, and indeed, a life that is devoid of clutter and also both advise (very strongly) to not keep artefacts, paintings or antiques that are ugly, disfigured or sad in nature. The energy and vibration that is emanated from a work like that is bound to negatively impact you.

Better to see Damien Hirst's skull and Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' in the museum, then.

"Live your life like a feather. Be light. Be free. Free to fly wherever the winds of life take you. Free to live an adventure. Free to live in tune with the cosmic vibrations of love and harmony. Let the feather be your truth."