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Jyotish Star of the Month |
By Juliana Swanson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Juliana Swanson: Thanks, Prashanti, for taking the time from your very busy schedule to do this interview. You are a world nomad, but California is your home base. Where exactly?
Juliana: Your parents sound like really great people who brought you up well. Prashanti: They are such great people! I was raised Christian Reformed, so we went to church twice on Sunday, and I studied Calvinistic catechism, and I even went to �Calvin High School� and �Calvin College� before ending up at the University of Michigan, but the emphasis in our home wasn�t at all on religion or doctrine, but more on being a good kind loving accomplished person, as in �common courtesy,� as my dad used to say. My mom was so filled with love, and my dad had no problem telling the elders of the church what he thought of some of their uptight concepts. I used to revel in how he would scold the elders and I was so proud of him for it! My parents gave us a lot of love, endless kind supportive love, and it was a beautiful thing to be raised by them. I am very thankful for them. Juliana: Oh how fortunate! You grew up in what part of Michigan? When were you born? Prashanti: I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was born in 1961. I spent a lot of time in the woods. Because the Germans intentionally tried to starve Holland during the war, hunting was a dominant way to put food on the table. So my dad was a great hunter, and along with my dad and brothers in the forests and swamps of Northern Michigan, I did a lot of hunting, as in one to two days per week. We actually put a lot of food on the table this way with shotguns, rifles, and also often with archery. The forest was like our church. So many of my first shamanic experiences were attained while hunting in those forests in those days, as often I would move in total silence and merging with nature for days on end. I would even spend many days and nights in the forest in the winter in sub-zero temperatures, with no tent and no sleeping bag, but always I felt very deeply happy. Many people may not realize it, but some of the strongest Native American shamans arose there in those woods, and in that vibe I would often find myself as a teenager with and in a �second sight.� So precious it was! Juliana: Can you please tell us more about that experience of �second sight.� Prashanti: I remember being a child, maybe seven or eight years old, and thinking, �Okay. I'm me and there are these other people, but who am I really?� I had my own experience of the world, but there were so many people experiencing the world, or being conscious of the world. I would ask myself, �What is all this?� and �Who am I in it all?� I also remember that during these episodes of spontaneous deep inquiry, I would experience these funny vibrations of my being dissolving into nothing, or into everything actually, and that actually the �vibrations� had a distinct taste and smell to them. When I was about ten years old, those questions and sensations disappeared. Then when I was sixteen, a friend of my brother�s gave him a copy of the Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu. When I read that book, I knew it was right on, and it changed my life for sure, but I had little idea what it was talking about. And I didn�t really know until meeting Papa, when some of those same sensations returned. [Ed.: Prashanti�s Sat Guru, Sri H.W.L. Poonja was lovingly known to his disciples as �Papaji,� or just �Papa� and was also known as �The Lion of Lucknow.�] Juliana: Are there any other astrologers and healers in your family? Prashanti: No astrologers, and no healers per se, unless you count the epic healing ability of a kind mother�s love. Juliana: Awesome, oh yes, we should count that for sure! And you have also been blessed with a son. Is he following in any of your footsteps?
Juliana: Is Kailash interested in healing and herbs too? Prashanti: He is actually getting more into it these days, for sure. For most of his life he has been my �helper� in making medicines, and he knows more about medicine making than most for sure. Truly, practically daily I thank my lucky stars that he is in my life! Juliana: You earned many degrees from the University of Michigan in the fields of Math, Physics, Aerospace Engineering, Biophysics, and Emergency Medicine, with minors in Dance and Philosophy. Did you ever work professionally as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician)?
