[ Excerpt from The Science of Yoga, page 400 ]
We are all born at a specific time and place, which could be termed the conditions of our existence, and as a result inherit certain influences.
The great clockwork of the Universe is at a particular place at the moment of our birth. The Indian science of jyotish (vedic astrology), and more specifically it esoteric subset of yantra, reveals for us the influences under which we are born and must exist throughout our lives.
Adhi stands for the highest, but in this case it also denotes the mind, while daivika represents the Devattas, the gods and goddesses in Hinduism, which are in fact symbolic of the powerful psychic forces which rule the human mind. Thus it is that, according to one’s time and place of birth, adhidaivaka karma bestows upon each individual certain inherent characteristics -- predominant and subordinate forces -- within the framework of which each must live their life.
We can see this as the psychic and spiritual inheritance with which we have each currently entered into this world. It is a result of the immeasurable experiences that our individual jiva has accumulated, and thus has invariably lead us to our own current state of (spiritual) evolution.
Within the science of yantra, this psychic and spiritual inheritance is referred to as our dharma marga or 'birth path'. Dharma marga reveals one's inherent strengths, weaknesses and propensities, characteristics which we all have. As Abraham Maslow said:
"A musician must make music; an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be."
Adhidaivika karma places each of us into a life - the one in which we need to be in order to learn the lessons that we still need to learn. Knowing this, we are able to understand that there is not one proper or right course in life that everyone must follow in the same way. What is the best path in life for one, may be different for another, because according to the yogic view we have all had immeasurably different experiences along our long evolutionary path, and hence have our own unique body of lessons still to be learned.
[Continued...]
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