Article by Gary Gomes, USA

S. Patel, one the most respected astrologers from India, passed away on Aug 14, 2007.

He was born December 31, 1915.

Mr. Patel was part of a generation of astrologers from India who opened up the subject of Jyotisha or Vedic Astrology to a Western audience—and provided a great deal of illumination regarding the meaning of ancient texts to individuals in India as well.

Mr. Patel was an expert in Sanskrit, and his translations are considered among the most accurate in Jyotisha.

His contributions were many, but he will undoubtedly be remembered most for his works on the harmonic charts (vargas), the Ashtakavarga system (a method of assessing a planet’s single strength in each house as well as the cumulative strength of a house—critical for accurate prediction) and his research into nadi techniques, which are a gold mine for current and future astrologers. One of his most prominent students, R. G. Krishnan recalled that he “… was willing to share his specialized astrological knowledge with me without hesitation.”

Mr. Patel was honored with the “Jyotish Mahopadhyaya”award in Bombay, India in 1982 and was awarded a Lifetime achievement award at the American Council of Vedic Astrology symposium in Sedona in 1998.

The following is a list of Mr. Patel’s books:

Ashtakvarga Published in -1957,
Navamsa and Nadi Astrology Published in -1996,
Navamsa in Astrology Published in -1997,
Nadi Astrology Published in – 1998,
Arudha system of Prediction Published in -2000

A book on retrograde planets was in preparation when Mr. Patel passed.

Tributes to C.S. Patel

A Tribute by R.G.Krishnan

Mr.C.S. Patel was my Astrological Guru for over two decades. He departed for the heavenly abode on Aug 14, 2007. When I look back I feel very grateful to him for imparting to me very valuable astrological knowledge culled from astrological classics.

I had the good fortune of meeting Mr. Patel for the first time during the fall of 1982 at a function at Ahmedabad where we both were honored by All India Astrological Federation along with some more eminent astrologers of that time. We were all awarded the title of “Jyotish Mahopadhyaya” at this function.

At that point of time, I was working for Western Railways in Bombay.India as an Addl. Chief Engineer and concurrently was also working as honorary chairman of The Indian council of Vedic Astrology, the Bombay chapter. In that capacity I had already met many eminent astrologers based at Bombay.

Mr. Patel was a great scholar in Astrology and from day one I was drawn to him as he was willing to share his specialized astrological knowledge with me without hesitation. This was in sharp contrast with my earlier experiences with some prominent astrologers of that time who were not interested in either sharing their knowledge with me or were not even willing to discuss astrological reasoning behind their conclusions.

Mr. Patel was always easily accessible to me and was always willing to clarify many of my doubts on astrological matters. Since he used to live at Ghatkopar a Suburb of Bombay not far away from Colaba another Suburb of Bombay where I lived, it was possible for me to meet him almost on very Sunday to have fruitful discussions on various astrological subjects.

One thing that impressed me most during my visits to his house was that Mr. Patel had meticulously maintained a record of all good events and bad events that occurred in his own life and in the life of his close family members and had analyzed each event astrologically and kept a note in his record.

He asked me to follow a similar practice as this would help me to improve my predictive skills.

Prior to meeting him my knowledge of Ashtaka Varga system of predictions was practically nil. In fact it was he who opened my eyes to this great subject of Ashtaka Varga system of prediction. Mr.

Patel gave a copy of his book on Ashtaka Varga and wanted me to master this subject.

He used to tell me that whoever mastered Ashtaka Varga, will be able to give snap shot predictions on any horoscope with a good degree of accuracy. This motivated me to focus more and more on Ashtaka Varga and I found that it really helped me to improve my predictive skills. Around this time I was invited to conducted workshops on Ashtaka Varga at various forums and later with Mr.Patel’s blessings I published my first book on “Ashtaka Varga” in the year 1992 . Although many books on this subject were already available in the market, it was my experience during my workshops done in USA that the astrologers in the west had told me that these books were difficult to understand. Hence I wrote my book with the sole aim to make this complicated subject to be easily understood by any western astrologer. In this connection I felt vindicated when my book was well appreciated by many in the west and in particular by the late Richard Houck who told me personally that he was motivated by my book to write a similar book on Ashtaka Varga.

