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PLANETARY INFLUENCES

ON HUMAN AFFAIRS

(Revised and enlarged edition of the book previously published as

'Astrology and Modem Thought")

BANGALORE VENKATA RAMAN

Editor: THE ASTROLOGICAL MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Preface to the First Edition vii

• I Introductory Preface to the Twelfth Edition ix
• II Astrology and Karma
• III What is Astrology?
• IV Planets and Man
• V Astrology and Superstition
• VI Statistical Proof
• VII Astrology and History
• VIII Futility of Fatalistic Doctrine
• IX Can Astrology Predict Earthquakes?
• X Astrology and Weather Forecasting
• XI Astrology as an Aid to Medical Science
• XII Astrology vs. Futurology
• Appendix

PREFACE TO TWELFTH EDITION

PLANETARY INFLUENCES ON HUMAN AFFAIRS incorporates material based on investigations into cosmic-terrestrial relations that are being carried on by several men of science with whom I had the good fortune of personal discussion during my visits to Europe and America. Chapters dealing with the relation of Astrology to medicine, weather forecasting, and predicting earthquakes have been added. The last chapter "Astrology vs Futurology" adopts a challenging tone questioning the scare-mongering forecasts of the "Futurologists" and assuring the public, on the basis of ancient Hindu astronomical and astrological concepts, that the world will not be destroyed for millions of years to come. Experimental evidence presented in these pages cannot fail to impress even those orthodox scientists who continue to believe that a branch of knowledge to be valid should fit into the framework of known laws of science, and not otherwise. Scientific laws which our text-books have taught us to look upon as eternal truths have collapsed like a pack of cards and new ones still lack the authority that their predecessors enjoyed. Scientists have also grown a little more circumspect and no longer proclaim general laws with the facility of their 19th century predecessors. Because of these developments, some of the scientists in the West have begun to view Astrology with less skepticism and more seriousness. In Carl Jung's opinion, "Western civilization, by ignoring Astrology, gains little and may be losing much" by what he calls "the contemptible treatment and defamation of an ancient art which defied a reasonable explanation" and, "after 200 years of intensive scientific progress, we can risk testing them in the light of modern truths." This book explores certain concepts cherished by generations of thinkers in India that vicissitudes taking place in any part of the heavens must have their repercussions on human affairs because man is a part and parcel of the universe. Thanks are due to UBS Publishers' Distributors Ltd., New Delhi, for having brought out this new edition attractively. Dr. B.V. Raman "Sri Rajeswari" Bangalore-560 020 1st February, 1992

I

INTRODUCTORY

It has been customary to assert that until the coming of modern science, man was loaded down with superstition. It is far too easy for some of the so-called educated persons to dismiss certain fields of knowledge as astrology as unscientific because of ignorance. Astrology has been revealing, and this is amply borne out by researches of scientists in the West, a set of rational hypothesis challenging some of the orthodox scientific beliefs with their materialistic and deterministic tenets. How did the astrological laws come into being? Upon what kind of postulates were they based? Was astrology an obstacle to progress or was it the reverse? These questions can only be answered by a meticulous analysis of the philosophy of the complex culture which fashioned the thinking of the sages who brought astrology into being with the other branches of knowledge. The sages viewed astrology as a quest for verifiable knowledge. They were not primitive men merely conscious of the lure of the heavenly bodies as some of the modern educated ignoramuses think. The greatest superstition of today is the thinking that until the age of Galileo or Newton, man was ignorant. This fictitious belief has been systematically spun by a section of the Western thinkers and assiduously contrived by some of their Indian counterparts. Before Darwin, there was a Kanada in India; Before Newton, there was a Bhaskara; and before any other physicist or biologist worth his name came on the scene, there were sages like Parasara and scientists like Varahamihira who were creative innovators and who recognized the simple but profound truth that man and the universe were not unrelated. The strivings of these sages are our heritage and they found the way by means of which we can unlock the door of Time. In India, astrology had always occupied a unique place and found illustrious supporters until perhaps the advent and consolidation of the British power when for a time skepticism and derision were the predominant features, characterizing the intellectual equipment of the then educated Indians, who looked down upon astrology and allied subjects as fit for study only by unscientific minds. In fact, the downfall of astrology appeared irremediable. It was at this time that late Prof. B. Suryanarain Rao undertook the task of reviving the subject by diverting the thoughts of the Indian cultured public to the secrets of a unique class of phenomenon, hitherto the object of ridicule to others who pass for better minds under the convenient name of men of science. For a time the mere use of the word astrology was likely to create an attitude of disparagement which effectually prevented many people from an impartial examination of the facts. Today a great desire for serious study of astrology has overtaken the vast majority of the

