Out, out the brief candle, was the astrological verdict, I said
to myself, when I saw the horoscope sometime in the last week
of March 2010 of late Shri M.S. Mehta. Born in 1932, the bell
was tolling, that bell which beckons us all sometime or the
other to shuffle off the mortal coil.
Life’s journey has to end someday, some people’s
sooner and of others’, later. But, we know as astrologers
when people come to consult us, that an average Indian living
in urban areas accumulates enough tensions causing, apart from
some physical ailments which the pollution of our cities give
us without any warning, a number of diseases, blood pressure,
diabetes, heart ailment, kidney or liver trouble, etc.
The dasha of Venus, the second lord for the purpose of this
case and the antardasha of Jupiter, the seventh lord and the
pratyantara dasha of Venus again - was the message these dashas
conveyed, clear? (Venus and Jupiter are both maraka lords for
Virgo lagna). I examined this event from other angles also.
M.S. Mehta's Natal Chart
Mehtaji did not meet me for a month nearly after the third week
of March 2010, never talked on phone and only conveyed the message
that in the absence of a servant at home, he could not leave
his ailing wife alone in the house and come even to Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan to teach. Then came the message that he was ill,
later that he was suffering from pneumonia and was in an intensive
care unit. I lost hopes and told Col Gour who was with me on
the stage on 11 April during our semi-annual astrology school
convocation, that it was a very difficult period for Mehtaji.
On 25 April, a Sunday when I was teaching a class in the Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan, Shri R.C. Dadhwal and Shri Deepak Bisariaji conveyed
the tragic message that Mehtaji was no more. We all left our
classes and held a condolence. There ended an eighteen year
old chapter of a sweet association with a gentleman teacher,
Shri M.S.Mehta, who was my astrology student in 1992 and later,
my colleague in the Institute of Astrology, Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan, New Delhi.
His astrological career reads like a rare fiction. He started
learning astrology after his retirement from the Indian Foreign
Service in which he held some important posts as ambassador
in different countries, including the US. He had the retentivity
of a young man of twenty though he had crossed sixty years when
he joined our classes. In the final results of our examination
he stood third and even got bronze medal. His old contemporaries
in the same age group did not do well in the examination and
most of them forgot astrology soon after passing examination.
But Mehtaji had the zest of a young man to do research in astrology.
He read the series of my articles “Planets take them across
the seas’ and another in a souvenir, in which I revealed
my research on foreign travels.
He expressed his desire to write a book on the subject since
he had a large collection of the horoscopes of people who went
abroad for various purposes, diplomatic assignments like members
of I.F.S, for settling down, for medical treatment, for studies
etc. He wrote what till day is the only and most brilliant book
on this subject Planets and Travel Abroad. This book
made his reputation and in a way, was an announcement in the
world of astrologers that a new and brilliant researcher had
arrived.
Then he went on writing more books like Ashtakvarga: Concept
& Application, Analyzing Horoscope Through Modern
Techniques (English & Hindi), and Varshaphal (Annual
Horoscope).
His Spirituality
Always impressive and heartening was his sense of gratitude
towards those who taught him life’s beautiful lessons
and also astrology, a surest sign of a spiritually sensitive
and developed person, a samskara he was born with. Flickering
in his eyes always but rarely expressed vociferously was his
hatred for those who exhibited ingratitude towards their teachers
or guru like persons or elders.
Then there was that distinctly expressed opinion about the national
scene of corruption and falsehoods which could not be ignored
in spite of the sickening political vaporings of politicians.
The unfolding national disasters like Naxalism, terrorism, unemployment
seemed to remain focused in his mind. That took him astrologically
into his keener interest in mundane astrology on which he wrote
what till days is the best book on the subject, Time Tested
Technique of Mundane Astrology, which he co-authored with
A. Radhika Rao. Because of his background of international politics
and events, because of his service in foreign countries and
academically, being a keen and good student of history, he looked
into mundane events with historical insight always.
He wrote many more books with his unquenchable thirst for more
and more astrological exploration, knowledge and clear exposition
of tested techniques, rejecting the opinions of shloka touting
and sutra chopping astrologers failing to prove anything through
research and advance predictions, that dwindling crowd of dementedly
pedantic pretender scholars. Such robust mental attitude is
rarely visible in a seventy years old man. He belonged to that
rare breed of intellectuals.
He had his own strong convictions like saying that after the
partition of the country, we had sleepwalked into the commission
of same blunders which led to the partition of the country and
that all over the world multiculturalism was dead as it bred
only racism and terrorism. He hated pseudo secularism as he
always thought that we had a divisive culture of separateness
which was lethal for the country.
He had his own strong convictions like saying that after the
partition of the country, we had sleepwalked into the commission
of same blunders which led to the partition of the country and
that all over the world multiculturalism was dead as it bred
only racism and terrorism. He hated pseudo secularism as he
always thought that we had a divisive culture of separateness
which was lethal for the country.
The years he spent in west Asia during his service career gave
him some understanding of those countries and often he said
that Saddam Hussein had done a lot of good to Iraq inspite of
his anti-Shia, anti-Kurd policies. In his own way, he did say,
nearly fifteen years ago, that in future there will be the fear
of clash between oil rich countries, the religiously fundamentalist
west Asia and the west. He was anticipating in a way what the
world later came to know as the famous theory of clash of civilizations
of Samuel Huntington.
Some years ago, his political analysis led him into an obsessive
conclusion that Israel and USA will have to attack Iran which
has not happened yet. Weaponization of space in which race USA
is far ahead of other countries, makes an attack on Iran a distinct
possibility now is what some analysts have already said. The
space bomber is now a reality.
I will miss Mehtaji’s insightful analysis of international
situation with which he illumined many evenings of mine.
In the last five or six years of his life he got immersed more
and more in the Vishnu Sahasranam, Narayana Kavacham, the Bhagavad
Gita, Gayatri mantra and taking pilgrimages. He was exploring
peace within himself, having developed deep detachment, true
vairagya. He helped five poor students with his money without
telling anyone, as his charities were true in spirit and never
exhibitionistic. He never talked ill of anyone - rarest of spiritual
qualities, and had a boisterous, guileless and ringing laughter.
I will miss all that and remember him as a true and honest friend,
spiritual, intellectual, balanced and always truthful.
Watch a short informal video of M.S. Mehtaji teaching a class in astrology
at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan:
M.S. Mehta's Natal Chart 
