The Nadi Readers   ( Nadi Reader in Old Delhi) My translator is on the right The man who performed the reading is holding the Nadi leaves on the table   “The will is not free-it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect- but there is something behind the will which is free.” -Swami Vivekananda   Imagine if you traveled to a far away and ancient city and while wondering there you hear of a secret library, a library unlike any other on earth and you fortuitously are given directions to go there and it takes a long time and the streets you travel are busy and crowded and filled with people and cars and the long sought street the library is on, is non-descript and does not stand out in any way whatsoever and you go up the steps and at the second story upstairs flat there is a similarly unremarkable door     and you remember the restaurant you ate at once where you lifted a bowl of soup to drink on a delightful night of nothing special and saw the most amazingly wondrous sight- an orange chandelier glowing in the bowl   and then as you look deeper you see yourself, with a different face living a different life with different parents and friends and wearing exotic clothes and when you look into the eyes of the one who you see looking back at you you pass through the bright doorway of the here and now into a shabby room with faded paint and dirty walls and windows where a dark skinned man with a red bindu mark on his forehead and bright white shining teeth is singing in ancient Tamil reading off a tiny script no more that 1/8” high written long ago in Sanskrit and more recently, only several thousand years ago at the direction of a Chola King translated into ancient Tamil, the South Indian language It is etched in black ink on a palm leaf which has passed through the more recent ancient dynasties that ruled India: The Cholas, the Muslims, Vijayanagar, the Portuguese, the Moghuls, the Dutch, the French and finally the British who last and ignorantly burned and destroyed much of the library and auctioned off the rest. (It is now thought that over 60% of the library has been destroyed) and This brown skinned man singing before you is reading the etchings on a palm leaf that was first recited by a Rishi who had overheard a conversation between the great Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati A conversation in which Parvati asks Shiva to tell her the fate of her children, which Lord Shiva then does taking a long, long time to do so and when you hear the story of your own life sung and read to you starting with the names of your own parents, Norman and Marjorie, that they are deceased, that you have an older brother from your Fathers first wife and that your partners name is Gilda your mind is stunned with wonder and you believe that perhaps you could be Parvatis’ child and that if you understood what is being said or what is going on here ‘you’ will no longer exist and ‘you’ will pass through a bright doorway into the here and now where you are sitting in a shabby room and there are children playing outside and you are hearing about your own life written in a palm leaf book thousands of years ago and stored in a Temple in South India   This 'book' is written on palm leaves with a string holding together the pages It has been pulled down from the dusty, old and wondrous stacks of that ancient library and found for you based only on your thumbprint a book with a page written about ‘you’ as you are right now, this moment, today your history and how you came to be here what you did in your past life what you will do in your future life and that somehow this book or the writer of this book knew that you would come to this library to hear this text today right now it is your Nadi or destiny and the chandelier glows in the soup bowl and turns blue and sparkles and brightens into a white brilliance it seems that someone has a light that someone knows ‘you’ where ‘you’ have been what ‘you’ have done and what will happen to ‘you’ in the future   'You' hear that this leaf or book was spoken and written thousands of years ago by someone you never met by someone your parents never met by someone your girlfriend never met who knew the day you were born the month and the time and knew that 'you' would come in today this day, this week, this year, this life and the book would be waiting for 'you' every thing entering into this moment all together like the reflection of the moon that night on a still lake in summer, with your dear friend Anthony when the universe peeled back it's blanket of stars and the incredible blessing of it all full of peace and wonder poured out over the lake and swept ‘you’ both away.   When the Buddha became enlightened under the Bodhi tree, he remembered all his past lives. 'He looked into life as one would look at a mirror and he saw '   Imagine what it is like for a person to live without a such a mirror To never see oneself It would be like not having a memory of who 'you' are   'You' is this person   And, just like that this palm-leaf book in this ancient library is a mirror of who you are and have been and will be   To understand this seems a great mystery It is to see who arranged the petals on a flower and because they are so incredibly perfect and wondrous and because you have so seen them you become a poor artist or a monk or a renunciate or a parent or a thief   You are both a saint and a sinner a lover and a hater and you love someone or something so much that you cry and feel the pain of not getting what you want and become thankful for that pain and for all that you have been given in spite of all that is always taken away and with your tears 'you' dissolve utterly         I am reminded of a dream that Carl Jung relates in his autobiography-Memories Dreams and Reflections "I was walking along a little road through a hilly landscape; the sun was shining and I had a wide view in all directions. Then I came to a small wayside chapel. The door was ajar, and I went in. To my surprise, there was no image of the virgin on the altar, and no crucifix either, but only a wonderful flower arrangement. But then I saw on the floor sat a yogi- in lotus posture, in deep meditation. When I looked at him more closely, I realized he had my face. I started in profound fright and awoke with the thought: “Aha, so he is the one who is meditating me. He has a dream, and I am it” I knew that when he awakened I would no longer be."         