Episode Transcript

CB: [Foreign language 00:00:02], which means I am the extension of universe, and the universe is extension of me. We are not separate from the universe. We are not isolated from that cosmos. There are unknown, unseen forces working organically to enhance the quality of our existence. The question is, are available to them, or are we stuck in the narrow dimensions of our mind? I am Chandresh Bhardwaj. And this is Break the Norms.CB:Namaste everyone. I hope you are doing well. Before we get into the topic for today, quick reminder to sign up on leelagurukul.com, this is the online education portal that I've been working on. And I have recorded the meditation course and the guided meditations. And although I think my harshest critic at times, but when I was hearing my own voice and watching the filming, the unedited cuts from the course, I was genuinely happy. I felt this is something I wish that I could have created 10 years ago, or I wish it was available to me when I was getting into the path of meditation, but there's organic time for everything. And I'm glad Leela is being born in a world where we are really pushing ourselves to find our meaning, to find our conscious purpose and live it fearlessly. So I'm excited for you to know when the applications will be open. Visit leelagurukul.com or join the Instagram page @leelagurukul, just follow us there and whenever the applications are open, you will be the first one to be notified.CB:And also just, I'm curious, how many of you are on the Clubhouse app? It's a voice app and it's still in process, I mean, still not open to public, it's by invite only. And it's a voice app, which means it's almost like a live podcast constantly happening there, but once you record it, it's gone. I mean, it's live and there's nothing you can upload there. It's very interesting and I'm on it. So if you are on Clubhouse, look me up. And I plan to spend a lot of time on it this year. Fingers crossed it's going to be successful and be out in the world for everyone to join in. And I think going to really change many things.CB:I've been really bullish on the voice apps, and bullish is, by the way, a stock market term, which bullish means we are betting really high on a certain thing. But this app is not on the stock market. It's just, I still have this terminology in my head and I like using it. Bullish versus bearish. Yeah. But this bullish and bearish conversation has nothing to do with our topic for today.CB:Our topic for today is astrology. This is, I think, a topic that I am sure many of you are interested in because astrology has really gained huge popularity, I think, in the last few years, especially with many apps coming out, and I know plenty of people who may not be into spirituality or yoga or meditation, but they have these apps installed and they live by these apps every day. And there are many of them. Many people ask me that whenever we hear you talk about planets, you always say, don't go by Mercury in retrograde, don't dump your stress on moon. So does that mean you don't approve astrology or what's your connection with astrology? So I think this episode will set some records straight. And my hope is by the end of this episode, you all know how to really use astrology and how to extract the maximum benefit of it. And above all, is there really a connection between astrology and meditation, or astrology and tantra?CB:So I'll share the first fact of my life with you here. The fact is I have been obsessed with astrology when I was little. I think tantra, for me... I didn't know the word tantra, honestly, by then, I was exploring a lot about tantra goddesses, goddess Kali and other nine goddesses in the whole tantra universe. And at the same time, astrology was very much part of my learning and it was easy to dive deeper into astrology because whenever I would go out to buy books on astrology or tantra, there were hardly any books available on tantra. Pretty much no book available on tantra, but on astrology there were plenty of books available.CB:Also the spiritual seekers around me, they were very much interested in astrology and not so much into tantra because again, there was a very limited knowledge available on tantra. So astrology has always been a very curious subject for the seekers to dive into. I remember, I think that I was pretty much in seventh or eighth grade and I would read at least one book on astrology every week and I became obsessed with it. And remember I was also meditating at that time, and my guru would tell me that, Chandresh, it's good you're interested in astrology, but also know when to go beyond it. And as a teenager you are just fascinated by these things, and I didn't pay much attention to it. I was like, he's just saying it because again, my school teachers would call home and tell my parents that Chandresh has tantra books in his bag and he's too much into this kind of stuff.CB:And I don't know if I ever shared this in podcast. I used to wear a lot of spiritual pendants as a young kid. We had a bunch of Himalayan months visiting us and my nani and my nana, grandparents, they fed them food. They were completely strangers. And I was there playing around there. I was probably, I think, not even in fifth grade, this was in the first kindergarten years, maybe I was in first, second or third grade maximum. And they saw me, they touched my third eye and they touched my pulse for a few minutes, and they started telling things about me that no one knew.CB:And then they