This antecedent impossibility will be seen in its true proportion when we realize that even the simplest act of the interaction of mind and matter, will and the nervous system in our own bodies, has yet been unexplained in terms of materialism. There is an antecedent impossibility of their interaction, on the commonsense hypothesis of their utter desperateness or even on the refined hypothesis of Descartes of the dualism of mind and matter as utterly different substances. The world, as a matter of fact, is so full of mystery that common sense materialism can make nothing of it. To use Shakespeare's language, there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in Horatio's Philosophy. Astrology has a long history from the dawn of civilization. In India we have evidence of astrological knowledge even in the great classics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. It is on record that Hindu astrologers at Alexander's Court predicted his death by poisoning in Babylon. Alexander avoided that city for a time but in the end, he entered it and died as foretold. Julius Ceasar consulted astrology in his battle dispositions and was successful but could not pay heed to the warning of Spurina that he would die on the Ides of March. Napoleon, it is well known, was advised by the famous woman astrologer Lenormand who repeatedly advised him not to march on Moscow but he disregarded her warning and met his fate. In medieval Europe, of course, astrology occupied an honored place. Albertus Magnus, regarded as the father of scientific method, though a schoolman and theologian thought that wise men could annul or modify the effect of stars. Lord Bacon, the father of modern scientific method (The Advancement of Learning) was himself a competent astrologer. He saw no contradictions between science and astrology. He held that astrology should "rather be purged than rejected". Even the great Newton, the formulator of the Laws of Motion supposed to be the cornerstones of materialism, able to banish God from the universe, was himself an astrologer. He had a collection of astrological works in his library and when his friend and pupil Halley protested to him about his regard for astrology, he replied: "I have studied these things and you have not." Such an answer should be presented to modern scientists with the query: "Is your disbelief based on investigation or only on a passive second-hand acceptance of fashionable skepticism based on the prestige of science and technology?" Suggestions and social prestige based on the achievements of science in the making of motor cars or even space vehicles or inter-continental missiles or jet planes are no automatic disproof of the influence of stars and planets on the life of man. This point of view that each branch of science and art should be judged by the evidence suited to it and not be condemned out of court has been gaining ground in the second half of the twentieth century.

In fact it is no exaggeration to say that we have now in the world of science, letters and culture generally, a veritable renaissance of astrology and related views favoring faith in the unseen or spiritual aspects of reality, internal and external. There are emerging scientists and investigators "Who are quietly gathering data and testing them in various fields. Scientific method is being applied to probe the world of astrological phenomena — the positions of the planets and stars and their influence on lives. The old dogmatism is giving way. Astrology is standing out as a distinct science and aft based on proved astronomical facts and is being differentiated from popular palmistry, crystal gazing, thought-reading and jugglery. It will be seen from the arguments adduced, and the facts presented in the following pages, that none of the a priori objections to the idea of a relation between astronomical phenomena and terrestrial happenings — an unpleasant deduction but a fact objectively established — is seriously tenable. As scientific investigation exhausts its curiosity and reduces the relationship in the field of material phenomena, inevitably comes the necessity of considering higher relationships, due to the fact that man himself is not a mechanical automation but is endowed with will and intelligence. Astrology in respect of its universal application is a field of enquiry too extensive for little more than surface consideration. A careful consideration of the evolution of human thought in the West reveals three broad epochs in man's efforts to understand the workings of nature. They are animistic, mechanical and mathematical. As Sir James Jean writes: "The animistic period was characterized by the error of supposing that the course of nature was governed by the whims and passions of living beings, more or less like man himself. Because personality is the concept of which he has most immediate and direct experience, he begins by personifying everything." Jeans goes on to say: 1 "As the history of the individual is merely the history of the race writ small, our race did much the same in its infancy as its individuals still do in theirs Greek science consisted in the main of mere vague questionings and speculations as to why things came to be as they were rather than the otherwise." So long as men could only experiment with objects which were comparable in size, with their own bodies, they found inanimate nature behaving as though its constituent pieces exerted pushes and pulls to one another. This mechanistic view of nature in its turn implies absolute determinism and explained the workings of nature in terms of the familiar concepts of everyday life. Today, however, as Jeans says, 2 "we are beginning to see that man had freed himself from (^1) New Background of Science. (^2) New Background of Science.

