(Bhargav
is a student of Swami who after completing his B.Tech in Textile Engineering
graduated with an MBA from the the Sri Sathya Sai University in 2001. Ever since, he
has had the great fortune of waiting for Swami’s direct guidance. He has been
blessed with many interactions with Swami and he pursues astrology as a hobby
to understand how it complements and dovetails spirituality. He shares his
insights on how the planets are not causes of fear; rather they all serve the
common goal of prodding man towards his spiritual destiny of Self Realization)
Preparations
were in full swing for Swami to leave for Brindavan, as was his wont,
after Shivaratri in 2001. It was a Saturday, the morning bhajans got over and
Swami took arati. All anticipated that He will sit in the car ready for him and
leave for Brindavan. But it didn't happen. He went into the interview room. All
eyes were riveted on the interview room door, waiting for the door to open. I
overheard one boy whispering to another behind me, "Swami will start only
after 10:30 am as it is a Saturday
and Rahu Kaalam is from 9:00am to 10:30 am." I was quite surprised and
laughed at them to predict Swami's starting time. To my utter astonishment, as
predicted, Swami came out exactly two minutes after 10:30 am, sat in the car and left for Brindavan. I
turned back and saw this boy's face who had that ‘you-see-I-knew-it’ kind of a
look.
I was assailed by a
lot of questions.
How can Swami who is
the supreme Lord, follow a thing like Rahu Kaalam?
Is the concept of
Rahu Kaalam so important to follow?
Is there a lesson in
this episode for me?
I tried to find out
more about this enigmatic concept of Rahu Kaalam which apparently our Lord also
tended to follow.
Each day, the
time from sunrise to sunset is divided into 8 segments, and each of the eight
planets i.e. Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Rahu- Ketu
together are assigned the lordship of each segment. The planet Rahu is
generally considered malefic so the time where Rahu(read Rahu and Ketu
together) is the lord is generally inauspicious. This time is called Rahu
Kaalam. Rahu is considered a sworn enemy of Sun who represents ego (the I
feeling) in an individual. Any activity undertaken is always done with the
feeling that 'I' am (individual ego) doing it. Sun also signifies vitality,
will power, zeal and energy which are essentials in accomplishing any task.
Influence of Rahu can affect all these traits thereby creating obstacles for
the individual. In such cases, it is advisable that the individual follows some
precautions i.e. avoiding the time of Rahu Kaalam in starting an
endeavour. There is a simple yet effective formula which is very popular
among students to remember the time of Rahu Kaalam for each day of the week.
The
formula is 'Mother Saw Father Wearing The
Turban on Sunday'. The
time period starts from 7:30 am in
the morning assuming the sunrise is at 6 am
and sunset is at 6 pm. Rahu Kaalam
lasts for a period of one and half hours approximately. First one or two
alphabets of each word in the formula represent the day of the week which
follows the order of the timing from 7:30 am
to 6:00 pm.
Mother
= Monday : 7:30 - 9:00
Saw = Saturday
: 9:00 - 10:30
Father
= Friday : 10:30 - 12:00
Wearing
= Wednesday : 12:00 - 13:30
The = Thursday
: 13:30 - 15:00
Turban
= Tuesday : 15:00 - 16:30
Sunday
= Sunday : 16:30 - 18:00
I was not satisfied
by this information and so I tried to ponder deeply about this concept. As
every concept of Sanatana Dharma has a deeper facet to it, I tried to
understand Rahu Kaalam in that light. If the activity is done with complete
surrender and with a feeling that He is doing it, then the influence of Rahu is
minimal as the source of strength, the doer of the work and the success of the
endeavour depends solely on Swami. This can be achieved when we have purity
of purpose, treat any mundane task as His work and offer the fruits
thereof completely to Him. Hence, every facet of Sanatana Dharma creates a
challenge for an individual to transcend the sense of doership and go deeper
within to find God. I was not very sure whether this interpretation of mine was
correct.
I had to wait for a
long time to get a confirmation from Swami and it came in His peerless style.
I heard a talk given
by a senior brother of the Seva organization in the institute wherein he
narrated his experience regarding Rahu Kaalam. He recounted: "I was in Bangalore
when I got a phone call saying Swami had summoned me to Parthi. It was past
nine on a Saturday, so I decided to wait till 10:30
am for the Rahu Kaalam to get over and started. I reached Parthi
and waited for an audience with Swami but HE ignored me for five days. On the
sixth day, He called me and severely rebuked me for not coming in time. When I
told the reason as Rahu Kaalam, He retorted, "When you call me, if I also
wait for Rahu Kaalam what will happen to you." He added, "There is
nothing like Rahu Kaalam, good Kaalam or bad Kaalam. All times are good. The
problem is in the purity with which you do an activity. If you have purity of
thought, action becomes pure even if it is done at bad time as God's grace will
flow. When God's grace flows, you will be the fortunate blessed
one." Then I asked him that why God created Rahu Kaalam. He explained it
in a very beautiful way. He said, "There is a cosmic consciousness which
is all pervasive and it affects the human mind at a particular time when you
are not pure. Those periods of time are called by you as Rahu Kaalam. This is
the time when the mind becomes dull and the actions done by you might not give
you the desired fruit. Hence it is suggested that you don't do some sacred or
auspicious action at that period of the day. But if you have purity of thought,
it can win over that inauspiciousness." I asked Swami, as to how we define
purity, how to know that one has purity of thought? Swami said, “The moment
you surrender your thought to me, it becomes pure. Good or bad, it has to
be surrendered wholeheartedly then it becomes pure."
Hence any act done
with complete absence of individuality becomes a pure action and remains
unaffected by time.
In the first
incident, Swami shows us how to conduct ourselves when we have a sense of
doership and in the second incident He exhorts us to attain the stage of
non-doership for His grace to flow to us.
I request all to share their opinions,
viewpoints and experiences regarding this concept of Rahu Kaalam. 
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