I got this horoscope of Shri Chandidas Chatterji after 1975, perhaps in 1977, but the

story I am going to narrate will start from the year 1968.8

I do not know much about Gulbarga district in Karnataka but, in Calcutta and later,
in other cities, I did come across some practitioners of occult sciences, resembling
astrology. It is not astrology in the traditional sense, casting a horoscope on the
basis of time, date and place of birth. One such occult science is described as
angushtha Shastra, being based solely on the study of an individual's thumb.
Angushtha, means the thumb.
8. Remember this important chronology of events, from 1948 to 1978.
Though I came across many angushtha shastris later, the only one who impressed
me was Atmeshwar Swami, a plumpish, impressive personality, who was always
accompanied by his uncle, Janardan Swami. I met them in Calcutta accidentally, in
the business premises of Batuk Bhai, a guru bhai of mine, in 1968, when he was
doing the reading of someone's thumb but, speaking in a language, which they
were finding difficult to understand. I then noticed that he was speaking something
resembling Varanasi style of Hindi, with heavy South Indian accent. Naturally,
Bengalis and Gujaratis were finding it difficult to understand him. Slowly, I
concentrated, initially, with some strain, on his accent and, then started to
understand everything he was saying. I started rendering it both in English and in
Hindi which Calcutta businessmen understood easily.
After this, Atmeshwar Swami started to like me, requested me and wanted to fix all
his important appointments in my presence, in my room, at my convenience, after
office hours. I agreed on one condition, that he would allow me to take notes and
get his predictions verified, later. He agreed cheerfully. Thus began a story of a very
sweet friendship.
His method, which I described later, in a very long testimonial I gave to him, which
was reproduced (without my name, of course), in The Illustrated Weekly,9 in some
issue in 1969, briefly was:
(a) After studying the thumb, he divided individuals into three categories: below
number five thousand as insignificant men; between five thousand and ninety nine
thousand as men who would make a mark in life - the greater the number, the
greater the success; and people above ninety-nine thousand, as rarest of the rare
men, the epoch-makers.10
9. It was the most dignified weekly of India once. It had the misfortune of getting
such sensation mongering editors as Khushwant Singh, and, very unworthy editors,
later. It collapsed, as was inevitable.
10. A very noble dacoit, Man Singh of Morena and Bhind in Madhya Pradesh had
such a high number. Man Singh was adored by many villagers.
(b) This was based on Ravana Samhita, preserved in Karnataka, in some families,
particularly in the Gulbarga district.

(c) This was a guru-mukhi vidya (passed on from gurus to disciples), and was never
taught to anyone outside a close circle of family members, that too only to males."
25
Atmeshwar Swami had given some very fine predictions, the short range ones,
when fulfilled, could be got verified by us, in a matter of weeks. Let me refer to two
of his pleasant predictions: the first was to Justice P.B. Mukherji, who had been
superseded as the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, supposedly on the basis of
an adverse remark on his case recorded by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962.12 But
Atmeshwar Swami insisted that come what may, before February 1970, Justice
Mukherji would become the Chief Justice. In Rajkot, I received a letter in January
1970, that Justice P.B. Mukherji had been elevated.13
More impressive was the prediction he gave to a person who was described as a
second-rate Congress (0) leader, in post-Congress split year of 1969.14 To him,
Atmeshwar Swami told that eight years later, he would be a Minister in the central
cabinet in Delhi. It happened in 1977. I remembered it as a fantastic prediction. But
to a businessman in Calcutta, he gave from commercial to sexual predictions, with
so much ease and confidence, that I was both amazed and amused. I do not want to
recount them here, but they clicked so well that people held Atmeshwar Swami in
awesome respect.
My Guruji who respected astrologers, and gave them money munificently, from out
of the donations sent to the ashram, always respected Atmeshwar Swami, for
preserving ancient knowledge. In the ashram, Atmeshwar Swami gave some
wonderful predictions to many inmates and visitors, all in my presence, with me
recording them. Whenever I praised Atmeshwar Swami to the skies, people asked
me a question. Why did I do that, when not a single prediction he had given me,
ever came out correct! My answer was that every astrologer had to have his
percentage of failures. Mine was a case falling in this small percentage, perhaps
five, of failures. Should I not praise him, seeing his over ninety percent success
rate?
11. Females would take the secrets to the families into which they would get
married.
12. The first Prime Minister of India (1947 to 19640.
13. I was then posted in Rajkot.
14. That was the first dear signal Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, had given
other future intentions of wrecking democratic institutions of India.
Towards the end of 1969, both he and I left Calcutta. But during that period,
everyone except Chandibabu, whose horoscope I have given earlier, never
consulted him and, even told me one day: "I know all about my future. In 1948, one
day while walking in a garden, Guruji told me all about me, my future, my wife's
future and even about my children. I need not consult anyone as every word of what