confronted with the mystery of life with the result he has been practically groping in the dark. Unless he recognizes the importance of astrology, the fundamental problems about man and his place in the universe must always remain a mystery. Astrology takes into cognizance the relation existing between man and the cosmos. We have said above that Western scientific thought could be divided into three broad epochs, viz., animistic, mechanistic and mathematical. These three correspond also to the three stages of astrological thought. In the beginning, astrology dealt with the planetary bodies mainly as entities fit to be worshipped and this animistic attitude still remains as an important feature of remedial astrology. The 'animism' here is only an euphemism and has nothing in common with 'animism' of the West. The second stage of astrological thought concerned itself to an elucidation of the "periodicity of life-process" — the mechanism of science — corresponding in terms of material activity. In the third stage, astrology served as a means to bring biological and (^4) "psychological order into the inner natures of men who had been unbalanced". Recently electricity and radioactivity led man to the startling concepts of twentieth century physics — the new word of thought, widely open to the unknown and it is. astrology that should supply the key to the unknown and unknowable. "The law of analogy presupposes a Universal Agent permeating the entire universe" — a life substance — comic energy — filling in all space. It is now being increasingly realised that a certain 'phase of relationship exists between man's conscious ego and Nature. At some time these were held to be physiological and elemental. Now they are to be psychological and mental. And astrology integrates and correlates this principle of order". Science is beginning to realize that 5 "we are now faced with a cosmic determinism in which our freedoms become illusions, as misleading as our rages and fears, which we think are volitions but which are registered even when the cerebral cortex has been surgically removed". The law of Karma and its relation to astrology have a direct bearing upon the theory of 'determinism' which modern thinkers could have developed further if the doctrines enumerated thousands of years ago by the Hindus had been taken note of. It is only by assuming that determinism in some form or other exists in nature that prediction can become possible. According to Laplace there is a law in nature that "like causes produce like effects". This means some sort of determinism exists suggesting thereby nature's uniformity. Haldane whilst criticizing Laplace in this regard does not doubt the possibility of "a very high degree of accuracy in the prediction both of physical and social happenings". Bertrand Russel concedes (^4) Astrology of Personality by Dane Rudhyar. (^5) "Astrology and Modern Science," by O. B. Vijayamuni, in the astrological magazine for May 1948.

that 6 "a correlation which has been found true in a number of cases, and has never been found false, has at least a certain assignable degree of probability of being always true". This definition is of great importance to students of astrology. The above statements automatically lead to the acceptance of 'determinism'. Unless there is some sort of a cause-effect principle, prediction, even to the extent Russel suggests, would be impossible. Planck honestly confesses that the "knowable realities of nature cannot be exhaustively discovered by any branch of science" and that "this means that science is never in a position completely and exhaustively to explain the problems it has to face". Professor Einstien is stated to have observed: "Honestly I cannot understand what people mean when they talk about the freedom of the human will." Schopenhauer said that "man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills". Planck's discovery of Quantum Theory is supposed to have disturbed the principle of determinism or causality. The materialist believes that chance and necessity explain natural phenomena. It should occur to any man of average intelligence that blind chance in nature is meaningless, because it cannot explain any natural phenomena satisfactorily. We do not wish to enlarge this question further because it belongs to the province of dialectics and involves profound thinking. Suffice it to say that cool reflection reveals the operation of some intelligent design throughout the universe. This grand truth was perceived by the Sages through intuition or introspection, a process as reliable in its possibilities as it is difficult of achievement by the modern scientist. The next shock the law of determinism is supposed to have received was from the discovery of Rutherford that 7 “atoms at times disintegrate themselves spontaneously and at times behave in a different way". Bohr found out 8 "that the electron of the atom does not travel uniformly in a continuous stream but by jumps". The impact of these discoveries on the theory of causality was considerable because they demonstrated that 9 "nature had hardly any such law of uniformity". This was followed by Heisenberg's new Quantum Mechanics according to which (^10) "although there occur sudden breaks and jumps in the motion, still they are so minute at times that the effect for all practical purposes is continuous and uniform". In other words, according to the Sanskrit maxim "dhatanam yatat purvama kalaayet" (there is nothing new on the surface of the earth), scientific concepts, after the investigations of Planck, Einstein and Heisenberg, are going back to the same old theories from which they started. Eddington warns us thus in a beautiful manner: "There is nothing new under the Sun and this latest Volte Face almost brings (^6) Analysis of Matter. (^7) Materialism, Marxism, Determinism and Dialectics by Das Gupta. (^8) Ibid. (^9) Ibid. (^10) Ibid.