Juliana: And what about your work as an engineer? Prashanti: And about engineering, my goodness, yes I worked on so many cool projects. My specialty in Aerospace Engineering was in Fluid Dynamics, as opposed to structures or propulsion, and so I worked on the aerodynamics of everything from space planes to golf balls to locomotives to Jaguar cars to Russian submarines to Kellogg cereal ovens; I was the lead technician at the University of Michigan�s Wind Tunnel, which was the biggest in the Mid-West. I was even working on President Reagan�s �Star Wars� (a system to zap missiles out of the sky with space-borne lasers), when I went back to the University of Michigan to get my PhD in Biophysics. I actually never finished the Biophysics PhD, and chose India and Vedic sciences instead. Juliana: Clearly you had a significant and wonderfully diverse experience working as an engineer. How did that prepare you for the Vedic sciences? Prashanti: A degree or two in Aerospace as a Fluid Dynamicist is really about getting an advanced education in �flow!� And so to this day, I see the mathematics of flow everywhere I look � in the sky, in rivers, in communication, in relationships, and in design; hence all my math and physics training pertinent to �flow� I actually use in my study, practice, and teaching of Vastu Shastra. Juliana: How so? Prashanti: Vastu is the science of harmonious creation, and a huge facet of that harmony and beauty is to get the �flow� right, even in an apparently fixed structure. Nothing is actually �fixed,� and everything either flows or is congested. One would be amazed to see how designing a successful wing on an airplane, having a joyous relationship, and building a temple all have so much in common. And my studies at the University of Michigan gave me so much insight into the math of that, the math being a fundamental root language spoken by all phenomena in the Universe. Does that make sense? As you can imagine, it really sets my both my Vastu and Jyotisha free when I see and translate them not from English, not just from the Sanskrit, but from the cosmic language of math! Juliana: Tell us more, please. Prashanti: Vastu has been freed for me, as I do use it for so much, from generating formulas, to making medicines from those formulas, to making meals, to optimizing relationships and being a mantri (advisor) for people. There are so many facets of Vastu but just taking three of them (bhogadyam: appropriate proportions; sukhadarshan: the outpouring of positive impact; and ramyin: pathways of sattvic evolution), one can readily evaluate the relationship of anything with anything, including its context, and see the dynamics of the constant feedback loops of content with context. Juliana: Can you give an example of how you use this? Prashanti: An example would be in my keynote presentations. I have hundreds of such presentations on a plethora of topics, from rare Himalayan herbs to phytoestrogens for thyroids to deeper translations and commentaries on the yamas and niyamas, and so much more. To support my ability to communicate such a diversity of topics effectively, I use Vastu to make my presentations more meaningful and rewarding. Juliana: Your website has an inspirational page about your spiritual lineage, which you state is �extremely important, a rare precious gift of grace, to be sought sincerely, and cherished when it finds you and engages with you.� What is this lineage? Prashanti: I am honored that the �dust at their feet is the crown on my head,� as the saying goes. When I speak of lineage, I refer to paragons like the Shiva-Arunachala-Ramana lineage carried by Sri H.W.L. Poonja, Anamalai Swami, and Lakshmana Swami, and Yogi Ram Surat Kumar, all of whom I spent such high quality time with for many years, from 1990 to 1997. I also speak of Tibetan lineages held by the 3rd Jamgong Kontrul Rinpoche, Urgen Tulku, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Dawa, and Galek Rinpoche. I am so fortunate to receive many ongoing teachings and initiations from all of these, from 1985 to the present. Juliana: And what of your Jyotish lineage?
Juliana: Deeply fortunate, indeed�and speaking of that, where and how did you first find yourself interested in astrology? Prashanti: During the 1980�s while living in Ann Arbor, I had a dear friend and ally named Terrance Shukle, who was quite a western astrologer; Robert Hand seemed to be his dominant influence. Terry is a very sharp-minded insightful old soul who had set out to prove astrology wrong, but he kept getting such good results with both insights into the present and past, as well as predictions about the future, that he became a strong proponent of astrology and certainly one of the best astrologers in the Mid-West. For years we spent a lot of time in our quiet neighborhood in West Ann Arbor pouring over charts in friendly forum-like discussions and debates. Juliana: Sounds like a great foundation for you! Then, how did you get started with the Vedic system of astrology? Prashanti: When I came to India, I became enthralled with Kashi, Varanasi (Benares), and I have visited this epic realm at least 100 times since then, no exaggeration. The main thing I would do there is all-night shmashana sadhana on Manikarnika Ghat, and during the day I would read the books I bought at Motilal Benarsidas and Choukambha, and also seek out Ayurveda vaidyas (Ayurvedic doctors) at BHU (Benares Hindu University) as well as �sit with� Jyotishis in Gadowlia, often along or near Vishwanath Guli. When I sat with them though, I always sat with the intention to not learn anything with my mind, but rather just start soaking in the shakti of it all. Juliana: Then how did you continue your studies when you came back to the US from India? Prashanti: I had the good fortune to meet and study first with Chakrapani Ullal from 1998 to 2001, and then with Hart de Fouw from 2002 until the present. I might have had a little �ripeness� because, just as my Jyotisha