In the midst of my work on the situation in Jammu today, just before I began to post the article which will follow this one, I received an email pointing me to the sad news that India has lost a truly great man.

Ex-president APJ Abdul Kalam passes away, nation pays homage

President Pranab Mukherjee Cuts Short Karnataka Visit Over Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s Death

The first time I saw his chart (data provided by Hasmukhrai J. Mehta), I found myself awed by the angular Grand Cross that focused on his sense of responsibility, commitment and innovation for the nation. With natal Saturn–his chart ruler–in the first house in 7-minute partile square to Uranus, Uranus opposing the Midheaven-Mercury-Sun conjunction in square to natal seventh house Pluto. Uranus in the fourth house could easily point to the fast-moving pace Indians saw in the years leading up to the 1947 move to independence and the years that followed.

An independent man himself with his focus on career and being a public servant, he was prepared to do whatever he needed to in his effort to move the nation forward. The first time I had learned about him was during my 2013 trip to India, when I bought his book India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium at one of the airports as I flew from one city to another. Which city, I don’t remember. Yet just holding in my hands what would become a precious text to me, felt good–and right.

He had a kind paternal face, the kind that instilled public confidence in him with great ease, but then he had Venus in the 10th house in an out-of-sign conjunction to his Sun, bringing him to an easily favored position as the nation’s president. With 30 honorary doctorates and his role as the founder of ISRO, it’s easy to see how all of these pieces fit together so incredibly well.

His Moon in Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius fell in the 12th house of spiritual qualities that bestowed him with an ability to convey those qualities even when he wasn’t speaking of religion. While his Moon squared 8th house Neptune, it trined 8th house Jupiter and ruled his natal Pluto. Yet his Moon was far more complex as it interwove with the chart through the Moon-Jupiter-Sun-Venus-Pluto heartbeat that preceded the ultimate objective for him through the responsibilities and duties he saw as his in Saturn.

At the time of his death, the chart was equally stunning. He had just completed the final lap of his Uranus return on April 20 this year although Uranus’ current retrograde would come close again on November 15, 2015, just days before Neptune would have shifted back to direct motion in 6-minute partile opposition to natal Neptune. The timing for being his day to move on came with much drama through Mars’ square to natal and transiting Uranus, in 14-minute partile conjunction to his natal Pluto in opposition to natal Saturn while transiting Pluto was still close enough to conjunct natal Saturn. Mars was also squaring his Sun in the 10th by 1°.

According to the Hindustan Times, “Doctors at the hospital said he was brought dead around 7pm. ‘He had no pulse when he was admitted to the hospital. We can attribute his death to cardiac arrest,’ a doctor said.”

NDTV later referred to the moment he collapsed as “sudden death,” and certainly that would explain the 25-minute partile opposition from transiting Uranus to his natal Sun. But the transiting Moon’s conjunction not only to his natal Moon offers just one level. The Solstice Point (antiscia) of the transiting Moon fell at 16 Capricorn 34 in a 33-minute partile conjunction to his natal Saturn. The placements formed another partile square to natal Uranus, triggering the transiting Uranus-Sun opposition.

“Cardiac arrest” was probably quite an accurate term, but I don’t believe he suffered. This was more like a sudden call that it was his time to move on.

By transit, Jupiter was squaring Saturn, while his natal Pluto opposed natal Saturn and transiting Mars had conjuncted Pluto. I know some of this may seem as if it’s repetition but it’s meant instead to point out the incredible timing of an event like this was. There was no means of saving him. The time of his passing was so sudden, it was as if the clock simply ran out, like the battery has no more charge left. Take note of the amazing shift from the natal chart to the Uranus placement in the 2nd house of the death chart and his Sun and Mercury clearly in the 8th, terminal houses. Transiting Mars fell in the 6th house with natal Pluto there in opposition to natal Saturn in the 12th. it was his time.

And so, I offer you this analysis as my farewell to this great man whose words moved me enough to write a note on my Facebook timeline just four days after his last birthday. I’ll share that here now as part of my Farewell to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. RIP.

Namaste, I love you.

©2015 Michelle Young

ONE DEVELOPED INDIA – thoughts we can all strive to make happen in our world – October 19, 2014 at 7:00am

I’ve been engrossed in researching toward the first two of my articles signaling my return to writing for Dell Horoscope, and I stumbled upon this in my hard copies of books today. It’s so powerful, meaningful, I’m sharing it here. Please be respectful of the copyright however. I don’t profess to having written it. These are the words of a truly great man, and I’m sharing with full credits to the author, APJ Abdul Kalam.

In order to delineate separate sections as Dr. Kalam has done, I’m going to italicize the sections and then leave their suggestions as written. This is just to clarify these sections more easily. It is not my intention to violate the copyright, rather to share powerful words that should have been deeply embedded in the hearts and minds of us all, not only in the hearts and minds of a billion or more Indians, but in all of us. His words are encouraging and offer profound wisdom that can help even the most highly developed of nations. I offer this with that hope and encouragement as well:

“We were touched by the recent observations by C. Subramanian to a group of industrialists. While discussing newer initiatives in agriculture, he said the Technology Vision 2020 documents contain a rich source of information and action points. We should not wait for general policies to emerge but launch demonstration projects; there is plenty of scope for such local or regional initiatives. CS is the architect of India’s food security. He started the actions through specific demonstration projects and thousands of farmers saw the successes. The Green Revolution followed. With his recent observations we are doubly convinced of the approach we are suggesting: that is all of us have a role to play; actions are many; but the goal is one.

