Bengal shows way

Sir, - Sane people all over the country should compliment the West Bengal Government for its firm ``no'' to the beseeching lure and threat of the UGC to introduce astrology in the State educational field (Aug. 12). Astrology, whatever its credibility might be during the days of geocentric hypothesis, lost it when the heliocentric theory was established in the 15-16th centuries.

The twelve solar mansions - Aries through Pisces - and the navagrahas (sun, moon, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Raahu and Ketu roaming along the zodiac are just apparent - not a physical reality.

Even here, sun is a star in which some 12 earths can be packed, moon our satellite, and Raahu and Ketu have no existence.

Therefore, to claim that these navagrahas by their positions on the zodiac can affect an individuals's life, `peep' into his past and `dive' into his future is the height of stupidity. There is nothing to study or experiment in astrology, which is at best a mental aberration.

But beware! The astrology lobby pervades the nation. Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, rightly said that astrology is the illegitimate daughter of astronomy. Will other States follow Bengal's path?

G. T. Narayana Rao,

Mysore

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