studies were woven with the very �left-handed� Manikarnika Ghat sadhana, so it seems that my understanding and practice of all the Vedic sciences has a crazy wisdom side to it, which I appreciate and employ. Juliana: A bit unorthodox? Prashanti: Yes, as I do things like using Vastu to study music, give relationship counseling, and make medicine, in addition to designing homes and structures; and I often use Jyotisha to help people navigate dire and dark paths, for instance around suicide, addiction, and bhuta (spirits), besides helping them with all the more orthodox �right-handed�� issues. Juliana: Tell us about your studies with Hart de Fouw. Prashanti: Though I had my Jyotisha introduction generated by Jyotishis in Kashi, and then by Chakrapani Ullal, it is indeed from the precious Hart ji and his incredible sampradaya that I received the lion�s share of my Jyotisha, Vastu Shastra, and Hasta Samudrika transmissions. It is like� before Hart I was studying wood, but then with him I was studying living trees; before him I studied water, and with him I studied springs, streams, rivers and oceans; before him I was studying objects on paper, and with him I was studying multi-dimensional pulsations on the cosmic scale. It is a might incredible what I have �seen� with him. Juliana: I found it fascinating on your website how you describe Hart�s �channeling the sampradaya.� Please say something about this. Prashanti: When I sit with him and am taking notes, I immediately draw a horizontal line across the page about two-thirds of the way down. Above that line, I take notes on what he is telling me, and below that line, I take notes of what the sampradaya is whispering in my ear in his presence when he is �on.� Not to be sensational or hyperbolic, but some of the insights that get whispered in my ear are literally �mind-blowing,� where I can sit in a stunned and near samadhi state, and sometimes even tears come to my eyes. I get to �see� Jyotisha principles dancing in front of me. Juliana: You must also love working with nimitta. Prashanti: Oh yes, another facet of my fascination is that of nimitta, the science of reading the signs/omens/portents, like two crows flying overhead in the northern direction, and they caw three times. Yes, sometimes a cigar is a cigar, and sometimes you know there is nimitta going on here. To me, nimitta is based on karaka, and I bet you that karaka was developed to a large extent from nimitta. I see and use nimitta as a full sixth of Jyotisha, sometimes with more knowledge and insights to mine than even Hasta Samudrika, the �chart� that encompasses a person�s hand. Hart has told me that he prefers to share Jyotisha consultations outdoors because it is easier for the nimitta to speak to you outside, and I definitely agree. Juliana: Why outdoors? Prashanti: This is because a nimitta arrives and arises most easily where the prana is higher in the form of vayu/movement, hence why birds are classic sources of �augury� as they are such high prana-vayu phenomena and hence easier for existence to �morph� into a diagnostic clue. Does that make sense? Juliana: Yes, but then some omens are more static, aren�t they? Prashanti: Yes, like a scar on a person�s hand in their �Venus� region, but even things like that are often on highly mobile phenomena, in this case, the hands, the most mobile facet of ourselves other than our mind. Nimitta helps to expose or reveal previously hidden facets of phenomena that end up giving us a much deeper view. Juliana: How have you studied it? Prashanti: You can study it a bit in texts like the Lal Kitab and the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, and I actually have studied Homer�s Iliad and Odyssey for this as well, but perhaps the best way is to have an empty sharp curious mind that is as yoked to a deep inner sense of rightness as much as it is to the details of the life flux dancing around and within you! Juliana: Tell us more about your studies with Hart. Prashanti: Obviously I could go on and on about what Hart�s sampradaya speaks to me, as it is endless, diving deep into lokas centric to Dhruva, the polar star. And I have not even mentioned what Hart himself has so graciously and expertly given to me. My Sat Guru, Sri H.W.L. Poonja, has made the power of what he calls �chest to chest,� referring to the oral tradition, exceedingly clear. Hart, as I understand, was �chest to chest� with Mantriji for something like 15 years, which is astounding in this day and age where people may study with a Guru for a matter of months or even only weeks! And so Hart is �well-steeped� for sure. He has astonishing Jyotisha skills and knowledge and experience, which is great for his life as a Jyotishi. Juliana: He is also considered by so many of his students and fans to be a very great teacher, and I am sure you can say a lot more about this. Prashanti: In any other person, all of this, the sampradaya, Mantriji, 40+ years of experience, the innate brilliance, would get channeled into Jyotisha consultations only. However, Hart is also a fantastic teacher, organizing the principles and the material in ways that optimize both a deep understanding and a pragmatic application. He actually studies how to �teach� people �better,� constantly morphing his pedagogy to attain the aforementioned optimization of comprehension and practical effectiveness. His �pro-formas� of protocols of Jyotisha analytics are like diamonds in their ability to help his students both grok the principles and apply them with uncanny accuracy and insight. Juliana: Please tell us more about how you got into healing work. Prashanti: In Ann Arbor, I was a semi-professional dancer for about eight years, teaching and performing Ballet, Modern, Jazz, African and Tap, dancing about four hours a day, five to six days a week. I also spent a lot of time taking advance dance classes in the Upper West side of Manhattan, which is just a 10 hour over-night drive from Ann Arbor. Basically, I was in