gave some sort of a blessed thread to wear. And then they gave one more thing and they said, "Your grandson will never be afraid of ghosts and spirits." I think they did something that day because I'm forever fascinated with the ghost and spirit world. Anyway, long story short, I used to have these pendants around my neck and my hands, bracelets. And my school teacher would tell me that you bring tantra books, you bring astrology books, and now you have these pendants and you are in fifth grade. For God's sake do not do this in school. It doesn't create a good impression on others. And I threw such a tantrum in school that I will not let go of these.CB:I used to call them my babas, which means my monks or my gurus. Baba means like a blessed soul, like a spiritual guru. So I used to say these are my babas and I will not let anyone touch them. And my nanny has always been my unconditional supporter. So she pretty much stood tall with me that no one can touch this if he's not willing to let them go. But I think with time I had to let go of some of them, but some of them I kept. Long story short, I was obsessed with astrology. I don't think I left out any book available in those days. I would really live by it.CB:Now, something interesting started happening. I was meditating. I was reading astrology, and I would take every opportunity to speak to astrologer of Guruji with my father. And one particular day, there were many incidents like that, but one particular day there were two astrologers sitting and they started asking me about my date of birth and the whole information that they need for astrology chart. And one person looked into my eye and he said, "Are you all right?" I said, "I'm all right.? He said, "You can tell me, are you suffering from any depression, any deep anxiety?" And I said, "I don't think so." I was not even in college. So honestly, I didn't even know the meaning of these heavy terms, but I understood, he's asking if I'm being really sad or something bothering me emotionally. And I said, "No, I'm fine."CB:And the other astrologer asked him, "Oh, are you saying it because of these planets are meeting in this house?" and so on, and the other astrologer said, "Yep. If you see this, as you know, he would be in a deep depression right now." And the other astrologer who was a senior astrologer and also a very close family member, he told the junior astrologer that Chandresh meditates so I think that's why this is not happening, but he's over-thinker for sure.CB:And he's asked me, he said, "Do you think very deeply? Do you go too deep into any thinking process?" I said, "I do," whatever, "Yeah. I tend to think too hard, that's for sure." And they said, okay, this is what's happening. And many other things happened at that time when the junior astrologer said, "Are you short-tempered?" And I said, "I used to be, but it's improving." And then the senior astrologer said, "Oh, he's not short-tempered anymore because look at his mantra that he's doing. So that's not affecting this short-temperedness so much. So that incident left many questions in my mind, because until then I used to think whatever is in my chart, that's the truth. And that's the truth that no one can erase.CB:And then I also, finally started honoring the words of my Guruji, that he's been telling me to pause my obsession with astrology and start thinking of a universe beyond. And I had to speak with him. I said, "They told me I would be a depressed person or very short-tempered and many other crazy things, but they are not happening. So should I be scared? Are they going to happen at some point?" And my father said, "There will be a time, if you play your cards right, there will be a time in your life that maybe none of the predictions in your chart will be true. None of the readings in your chart will be true," and I said, "What does that mean?" And he shared a very personal story of his life. Without his permission I'm sharing it here, because he has shared it on public platforms so I guess I'm safe. I can share it.CB:He said, "When I was of your age, I was obsessed with astrology. And I was in high school, I would make horoscope charts for people, for families. And I became like official astrologer for many families, many people." And it kind of changed a lot for me as a young boy. The confidence, the trust among people, everything changed because he was such a genius and a young astrologer. And he said, "Your grandfather would tell me the same thing that I'm telling you now, that go beyond astrology," but I wouldn't go there. And he said, then one day I predicted, it was in a newspaper at that time, that India will have the first woman prime minister. And at that time, I mean, imagine America still doesn't have a woman prime minister or president. And in those days, this is India of 1980s, I believe, or late '70s, he predicted on radio channel and newspaper that India will have a woman prime minister and that's going to be and that's going to Ms. Indira Gandhi.CB:People were like, yep, he's son of this great guru and he's young, okay, he predicted that, okay, so what. But guess what happened? Few months later, India actually got its first woman prime minister. That changed a lot in his journey. People started consulting him. Big people started showing up for his consultations and his guidance. And he became a big deal as a young boy. One day, a family from the village they lived in, they knocked on their door and they said, they spoke to my father and they said, "We