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• Personal Growth

December 2003

By S.M. Krishna Chief Minister, Karnataka

Sagittarius is the last of the autumn signs. Autumn’s search for inner identity, which reached a peak of seriousness in Scorpio, relaxes now into happy self-acceptance.

The festive (and, for anyone who is spiritually sensitive, the divinely joyous) mood of this month is due to more than the fact that Christmas is approaching; it is actually the mood of Sagittarius. Those who are born under this sign experience something of its mood the year round.

Sagittarius is the last also of the fire signs. It represents the upward-soaring tips of flame in a bonfire, flickering and vanishing into the night. Where Aries (the first of fire signs) represents starting energy, and Leo (the second fire sign) represents the full blaze of a work well under way. Sagittarius represents the ideal outcome of all striving-the release of energy for broader application, and of thought for more universal understanding.

Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of expansion. Expansion of consciousness is the essence of spiritual development. Most western writers, evidently unaware of this truth, relate Jupiter only to ego expansion: the acquisition of wealth, power, and the earthly happiness. This is a much lower expression of Jupiter’s influence. In Hindu astrology the name for the planet is Guru. A true guru is far more than a teacher. He is one, rather, who by the subtle influence of his free consciousness lifts his receptive disciples out of the bondage of delusion.

A key expression that is often used for Sagittarius is upward aspiration. But a more all-encompassing expression would be the soul’s unending search for universal awareness.

If your sun is in Sagittarius, you seek to impress your authority on the world by universalising whatever presents itself to you for serious consideration. Your mind soars quickly (sometimes too quickly!) from particulars to universals. In your work you see the broad view. Petty details probably bore you. In your friendships, unless you can find someone whose mental influence gives you the sense of expansion that you need, you tend more to be a friend to all than develop one or two close relationships.

In love, you are more likely to be a good pal than an ardent Romeo or Juliet (As one writer has aptly put it, you tend to let your spouse carry the emotional load). Whatever your present understanding of things, your instinct is to expand it. This you may do by relating it to ever-broader realities. Most Sagittarians, however (since few men are wise), will try to satisfy their expansive instinct by insisting that everyone in the world be bound by their own personal vision of reality.

The influence of Sagittarius is dynamic, not static. Sagittarians proverbially enjoy plenty of movement and change in their lives. If one can pace himself to a moving bus, he will be able to leap onto it without difficulty. If he misgauges the speed, however, he may be thrown to the ground. The outward, moving, joyful influence of Sagittarius, similarly, can free anyone from delusion who moves with it sensitively.

Probably the most important thing you need to learn, if you are a Sagittarian, is to take the trouble to make a really good arrow. Details may bore you, but without careful-even painstaking-preparation the flight itself may be a failure. Don’t, by your impatience to embrace all of life, join those multitudes of Sagittarians who cling to nothing longer than a few moments, thinking by a large number of shallow experiences to attain that universality which is found only in deep calmness, and in total self-forgetfulness. For the truth is that man cannot fly by his own power. He must exercise the patience necessary to make himself a perfect instrument for the Divine.

Once you have learned not to intrude the vibrations of your ego into your enthusiasm, and once you have developed true impartiality, you will be able to achieve that expanded awareness for wisdom.

The Hindu name Guru for Jupiter suggests an important spiritual truth. If Kriya Yoga is practised with a sense of inner attunement to one’s own guru represents the saving rays of Divinity in the objective world, so the grace of the human guru, directed consciously and specifically to the God-thirsty disciple, represents the rays of salvation in the inner, subjective world.

Remember, when you meditate, that it is not enough to imagine that divine joy will come to you some day, probably, provided you stick grimly to your chore of daily practice. Meditate with joy if you want to find joy. Sit no longer than you can do so with enjoyment (it may take a few months of practice, however, to actually reach this state of enjoyment). The true path to God is not a boring, but a joyously soaring one.

Feel joy, either in your heart or at the point between the eyebrows, and visualise its rays spreading outward like a divine fire, consuming all human sorrows and delusions, transforming the entire universe into the ever-blissful light of infinity.

‘‘Happiness comes, not by aimlessly thinking about it, but by living it in all the moods and actions of life.’’

-Paramahansa Yogananda