the engineering/scientific world from 8 AM to 5 PM and then in the dance/art world from 6 PM to 10 PM. That incredibly beautiful period, dancing in dozens of major shows, came to an end in one night when I pulled my piriformis quite badly just anterior to the sacrum. Really unfortunate amounts of intense pain and devastating incapacitation ended that chapter of my dance career and ended up taking about five years to resolve and dissolve. Juliana: So your injury led you down the path of healing in Ann Arbor? Prashanti: Ann Arbor is quite a talented town, absolutely bursting with all manner of everything, including healing modalities, and so I started to devour these modalities in search of the one that could heal me, with the intention of pursuing long term the one that most healed and empowered me long term. In a time when nobody had even heard of QiGong, through total random serendipity I found an authentic QiGong Master, a grandmother from Shanghai staying in Ann Arbor to babysit her grandchild while her son finished a PhD. Her name was Zhu Shang Fong. She is such an epic lady. One could not tell if she was 22 or 92 years old, really. Juliana: How did she heal you? Prashanti: Her training helped me and indeed, to this day QiGong and the direct connection and cognition of prana/chi is very important to me in all things, including giving a Shirodhara, in an Ayurvedic diagnostic session, making medicines, or chanting mantras. Just like my physical fingers can feel a physical pulse and channel so much information, I often ask my prana to feel the prana of the person and from here I learn so much. Even in a Jyotisha consultation I often will do this to confirm and clarify, and even rectify a lagna (ascendant); for instance, the innate prana of a person with a Dhanu lagna will be quite different than a person with a Vrishchika lagna, of course. So this precious Devi from Shanghai gave me much. Juliana: And you also studied Ayurveda and Yoga? Prashanti: I had a saint-like yoga teacher named Barbara Linderman! I had no Ayurvedic teacher but used what few books were available from paragons like Dr. Lad, Vamadeva, and Ravi (Robert) Svoboda. Because I started to study Ayurveda at the same time as QiGong, the deep connection to chi/prana in all things Ayurveda and Yoga remains in me. QiGong, and ballet for that matter, can definitely be seen in some of the asana classes that I share. Juliana: Once in India, I imagine it all took off for you more.
Juliana: Your background in Biophysics must have been a bonus. Prashanti: It was so for the whole language of cell physiology, and because Lucknow was the center of so much botanical research, for instance, at the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), which was a mere 10-minute walk away from where I lived; and also the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), which also had a huge garden, so I spent much time �studying� Ayurveda with all the PhDs there. They loved having me around. Also the NBRI had an extensive library. Juliana: How did you get into clinical practice? Prashanti: When I first arrived in Lucknow, there was no second row of the people sitting at the feet of Papaji. But about nine months after I got there, a huge flux of seekers came, and often there would be 200 to 300 people there at any given time, a marvelous collection of international travelers, tourists, meditators, dharma bums, yogis, Buddhists, Shakti addicts, and even scholars. And of course, they were getting sick and so I was treating a lot of folks, often flying �by the seat of my pants� in many intense situations. In the West, so many people come to me who basically are not sick, per se, but want to optimize their health. Of course, there are also a lot of folks in dire straits. In Lucknow, back then, especially before we started to grow and consume tons of tulsi, people would get really really sick, from viral flus which could knock a strong person down for a month, to major boils and carbuncles. Juliana: Carbuncles? Really? Prashanti: Yeah really�I also thought carbuncles were just a Biblical thing, until I started to see them. Most people suffered from crashed immune systems, a zoo of critters in their gut, a toxic cirrhotic hepatitis riddled liver, or a deleterious combination of these three. And so I developed a specialty in Ojas, Anti-Parasites, and Hepatics. Juliana: You then helped to create the Rishikesh College of Ayurveda? Prashanti: In 1999, both the breadth and depth of my Ayurveda exploded as I started to study with many paragons in the context of the Rishikesh College of Ayurveda, which I helped Dr. Dinesh Sharma of Rishikesh to create. We had fantastic teachers, the best, like Professor Chunekar from BHU, Professor Mrs. Tiwari of BHU who had seen 500,000 women in her career as the world�s greatest Ayurvedic Gynecologist, and the great Vamadeva Shastri, David Frawley. Also, this is where I first met Kavi Raj Nanak Chand Sharma, considered by many to be the greatest vaidya in the last century, who is the guru of Vaidya Chauhan. Juliana: How are you connected to Organic India (www.OrganicIndia.com)? Prashanti: From 1990 to 1997 when I had an Ayurvedic �clinic� of sorts in Lucknow where I treated hundreds of people, I could not find good quality herbs anywhere in North India, and often just the opposite, the herbs were horrible. So I started to grow, wildcraft, and fully process my own herbs and make my own medicines and products, from tinctures to avalehas like Chyawanaprash, which of course I called �Chyawanaprashanti.� People would receive the herbs and benefit from them, and then after they would return back to their homes, write me letters or faxes asking for more. I formed an herb company called �Arunachala Ayurveda� to fill the orders. Typically those requests were for just a kilogram or two, but then my good �brother� Atreya Smith would order several hundred kilograms, and so I had to get �bigger� quickly. Juliana: How did you do that?