During my weekly visits to Mr.Patel’s house, I had the opportunity to meet other famous astrologers of that time like late Mr. Naraendra Desai, late Mr. Raman Thakkar, late Mr. V.A.K. Iyer etc. During these meetings he used to discuss the Sanskrit verses of Chandra Kala Nadi and give his interpretations. He had a very good knowledge of Sanskrit and his interpretation of the Sanskrit verses was really good which showed that he could correctly comprehend meanings conveyed by the verses in the classical texts.

Mr. Patel used to tell very often to those who met him that Astrology is a vast ocean and it is not possible for anyone to master all aspects of astrology, but with a good focus, one can master some aspects of this great science. This was true in his case as he was the master of Ashtaka Varga and Nadi Astrology. He spent literealy his entire life in trying to unravel the mystery of Chandra Kala Nadi. He wrote several articles on topics quoting verses of Chandra Kala Nadi and he used to inspire people around him to do research on their own to double check the veracity of the meaning conveyed by the verses in Chandra Kala Nadi. His articles on “Brighu Bindu,” “64^th Navamsa,” etc. appeared in “The Astrological Magazine” and also in the “Times of Astrology” and they were well received and appreciated. On one occasion he read a verse from Nadi classic which ran thus, Sukraath Mande tat trikone neshtam,Jeeve Suka pradam. This was a two line verse which cryptically stated that if Venus is in trine with Saturn married life will be unhappy and conversely if Venus was in trine with Jupiter married life will be happy. Mr. Patel asked me to apply the meaning of this verse to the cases of persons known to me who had married life problems and further he told that although the verse mentioned cryptically only Saturn, I should also check up with other malefics like Rahu, Ketu and Mars. I did so and wrote an article on this subject with his blessings and it was published in the “Times of Astrology” magazine. I found that Venus trine Ketu was more harmful as compared to other malefics and I mentioned the same in that article.

On another occasion he quoted a verse which stated that whenever in a natal chart Rahu transits over the Sun-Mercury-Venus arc, good developments will

happen and whenever Ketu transits over the same arc some adverse developments will happen. I applied these principles to charts of Political leaders from various countries and found the principles holding true. Later with his blessings I wrote an article entitled Sun-Mercury-Venus Arc and the Fortunes of Politicians and this was published in the “Times of Astrology.”

On another occasion he quoted a verse from Chandra Kala nadi which stated thus: If the dispositor of the lord of the 11th house in the Rasi chart and Navamsa chart

conjunct during transit, then the native will experience sudden gains. I have applied this principle to my own horoscope and to the horoscopes of dear near ones and found it to be holding true, For example, if Venus is the lord of the 11th house from lagna placed in Aries in the Rasi chart and placed in Taurus in Navamsa chart, then the native will get sudden gains whenever Mars & Venus conjunct during transit. Mr. Patel had wriiten a good article on this matter which was also published in one astrological magazine.

I have mentioned the above to make my point that Mr. Patel was a good motivator and to show how he inspired me to write articles on astrological subjects.

During 1984 and 1986 I had visited USA to speak at the AFA biennial conventions and I had then developed some interest in financial astrology. I used to discuss with Mr. Patel finer points of financial astrology. He told me that he in his younger days had dabbled in financial astrology, studied Bombay

stock market and had made some money but on the insistence of his sister had given up his interest in stock markets as his sister felt that it was another

form of gambling and as such it should be avoided.

After giving up his interest in stock markets, he devoted his entire life to the study of Chandra Kala Nadi.

During my discussions with him, he, however, gave me interesting tips as to the key planets that play a role in affecting stock market trends and advised me

to watch the market on a day-to-day basis and correlate with the transits of key planets and arrive

After emigrating to USA in the year 1989 I continued to keep in touch with Mr. Patel through telephone and letters and whenever I visited India I used to meet him. My interest in stock market astrology got greatly increased as I found the points made by him to hold true and I watched closely on a daily basis for over two years the US stock markets to double check the various principles. Based on my experience I wrote my second book on stock market with Mr. Patel’s blessings in the year 2001.

In the year 1998 Mr. Patel was invited by the ACVA to speak at the Sixth International symposium held November, 1998 at Sedona, Arizona.