want to see your guru," and he said, "He's meditating. He can't come out. But tell me what's going on." And they said, "Our son is admitted in the hospital and the doctors... He's very young. He's eight year old. The doctors have given him... they're observing him and they're saying some crazy things about him, that he may not have enough time and they don't know what's going on. And we are very nervous and we know the only person who can guide us right now is your guru. So can we see him please?"CB:And my grandfather had a very strict spiritual routine. He wouldn't meet people a lot and he would meditate at a certain hour and he wouldn't be available to see anyone during those hours. Very disciplined, very much in his devotion toward the meditation and his sadhana practices, his tantra practices. So my dad knew that he cannot knock on the door of my grandfather and call him out. So my father got the... he said, "Give me the information, the date of birth, the place of birth and so on. And I'll let you know what's going on." And they gave him the information and he looked at that and he said, "Of course, he's going through very critical time right now. Yep, next four days will be very tough for him." And the family said, "The doctors have told us maybe within next two days, if nothing positive happens, then we might lose our son."CB:And guys, I'm talking about a small village where the hospitals, the medical condition was obviously not at all good. And they were in panic state. And my father predicted that for the next few days it is going to be tough for him. So that panicked them even more. And they said, "Now we really want to see your guru," and dad was like, "No, you cannot see him right now. I can speak to him tomorrow." But one thing that I have fully understood when someone else is in pain, the whole concept of boundaries and not disturbing them at certain point that, that's gone from their mind because they are trapped in their own pain, anxiety and suffering. So they were like, "No, we cannot leave. We have to see right now."CB:So my grandfather heard the noise. He came out of his room and he said, "What the heck is going on? What's there?" And he saw them and he understood right away. He said, "Your son, next 12 hours are critical, but within this week, he'll be back to your home and you'll be feeding him food within this week. Don't panic. He's going to be fine." And my father, first of all, was a bit surprised that grandfather didn't even ask what's going on with the situation, he right away said, okay, he saw them and then he was like, "Okay, your son is going to be fine. He'll be back in a few days, and just take the medicine." And he wrote something on paper. He said, "Do this mantra." And also my grandfather used to give candies to people. And many people thought the power is in the candies. So that's a story for another day, but he gave them this little candy. He said, "Just take this one for yourself and when your son is fine, give this one to him." And they went away. They thanked him.CB:And my father, he was very surprised and shocked. He told my grandfather that you didn't see the horoscope. This is very critical. He may not even survive. I mean, this is, the next 48 hours are going to be very challenging. And my grandfather said, "This is horoscope reading and no one can decide the life and death. But if you see the aura, the chakras of this kid, he's going to have a long life." Because, I don't know how many of you know, but before the person dies, their aura changes. The energy, what we call prana, the life force, that changes in their chakras. And it's not rocket science. Anyone who's deep into meditation and spiritual healing work, they can really see it. You can control it, but you can see it. So he said, this is what's going on. His chakras, his aura is very solid, he's receiving the healing, he's receptive to it. He's going to be fine.CB:It didn't make much sense to my father at that time. And then few days passed away. One night, there were a few people knocking on the door. And it was that same family. And my father didn't open the door. He thought something happened to the kid. And these people are here angry and upset and something is not going great. And he wouldn't open the door. And my grandfather who was in meditation again at that time. So he again had to get up and he said, "It's those people. They have brought some sweets. Take the sweets. I will not see them right now. And just open the door and take the sweets." And my father was like, he doesn't get it, "I think something happened with the kid," because there were many people who were just knocking the door.CB:So anyway, he was instructed to open the door. My father opened the door. There were those people holding baskets of fruits and sweets, thanking my grandfather for the healing, for the guidance and the reading he did. And that was a turning point in my father's spiritual journey. He told me that he could not sleep that night. He was just crying all night. He was crying because first of all, he thought he knew it all. But secondly, the first thing that he said, he was feeling that he didn't trust his guru's words. He didn't trust the guidance, the words, the prayers that his guru was doing for this young kid. And he said he couldn't face him.CB:But my grandfather knew that my father is going through this emotional pain and he called him. He said, "I know you're going through this pain. It's okay. We all are learning. We all constantly learn. There's