My experience with Nadi Astrology : Part 1

Do you know that some one some where in South India, has written down your entire past, present and future in palm leaves about 2000 years ago?..Surprised?..Consult a Nadi Astrologer right now...

Nadi Astrology - the most accurate mode of revealing life, is a prime school of thought in Vedic astrology. According to Nadi Astrology, Lord Siva, the prime God in the belief of trinity in Hinduism, pleased with the siddhas(Seven Sages) devotion, blessed them with some exclusive powers. He gave them the incredible ability to read and know the past, present and future of people. They etched their immense knowledge in palm leaves called Nadis. Nadi in Tamil means "In Search of".

The nadi leaves, initially stored in the premises of Tanjavur Saraswati Mahal Library, were auctioned by the British and came into the posession of families of astrologers near Vaitheeswaran Kovil in Tanjavur. These leaves are handed over from generation to generation in these families who earn their livelihood by reading the palm leaves. The younger members of the families are trained by the older members in reading and interpreting the Nadi leaves. The texts in the leaves are written in poetic form in Vatteluttu, which is an ancient Tamil script. Nadi astrologers would like to call themselves as Nadi readers as they do not perform astrology, but just reads what is written in the leaves. Hence, any thing which is not written in the leaves cannot be predicted by the Naadi reader.

The Procedure:
Once you apporach a Nadi astrologer, he takes your thumb impression and analyses it. The Naadi leaves are classified according to the type of the thumb impression. There are 108 types of thumb impression like Sanku ,Meru, Sikari, Vattam, one dot, two dots, three dots, etc. My thumb impression was found to be of three dots category. For each thumb impression there are likely to be around 5 to 6 bundles with the nadi astrologer; and each bundle contains forty to fifty different people’s general prediction leaves.

Once your thumb impression is identified, the astrologer returns with a couple of bundles from that category and starts reading. He starts asking you a series of questions for which you have to answer only Yes or No. The questions can be like "you have two sisters", "your father worked with government", "Does your mother's name contains the letter K" etc...All you have to do is say Yes or No. The nadi reader skips the leave if you answer no and goes to the next one and asks a different question. You will be surprised when the reader correctly asks your parent's name to you. The nadi reader can tell you about your past with almost 100% accuracy.

Once your general leaf is identified, he proceeds to read/write the contents of the leaf. There are about 12 different kandams/chapters that can be read. You can select which all kandams that are to be read. The naadi reader charges based on the number of leaves you take. Special Kandams cost more.

List of Kandam Details:

1) To be found out through thumb impression(For Gents, right; Ladies, left) of the concerned person. Will contain name, parent's names, present details of profession, brothers, sisters, children, wife and gist of future predictions for all the 12 houses of your horoscope. It is also a summary of the 11 following kandams.

2) Money, Eyes, Family, Education, Intuition and Speech.

3) Brothers and Sisters, affection, help or ill feeling between self and brothers and sisters.

4) Mother, House, Vehicles, Lands and Pleasures.

5) Children, Their birth, reason for infertility(if any), adoption of remedial measures for having children, future lives of children

6) Disease, Debts, Enemies and Litigations or Cases.

7) Marriage and status of married life. Also contains hints of valuable information about the name of the future spouse, horoscope, age of marriage, location of the spouse's house and some characteristic features of the spouse etc.

8) Longevity, Accident & Danger to Life, Age, Month, Date, Day, Time, Star, Lagnam, and Place of Death

9) Father, Wealth, Visit to Holy Temples/ Places, Advise from Holy men, Fortune, Charitable deeds and Social Life

10) Career, Job, Profession and Business, Good and Bad times in career. Future predictions about growth, prosperity and losses in one's job or business.

11) Profits in Business and Second Marriage

12) Expenditures, Foreign Visits, Next birth and Attainment of Moksha(Salvation).

In addition to these 12 kandams, there are 3 special kandams also which costs more.

Special Kandams:

13) Shanti Pariharam: Last birth, sins committed, and remedial measures that can dilute the effect of past sins.

14) Deeksha Kandam: Wearing Mantra Raksha(Talisman), to ward of enemies. Raksha ensures relatively better rewards for one's efforts and success in deeds.

15) Avushada Kandam: Medicines, prescription suggested to those suffering from chronic diseases.

16) Dasa Bhuktikandam: Prediction for the present major and sub period of the planet.

17) Prasna Kandam: Answers Yes or No, for five questions about a particular time thought by the person.

Generally Remedial measures like visiting certain temples, feeding the poor, giving alms to the Nadi reader. etc, are suggested. The temples usually suggested are the Navagraha Temples of Kumbakonam, Thirupathi, Sri KalaHasti Temple etc. Corresponding to the sins committed, the remedial measures are suggested.

Please note that the Kandams 2-12 talks about your future from the moment of consultation to the end of your life or for a range of 10-15 years from the moment of consultation, depending upon the type of Nadi you consulted. In the next part of this article, I will outline my experiences with two different types of Nadis.