K.N. Rao (Kotamraju Narayana Rao) retired from the Indian Audit and Accounts Service as Director General in November 1990. He is the second of the four sons of the famous journalist of the pre-independence era, K. Rama Rao, the founder-editor of the National Herald and editor of more than thirty journals in his long journalistic career. Rao was initiated into astrology by his late mother, K. Sarasvani Devi, at the age of twelve in 1943. He regards her as the best astrologer he has known in two areas: marriage and children and prashna (horary).

Rao was a lecturer in English literature before joining the government service through an all-India competition in 1957. He joined the Indian Audit and Accounts Service from which he retired as Director General in November 1990. More interested in games and sports than in astrology in his youth, Rao won brilliancy prizes in chess competitions and two state championships in bridge competitions. He played ten other games also which is why in his astrological writing there are references to games often.

During his service career, he was the planner, organizer and teacher of three international courses on Audit of Receipts as a joint director once and director twice. His interactions with foreigners have been both on professional and astrological levels for more than two decades which is why he has, as an astrologer, a large international network of friends. He went on doing all his fundamental researches in astrology during the service career because of which he went on collecting horoscopes systematical~ in thousands. He has in his possession more than 50,000 horoscopes with ten important events of each individual noted with him. It is, perhaps the largest individuals collection of horoscopes any astrologer in the world has.

The strain of doing astrology as a mission made him give up astrology many times. But in December 1981 he was forced out cI his shell to participate in a three-day-seminar on astrology in Delhi.

After this ground-breaking speech, there has been a persistent demand for his astrological articles. From then onwards he has been sharing with readers his original researches for which he has won worldwide praise.

Between 1993 and 1995, Rao has visited the USA on five lecture tours. He was the Chief Guest at the second conference of the American Council of Hindu Astrology in 1993. He was requested to be present in the third conference also in 1994 on the opening day because of the crowds he would draw. His name was advertised till November 1995 also for the Fourth Conference though he had made it clear that he would not be available.

- As a result of his academic approach, he has now more than a thousand students in India and, more than two hundred in the USA. He is the Adviser of Astrology Courses in the Bharatiya Vidya

Bhawan, New Delhi. The teachers on the faculty of the astrology course in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan have, like him, never any fees for teaching which they do in an honorary capacity. What impelled Rao to do it is well explained in his own horoscope, where the Lagna and the 10th Lords get combined in the Lagna, with an exalted Jupiter in the 10th house. All this was foreseen by his the last of the Rishi astrologers in the purest classical mould. He had told him that Rao would have to visit many foreign countries to give to Hindu Astrology the honour, recognition and dignity which it did not have till than. An American summed up the impact of the first ever foreign visit of Rao of the USA in 1993 as: "Hindu astrology before Rao and after Rao".

What different yogis have said about astrology as a Vedanga which is must not give up has been quoted in his book, Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time. Astrology is ill-reputed as a profession because of its mercenary and exploitative nature.Rae's desire never to turn into a professional astrologer has won him thousands of admirers and also some enemies from the community of professional astrologers who felt threatened, when around him there grew up a fine team of more than two hundred academic astrologers like him, for whom astrology is not a source of living, but a super science to delve into the meaning and purpose of human life, which is what astrology, as Vedanga, should and has to be. Both his mantra guru, Swami Paramananda Saraswati, and jyotish guru, Yogi Bhaskarananda, taught him some secrets of spiritual astrology which are not given usually in any book of astrology. Rao has revealed some of these secrets in his book,Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time. Among Rae's recent fundamental and most original researches are his two books Predicting through jelmini's Chara Dasha and Predicting through Karakamsha and Mandook Dasha. It has been possible for him to produce such researches because he was told by his jyotish guru that what was in parampara (tradition) was much more than what was contained in books of astrology, which are translated literally and, are without illustrations generally. His own mother, who was his first jyotish guru, Knew many such traditional secrets, parts of which Rao has revealed in his three books, Ups and Down in Career; Astrology, Destiny and the Wheel of Time, and Planets and Children.