Juliana: How has your vision with all this shifted? Prashanti: In the last year I have been shifting my focus to an important facet of the original vision, which is saving High Himalayan herbs and herbal knowledge from extinction. I was doing this work under the direct auspices of Organic India from about 2002-2005 but that program was cancelled, so to speak. Now I am honored to be doing this epic seva in the context of the non-profit Dunagiri Foundation (www.dunagiri.org). Juliana: Whew, you are a busy man. Yet I understand you also find time to practice the ancient practice of Dhanurveda. What is it about? Prashanti: Dhanurveda, the Yoga of Weapons, is one of the oldest forms of yoga as it is an �upaveda� of the Yajurveda, a prime component of the four original Vedas. On the surface, Dhanurveda focuses on training the yogi in the seven weapons, of which the bow is typically the most important for the yogi, especially as within the bow contained many metaphors for a right and rewarding yogic path. On deeper levels, Dhanurveda teaches us concentration, focus, breathing, stillness, and the right use of power to manifest positive change, especially the power of the warrior and Tolkienesque �Sattvic Elf� within. Deeper yet, Dhanurveda is an arena that places in our hands and within mind and heart, a path to dive into the essence of Yoga, Ayurveda and Tantra, including incredible forms and dances of Prana, Mantra, and goddesses like Kundalini upon the stage of our deepest Spirit. Dhanurveda is incredibly empowering and is readily employed for the benefit of all beings! Juliana: This would show up as your poorva punya. Tell us about it please.
Juliana: So you are the invincible one who lives and breathes the essence of invigoration! Prashanti: I feel that it is our responsibility as social humans to try to emulate bodhisattvas and never ever give up but to always do our best to make nectar out of every experience, from a mouth of rice to the gnarliest heartbreaking divorce, for the benefit of all beings. Never give up! Nature loves courage. Juliana: And on that note, we will say goodbye for now. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and truly fascinating life and times. Prashanti de Jager Biography
Traveling all over India training as a Yogi, Ayurvedic Clinician, Ethnopharmacologist, etc., and living in North India, Prashanti started to treat hundreds of sick locals and foreigners that came to him with a diverse spectrum of health issues. His son, VidyaSagar Kailash de Jager, was born in India in 1996 to him and Vidya Treat. To ensure high quality formulas for his clients, Prashanti founded an Ayurvedic herb company in 1993 in North India where he grew, wildcrafted, and processed the herbs by hand. As the reputation for these herbs grew, a beautiful vision and team that is now called �Organic India� emerged to serve the demand in a socially responsible and environmentally sustainable way. Thousands of farms in North India are transformed, helping the farmers to lift the land out of the dire straits of the chemical/Monsanto mentality and into the realms of Certified Organic, Biodynamic, Fair Trade, and Agnihotra herbal havens. Concurrent projects, including Dunagiri Foundation Trust and the Bhagavan Himalayan Alliance, strive to protect high Himalayan herbs, traditional knowledge, and precious Himalayan alpine ecosystems from extinction. Prashanti constantly is writing for magazines and his own books, and teaches classes on Herbs, Yoga, and Ayurveda around the world from the Mayo Clinic to Prague, and has created �The Pacific Center of Ayurveda,� with a clinic, Yoga-Ayurveda-Indological library, an apothecary, and a capability to create very high quality premium medicines. He also is working with allies creating a residential clinic in Goa at the Samata Retreat Center and guiding retreats and immersions there. Here are the links to Prashanti�s main Web presence: www.prashantidejager.com � main Website www.dunagiri.org � Saving Himalayan Herbs from Extinction www.woman108.com � SHE events site www.samatagoa.com � Retreat Center in Goa www.youtube.com/user/earthdais1 � YouTube Channel
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