Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedic Astrology
 
Vital Health Magazine, november 2005
 

The Three Sisters of Self-Development

An Interview by Uma Yvonne Keogh with Vedic expert Narada Kush

Narada Kush, an authority in his native Holland on ancient vedic wisdom, shares the fruits of his spiritual journey of 25 years. Through his many books, workshop presentations and private consultations he brings the ancient secrets of living to one’s full potential to the modern world. In a journey of many twists and turns (at one time hosting in The Hague, Holland, a transcendental meditation retreat for over 6,000), he now lives a more simple life. He brings his knowledge and inspiration to anyone who has an interest in improving the quality of their lives through this special wisdom. What follows are excerpts from an interview during his visit to Toronto in August 2005.Uma Yvonne Keogh: In your workshops, you teach that yoga, ayurveda, and vedic astrology are connected. How is that?

Narada Kush: They are like three sisters: yoga, ayurveda, and astrology. They are connected by the Self. The Self is their parent and they are just three rivers coming from the same source. They have the same principles, the same foundation, the same wisdom, the same natural qualities in them. Only their perspectives are different (expressed in different ways) but actually they are all the same.  They have the same source and the same destination.

The chakras are connected with the planets and the chakras are also important for yoga. The vedic science consists of about 40 different parts of literature. If you take Ayurveda, Vedanta or Astrology or Vastu (environment science) or the Puranas or the Upanishads they are all very nicely connected with each other.
We do not ordinarily study all those things because it is a huge thing but when we want to make it practical, then we apply yoga, ayurveda, and astrology and that makes a complete package of life in a beautiful and enjoyable way. And also in a growing way because the purpose of life is to grow.

Yoga is the entrance for growing - mentally, consciously but also physically through the exercises and the breathing (pranayama). And ayurveda is for prevention - that we do those things, eat those things and have that kind of lifestyle which prevents us from disease, problems and worries. When the quality of life is going down for whatever reason - it could be karma or the body falls sick - then ayurveda is a very natural approach of curing the body without all kinds of chemical means. It is based on the principle that the body will recover itself, through the proper foods, the proper herbs, and a proper lifestyle according to one’s abilities.

What Goes On in the Universe Goes On in Ourselves

Vedic astrology or “Jyotish” shows who you are, your skills, your weaknesses, your possibilities. It is also used for time planning - how you plan your life, what you do this year, what you do next year, or what better not to do. The vedic calendar, based on the moon cycle, gives auspicious days and so we can make optimal use of the influence of the planets. Now sometimes they fight a little bit with us, sometimes they support us. Sometimes they are more neutral. What is going on in the universe is going on in ourselves. The sun, for example, is not only the sun that you can see. The sun is the sun in ourselves, it’s our Self, our consciousness, our awareness. So all the qualities which are in the universe are also in us and because the transformations are different. Life is changing all the time. This is our experience in daily life. The moment we know which changes can be expected, we can do so many things to support it in the most desirable direction. “Avoid the danger that has not yet come” is an old saying based on astrology.

Actually all three-ayurveda, yoga and astrology support us to make life more comfortable, more growth-oriented and more enjoyable. We become the master of our destiny not allowing life to take it over. You can compare it with a boat on the river. You can try to go against the stream and row and row, you get tired, you complain life is so hard and you get exhausted. Or you can go the other way, just co-create with the flow of the river in the direction of the ocean. Life is not meant to make you struggle or to suffer all the time, it is meant for you to enjoy and to become more happy and wise.

The Subtle Intelligence of the Body

UYK: So astrology works with the forces and energies of the planets and what does ayurveda work with?

NK: Ayurveda works with the intelligent principles in the body. Our body consists of five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. Everybody’s body consists of these five elements. In ayurveda these five elements are combined into three qualities: vata, pitta and kapha - called the three doshas.

Based on the three doshas a good ayurvedic physician can tell you right away what is wrong with the body; which of the doshas are out of balance. Ayurveda has a time quality as well like the astrology, so the ayurvedic expert can look into the future through feeling the pulse. You can diagnose the subtle body-energy through reading the pulse. The vata, pitta and kapha-movements show you how the intelligence of the body is in (or out of) balance. You can learn this skill of pulse-reading for your own body, just by practising it every day.
UYK: How does the practice of yoga fit in? What type of yoga do you teach?