turn implies some sort of causal line. Bertrand Russel observes thus: 13 "I call a series of events a causal line, if given some of them we can infer something about the others without having to know anything about the environment." In other wards the possibility of prediction is conceded. I must warn readers that 1 am deliberately omitting to use the term 'Fate' though both Fate and Determinism connote more or less the same idea. I shall subsequently deal with the question of Fate and Freewill and their relation to astrology. One of the reasons for the degeneration of astrology appears to be due to the fact that the scientific mind became more or less an analytical machine. Man has become too selfish and sensuality, mental chaos and intellectual perversion have become deeply rooted. Astrology (^14) "perforce ceased to be vital and necessary to the collectivities as a principle of order because the growing domination of the intellectual rational principle enabled man to project speculatively his own order into the world". The biological order is indeed of a different kind. The intellect which is but an instrumentality helping man to raise his consciousness "creates a separative kind of individualism based on analysis.............. As individuals became more and more the important thing," astrology descended itself to the level of fortune-telling. The deeper phases of astrology found themselves reborn only after the late Prof. B. Suryanarain Rao entered the field and took up its cause. The situation now in the trend of scientific thought is extremely confusing. We may therefore conclude that in regard to all human events some sort of determinism does exist while in the atomic world "determinism of a statistical kind exists". While causalism and mechanism have been valuable adjuncts in the study of physical phenomena, they have done nothing to explain the psychological phenomena. Since astrology is concerned as much with the physical aspect of man as it is with his psychological aspect, a few observations on the values of time seem to be necessary. Since the causality principle appeared inadequate to explain psychological phenomena the great psychologist Jung found that 15 "there are psychic parallelisms which cannot be related to each other causally, but which must be connected through another sequence of events". Jung goes on to say: 16 "This connection seemed to me to be essentially provided in the fact of the relative simultaneity, therefore the expression synchronistic". Time contains, according to Jung, "qualities or basic conditions manifesting simultaneously in various places in a way not to be explained by causal parallelisms, as for example, in cases of the coincident appearance of identical thoughts, symbols or psychic conditions". In a personal letter addressed to me (the full text of which appears in the Appendix) (^13) Reach of the Mind. (^14) Astrology of Personality by Dane Rudhyar. (^15) Secret of the Golden Flower. (^16) Ibid.

Dr. Jung has conceded the validity of astrology. As regards the basis of astrology, he does not give a correct picture inasmuch as he thinks that correct astrological deductions "are not due to the effect of constellations, but to our hypothetical time charecters". Evidently Carl Jung does not appear to have been aware of the Hindu point of view in regard to prediction. The future is a reflection of the past. The horoscope simply indicates the future. But the so-called influence of a planet or a star is only a proximal case. We may not subscribe to the views of Jung in their entirety. They are quoted to the extent needed to support astrological thought. As the 'synchronistic' principle represents a time evaluation and "based on the formative potency of the moment," it is closely, though not entirely, allied to the astrological precept. Planets are manifestation of matter and they move in space. Their movements are regulated in time. Therefore astrology connects time, space and matter together and demonstrates the synchronistic as well as causality or deterministic principles. It is an art of life-interpretation and provides us with a technique of self-improvement and perfection. That there is determinism as often as there is indeterminism in the atomic world leads us to think that on the one hand there is the inevitable effect of Karma, and that on the other hand there is Freewill also.

