K. N. Rao (Kotamraju Narayana Rao) retired from the Indian Audit and Accounts Service as Director General in November 1990. He is the second of the four sons of the famous journalist of the pre-independence era, K. Rama Rao, the founder editor of the National Herald and editor of more than thirty journals in his long journalistic career. Rao was initiated into astrology by his late mother, K.Saraswani Devi, at the age of twelve in 1943. He regards her as the best astrologer he has known in two areas, marriage and children and prashna (horary).
Rao was a lecturer in English before joining the government service through an all-India competition in 1957. He joined the Indian Audit and Accounts Service from which he retired as Director General in November 1990. More interested in games and sports than in astrology in his youth, Rao won brilliancy prizes in chess competitions and two state championships in bridge competitions. He played ten other games which is why in his astrological writings also there are references to games often.
During his service career, he was the planner, organizer and teacher of three international courses on Audit of Receipts as a joint director once and director twice. His interactions with foreigners have been both on professional and astrological levels for more than two decades which is why he has, as an astrologer, a large international network of friends. He went on doing all his fundamental researches in astrology during his service career because of which, he went on collecting horoscopes systematically, in thousands. He has in his possession more than 50,000 horoscopes with ten important events of each individual noted with him. It is perhaps, the largest individual collection of horoscopes any astrologer in the world has.
The strain of doing astrology as a mission, not charging any fee, almost made him give up astrology many times. But in December 1981 he was forced out of his shell to participate in a three-day seminar on astrology in Delhi. After this ground breaking speech, there has been a persistent demand for his astrological articles. From then onwards he has been sharing with his readers his original researches for which he has won worldwide praise.
Between 1993 and 1995, Rao has visited the USA on five lecture tours. He was the Chief Guest at the Second Conference of the American Council of Vedic Astrology in 1993. He was requested to be present in the Third Conference also in 1994 on the opening day because of the crowds he would draw. His name was advertised till November 1995 also for the Fourth Conference though he had made it clear that he would not be available anymore for the American conferences.
As a result of his academic approach, he has now more than a thousand students in India and more than two hundred in the USA. He is the Director of Astrology Courses in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi. The teachers on the teaching faculty of the astrology course in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan have, like him, never charged any fees for teaching which they do in an honorary capacity. What impelled Rao to do it is well explained in his own horoscope where the lagna and the 10th lords get combined in the lagna, with an exalted Jupiter in the 10th house. All this was foreseen by his Jyotish Guru, Yogi Bhaskarananda of Gujarat whom Rao describes as the last of the Rishi astrologers in the purest classical mould. He had told him that he would have to visit many foreign countries to give to Hindu astrology the honour, recognition and dignity which it did not have till then. An American summed up the impact of the first ever foreign visit of Rao to the USA in 1993 as, "" Vedic astrology before Rao and after Rao"".
What different yogis have said about astrology as a Vedanga which he must not give up has been quoted in his book, Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time. Astrology is ill-reputed as a profession because of its mercenary and exploitative nature. Rao's desire never to turn into a professional astrologer, has won him thousands of admirers and also some enemies from the community of professional astrologers who felt threatened, when around him there grew up a fine team of more than two hundred academic astrologers like him, for whom astrology is not a source of living, but a super science to delve into the meaning and purpose of human life, which is what astrology, as Vedanga, should and has to be.
Both his mantra guru, Swami Paramananda Saraswati, and his jyotish guru, Yogi Bhaskarananda, taught him some secrets of spiritual astrology which are not given usually in any book of astrology. Rao has revealed some of these secrets in his book, Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time. Among Rao's recent fundamental and most original researches are his two books Predicting through Jaimini's Chara Dasha and Predicting through Karakamsha and Mandook Dasha. It has been possible for him to produce such researches because he was told by his jyotish guru that what was in parampara (tradition) was much more than what was contained in books of astrology which are translated literally and are without illustrations generally. His own mother, who was his first jyotish guru, knew many such traditional secrets, parts of which Rao has revealed in his three books, Ups and Downs in Careers, Astrology; Destiny and the Wheel of Time and Planets and Children.
It was the mantra guru of Rao, Swami Paramananda Saraswati, who first asked Rao not to give up astrology as it had to be an integral part of his sadhana. Later a great yogi, Swami Moorkhanandji, prophesied in 1982 that he would be the architect of a great astrological renaissance. Whether that is already fulfilled or not can be gauged from the impressive list of his researches published in his writings.
Among scores of appreciations he receives every week, only some are being produced here.
