In his continuing series of articles, Dr ALEX HANKEY, professor at S-VYASA university in Bangalore, speaks of his journey finding proof of the validity of Jyotisha astrology

Articles Nos 11 and 12 in this series described some of the work of my Ayurveda student, who founded and runs Ayurveda Rasahara Kendra clinics in the city of Bhopal, and how I originally came to conduct research in Ayurveda. In this article, I describe work of Dr Rameshrao Narayan, my first PhD student at S-VYASA where I work near Bangalore.
I was introduced to Dr Ramesh Rao under extraordinary circumstances on 1st September, 2007, the very first day that I arrived at S-VYASA to help with the institution’s research work. That afternoon, the university’s Vice-Chancellor Dr H.R. Nagendra invited me to come to the university’s City Office with him to meet prospective PhD students, who were going to be interviewed so that I could see the kind of research proposals that they would propose for faculty consideration and acceptance.
The students presented one by one, several were accepted, and then came a Vet, who had also done a Master’s in Yoga Medicine at S-VYASA. His was the first to meet with disapproval. The reason, Dr Ramesh Rao had proposed a study on Jyotisha astrology: he would vaccinate several dozen small ruminants, i.e. sheep and goats, under different rising signs, one very auspicious and one quite inauspicious. He expected to see very different patterns of response to the vaccinations when they were conducted under different rising signs, one very auspicious, for which excellent results could be hypothesized, and one less auspicious for which poor results might be expected. Since vaccination of farm animals is a process that yields highly variable results, for which no one understands the reason why, the hypothesis was both reasonable and of great potential scientific and commercial value.
I was fascinated, but not so Dr Nagendra and his sister, the Clinical Director, their reasoning: “No one on faculty understands Jyotisha, so we cannot supervise your proposal.” Immediately I said, “I know Jyotisha well. I have studied it for 20 years and would be happy to advise him.”
Everyone looked at me suspiciously. How could a physicist trained at Cambridge and M.I.T. know Indian, Jyotisha astrology? But it was true. I had worked for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for 30 years and learned much about Jyotisha astrology. In 1988, I attended a course in New Delhi, which introduced us to Jyotisha as a tool to diagnose health weaknesses. At that time, I drew up my own Kundali birth-chart.
My birth certificate told the address, Dharma Court in Oxted, England, but not my birth time. My widowed father told me that I was born while he was at work, limiting me to five possible rising signs. Despite my lack of experience, the clue enabled me to select Thula, Libra in Jyotisha. A particular condition, the day of my father’s second marriage, enabled me to hypothesize a time around 11.35 am.
Later, when professionals ‘rectified’ my chart, Thula turned out to be correct, but the time connected to the day that I first met my step-mother-to-be. Duly impressed, I read several recommended books about Jyotisha, gaining familiarity and trust in the system, but not real expertise in its practice. In 2004, I expressed serious interest in conducting research on it to my old friend, Professor Jonathan Shear from my early days at Maharishi International University in 1973. Jon had encouraged me, so the stage was set.
Meeting Ramesh fulfilled this desire. His 3-month experiment on vaccination of sheep and goats was planned to start in December 2007. It would assess vaccinated animals after three and thirteen weeks. Unfortunately, the experiment was ruined by a storm later that winter, when many sheep died. The final data was deficient. Initial analysis suggested some good effects, but not the kind of power expected for a PhD. A further experiment on a different breed of sheep at another farm was undertaken in August, 2008, but problems of publishing results in a scientific journal seemed too challenging. Only later did we find a means of data analysis that yielded good results.
In 2011, Ramesh persuaded senior colleagues at the Institute for Animal Health and Veterinary Biology producing Karnataka’s veterinary vaccines to conduct experiments on vaccine production. The vaccine against Blue Tongue disease that decimates flocks of sheep and goats was selected. Vaccine production runs starting at times considered ‘auspicious’ and ‘inauspicious’ were assessed. The experiment’s success led to many more. All produced highly significant results. Many have been published.
Rameshrao’s discoveries are revolutionary for biology, medical science, and Jyotisha astrology itself. They are the most significant that I have witnessed first-hand. I have even developed a revolutionary new theory of their physics, related in our book. Roughly speaking, the theory shows how planets influence processes in organisms at places where the physiology is regulated. Such ‘Loci of Control’, as they are known, are held at instabilities, giving organisms maximum choice of response in any given situation. The effect of being at an instability enables them to be strongly influenced at the quantum level, by ‘quantum correlations’.
It is easy to show that all planets contain vast quantities of quantum correlations: they formed at the time of the birth of the solar system, when everything condensed from interstellar gas and dust. Collisions between all pieces of matter involved in the condensation processes, lead to such correlations. Evidently, each planet has been exerting its characteristic influences on instabilities in processes on every other planet ever since its formation.
What is remarkable about this theory is that it applies to all planetary systems round every star. It predicts that planets in every stellar system may be expected to exert such influences on processes on every other planet in their system. All planetary systems surrounding all stars function according to their own system of astrology.
Dr Rameshrao’s main results were that: the Graha Guru, Jupiter, supports life, helping cells to gain weight and grow heavier, and protecting them from virus infection. The opposite is true of Graha Rahu, the North Node of the Moon. Rahu slows down cell growth, spoiling bacterial vaccine production, and increases the rate of infection of cells by viruses. He opposes life. Graha Chandra, the moon, acts in a similar way to Guru, helping cells to grow, and protecting them from virus attack. However, the data suggested that Her action is to promote cell division, so that when Chandra is strong, cell division happens slightly earlier, so that mean cell size are slightly smaller. When strong she can also protect cells from virus attack.
All these remarkable findings are supported by ancient wisdom. The word ‘Guru’ means heavy, consistent with increases in cell weight. Rahu is Rakshassic in nature: the Yoga Vasishtha describes subtle Rakshassic forms associated with viral diseases. Finally, Chandra-Ma is mother, so facilitating cell division is a function that might be expected. Protection from evil influences of Rahu is consistent with stories in the ancient literature describing how aspects of Devi protect her devotees from evil intentions of demonic forms, Asuras and Rakshasas.
When interpreting the ancient literature in relationship to modern science, the program described earlier that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gave his faculty in 1973, such symbolic and metaphorical patterns prove useful and fruitful.