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Jyotish Star of the Month |
By Juliana Swanson |
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Juliana Swanson: Hi Dr. Suhas. Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this interview. Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar: Yes, finally, I am happy to connect! Juliana: When did you begin learning Jyotisha and how did you learn it?
Juliana: Where was your family home? Suhas: I grew up in the western part of India, a couple of hours south of Pune, near Bombay. Juliana: Has your family been there a long time? Suhas: They have been there forever, I think (laughter). The whole lineage of our family is still in that area. It is now more a suburb than it used to be, but still very much removed from the hustle and bustle of the big city. Juliana: When did you begin learning Jyotisha and how? Suhas: I started learning Jyotisha after I joined my Ayurvedic school when I turned 16. That was the first time. Juliana: And how did you get into Ayurvedic medicine? Suhas: I always wanted to do something with medicine but in the beginning wasn�t sure if I should pursue conventional or natural medicine. After I finished my basic schooling along with some other allied Vedic studies, I had become more interested in natural medicine, health and healing. The decision to study Ayurvedic medicine was a collective one in our household, one that was made with the support and guidance of my parents and one of the family astrologers who understood my life and my tendencies. The astrologer knew my astrological chart very well, and said I should probably go and study Ayurveda. No questions were raised, so I applied to school and was accepted and started my Ayurvedic journey. Juliana: Will you please share something about your astrological chart that would indicate why a career as an Ayurvedic physician was suggested? Suhas: Scorpio Rising and the position of the Sun in the 8th house are often related to health and healing. I had always been told from a young age by different astrologers that my birth chart showed intuitive ability which could help me diagnose hidden conditions. At that time, I really did not know what they were talking about. But they clearly said it was all written, and so this idea was deeply ingrained in my mind. I still have some of those old astrological records on torn yellow pages. Juliana: What else was known from your astrological chart? Suhas: I would choose Ayurveda as my profession, and I would become very reflective and intuitive and would study many more things. Even back then it was clear that I would probably not be living as an adult in India because of my career choice, though the life that I have now was unimaginable back then. Juliana: Nobody could have dreamed it. Suhas: Nobody could have dreamed it back then. We lived in rural India where just the idea of moving to a big city would have been akin to going to live in a foreign land. Juliana: Does your family name have something to do with the idea of �crossing the great ocean?� Suhas: Well, �Kshirsagar� means �ocean of milk� (kshir means �milk� and sagar means �ocean�), the ocean that was churned by the gods and demons in the Vedic tale of Kshira Sagara Manthanam. The name has allegorical significance to our family lineage, referring to the branch of Vedas that we come from. It has to do with the churning which refers to constant learning and growing. So the name does have great meaning, as everyone in our family has had something to do with education. Juliana: What did your father do? Suhas: My father was an educator, and even though he faithfully performed his own �priestly� day-to-day rituals, he had attended a regular school. He became a principal of a very famous educational institute in that area. I grew up witnessing and understanding the importance of our family lineage and what it stands for. That foundation has remained with me everywhere I have gone throughout the world. Juliana: You are one of the only practicing Ayurvedic physicians I know of in the West who also practices Jyotisha. Suhas: That is correct, and is actually something that was initiated on my behalf by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation�. Juliana: How did you come to work for Maharishi�s movement?
Maharishi�s associate replied, �We spoke to one of your teachers, Vaidya Nanal, and he recommended you.� Vaidya Nanal was one of the most revered of Ayurvedic teachers. In my college days, I worked with him. He was a very senior elderly vaidya. Dr. Nanal was also the teacher of Dr. Vasant Lad. He had been to Maharishi and had been involved a few times with the TM movement, and Maharishi said to him one time, �You guys are good, but I want really young dynamic Ayurvedic physician couples who can travel around the world for me.� Without any hesitation, Dr. Nanal had told him, �I know the perfect couple. You should call them. They come from a traditional Vedic lineage. I know them very well and have seen them grow and evolve into good smart Ayurvedic vaidyas.