Guruji (in Bengali they use Thakurji for Guruji) had told me has come out correct so
far."
Surprisingly, in 1978, during the fag end of my second Calcutta posting, Atmeshwar
Swami again visited Calcutta, this time, for a very brief visit as he had built up
richer clientele in Bombay and Gujarat, after the article on him in The Illustrated
Weekly, in 1969. This time, he was not even looking at the thumb. He reeled off
predictions effortlessly. I asked him - why this change? He confided in me that the
Dattatreya Yantra he was worshipping, had started giving him fullest results; his
gifts had become totally supernormal." It was then that he gave me the only correct
prediction - I would be transferred to Delhi, from where my visits to Vrindavan would
increase enormously. In Vrindavan, I would meet an extraordinary saint under a
banyan tree - a classical avadhoot, resembling Jada Bharata of the Srimad
Bhagvatam. It not merely came out
26
true but, I had the extraordinary luck of meeting Nagaridas Baba, from July 1978 to
July 1988, twice a month, till the Baba took Samadhi.
But the question that intrigued me was why Chandibabu was not telling me what
Guruji had told him. Among the saints I have known, I had the benefit of seeing that
my Guruji could tell anyone's future as and when he wanted with absolute
precision.\<s But he did that rarely. He shared it more with me than anyone else.
15. He told a Hindu colleague of mine that a love affair had with a Muslim girl had
caused lot of agony, even without looking at his thumb, as he used to do, in his
earlier visit.
16. In retrospect, I can say now that he was matchless in this regard. I have not met
anyone who could see everything in a flash, as my Guruji could.
I never asked Chandibabu or Guruji what these predictions were.
Sometime in 1978, few months before my transfer to Delhi, one day Chandibabu
gave me his horoscope, and his wife's and asked me what I had to predict. Why was
he wanting predictions from me when he knew all about his future, was my
question. He melted, for the first time, and said, he was anxious and, was shaken
up. A prosperous lawyer like Chandibabu, who had appeared stiff-necked and
snobbish to many, had controlled his emotions with dignity.
I analysed his horoscope thus:
The Charadasha sequence: Mesha ending 1913, Vrisha 1916, Mithuna 1920, Karaka
1929, Simha 1939, Kanya 1950, Tula 1960, Vrishchika 1970, Dhanu upto 1978.
It was Dhanu-Dhanu period. From the darapada the seventh house was under
heaviest affliction.
In Vimshottari it was Venus-Mercury period. The dasha of the seventh lord, with
retrograde Mercury in the seventh house. Was his wife safe? In Jaimini the next

dasha would be of Makar, containing upapada and indicating a change in his life
also.
"Not good at all for your wife," I told him.
"I knew that," he said laconically and then passed on his wife's horoscope to me.
Guru as Family Counsellor
There will always be, in India, genuinely spiritual Gurus, as sources of spiritual and
mental strength to hundreds of disciples suffering family, social and professional
problems. Some of them end up as good Sadhakas, towards the end of their lives;
some of them oscillate between the worldly and the spiritual with enigmatic
suddenness; some of them rightly take only the spiritual messages of the Guru and
lead secluded lives, in pursuit of their sadhana. Surprisingly for a majority of them,
the Guru is a crutch on which they want to carry on their entire burden and, that of
their family's. If the Guru leaves the world of mortals, they see it as the end of
everything for themselves, forgetting that Guru lives through the mantra given to
his disciples and, not in flesh and bone. "Akhand Mandalakaram Vyaptam yena
characharam tat padam
27
darshitam yena tasmai shree gurave namah" speaks of Guru as the immanent, allpervading power not confined to his body.
Chandibabu belonged to this category. Though so prosperous, with a lucrative legal
practice in the Alipore courts of Calcutta, he was haunted by the fear of life without
the physical presence of Guru. In sheer desperation, he had once asked Guruji in
1948, whether he would ever have to live in the world without the physical presence
of his Guru.
One day in 1948, Guruji took him for a walk and told him, "I will be with you all for
over thirty years from this year. Then within a space of six months, you, your wife
and I will leave the world".
Others only knew that Chandibabu had been told clearly about his end, but only I
came to know clearly in 1978, from Chandibabu what Guruji had told him. I knew of
the supernormal gifts of Guruji. I knew that haunting fears of Chandibabu had
substance. They were not imaginary fears, like that of many other guru bhais. Life
without Guru! That was the haunting fear of many, particularly of some women.
Chandibabu's dasha-sequence
In the case of Chandibabu, his Venus dasha had reached a very critical stage and it
was maraka (killer) for Mesha lagna. It would be followed by the dasha of debilitated
Sun.
In Jaimini, the Makar dasha would have the atmakaraka in the eighth. So his
horoscope showed that period was neither good for him nor his wife.

I had worked harder on the horoscope of his wife on his own insistence and had
refused to give any prediction. But I had reasons to have my own apprehensions