Two brahmins – one at my birth and the other a year ago – told me that I'll die at an early age as i have 'alaf'. I am 16 currently, and it was told to my mom that i might die anytime from now, so i wanted to ask if anything could be done to save my life, or I'll die soon?
—Raj Singh, India
Dear Raj Singh,
“Alaf” is an astrological constellation, right?
I have a friend in India to whom the same prediction was made, but it proved untrue. He didn’t die young, but is still happily alive. Fate is never written in stone. Karma can be changed.
Astrologers similarly told Yogananda that he would marry three times, being twice a widower. He burnt that horoscope, and in fact, it never happened.
Sri Yukteswar says in the Autobiography of a Yogi: “The natal chart can be rightly interpreted only by men of intuitive wisdom: these are few.”
If your two brahmins are among those few, the horoscope still only shows a karmic tendency. Everything can be overcome. Good astrologers never say, “This is your absolute fate,” but, “This is your situation which you can change.”
If your life should indeed be in karmic danger, the best protection is to pray to a real Guru, and to God. They are more powerful than any karma. Just do that, strongly. Pray deeply to the Master you feel attracted to. Pray to God.
Your Mom is probably very scared as well. Tell her, “The Masters say that nothing written in any horoscope is fixed.” Let her pray too.
Below (as it is a bit lengthy) this thought is explained a bit more in detail, from the Autobiography of a Yogi.
In divine friendship,
Jayadev
“The message boldly blazoned across the heavens at the moment of birth is not meant to emphasize fate–the result of past good and evil–but to arouse man’s will to escape from his universal thralldom. What he has done, he can undo. None other than himself was the instigator of the causes of whatever effects are now prevalent in his life. He can overcome any limitation, because he created it by his own actions in the first place, and because he has spiritual resources which are not subject to planetary pressure.
“Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance. The wise man defeats his planets–which is to say, his past–by transferring his allegiance from the creation to the Creator. The more he realizes his unity with Spirit, the less he can be dominated by matter. The soul is ever-free; it is deathless because birthless. It cannot be regimented by stars.
“Man is a soul, and has a body. When he properly places his sense of identity, he leaves behind all compulsive patterns. So long as he remains confused in his ordinary state of spiritual amnesia, he will know the subtle fetters of environmental law.
“God is harmony; the devotee who attunes himself will never perform any action amiss. His activities will be correctly and naturally timed to accord with astrological law. After deep prayer and meditation he is in touch with his divine consciousness; there is no greater power than that inward protection.”