� And that�s how we got the call. Juliana: How exciting it must have been when you told your family. Suhas: I told my parents that someone from Holland wants me to come there, that Maharishi wants us to come there, and again there was no hesitation. My parents said that when there is a master who asks you to do something, there should never be any vacillation; you should just go! So someone from the Maharishi organization sent the airline tickets and told us to just immediately take the tickets to Bombay and apply for emergency passports, which we did. My parents said that Dr. Manisha and I could go anywhere we wanted but they would not let our one-year-old son go because we had no idea of where we were going and what conditions were there, so we left our son behind and went and saw Maharishi. Juliana: What year was this? Suhas: This was in 1990, or 1991. Somehow they had looked at my chart and Maharishi determined that he wanted us to come and work for the organization, permanently, and he suggested we go back to India and get our son, which we did, and from there, it was a roller coaster journey for us. We went to about 39 different countries in the 12 years we were with Maharishi. Every three months we were living in a different country, living out of suitcases, giving lectures, teaching, designing Ayurvedic courses, training Ayurvedic doctors, starting clinics, helping some people write books � whatever was asked of us in the field of Yoga, Ayurveda and Jyotish. Juliana: Backtracking just a bit now, you mentioned before that you studied Jyotish in Ayurvedic school? Suhas: Yes, I had first studied Jyotish during the time I was in Ayurvedic school. I had worked with some eminent Jyotishis in my area and was studying Vedanta. One of the teachers in my school told us that if we want to become a good Ayurvedic vaidya, we should also become a good Jyotishi. So my Jyotish education began around 16-17 years of age. At the time, I became very clear about the value of integrating Yoga, Ayurveda and Jyotish, but it was only when I came to Maharishi that this whole integration happened for me. He helped bring it all together, all the allied branches of Veda, and showed me how they�re seamlessly interconnected and how we should practice medicine using each one of the branches in unison. It became very fulfilling for me then, as there were Jyotishis coming from all parts of India to work for Maharishi, some from Orissa, some from Kerala, Punjab, Benares, and Gujarat, all sharing subtle variations in the way they look at charts. I learned a lot from them. Juliana: Who were some of these Jyotish mentors who also worked for Maharishi? Suhas: Well, they were too numerous to name, but a few I would like to mention are Pandit Dwivedi, Pandit Sati, Pandit Parashar, and Dr. Rao. We would do these joint consultations with a patient right in the room with all of us present and focused together. I would do the Ayurvedic assessment, and then we would together review the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of the patient through an appraisal of the astrological charts of the patient and his or her family members, and also we would examine the Vastu charts of home and work place. Looking at everything together as a whole system provided a unique kind of training. I learned as a medical astrologer how to meet these patients and how to connect the dots. Juliana: How did you adapt to such a radically different world and lifestyle? Suhas: I had to make many personal and professional adjustments in relation to Western attitudes and cultural mores. Having been brought up in a traditional Brahmin family, it was difficult to understand some of the highly dissimilar Western mannerisms as well as views on relationship, family, money and so on, but it was a tremendous period of growth for me. Juliana: What were the most important things you learned at this time? Suhas: The first and most important thing I learned was to respect my roots in the light of everything that I was seeing in the West. Secondly, I discovered how to find the right tools which were practical enough and applicable for my patients. Juliana: The way you describe working with a team of Vedic consultants (Ayurvedic, Jyotish, Vastu) sounds like the perfect definition of holistic medicine in which the whole patient � body, mind and spirit � is treated. Suhas: That is exactly what the message was. We called it �Jyotish Counseling� but it was more like �Vedic Counseling.� Jyotish was one technique. Ayurveda was another, and so on. We learned to blend the �energetic sciences� of the Veda which were synthesized together by Maharishi. Using Jyotish in the chart analysis, we look at dharma, karma, strengths, weaknesses, and good and bad times. From Ayurveda we look at prakriti, vikruti, current state of health, state of mind and mentality. From the yogic point of view, we try to help integrate the client�s life at a different level, deciding what advice might be helpful from a Vedantic and spiritual point of view. Juliana: Why is it important to practice all the Vedic sciences as an integrated system? Suhas: Eventually, anyone who is trying to learn one aspect of the Vedic sciences will be forced to learn everything else anyway. It is like when you pull a chair toward you. You pull one leg or one arm, and the whole chair comes to you. If you learn Yoga, you will eventually learn Jyotish and Ayurveda. If you learn Jyotish, you will learn Ayurveda and Yoga, etcetera. The sooner people start to integrate the various Vedic branches, the more they will deepen their understanding of these sciences, because everything is very seamlessly connected like branches on one tree. Whether you talk about seven chakras, seven koshas, seven planets, or seven dhatus, it�s all the same. Juliana: What advice can you offer students and practitioners of the Vedic sciences? Suhas: One important thing that I learned in my training in India and in the movement [TM] was that in order to be an embodiment of the wisdom of the Veda, one has to become an attentive counselor who maintains a degree of purity in thought, speech and action. The qualifications of a good Jyotishi or Ayurvedic vaidya are similar: humility, compassion and kindness. We need to develop intuition, active listening skills, clarity of senses, a good spiritual understanding of life, a lot of common sense and a good ability to comprehend various aspects of the diverse texts. Juliana: How do we resolve the latter, as it is easy to get lost in trying to make sense of certain contradictory texts and principles, speaking specifically about the Jyotish literature of which I am mostly aware. Suhas: Yes, with the Jyotish texts and principles, we can get lost, not knowing which one to use. But what is