nothing to feel guilt, but now it's a good opportunity for you to go beyond astrology." And my father said, "What is beyond astrology?" And my grandfather replied, "Tantra. That's beyond astrology." And that's when began the tantric journey, the next chapter in my father's journey. And when he shared this story with me, it was to remind me that astrology will come to a standstill. And after that, you need more tools, more resources. And this is the essence of this episode.CB:Astrology is really a blueprint of your life. It reminds you that you're not isolated, you're not alone in this world. There are planets out there who are influencing you. There are energies out there, maybe unseen, unknown, and not understood yet, but they have an influence in your journey and you're constantly reacting to them in your own way. But astrology is extremely useful to know your potential, especially if you get a reading within the first seven years of your life. I know there's no one under seven who's listening to this podcast, but if you have children who are under seven, under 10, or even under 14, astrology reading for them would be very helpful. You'll get to know what's the potential of this kid, in what direction they should be be going. Because I think one of the major struggle of the youth today, the younger crowd today is what exactly should know should we do with our life? I like music. I like writing, but I also want to make money so maybe I should go into accounting.CB:I think I'm just repeating my story 15 years ago, but this is really struggle of even the younger crowd today, or even anyone knowing where they should go if they like more than one thing, or maybe they don't like anything, they're confused about it. So knowing the potential is great through astrology, but the challenges, the day you start to create new karma, new actions, then the new impressions are formed. New thoughts happen, new intentions are generated. The aura starts to change, the alignment in your chakras start to change. There are people who are meeting you, your friends, your family members, your partners, your lovers, your spiritual teachers, everyone starts to influence your mind. And at that point, there is very less astrology affecting you because you have started to generate your own karma, your own action.CB:If you don't do much with your life, if you simply wake up, go to work and just do whatever is showing up, then you're basically at the mercy of all the planets. Everything in your chart will keep unfolding, but not exactly in that same way. It's like a good script directed by a bad director. That's what starts to happen because the planets might guide that this is your golden time and you'll have more money, you might meet your soulmate in this year, but if you are simply living in an unconscious way, then there will still be golden time, but you'll not be able to extract the gold out of it. You might get 10% raise, but maybe you deserve 80% raise. So these kinds of situations happen that you're not able to extract your fullest potential. And this happens when we are living unconsciously. The negative karmic contracts multiply and the positive karmic contracts don't even happen. The struggles multiply, the confusions multiply, and we are not able to really extract the benefit of that golden time. This is one layer of astrology.CB:The other layer is for those people who really follow it. Every day, they'll read their horoscope chart. They have their personal astrologers, like in India. It's very common for pretty much every other family to have an astrologer who's guiding them for business, for relationships and everything. And those people also get too limited in their journey because they live by the prediction of their astrologer. So if the astrologer tells them, don't invest in this business, they'll not even think about it. Even if it's really invoking the fire i them. If their strategy says, do this, they'll just blindly do that. So their brain starts to, of course, lose its creativity, the awareness starts to lose its power because they're blindly following an advice. And if the astrologer doesn't know what they're doing, then it just messes up the whole thing.CB:And if the astrologer know what it's doing, then they will not ever blindly advice to their student or client that just keep doing what I'm telling you. The right astrologer will tell you how to use the predictions. When to pause, when to go beyond them and when to trust your own karma. Because the challenges after a point, the actions, the thoughts, the company you keep, how you channel your emotional energy, how you channel your sexual energy, how you cultivate your spiritual path, all of that starts to influence your life in a major way.CB:So, one thing to understand is there are some essential elements between your human existence and the universe. They are helping you, ready to help you even more, but you need to be available to them. You need to cultivate a conscious karma. You need to embrace and accept that you are a conscious choice maker and you have to make choices that help you bloom, that help you nurture the inner strength in you. Because right now what's happening, we are letting the ego and the mind call the shots. And when that happens, things will not go in the right direction.CB:And also the right astrologer hugely important. And if you consider astrology guidance from an app as your life guidance, then you will be in trouble, for sure. So the key point to take away from this episode