In my shelter, Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre, I have 400 cows and buffaloes. They have been rescued from slaughter, accidents and acid attacks. I would have gone bankrupt feeding them. Amazingly, I have never had to spend a paisa. Next to our gate is a shop that sells green fodder and hay. Everyday dozens of people buy it for our cows. 

All these people have come because of astrological compulsions. Astrology is the way we map our lives by the movements of stars and planets. Jyotish, the ancient Indian system of astrology, says that planets represent energies that emit magnetic and electric fields which influence the lives of human beings. The horoscope is a map at the time and place of birth which shows the positions of the planets in relation to the person.

Are these influences unchangeable? No, says astrology. You can change your luck and mitigate the malefic influence of a planet. 

Dr Shankar Adawal has sent me his fascinating book called Charms, Talismans and Spells. He heads one of the biggest companies in India but is better known as an astrologer. He says by using of these astrological charms/talismans which come from the ancient Vedas, your desires will be heard by the universal energy source. He deals with the problems that we go to astrologers for: children, jobs, health, financial prosperity, marriages.

Feeding animals is a very easy way to change one’s luck. After all, eight of the 12 signs are represented by animals : Aries (Mesh) - Ram, Taurus (Vrishabh) – Bull ; Cancer (Kark) – Crab; Leo (Simha) – Lion; Scorpio (Vrishchik) – Scorpion; Sagittarius (Dhanu) – Half Body Human Half Body Horse; Capricorn (Makar) – Mouth of a Deer, Shoulders of a Bull and Eyes of an Elephant; Pisces (Meena) – Two Fishes

The law of karma means that a being lives within parameters created by actions performed in prior lifetimes. The energy that the planets cast are called grahas and these grahas can be tuned. There are nine (graha means ‘to seize or influence): Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Sun, Moon, Rahu and Ketu. When the planets are weak or in a bad place in the horoscope then they adversely affect the person.

All of us are affected by all the grahas all the time. What do these remedies (totkas) do? To give you a simile: the day will continue to be hot but you will get a fan to cool you; if cold you get a shawl; it might rain – but you get an umbrella. In short to bring relief and nullify your problems, the sages developed remedies using gems, mantras, prayers, colours, fasts, charity, metals and amulets. 

Surya or lord of the Sun represents the soul, the king, highly placed persons or fathers.

Chandra or lord of the Moon represents the mind, the queen or mother.

Mangala or lord of Mars represents energetic action, confidence and ego.

Budha or lord of Mercury is the protector of merchants and represents communication.

Brihaspati or the Lord of Jupiter is the Guru of the gods. He represents knowledge, teaching, eloquence.

Shukra is the lord of Venus and represents wealth, pleasure and reproduction. 

Shani is the lord of Saturn. He represents learning the hard way, career and longevity. 

Rahu is the head of the snake that swallows the sun or the moon causing eclipses. His job is to make your life difficult. According to legend, during the churning of the ocean the demon Rahu drank some of the divine nectar. But before the nectar could pass down his throat, Vishnu cut off his head. The immortal head is Rahu. The body is Ketu. 

Ketu is the tail of the snake. In special circumstances he helps achieve the peak of fame. He represents supernatural influences.

Remedies for different planets:

Sun: Feed wheat rotis to Cows and jaggery to monkeys on Sundays

Moon: Feed wheatflour balls to fishes on Mondays. Keep a white cow. Give water to all cows

Mars: Feed gram (chana) and jiggery (gud) to monkeys on Tuesdays

Mercury: Feed green grass or fodder to cows on Wednesday and millet (bajra) to pigeons. If Mercury is malefic give spinach to four legged animals for 27 Wednesdays. Do not keep birds in cages.

Jupiter: Feed soaked gram lentils (Chana Daal) and jaggery to yellow cows on Thursday and corn to pigeons. Give gram dal to a horse for 7 Thursdays

Venus: Feed milk to cats or feed fishes on Friday. Give part of your food to a cow every day

Saturn: Feed black dogs buttered or oiled rotis and to black cows on Saturday. 

Rahu: Feed buffaloes and free snakes from snake charmers on Wednesdays. Feed leaves to an elephant

Ketu: Keep a pet dog and feed multicoloured dogs regularly. Keep a cow or a rabbit. Feed ants with sesame seeds

In order to stop children being unpredictable, the child should offer one oiled chappati every Saturday to a dog

If a person believes that an evil spell has been cast on him, he should offer burfis (milk sweets) on Sunday and Monday to a cow. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Friday and Saturday he should give motichoor ladoos (a ball like orange sweet) to a dog. 

Students who want to improve should offer jaggery and roasted grams to monkeys, Hanuman temples and feed the birds.

A child who stammers should offer green grass to a cow

While going for a job interview take a chappati and throw it in the direction of the crows. Soak black grams on Friday night and then mix with mustard oil. Give half to a horse or buffalo and half to a leper. Do this for forty days to ensure professional success

If your business is sluggish, make some besan laddoos, wave them round your head seven times and feed them to a cow on Thursday

If you want a promotion, offer the birds seven types of cereals. For your income to rise give wet black grams to monkeys

In order to get married give two balls of wheat flour mixed with a little turmeric, jaggery and wet gram pulses to a cow every Thursday

If your husband is a drunkard, take flour of the same weight as his shoes and roll a chappati just using your hands (without a pin or board) and bake it directly on the fire without a tawa and then give it to the street dogs. Do this thrice and he will become averse to liquor. (This is supposed to be foolproof)

If your husband, under the influence of another woman, ignores or criticizes you , take 300 grams of ladoos made of gram flour (besan) two ladoos made of wheat flour, three bananas and wet gram pulse and feed these to a cow that is feeding its calf. Your husband will change.

Once a month cook more sweet chappatis than the number of people and guests you have in the house and give them to any animal. This will save the family from quarrels and expense.

When Ketu is malefic to a girl, her parents should give food to a hundred dogs from sunrise to sunset in one day.

For peace and prosperity astrology suggests:

Dogs as pets normally take all the evils visiting that particular household protecting their human families

Make it a principle to donate the first chappati to a cow and the last to a dog. This invites goddess Lakshmi to the home. Looking after cows removes the Pitra Dosha from your chart 

Maneka Gandhi

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