It was the mantra guru of Rao, Swami Paramananda Saraswati, who first asked Rao not to give up astrology as it had to be an integral part of his sadhana. Later a great yogi, Swami Moorkhanandji, prophesied in t 982 that Rao would be the architect of a great astrological renaissance. Whether that is already fulfilled or not can be gauged from the impressive list of his research published in his writings. Among scores of appreciations he receives every week, only some are being produced here.

Read the book and the evidence in it. Even if you do not know astrology, you will understand the true stories with evidence. If you know astrology, you will add to your own techniques of predictions.

We live in an age in which we find that physical sciences and astronomy hav ben anthropomophised into a God for modern man. Arrogant display of discoveries of physical sciences have blocked the formation of a wholesome holistic attitude to God and His universe. Only the super science of astrology can destroy these.

It will shock many blind and close-minded 'scientism' worshippers and those funny specimens of humanity who describe themselves as rationalist, that truth, nothing but truth exists in the super-science of astrology. Astrologers must however acknowledge that their own knowledge of astrology does not entitle them to know the whole truth.

And it convinces the astrologer-that there is Destiny; there is cycle of births and rebirths; there is karma and karma-phala (results of karmas)and karma-Samkaras-the psycho-physical-spiritual tendencies generated by karmas of many lives. That there is a wheel of Time which grinds inscrutably, mysteriously, well-known only to astrologers.

The book will help regain your shattered sanity of mind which blnd belief in physical sciences and astronomy may have destroyed. But then do not turn an astrologer into an all-knowing demi-God.

The eternal debate : are events in life predestined, will go on. Some unconditional believers, we describe as fatalists, some equivocal upholders who fancy themselves agnostics, and, the critics who disbelieve in predestination will proffer arguments none conviridng, none winning the debate. The belief in predestination leads one into a belief in disincarante survival hazily; the belief gets a philosophicla basis in the theory of Karma which is inter-linked integrally to the belief in reincarnation. An over whelming evidence about reincarnation is available in the searches of Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virgina, a professor of Iceland; and Dr. Pasricha of India who has done her work in India only. Dr. Ian Stevenson with his rigid, scientific framework of investigation has been noticed most, perhaps, because he has covered cases of what he describes as 'reincarnation' type in different parts of the world covering people of different denominations, sects, religious set of beliefs and racial background. Dr. Stevenson covers cases of India were such a belief is part or its religious tradition; of Ceylon which can be said to have come under Indian 'influence' even in adopting such belief and of T1ingit Indians of south-eastern Alaska, whose belief in reincarnation will still create apprehension in the minds of critics of the theory of reincarnation. But Dr. Stevenson carries his investigations in Lebanon, among Druses of Lebanon and Syria with an explanation "Reincarnation forms a fundamental tenet of Druse religion" 1 but adds a note below, Z "Some other Islamic sects besides the Druses believe in reincarnation. The Islamic sects believing in reincarnation support their contentions by citing passage of the Koran, which like numerous passage in the Bible, lend themselves to an interpretation supporting such a belief'.

Explanations for belief in reincarnation in Brazil is also traced by Stevension to African heritage of 'belief in a spirit world' and the French brand of spiritualism founded by Kartec.

In many other books of the western world enough 'proofs' have been given, not through such rigid, scientific and thorough investigations like Dr. Stevenson's but with a conviction which cannot be taken lightly.

So the eternal debate about predestination will go on, with Dr. Stevension scoring more winning strokes than the critics of the theory of reincarnation. 'Past life regression therapy" said to be very popular now in U.S.A., was described by an Amercian who had come to consult me, astrologically, as a bizarre experience. He told me that even Edgar Cayce who traced his patient's ailments to the karmas of their past lives has touched only a fringe of the U.S. population

. Some Indian astrologers quote the great classics Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira and Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra of Parashara where methods of predicting about the past life of a person and the next world he would go to after death, are hinted at. But they express disbelief in reincarnation and the karmas of past life. It is like believing in the Gita but discarding lord Krishna.