“Therefore, we find a role for every action aimed at making ONE DEVELOPED INDIA.

“Our appeal and request described here is briefly as under.

“You (A teacher, banker, doctor, administrator or other professional)
Devote a few days in a month to doing something better; something speedier; something of high quality; something which will make you proud; something which will make a poorer or suffering person’s life a little better.

“Government ministries/departments
One mission each to realize the vision of developed India with internal core strength. Preferably in partnership with other departments, agencies, NGOs and private sector. Don’t wait to start.

“Central PSUs
One project each to make a developed India. Unleash your technological strengths. This is in addition to the mission your ministry may launch and for which you will contribute.

“State PSUs
At least in one area transform yourself to service the people in your area. If possible launch one project with partners on similar lines that goes beyond your region.

“R&D labs/Academic institutions
You have the unique opportunity to be the front runner. Each lab or institution to launch such a project of your own, in addition to contributing to missions, PSU projects, etc. You will find financial contributions even around your area.

“Private sector (large industry)
Each launch a project similar to what is suggested for PSUs, in addition to its own corporate plans and other demands placed on it by government sponsored missions and projects. Also create projects to uplift our small-scale industries technologically and even agriculture.

“Small-scale sector
Even though your problems are many look ahead. learn to capture a few technological strengths. Catch hold of a nearby academic institution or laboratory. You will find some persons with innovative ‘fire’ in them. Once you find a knowledge source relevant to your business, you will find that life is being transformed for you.

“MNCs
You have a role to play. In addition to your own concerns of profit and your global strategies, look at the one-billion-plus country with inherent strengths as a partner and not as a short-term market. Demonstrate clearly through one or two projects each that you want to and can create core competitive technological strengths within India, to help its march towards a developed status. A small help at the right time is better than a larger help to a person who does not need it at that time! You have an opportunity to contribute to a momentous task.

“NGOs
Your role is as multifarious and as complex as India. Try to help in creating a climate for positive actions and a rapid change for the better.

“Media
Spread the message of success, however small the successes are. There are many grim events and developments that you have to cover, but the positive can also be news. Build up an image of an India with hundreds and thousands of heroes and heroines who are changing the country’s destiny.”

The section above was toward the very end of his book, India: A Vision for the New Millennium, written with YS Rajan. But there’s one more section I wanted to share before posting this because it shows the positive energy in a section called “Agni and disabled children.” For me, this shows the positive energy going into healing, and that’s true whether we’re looking at one child, a city, or a nation of more than a billion people.

“I quote from my address at a ten-day workshop on Indigenous Production and distribution of Assistive Devices at Chennai on 5 September 1995.

“A year back, an article appeared in the Press on ‘Missiles for Medicine’. The article highlighted our experiment of adapting certain missile technologies into certain socially useful medical products primarily to bring them within the reach of the common man. Reading in the article about an ultra-light floor reaction orthosis which our scientists developed from a high specific strength material used to make radio-transparent heat shield of missiles, to assist polio affected children in walking, an ex-serviceman hailing from a middle class family in Karnataka wrote to us. he enquired whether something could be done for his twelve-year-old daughter who was suffering from residual polio of the lower lemb and was forced to drag herself with a 4.5 kg calliper made out of wood, leather and metallic strips. Our scientists invited the father and the daughter to our laboratory in Hyderabad, and together with orthopaedic doctors at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences there, designed a KAFO (Knee Ankle Foot Orthosis) weighing merely 400 gm. The child got a near normal gait while walking with this assistive device. The parent wrote to us a couple of months later that the device breathed a new life in his daughter and she had learned cycling and started going to school on her own. The girl regained a near normal lifestyle . . .  When I see this enthusiastic gathering today with the focus to provide support to the disabled, I realize that our dream to provide similar devices in standard sizes to millions will surely get transformed into reality.”

The book ends with these words:

“We therefore have a dream. Our dream is that both our houses of Parliament would adopt a resolution for the second vision of a great nation: ‘India will transform into a developed nation before the year 2020. A billion people are our resource for this national transformation.’This event will inspire the nation.

“India is a nation of a billion people. A nation’s progress depends upon how its people think. It is thoughts which are transformed into actions. India has to think as a nation of a billion people. Let the young minds blossom–full of thoughts, the thoughts of prosperity.”

The book begins with equally powerful words:

“After one of the talks delivered by Dr. Kalam, a ten-year-old girl came up to him for his autograph. ‘What is your ambition?’he asked her. ‘I want to live in a developed India,’ she replied without hesitation. This book is dedicated to her and the millions of Indians who share her aspiration.”
—India: A Vision for the New Millennium
©A.P.J.Abdul Kalam and Y.S. Rajan 1998
Viking/Penguin Books India 1998, 2002

To you, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Bahut Dhanyawad aur Namaste. You are indeed an inspiration!