Nadi Shastra: What Is It, How Do You Find It, and What Can It Tell You?

Based on the belief that an ancient priest, Agasthya Nadi had not only predicted but written and recorded facts on the palm leave about your past, present and future life more than 4000 years ago, Nadi Shastra was born. Over the years, it has evolved and is being practised in Tamil Nadu and nearby areas. It is believed that Saint Agasthya had a highly developed consciousness which led to the creation of Nadi astrology.

The Nadi leaves were stored at the Thanjavur's Saraswati Mahal Library in Tamil Nadu at first. However, during the British Raj, the invaders interfered and some of the leaves were destroyed, while the others got auctioned under their rule. But these Nadi leaves have been received by the family of the astrologers as the time passed on at the Vaitheeswaran Temple.

1. Beliefs of Nadi Shastra

According to the Nadi astrologers, your Athman or spirit is the real you. It does not have a mind, body or desire and is eternal and cannot be formed or destructed. The physical changes that apply to your body such as birth, childhood, teenage, adulthood, old age and death do not matter to the Athman in Nadi Shastra. However, your Athman enters into a different body depending on the good or bad deeds or the Karma it has accumulated. Good Karma leads to a good life and bad Karma leads to a bad or negative life.

2. Navagrahas and Siddars: Who are they?

No matter which country, cast, creed or religion you belong to, as a human, it is believed that you are controlled by the nine planets or the Navagrahas. Known to the public servants of the universe, the Navagrahas have always been sincere in performing their duties and can make an impact on not just a person, but a whole community on the basis of good and bad Karma. If you’ve always been a healthy person who never falls sick then, according to the Nadi Shastra, it could be because you performed a lot of good deeds in your previous birth.

Karma is the one that controls your birth, death, rebirth and moksha. According to it, Paapams aren’t easy to dilute, while the Punyas can be spent quite soon. You are always supposed to have good, positive thoughts as bad or negative thoughts are also considered Paapams.

The God Brahma, who decides what is supposed to be given to you (along with when and where) cannot be there for you directly, so he created 84,000 Siddars as channels to perform this duty for him. Another group of public servants, they have supernatural abilities and present it through Nadi Shastra. Agarthyar is the leader of all Siddars and chooses Jeeva Karunyam, which means not to harm any living being. He wants all of them to receive Gnana or supreme self-knowledge.

3. Nadi Predictions: How does one get them?

Revealing the secrets of all human beings, the recorded predictions of Nadi Shastra were compiled by particular sages and named after them. Some of these that are available now are Agathiya Nadi, Shukha Nadi, Brahma Nadi, and Kaushika Nadi. These are all written in an ancient Tamil script and a sharp instrument was used to write these inscriptions on the palm leaves.

Finding your Nadi is completely based on luck, although all the Nadi Shastra leaves are available now. It’s said that your Nadi leaf can only be found if you are fortunate enough to hear the readings. It has often taken years to find the Nadi inscriptions of a person. A Nadi leaf is supposed to be traced on the basis of your thumb impression. In order to verify that the inscription is of the same person, the first leaf is read out to him and if it matches, then the palm leaf is taken out.

Containing a detailed description of the story of their life, the Nadi leaves give an effective reading about the future of an individual. Apart from that, they also help out by prescribing a few remedies to save yourself from your past sins. In the marriage context, people match their horoscopes to understand whether they are apt for each other.

Looking at Nadi Shastra and its history, this form of astrology has had its roots in India way before Independent India was born. With beliefs of good and bad Karma, which are also a big part of Hindu mythology, it seems to be an instrument to help people find solace. However, the most surreal part of Nadi Shastra is that many people believe that their predictions are absolutely accurate. This makes one wonder how much science is yet to discover, and what we are yet to learn about the universe!

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