Can an answer be sought to the working of destiny? Which branch of human knowledge deals with this? is there something like a Wheel of TIme and an inscrutable Destiny? The answer will perhaps be that there can be only two ways: first the spiritual way of deep sadhana in which at some stage one experiences karmas of past life becoming the core, partly, 0t the destiny of one's present incarnation; the second one, the astrological method, is not an individual experience but a demostrable proof which does not show the past life, but explains events with reference to Destiny and the Wheel of TIme.

Astrological claim of its statistical demonstrability, through replicable techniques suffered the worst disaster when Michael Gauquelin of France failed with his own brand of 'astrological investigation' before a group of scientists in Holland. No one has challenged our statistical, Demonstrable astrological techniques which have been published with statistical evidences in the Astrological Magazine from t 985 onwards, But Michael Gauquelln's great fiasco (there are enough slavish Indian astrologers who swear by Gauqelin in thier ignorance) led him to say, "That is because the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, does not exist in astrology- not yet, anyway. This is the only thing I am pretty sure of'.

Michael should have asked himself whether he was trained sufficiently well to 'discover' truth in astrology. (There are two peices of Michael Gauquelin in the book: Astrological Journey through History, Mystery and Horoscope showing how immature he was, so terribly ill-trained. Hindu astrology provies enough answers to discover truth in astrology, complete truth, nothing but turth. But no single Hindu astrologer can furnish it. It has to be a collective effort. No single astrologer can go into all facets of human life or into branches of astrology and prove it. An honest astrologer first convinces himself that truth exists in astrology and proves it through his successful predictions with verifiable evidence. The techniques in Hindu astrology are so many and the branches so innumerable that even collecting proofs of correct predictions is a Herculean task after sifting out fraudulent claims which have no demonstrable astrological value. Predictions given to individuals, with evidences, names and the specific predictions on pure classical principles of Hindu astrology are available in this book, but many more in many scattered writings of mine, are being compiled systematically in a book form now.

For convenience, this book has been divided into four sections

(a) The first section which contains a written appreciation from an American lady, raises the question : Do you believe in Destiny and the Wheel of Time? Without answering it. It will interest both astrologers and non-astrologers.
(b) The second section which deals with classical astrological principles is a brief condensation of some of the time-tested principles. It is a technical-astrological, and of interest to those who know astrology or want a quick 'refresher' course
. (e) The third section contains the series of articles I had written in the Astrological Magazine in 1987 and 1988 entitled Importance of Sub-Sub periods which are 'case studies of predictions given. Astrological prediction are events which are predestined to happen and has to be called 'Destiny' and the 'sub-sub periods' (pratyantar dasha) are the spokes in the Wheel of Time. This section, like the first one, is of interest of both the astrologer and non-astrologer, the former understanding how the prediction was given, the latter, getting more interested in the 'story' element, knows what was the prediction, and, what happened.
(d) The fourth section raises the question: 'Why believe in Destiny? It explains Astrology and Karma; and Astrology, fate and Freewell.

Leaving the less known astrological techniques of Jaimini and the Ashtakavarga system of prediction, the techniques employed are based on the most popular Parashari astrology, which 'Hindu' astrologer of U.S.A., England (Englishmen, Germans, the Dutch, Spaniards, the French, Italians, Austrialins and many other countries) are famililar with. Now, the Hindu astrology (which American astrologers describeas Hindu astrology) is reffered to by persons of many European and non-European countries as Jyotisha, not as Astrology.

Hindu astrology is a misnomer as according to the great social reformer of the last century, mahayogi Swami Dayananda Saraswati there is no predictive astrology in the Vedas. The corrected term which I have decided to use now is Hindu astrology.

The aim therefore of writing this book are :

(a) The layman should be able to say: I understand the story or prediction though I do not know astrology.
(b) The lover of astrology may, with his half-learnt lessions, find the techniques used, useful, instructive and even, it is hoped, illuminating, and
(c) The seasoned astrologer may be impelled to re-read those great astrological classics which contain so much and which he remembers little at the time of giving predictions.
The acceptance of the fact that astrological predictions need a root in empirical researches is confirmed by the wider circulation of this book. Therefore I am happy to present to the reader the fifth edition revised and revisited.