more important is in knowing how to calibrate that information for the needs of the person sitting in front of you. I specialized and learned how to do this by making it a kind of a habit to look at every patient�s astrological chart. As I started doing that, I started seeing so many things. I was looking not only at prakriti (body constitution); also vikruti; weak organs and systems; imbalances; disease tendencies; the overall immunity (whether vital or weak); the state of mind which is governed by the constellations (whether the mind is sattvic, rajasic or tamasic); good and bad cycles; timing of diseases; disease intensity and healing process; other environmental factors that affect the health (a poor relationship, financial issues, challenges with children); karmic blessings; limitations; maybe some unhealthy habits; personality shadows; addictions; tendencies for spiritual growth � all of these things are clear in a person�s chart. And then as a doctor and a healer, one is in a much better position to help someone when you know their strengths and weaknesses and can design a plan that is exactly suited to them. Working with the Jyotish chart in a classical Ayurvedic format is something very unique and very, very useful. I don�t know why people hesitate to learn it and use it, but they sometimes get bogged down thinking Jyotish is very difficult� Juliana: (Laughing) It�s not? Suhas: It is. It is difficult. But we don�t have to split hairs here. I want to tell you something very important. When we talk about consciousness based sciences, they have very little to do with the qualities that we often argue about. There is this nirguna quality of consciousness that is devoid of any quality. It manifests into this qualitative realm of prakriti where we start naming or tagging qualities, energetic expressions of qualities that we are looking at, but the purpose of healing is to help a client or patient transcend these qualities, to merge slowly with this field of nirguna which is devoid of qualities. This is an idea proven in the field of modern physics, that all the expressions have certain qualities at one level which are lost at another. In philosophy they are termed qualias, individual instances of subjective, conscious experience in which we will see the quality of something and then it will disappear. Juliana: So how can we practically apply this information? Suhas: Jyotish, Ayurveda and Yoga are energetic sciences. In this work, we have to look for the deeper energetic imbalances rather than the outer disease manifestations. For instance, in medical astrology, we may be trying to find Parkinson�s in the chart, or arthritis, or heart disease. But we are not really looking for the disease. What we are really looking for is the energetic imbalance behind the disease, so it is important not to lose that energetic sense. Even the healing process is very energetic because we sense the distorted energy in the chart, in the pulse, in the person and in the symptoms. The modalities we come up with, whether diet, lifestyle changes, stress management, detox, herbal formulations, even spiritual remedies (such as mantras, yantras, pujas, and gemstones) � these are all very subtle energetic recalibrations of health. I think when we try to look at all of this in a modern allopathic medical perspective and try to insert that perspective into the energetic sciences, this is how we sometimes lose the balance. Juliana: What other important advice can you give us? Suhas: Never lose the whole person. And never be in a judgmental mode about a chart, thinking that something you see is �bad� and will remain �bad.� Every chart is �good� and every chart is �bad.� The timings and situations are �good and bad.� Your job as a healer is to create some upliftment for the person. Do not make the client feel miserable and doomed for life. Giving someone hope is important. It is not about telling lies and giving false hope, but understanding and uplifting the mind is important. Once you look at the position of the Moon and different constellations and how the planets are behaving, I think your job is to create a structure and understand the timing and give the proper advice to help point out the most important things to do, for instance, how to minimize certain difficult tendencies, such as inflammatory or neurological diseases which can be classified very clearly. Our work is becoming even more interesting nowadays actually, as medicine is evolving and science is now clear that the genes which are responsible for creating certain diseases can be turned on and off. Juliana: Are we talking about Epigenetics? Suhas: Exactly. Lifestyle choices including diet, as well as one�s mental or emotional state, can affect how the negative genes turn on and off. We could say that looking at a Jyotish chart is like decoding the genome, really understanding who a person is and karmically why they are suffering and how that can be alleviated. Maharishi used to say you have a chart which has limitations, but you have every potential to override it. The job of all complementary alternative healing practitioners is to motivate and encourage their clients to stay on the wellness track, constantly. In general, what we learn in Ayurveda and Jyotish is that once anybody comes to understand his or her own tendencies and limitations, it is his or her job and responsibility to play by the rules, in terms of how to remain in balance. My job is to educate my patients�it�s all about education. It�s not like once you are here I am going to fix you. I am going to help you understand yourself better. Juliana: Can you say something about the relationship between astrologer and client, doctor and patient, or �healer and healee.