Prisoner of Stars

These days, most of the Indians planning to get married (the traditional way) seem to be "Prisoners of Stars". I call them so for their sheer over dependence on stars / astrology for taking life’s most important decision- marriage.

A typical Indian arranged marriage begins with the horoscope match, which is the first and possibly the hardest criteria to filter “good” prospective partners. Stars decide the compatibility, what the intellect suggests, comes later. Loads of dependencies follow suit- you cannot marry a partner who descends from your “Gothra”, if you are a “Dev” gan, you cannot marry a “Rakshas” gan, if you are a non-Manglik, you cannot marry a Manglik, etc. Being Manglik is a taboo, it’s like being HIV +ve, everyone runs away from marrying you :). Although perfectly normal in regular life, Mangliks risk the partner's life by transferring misfortune (if not sexually transmitted virus ;)), at times to the extent of causing an untimely death.

It would be incorrect for me to comment negative about Astrology as a science, unless I know everything about it (little knowledge is a dangerous thing, isn’t it?), but then, if it is a science, it should have a standard result. E.g. A certain set of astrological (star) positions should result in a common outcome, whoever on earth reads it, so how is it that each astrologer (guruji) reads it and comes up with his own set of results? Is there any measure to validate the exactness of an astrologer’s predictions? To me, it’s nothing more than a few blind men observing an elephant by their sense of touch- one who touches the legs, calls it a pillar, and another touching the tail, calls it a rope :).

They say the most important decisions in life should be taken by placing your head above your heart. Only your own sane intellect, and not an emotional heart can decide what is best for you. Even nature has placed our head above our heart. (But nature has also placed the stars way above our mortal heads, maybe that gives it an upper hand.)

I truly wonder how people base the most important decisions of their lives, not on what their eyes see, brain thinks and intellect suggests, but on matters they don’t even understand completely. More practical we get in this, more successful marriages we may produce.