The pictures here are Nadi readers outside of Kanchpuram in Tamil Nadu. They are a father and son. Although they looked for my leaf, they were not able to find it. They were, however, glad to share with me about the Nadi tradition and their understanding and practice of it. The Nadi readers who did find my leaf, including my parents name and even my Mothers name and middle name were in Old Delhi (See their picture at the top of the page) For an Interview with a practitoner of the Nadi I was so struck with the accuracy and the amazing and life changing implications of what the Delhi readers had told me that I journeyed to South India to go to the the Saraswati Mandir temple in Thanjavur and visit the main temple of this tradition where most of the Nadi leaves are still kept in an ancient library. On the way, I also visited several other nadi readers in Tamil Nadu to see if they also could find my leaf. None of them did. I never made it to Thanjavur. On my way there, I first travelled to South of India to the state of Tamil Nadu where I stayed on the beach at Mamallapuram next to where the oldest temple of all of South India is built. While I was there, on the morning of December 26, 2004, the Tsunami hit. It changed my 'plans' for the time being. (To see pictures and read about the Tsunami) I still hope to find out more about this amazing Nadi tradition that has so much to say, concerning how life works and the law of karma. Certainly, the Nadi readings are a slap in the face of free will . . . How could I have used my free will if all of what they told me was true (and it certainly seemed to be at least about this life) and it was written down over a thousand years ago, at least? The Indian tradition believes 100% in fate or destiny born of karma and 100% in free will. (The tendency in India is to put more emphasis on fate. The tendency in the West is to put more emphasis on free will) Both of these are considered to be true principles of life. Together they offer a stunning paradox.   If the Nadi readings are true, it seems that most of us do not use our free will very much. I certainly had not. How could my Mothers name and middle name be known and written down a thousand years ago? They could not of read my mind and then written it down on the palm leaf I was in the room the whole time. I was allowed to take a picture of my leaf and had it independently translated. It had been written down, in ancient Tamil. They were not reading my mind. It seems that what and who we think we are, we are not. It seems that almost all of what we think is free will, is not. I was told that while the readings are considered to be very accurate up to the present (parabdha karma) As to the future, they are open to the effect of present actions and understanding which can be changed by the Nadi readings as well as any other action (agama karma and kriyamani karma).   Some people will say, "I do not believe in such things. I do not believe in Astrology" I would reply, 'Have you ever studied the field? How you ever really looked into it? Have you ever had a reading?' I would say that if anyone really explores it, not the short superficial readings that you can find in the daily paper or a magazine, but, a full reading done by a competent Vedic astrologer you will find that Vedic Astrology is simply impossible to dismiss Water is wet and fire will burn, this is not a matter of belief, but, of direct experience Even so, all children need to test the flame with their own finger. Just so, you should test astrology yourself If we know the seed we can know the tree, what its fruits will be and the 'parents' of the seed Just so according to the same principle it is possible by an 'examination' of any present moment, to see the future and the past Astrology does not simplify the world or ones life. On the contrary, by throwing light upon the qualities, processes and events of life, it makes them even more mysterious. My Nadi reading was the single most amazing thing I encountered in India     Life seems a mysterious cloth woven warp and woof of the law of karma- We call it 'cause and effect'. The 'cause' is the effect concealed The 'effect' is the cause revealed It is imcomprehensible It is worthy of wonder   “The will is not free-it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect- but there is something behind the will which is free.” -Swami Vivekananda     (picture of nadi leaf) For more articles about the Nadi on the web: Interview with a Nadi Reader Article on Nadi by an Indian Jyotisha Wikipedia on Nadi   For Related Stories and Articles by Peter Malakoff: Tragedy Fate and Nemesis- A consideration of fate and free will This essay and stories within it, consider the relationship between the loss of the sense of tragedy and the rise of 'New Age' thinking. Stories of DH Lawrence, Carl Jung, Isak Dinesen, Agamemnon, Oedipus, Nemesis, Darius, Tyche Polycrates, Eisenhower and Gandhi are all brought together here. The Seed and the Soil A short piece on the ancient metaphor of' the seed and the soil'. This metaphor provides a fundamental paradox for any consideration of free will and the environment or factors other than 'us'. Character and Fate The word for character in ancient Greek was ethos, from which we get our word "ethics." Heraklitos, writing at the dawn of Western philosophy, held that a person's 'ethos' is their daimon, or fate. "Ethos anthropos daimon" A man's character is his fate God Willing "And never say of anything, 'I shall do such and such thing tomorrow. Except (with the saying): "INSHALLAH" ('God willing). A look at the Islamic idea of fate and free will, with the ancient Islamic story, "An Appointment in Samarra" as told by Somerset Maughm, set to music   Return to Peter Main Page