� Suhas: As a healer you are healing yourself and growing constantly by understanding the challenges of others. Many times you have to take your own advice and respect nature�s plan and not try to force anything. You have to transcend your own ego, no matter how smart you are. You have to learn and grow from each session with each client. Juliana: And the healee? Suhas: The healee, the person or patient asking for help, needs to become a little more humble in order to seek help at the right time, realizing his or her own limitations, becoming a little more transparent, realizing there is a bigger reason why he or she is thinking and acting a certain way. The healee needs to try and align his or her actions more with what nature is offering. When I see people with chronic diseases, they often start into a blaming game, often seeking a culprit outside of themselves (whether it is a virus or bacteria, or mercury in the fish, or something like that). Instead, I try to teach patients how not to respond to certain of these things and how instead to boost the function of their own physiology. It is very intricate and dynamic. When I teach this to physicians around the country, they are sometimes a little bit alarmed by this, as if they might need to discard their white medical jackets in exchange for saffron robes! Juliana: In the Vedic perspective, healing (and I include astrological counseling under that) is considered a noble profession. Why? Suhas: It is noble because it involves a relationship of caring, trust, faith, compassion and respect. Moreover, it is believed that a healer accumulates good karma. The nobility of it is apparent in the healer�s prayer, one of my favorite inspirational Vedic quotes: Na Tvaham Kamaye Rajyam, Na Swargam Napunarbhavam. Kamaye Dukha Taptanam Praninam Artinashanam, which translates as �I don�t want the kingdom of heaven or any worldly pleasures or luxuries. Just give me the strength and the desire to alleviate the suffering of the people that I see.� Juliana: You and Dr. Manisha are blessed with a son and daughter. Are they following in your professional footsteps? Suhas: My son had been pursuing a regular medical career. He went to India when he was in high school to attend a regular medical school. At one point he decided that he was probably studying something that he wouldn�t be practicing down the road, so he came back to the US and decided to pursue Ayurveda and is now enrolled at Maharishi University of Vedic Medicine, where he is studying Ayurveda and working toward his MS in Integrative Medicine. He is working at MAPI and doing a lot of Ayurvedic work which I am very proud of. My daughter is a junior in high school and has been inspired by her mom who has taught many cooking classes in our home, so she is very good with and interested in Nutrition.
Juliana: Astrologically, where would you see a potential digestive (agni) deficiency? Debilitated Mars? Suhas: Sure, debilitated Mars. Also, afflicted 5th house (main seat of digestive agni); overall weakness of Sun (which is also important for that radiance, luster and fire); and 6th, 8th and 12th houses for vikruti (nature of those planets can create some dryness which weakens the enzymatic activity of the agni); sometimes very strong Pitta dosha or strong Mars can reflect hyper-acidity and inflammatory digestive issues (as with allergic responses to certain foods, for instance, celiac disease or leaky gut); Saturn in 5th house can make digestion sluggish; and so forth. We can look at the chart to find ways to strengthen digestion and much of this is also based on the analysis of doshas. Juliana: Why is gut health so important? Suhas: This is a very important question being discussed more and more in medicine today. Weak digestion comes from �bad food� and eating the wrong foods at the wrong time. Everything flows from the gut. All chronic diseases have their source in the gut. This is an age-old Ayurvedic concept that if you do not have good agni, you create ama, and ama is the beginning of all the diseases. So you want to lead an ama-free life, which is called niramaya. There is a prayer, Sarve Santu Niramaya, which means �Be Free of Ama.� Once free of ama, the fire is burning. It is not just about the digestive function. It also has to do with your brain, your passion, understanding your dharma, finding your drive, your purpose, your mission. I see so many people who are feeling so unhealthy and unhappy in their lives, and then once we prepare them and clean their gut and rekindle their agni, they start manifesting better relationships, finding happiness in their job, and overall feeling content and more stable and relaxed in their attitude about everything. Juliana: It sounds as if health and wellness are being redefined by this concept of the �hot belly.� I am sure your book will be a bestseller, and we wish you all the best with this and all your other endeavors. Thank you, Dr. Suhas. This has been quite enlightening! Suhas: It was my pleasure. Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar Biography
Dr. Suhas is a recipient of the "Jyotish Navaratna" award presented by the American College of Vedic Astrology (ACVA) in 2011. The Council of Vedic Astrologers also awarded him the "Jyotish Brihaspati" title for his services in the field of Ayurveda and Jyotish. Dr. Suhas is an advisor to the Chopra Center and a master educator for the Chopra Center University. He often shares the stage with motivational speakers including Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, Andrew Weil and Wayne Dyer. He is currently Director of "Ayurvedic Healing," an Integrative Wellness Clinic in Santa Cruz, California. Dr. Suhas G.Kshirsagar BAMS, MD (Ayurveda, India) Director, Ayurvedic Healing California Integrative Medicine 3121 Park Avenue, Suite D Soquel, CA 95073 831 462 3776 http://ayurvedichealing.net/ Juliana Swanson Biography
You may reach Juliana at her Hawaii office at 808-430-5989. |
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| Jyotish Star Copyright 2014 C. C. Collins - All Rights Reserved |
