After a successful career as an engineer, executive, and entrepreneur, Vish Chatterji is honoring his soul purpose as an East-meets-West executive coach. He helps leaders find light in their work through leveraging the wisdom of yoga, meditation, Ayurveda (mind-body medicine), and Jyotish (karmic advising).
Vish holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University, an MBA from the University of Michigan, and an executive coaching certificate from UC Berkeley. Vish has studied in traditional Himalayan ashrams and at the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in California, and he teaches globally.
Vish served as a board director for the Beach Cities Health District in Los Angeles County and is the co-author of The Business Casual Yogi: Take Charge of Your Body, Mind, and Career, also published by Mandala. He is a married father of three and loves to garden, bicycle, and fix things around the house.
My introduction to Vedic astrology came when I was a child. Like Vish, I grew up hearing about my birth chart. Everyone in my family had one, and we discussed them as if we were discussing the weather-explanations for the storms in life and predictions for the atmospheric conditions ahead. It didn't seem strange to me at all.
As I grew older and developed a love for science (in the reductionist way it is taught in the West), I started asking myself questions about the "science" of astrology. Teachers and mentors talked about astrology as if it were not real, ridiculing anyone who believed in it. Throughout college, medical school, and ultimately residency, I was constantly told that astrology was magical thinking. I became so conditioned that I began to grow skeptical of the things my family valued.
During my early years as a physician, however, I often longed for a guide- book to help me better understand my patients, allowing me to choose the best treatment for them as unique individuals. I soon realized that a person's mental and emotional state had a significant effect on how dis- ease manifests in the body-and that Western science didn't have all the answers. As I grew more curious, and a bit disillusioned, I eventually turned back toward Vedic philosophy and teachings, specifically Ayurveda, the science of life. This medical system describes various mind-body types, or constitutions, each with their own unique tendencies. Therefore, depending on the person, different treatments may be prescribed for the same disease, diagnosis, or condition.
"Oh, he is such a Virgo! Since I'm a Cancer, I just don't understand him, a human resources executive explained to me at a conference as I subtly rolled my eyes. What nonsense! That astrology stuff is all hocus-pocus! I thought to myself, politely smiling without betraying my disdain for the subject.
Trained as a mechanical engineer and further shaped as an MBA, my rational mind endeavored to find logical explanations for everything in our universe. I maintain a healthy skepticism, testing any scientific or business thesis with hard data before drawing any kind of conclusion. My own business success in the field of product management was predicated on this data-driven approach to understanding consumer needs and market trends.
To me, newspaper horoscopes, magazine astrology, and pop-culture tarot were all in the realm of make-believe. Though I had been a practitioner of yoga and meditation for over twenty years, I saw yoga as having a solid scientific and logical basis, as a sophisticated mind-body health regimen (as has been validated in recent times).
Growing up with emigrant Indian parents, yoga and the Vedic philosophy of ancient India were often discussed at family teatime and on casual Sunday mornings. But astrology was an off-limits topic at home.
In this book, you will learn about your Vedic zodiac sign, but we must remember that we are each a combination of all the signs, because they were all present in the sky at the time of our birth. The main sign (or rising sign) influences your personality the most, but the other signs influence your personality in how you show up in various areas of your life.
Furthermore, the Vedic system sees the signs as expressions of the planets themselves, so we first need to understand the personalities of the planets, and then observe how their traits are altered through the expressions of the signs. Each Vedic sign has a planet that rules it, which defines the personality of that sign. Through knowing your Vedic sign and its planetary ruler, you can assess how you are showing up in life and whether you are aligned to the deeper innate personality that your sign would suggest. In Western astrology, I have found that one's sign doesn't always fully capture who one truly is. In the Vedic system, by using more accurate calculations, focusing on a Vedic sign specific to your birth, and understanding the condition of the planet that rules your sign, you will discover a zodiac interpretation more tailored to you, along with insights on how to improve your life.
Each sign's expression of personality depends on how strong or weak the planet ruling that sign is.
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Horoscopes (184)
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Nadi (41)
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Original Texts (280)
Palmistry (49)
Planets (234)
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