distractions which an unhappy domestic life had forced on him, father pursued with unabated, zeal the task

of performing'more than 24 lakhs of Gayathri Japam and creating around him a spiritual halo. Frank and outspoken, diplomacy and sycophancy, were completely absent. He died in Mars sub-period in Saturn's Dasa. While grandfather was for me an ideal person, father impressed me as a man of discipline and conviction. The tenth house is free from affliction. If he had no love for many he had hatred for none. His were the qualities of a cultured ego. After my Upanayanam (investiture of sacred thread) in my 8th year, I underwent a course of study (adhyayana) in the Vedas and the importance of Vedic studies was realised as my studies in science progressed in the college. In the village school where I studied, the medium of instruction in the primary and middle school classes was Kannada, English being second language. Sanskrit was learnt at home under an elderly Pandit. Occasionally grandfather would ask me about my "progress" in Astrology but otherwise I had to fend for myself as my studies advanced. Casting of the horoscope on the basis of Panchangas or local almanacs gave me little or no trouble. But I had no idea of the ephemerides or western Astrology until I chanced to come across a copy of Butler's Solar Biology and Zadkiel's Primer of Astrology. A thorough study of these books kindled my interest in mathematical Astrology. Before I was 13 or 14, I knew by heart 50 slokas in Jataka Chandrica and a few a chapters in Brihat Jataka. I had also digested the Kannada book Jyotisha Sarvavishayamruta. I had a very high opinion of my knowledge of Astrology and this egoism prompted me to make forecasts about the longevity of all the members of the household. But slokas 23 and 24 in Jataka Chandrica on which I mainly relied were also the cause of my own mental anguish. According to these slokas, lord of the 2nd house is stronger than that of the 7th for inflicting death; and the planets occupying the 2nd and 7th are more powerful in causing this event. In my own case, Rahu is in the 2nd and grandfather had Saturn in the 2nd. My Rahu Dasa would end in my 25th year or so and grandfather's Satum Dasa would commence in his 64th or 65th year. Therefore, it was clear, I then thought, that both of us would die, my death occurring about the end of my Rahu Dasa and his, at the beginning of Saturn's. The adage "a little learning is a dangerous thing" applied to me in its entirety