NK: There are many types of yoga. Actually each chakra is connected with a type of yoga. Yoga is of course very important because all of us, we feel and experience that we are limited in our mental thinking and in our behaviour. Sometimes we are upset or afraid or irritated by other human beings. This shows our own imbalances. So there is a lot to do in the human being to grow more in awareness, in balancing ourselves. The foundation is just to grow in the direction of who we really are inside, to discover what is our real nature. Over the many years that I have practised yoga and meditation myself I developed the experience that there is an infinite source to which all of us are connected, and that it is possible to connect with that source. One of the most ancient, traditional ways to connect with the source is through meditation . . . the mind reaches levels where there is more peace, more harmony, more love. When we practise that in a regular way then it is possible to grow in our consciousness. And growing means that we are more united with our divine source, the Spirit, with everything and everyone.

When we are growing, then also our environment will grow more and more with us. So if we want to make any nice contribution to our family or friends, or to society as a whole, then the best thing is to transform yourself through spiritual discipline — yoga exercises, meditation. All this will be a great help to the whole society, for the whole world. As my own spiritual teacher, Sri Vasudeva from Trinidad (see www.blue-star.org) often says: “Transforming yourself will transform the world.”

My own way of growing is above all to be connected with my spiritual teacher who is already in that field of loving awareness and he is my accelerator. I just connect with him and he is accelerating me to get that same quality. We call that inner guru and outer guru. He is my outer guru but his quality is also in me and this is what I call my inner guru. So I’m connected more and more to my inner guru to develop the pure qualities of the outer guru.

UYK: Do you think it’s important for everyone to have a spiritual teacher or guru?

NK: I think it is, but not everyone may be ready for it. It is all about acceptance and surrendering our ego. We are all on certain levels of existence and no two persons in the world are the same. Maybe some could be without a guru, but those are very rare. A guru is a teacher for living life in the most harmonious, peaceful and comfortable way. It is very much recommended to have a spiritual teacher who already knows what life is all about and who can take your hand and guide you on the spiritual path. The best is of course to have an enlightened teacher. Only he or she can take you to the level of enlightenment.

UYK: People think they're giving their power away.

NK: That is a misunderstanding. The spiritual teacher is meant to give you power and not to take your power. Because of his high energy level he can give you a lot of power. Actually his role is to awaken your own power, the Shakti [energy transference to awaken the divine energy or kundalini within you] and make your inner guru come alive.

UYK: I suppose you are a guru of some kind because the word guru means “teacher.”

NK: I consider myself as a student of life, I prefer to call myself a consultant. What I really can offer is the experience of my own life, that I am in the process of spiritual development. I can share my experience with my fellow human beings and just to let them see that you can make life more complete, not by letting life go by on its own . . . We have two parts of life:  we have the outer part of life and we have the inner part. From the outer part, you can never become really happy, satisfied, enjoying . . . because there are always things coming on your path that make you unhappy or disappointed. So you have to make yourself powerful and the way I found for myself is to go inside and to experience who I am. And you can take that journey also. And when you then combine them both, the outer journey and the inner journey — then you will feel more and more that life can be very complete and very enjoyable and that life really has a divine purpose.

The purpose is not finished when you pass away but we are just spiritual travelers — we are on a journey and the destination is the same for every human being: To become a fully enlightened human being. As long as we have not reached that destination then we will come back to life again and again and life will give us lessons and lessons. Sometimes we have to go through the same lessons all the time until we become more aware of how we have to manage the things which are coming on our path. And finally every human being will reach the same spiritual qualities in his or her life because the divine power — which is in us and which is supporting us — is there for all human beings independent of culture, religion or any other background. A human being is a spiritual being and one day will awake in his or her own life and notice what he or she is in essence. Our essence is that we are divine beings in a physical existence. My little role in the whole process is to travel around and to make people more aware of their beautiful and divine purpose.

Narada Kush will be in Canada in November to give workshops, lectures and private consultations in Toronto, Ottawa and Cobourg. For more information please email him at info@naradakush.nl.com or contact Atreyi in Toronto at (416) 242-5556 or 487-8683. See also www.bluestarcanada.org

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