misconception is partly due to the ignorance of the theory of Karma. One must admit that the universe is either cosmos or chaos; it cannot be partly ruled by law and partly by chance. The experiences of generations of thinkers should convince any intelligent person that the universe and the life activities are regulated by certain laws. If the Sun and the planetary bodies are subject to discipline and their movements and phenomena are according to a certain order, then the lives of individuals who inhabit the planetary systems must also be guided by certain definite laws and rules, and chance cannot make one a king and the other, a beggar by the mere accident of birth. "For the study of Karma, it is best to consider the man at the level of his individuality or 'soul'. The soul is said to be immortal. Only the so-called positivists and some allied schools of thought doubt the, immortality of the soul. A conscious existence after death has no better proof than a pre-natal existence. It is an old declaration that what begins in Time must end in Time. We have no right to say that the soul is eternal on one side of its earthly period without being so on the other. Far more rational is the view of certain scientists, who believing that the soul originates with this life also declare that it ends with this life. That is the logical outcome of their premise. If the soul sprang into existence specially for this life, why should it continue afterwards? It is precisely as probable from all the grounds of reason that death is the conclusion of the soul as that birth is the beginning of it. It was this argument which had special weight with the Greek philosophers, whose reasonings upon immortality have led all later European generations. They asserted the eternity of soul in order to vindicate its immortality. The Hindu conception is of course more profound. Man's existence, says one of the disciples of Kapila, the first evolutionist in the world, is a mere repetition of his other previous existences. His present existence is but a link in the chain of eternal existences connecting the past with the future. In his each birth, he carries one step forward, the inceptive purpose of his creation to its goal and consummation until it attains the one in which the past, present and future are blended together and time and space annihilated. Above all, our instinctive belief in immortality implies a sub- conscious acceptance of this view. If we do not grant the immortality of the soul, the inconceivability of annihilation or of creation from nothing becomes obvious. Granting the permanence of the human 'spirit', 'soul', 'ego', 'atman' — whatever you call it — the law of Karma is the only one yielding a metaphysical explanation of the phenomenon of life. It is already accepted in the physical plane as evolution and holds a firm ethical value in applying the law of justice to human experience. The law of Karma suggests, that our actions — physical as well as psychical — are performed according to certain regular laws with a definite end in view. Actions performed may fructify in a minute, or in a day, or in a year, or in one life, or in several lives. Actions, when

performed, remain in the form of something unseen till the time of their fructification and during this period this something is known as 'adrishta' (the so-called luck or fortune). There is no escape without the experience of the fruits of these actions — (desires and thoughts) — until the whole adrishta is exhausted. Feelings of pleasure and pain and like and dislike characterize all our activities in any walk of life. This cannot be denied. Ancient writers say that these feelings cannot be attributed to external things; for an external thing or object which gives pleasure to a man at one particular time causes pain to the same man at another time instead of producing pleasure at all times. Hence the (material not the instrumental) cause is traced to the 'soul' which is the seat of these feelings. Since the 'soul' is eternal, it cannot be the requisite cause, because if it were the requisite cause, the effect ought to have been ever present, which is not the fact. Hence, the presence of a determining factor to the Atma is necessary. The ancient Hindu schools believed in the existence of an unseen force, which is called Dharma-dharma or 'adrishta' or the sum-total of Karma. It is this unseen force which helps the fructification of the deeds of the past. According to ancient texts when one dies, his soul which is enveloped in a subtle body and invested with the sum-total of good and bad Karma passes after some time into another body leaving off his gross body, as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones. His reincarnation takes place in a physical body corresponding with the deeds done by him in his previous life. The processes of death and birth go on until the person concerned attains emancipation. The cardinal doctrine of Karma therefore is the law of cause and effect in accordance with the maxim "as a man soweth so shall he reap". The Darwinian theory of evolution is defective inasmuch as it does not offer a satisfactory solution of the problems agitating the human mind from times immemorial. The Darwinian theory of evolution slops with man. Karma theory on the other hand takes us further and says that according to the maxim 'action and reaction are equal and opposite', when there is evolution there must necessarily be devolution also. Hence a Brahmin in this life may be born as a Harijan in the next life; a rich man in this life may be born as a poor man in the next life and vice versa. Thus the station of life or the degree of wealth, etc., that one has attained in this life is mostly due to the Karma at his credit in the previous life. Karma is due to our actions and our actions are due to our thoughts. Hence it is man who creates his Karma for it is the product of his thought. There are three categories of Karma, viz., (1) Sanchita, (2) Prarabdha and (3) Agami. The Sanchita or accumulative Karma pertains to actions that are still lying latent "like seeds stocked up in a granary for fruition in future lives." The present course of life is indicated by the Prarabdha or operative Karma, deeds or actions whose seed has already sprung up and whose