He was in close touch with me then as it was his first ever visits to USA, and despite many challenges he could successfully make it to USA. I received him in Dallas and later accompanied him to Sedona for the ACVA symposium. Later when ACVA honored him with ‘Lifetime Achievement Award” on November 14,1998, he felt that it was his greatest moment in his life and it was a great moment for me too as I felt immensely happy for my Guru getting recognized and honored in USA for his contribution to Astrolog y. On that day he was running Saturn Antar Dasa in Venus Maha Dasa and transit Jupiter transited the 5th house from Natal Moon, transit Jupiter was transiting natal Jupiter, and transit Saturn his yoga karaka was aspecting his natal Moon, an excellent astrological situation conducive to success based on his Libra Moon sign. His natal char t is given above.

At the symposium he made an interesting point quoting from his book on Ashtaka Varga. If a native has in his Sarva Ashtaka varga chart 28 or more bindus in the lagna,9th house,10th house and 11^th house then that native will live like a king. In modern parlance it will mean that that native will be very well placed inlife holding some top level position. I have found this to hold true in several cases. The classic example of this situation can be seen in the horoscope of our ex-President Bill Clinton.

Mr. Patel was a tireless worker and even in his advanced age he kept himself very busy in writing books, articles etc. on astrology. During my last visit to India in 2005, I had met him at Ahmedabad and at that time at the age of 90 yrs, he was still busy writing his book on Retrograde planets. During this meeting, he had discussed at length the effect of retrogression of planets during transit and how they are important in mundane astrology. He used to tell that if two or more maleficsretrograde simultaneously, some major adverse events are likely to happen in the financial markets and if more than three planets are retrograde (both benefics & malefics) then some very major adverse event on a global scale

is likely to happen. When I looked at the advanced ephemeris, I noticed that both Saturn & Mars will be retrograde simultaneously from December 27, family, but astrologers everywhere.

2007 to January 30, 2008. Perhaps, some major adverse developments are due to take place in the stock markets around the world during this period.

In June 2007 I had sent him my customary Guru Dakshina on the occasion Guru Poornima day which was due in July that year and he had acknowledged the same and conveyed his blessings in a letter written in his own hand dated July 4 2007. In that letter he had mentioned that he is still busy with his book on

Retrograde planets which he expected to complete in two months time. But God’s will was different. He died before completing his book. Perhaps this is the last letter he ever wrote before his death to anyone and perhaps he is the only astrologer ever to write book on Astrology at the ripe age of 92.

Now that a great soul has passed away from the astrological world, we astrologers can pay our best homage to him by following his words of advice which he often used to tell me. They are:

Never be afraid to tell the Truth
Work very hard on any one subject to become a Master rather than trying to be master in too many subjects and achieving none.
Every astrologer should daily worship his Nava Grahas (Nine Planets) as this will enable him to make successful predictions. He quoted a verse from the classics to make this point. (Mr.Patel in addition used to worship God Subramanya) and there was always a picture of this god near him when worked on Astrology).

In conclusion, I wish to state that I benefited a lot in improving my astrological knowledge by association with Mr. C. S. Patel and I conclude this tribute with a prayer “May his soul rest in peace.”

Tribute to C. S. Patel by Keven Barrett

During my visit to India in July 1988, and staying with Dr. Parasmani. He asked what you want to learn. Who can teach me the Ashtakavarga. He thought for a while and said that there is only one, C.S. Patel, but he probably will not teach a foreigner, but would ask him to come to meet me anyway. Well, a servant came and said he was waiting in Parasmani’s office. I walked in and Patel was sitting there with his arms tightly folded, and I thought that’s it. Anyhow, after introductions he sat immobile. I took a look at his face and said I have seen you before, was it in Ahmadabad in 1981. It’s you the Australian he said. Those men running the conference would not allow me to speak to you.

I even chased after your cab he said. He then stood up and said give me a hug. It was a while before he let go of me. Come on off to your room, and for a week he travelled to Bombay every day with intensive studying and teaching. Finally, he said Barrett you have learnt in a week that others have taken years to

grasp. Patel gave me one of the last copies of his ‘Ashtakavarga Book” first edition.

A very humbling experience. He will always be a great man, and will be sadly missed, not only by his at my own conclusions.

In Memoriam: C.S. Patel by Gary Gomes