is, if you are living unconsciously, which means if you're simply reacting to everything, if you are making unconscious choices and reacting to the things happening around you, then you're basically not even using the basic benefits that come with your horoscope chart. Okay? If you are meditating a little bit, if you are self-reflecting, maybe indulge in gratitude journals and really trying to be mindful and connect to nature, then you might be making use of some benefits available to you through your astrology chart. And if you are indulging in deep spiritual work, if you indulge in deep tantra work or meditation, and you're making consistent efforts to grow spiritually, then you might be making the right moves to go beyond astrology. Because astrology is introduction to your potential. It's an introduction. That's all. There's no action there. It's just introduction.CB:There's a story that someone once told me that a man who was struggling a lot decided to meet an astrologer. And astrologer looks at his chart and he said, "The next five years are going to be really challenging for you. You will be disturbed emotionally. Your business will not work. You might break up with your girlfriend and you may not be in a relationship after that. And the next five years are just going to be terrible and challenging." And the man said, "And what about after five years?" And the astrologer said, "Oh, you'll get used to it after five years." It's not a joke on astrologers. It's a real story of how an uninformed astrologer can mess up your journey because they do not have solutions. They can see something is messed up in planets, but then they don't know what to do beyond that.CB:I met many astrologers in my life who would tell me, oh, this is the problem you might face. And I would ask them, so how do I go beyond it? And the only answer they have is, maybe do this mantra, maybe wear this ring. And these mantras and rings, they are very generic, not based on the collective reading of your soul, but just based on whatever that horoscope computer is generating. So it's very half-baked, uninformed guidance. So be aware of getting guidance from astrologers who are not diving deeper into your complete existence. They need to study everything in your existence not just the planets, but also your karmic journey, your life journey, your intentions, your aura, your chakras, it's a whole science of reading the right stuff.CB:Now, tantra starts where astrology concludes. Tantra begins where astrology takes rest. What it means? It means if astrology is the introduction to your potential, then tantra is the signs to unleash your potential. Tantra is the science to rewrite your complete story. Tantra is the direct bridge to your cosmic consciousness. It's the direct bridge to your higher awareness. And I'm using the words direct bridge because there is nothing in between you and that high consciousness. It's the bridge you have to cross.CB:To conclude this episode, I would recommend, before you go into any sort of astrology reading, first develop a disciplined routine of your meditation. The word I'm going to use here is sadhana, which means a disciplined spiritual practice. It basically means you stick to a mantra, a daily meditation, intention, and then write down the mindful actions that you will take toward those intentions. Stick to it for straight three months. If nothing changes in your life and you're still consistently doing everything, then drop me an email and I'll answer you. Because the truth is, if you do the work three months is a long time. You'll start to see the changes within two weeks.CB:I have come across plenty of students and clients who were going to astrologers, and they wanted me to get the astrology reading for them as well. And I made it very clear, astrology will only reveal a certain part. If you give me your trust, we can work deeper together and we can extract the highest potential hidden in you that you haven't unleashed yet. And thankfully it worked in every single case so far.CB:It's not magic or rocket science or a powerful thing that I'm doing, anyone can do it. You don't even need me to unleash that. That's why I'm saying, get the mantra, do the meditations, stick to it for a minimum of three months and your entire life will change. The glimpses of your life will start changing within two weeks and entire life will go through a shift within three months, but you need to show up for that work, be available to that power which is readily available for you, wanting to connect with you. Because a blind dependence on astrology or any sort of external signs is not good because your awareness is ready to expand and evolve. And if you do not trust it, if you do not put it to work, then it's of no use.CB:I hope today's episode was helpful. I hope it gave you enough insight on how to really use astrology and how to bring in tantra and meditation work. If you have any questions, write to us. And if you like the podcast, do write your first review in 2021 for Break the Norms podcast. I'll be very thankful.CB:I hope this podcast may travel to the untapped universe of your darkness, light, courage, passion and so much more. Please do subscribe and be ready to break your norms. I am so excited and very honored to be part of your sacred journey through this podcast.

Useful Links

Chandresh's YouTube Channel

Find Your Source of Happiness - 21 Day Challenge

Private Guidance Program with Chandresh

Buy the book - Break the Norms

Instagram: @cbmeditates