does something by his body, such as kicking, beating, squeezing, embracing, etc., and all these physical actions are called kayaka or pertaining to the kaya or body. All those actions which he does by speech are called vachaka and these are stronger than the first set of kayaka or bodily actions. Then there are the actions of mind, thinking good or evil and. these are classed as manasika or mental. As mind power is the grandest yet discovered in all nature, actions of the mind are the most powerful and surpass in intensity all other kinds of actions. Sanchita, therefore, as well as Prarabdha and Agami, has three sorts of Karma attached to it and here come the complications of Karma theory." Karma theory teaches us that soul enters this life, not as a fresh creation, but after a long course of previous existences on this earth and elsewhere, in which it acquired its present inhering peculiarities and that it is on the way to future transformations which the soul is now shaping. It claims that infancy brings to earth, not a blank scroll for the beginning of an earthly record, nor a mere cohesion of atomic forces into a brief personality soon to disclose again into the elements, but that it is inscribed with ancestral histories, some like the present scene the most of them unlike it and stretching back into, and remotest past. These inscriptions are generally undecipherable, save as revealed in their molding influence upon the new career, but like the invisible photographic images made by the Sun of all it sees; when they are properly developed in the laboratory of consciousness, they will be distinctly displayed. The current phase of life will also be stored away in the secret vaults of memory for its unconscious effect upon ensuing lives. All the qualities we now possess in body, mind and soul result from our use of ancient opportunities, we are indeed the heirs of all the ages. For these conditions accrue from distant causes endangered by our older selves, and the future flows by the divine law of cause and effect (Karma) from, the gathered momentum of our past impetuses. There is no favoritism in the universe, but all have the same everlasting facilities for growth. Those who are now elevated in worldly station may be sunk in humble surroundings in the future. Only the inner traits of the soul are permanent companions. The wealthy sluggard may be the beggar of the next life, and the industrious worker of the present is sowing the seeds of greatness. Suffering, bravely endured now, will produce a treasure of patience and fortitude in another life, hardships will give rise to strength, self-denial must develop the will, tastes cultivated in this existence will somehow bear fruit in coming ones and acquired energies will assert themselves whenever they can by the less parsimoniae upon which the principles of physics are based. Vice versa, the unconscious habits, the uncontrollable impulses, the peculiar tendencies, the favorite pursuits, and the soul-stirring friendships of the present descend from far-reaching previous activities. Karma is what we have done, and we have to enjoy the karmic results. Therefore it follows that the future is only the past. It should therefore be possible to predict the future. The astrologer feels by means of his art

the cloud of unexpended Karma in the aura and tries to read it. Planets therefore simply indicate the results of previous Karma and hence there is nothing like fate or destiny in its absolute sense controlling us. 'The indications of planets are something like show cause notices of a legal court. The sections mentioned therein are technical and they indicate with what sort of commission or omission of duty the person is charged with. He must make preparations to meet them. Thus a man borrows unduly from another and fails to pay him. This will bring a decree against the defaulter and a notice will issue for its execution. The decree does not prohibit the defaulter from earning money by any means and paying it off or going to the creditor and satisfying his demands by other means, such as personal service, intercessions of relations or friends, pleading for mercy, etc. Similarly the planets indicate the evil or good results of the previous Karma and leaves it to man to counteract them or allow them to have their full sway. Thus the good or bad Sanchita Karma at our credit can be augmented or minimized by the Prarabdha Karma with the aid of will-power, which is limitless in its potentiality." Astrology therefore does not lead to a weakening of the will. Science explains the idiosyncrasies of plants and animals by the environment of previous generations, and calls instinct, hereditary habit. In the same way there is an evolution of individuality, by which the child opens its new era with characteristics derived from anterior lives and adds the experience of a new personality to the sum-total of his treasured traits. In its passage through earthly personalities the spiritual self, the essential ego, accumulates a fund of individual character, which remains as the permanent thread stringing together the separate lives. The soul is therefore an eternal water globule, which sprung in the beginningless past from mother ocean and is destined after an unreckonable course of meanderings in cold and rain, snow and steam, spring and river, mud and vapor, to at last return with the garnered experience of all lonely existences into the central heart of all. That we have forgotten the causes producing the present sequences of pleasures and pains, talents and defects, successes and failures is no disproof of them, and does not disturb the justice of the scheme. For temporary oblivion is the anodyne by which the kindly physician is bringing us through the darker wards of sorrow into perfect health. The law of Karma provides a graded sanction or reason for right living. It proves that men are in essence one, and that any deed which hurts one's neighborhood or the commonweal is an injury to oneself. Above all, it reveals a plane of consciousness where right becomes the inmost law of being and a man does right not because it pays or because it avoids self-injury, but because, beyond all argument, he must. Karma destroys the cause of envy and the consequent ill- will. It removes impatience. It largely removes the fear of death for which there is the inner conviction of rebirth and by the law of affinity re-union with those one loves, why worry. The belief in the theory of Karma and reincarnation scattered through the philosophical