Arnold Toynbee had created a veritable storm in India to which I was a first hand witness, outside the office of the Statesman, the famous daily newspaper, in Calcutta, when I saw thousands of Muslims with black flags, shouting slogans against Toynbee describing Mahatma Gandhiji as being higher in his esteem than Prophet Mohammad and Jesus Christ. It was in the centenary year of the Mahatma, in the year 1969. Humayun Kabir' had stated mildly that in a democracy everyone enjoyed freedom of speech and, therefore Arnold Toynbee was entitled to his opinion. Considering his eminence, as a historian of historians, Arnold Toynbee, who in his earlier writings had fallen a victim to imperial prejudices of English rulers, had even made some unpleasant observations about India. Revision of his earlier opinions and, his later revaluations revealed the wise man, who was hidden in him earlier. We use the word ""swadheen"" for independence which is not correct. It means liberation and has a spiritual nuance. Indian nationalism is not independence in a pure political sense, but liberation in the spiritual sense. It is what Sri Aurobindo understood and expressed in his Uttarpara speech.
This book which deals with astrology and Indian nationalism essentially, with its ever present spiritual content, must start with an account of the sources and varieties of true nationalism of India. Then we have a vast number of devotees who do not know even the recorded history of India's spiritual nationalism. Varieties of Indian nationalism can be broadly classified as under.
Ashtadasha Puraneshu Vyasasya Vachanam Dwayam,
Paropkarah Punyaya Papaya Parapeedanaya
Only two words of Vyas are significant among all the eighteen Puranas, punya (spiritual merit) is to do good to others and papa (sins) is to torment others. This ofcourse is and has been the problems of scholars. The question was put by rishis and, not by ordinary house-holders who are not worried about this at all. Each individual follows the Path of Devotion that runs in the family or is created or recreated by a Guru. Yet at some stage, even we, when we read all these books, may and do, ask such a question.
It is astrology which I am discussing. Around it is woven the variegated fabric of history, with a central figure, prominent or less known, whose horoscope is the peg on which I hang a story, which I could not have narrated till my retirement in November 1990, when as a government officer, I was bonded employee of the central government, crippled by the so-called Government Conduct Rules. For me November, 1990 became a turning point, I had to wait for. I have published my astrological research and have written 22 (twenty two) books in this highly productive period of my life. In the recent book, Astrological Journey through History, Mystery and Horoscopes, and the present one, I have discussed my astrological portraits against a much vaster historical, political and social landscape, without which, neither astrological analysis can ever have depth nor astrologers, who mistake fortune-telling for astrology, will feel impelled to educate themselves more and more to understand the subtleties of jyotisha.
A cosmic science must always be combined with other disciplines like history, sociology, law, politics, medicine and so many other intellectual and non-intellectual pursuits of man.
It cannot be done by one single astrologer. A well-established doctor who has practised astrology for at least ten years can do some meaningful research into diagnosis of diseases. The days of talking of vata, pitta and kapha as ayurvedic doctors have done, has led to total stagnation in the astro-medical area. Similarly, in other areas, the negligence of the description of the historical, political, sociological, economic, national, international and, invariably, personal and idiosyncratic description, in a novel like fashion, of an individual has always been the biggest drawback of astrological writings dealing with notable personalities. In my Nehru Dynasty, when I did it, I won admiration from astrologers for showing the use of many techniques but, from the pro-Nehru and anti-Nehru groups, I won admiration and criticism. Yet that became a landmark in astrological-historical writing.
Then I had to read more than two hundred books (nearly three hundred) and check many other references to write the biggest book I have written, to date, Astrological Journey through History, Mystery and Horoscopes. When I showed its manuscripts to some intellectual astrologers, they felt that spiritual, intellectual, technical approach was the only method of proving that astrologers could be super-intellectuals, with a view of historical, political, sociological, economic, national, international and, invariably, personal and idiosyncratic traits of a person's life and achievements.
The present book, smaller than Astrological Journey through History, Mystery and Horoscopes is my third venture in this astrological experiment, in which as I have done always, in say, Ups and Downs in Career, Astrology, Destiny and the Wheel of Time, Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time, the story telling method is kept alive but, here it is less personal but more historical or spiritual. In this book I am giving portraits of many much greater personalities in one place.
Astrology writing has moved from the semi-primitive stage of discussions confined to the birth horoscope and the Vimshottari dasha with transits. How dangerous such approach is and how limited it is can be seen in a horoscope like the following of a woman born in western India.
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Horoscopes (198)
Medical Astrology (51)
Nadi (38)
Numerology (59)
Original Texts (254)
Palmistry (53)
Planets (264)
Romance (35)
Vastu (130)
Vedic Astrology (105)
हिन्दी (266)
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