Once this heavenly physician accidentally spilled the contents of his pot. Most of the fluid poured onto the earth at the confluence of three great rivers at Allahabad. The Indian name for the constellation Aquarius is Kumbha (“the pot”), so the festival (mela) celebrated where the ambrosia spilled is called the Kumbha Mela.

Reckoning by the Vedic calendar, Jupiter is now transiting the earth sign Vrishibha (which we in the West call the constellation Taurus), the Sun has shifted into Makara (Capricorn), and the Moon has moved into the lunar sign or nakshatra called Magha.

For Hindus this confluence of astronomical factors signals it’s time to head to Allahabad for great food, chanting, and the blessings of the largest gathering of saints and sages at one place on earth.

Astrologically it means it’s time to rock with one’s spiritual practice: during this especially auspicious period the celestial forces support and amplify all one’s spiritual endeavors.

Those of us here at the Himalayan Institute campsite at Allahabad can actually feel the ambrosia of immortality that during this window of time spills from heaven. Many of us struggle with our meditations at home, but here we simply close our eyes and are immediately swept into meditative states. The all pervading sense of peace and inner blessing is amazingly strong.

How did the Vedic sages identify which periods of time are particularly propitious for spiritual practice? While many of us in the West disparage astrology, here in India from very ancient times there has been a recognition of the synchronicity between celestial forces and human affairs.

“The human body and the cosmos itself are both based on the same pattern,” says Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, the spiritual director here. What happens on earth is reflected in the sky, and the transits of the planets correspond to events in our lives, according to the ancient seers.

Vedic astrology, called Jyotish (“the science of light”) has been used from the Vedic age to determine particularly auspicious times for rituals, meditation, and for mundane affairs such as starting a journey or getting married.

Vedic astrology is based on a detailed understanding of the mechanics of the karmic process. There are four general types of karma:

Sanchit karma or the totality of karma we have accrued on the basis of our thoughts, words and deeds in previous lives.

Prarabdha karma or that portion of our sanchit karma which is “scheduled” to manifest during our present lifetime.

Kriyaman karma or those thoughts, words and actions we are engaging in right now. While the previous two forms of karma are the source of fate, kriyaman karma represents the free will through which we can consciously redirect our destiny.

Agama karma or those actions we are planning to perform in the future.

The Vedic horosocope is a sort of blueprint of the soul, summarizing one’s prarabdha karma-the events, positive and negative, we will have to undergo during this life as a result of our deeds, attachments and intentions in past lives. It is a sort of spiritual report card and life itinerary.

Prarabdha karma can be fixed or changeable. If karma from the past is not very strong, we can fairly easily override its effect. For example, if we were thinking of coming to the Maha Kumbha Mela and perhaps even purchased a plane ticket to Allahabad, we still have the option to cancel the ticket if we change our mind, though we may have to pay a penalty fee. However, once our plane takes off, we longer experience free choice: we are going to wind up in India whether we change our mind or not.

Vedic astrology also recognizes the immense importance of group karma. Countries that glamorize violence, like the U.S.A., suffer from high crime rates while in cultures where violence is strongly condemned, such as Scandinavia, violent crime is extremely rare.

Thousands of years ago when the sages first inaugurated the Kumbha Mela, they took advantage of the principle of group karma. By bringing together vast numbers of swamis and sadhus, aspirants and adepts at this astrologically auspicious time, they created a sacred space in which the collective consciousness of millions of enthusiastic participants could alter the destiny of the whole world for the better.

The challenging experiences of pilgrimage help burn away “bad karma” while the collective mind set of charity and meditation so evident here help accelerate the spiritual growth of everyone who partakes of the special cosmic energies available now.

Vedic astrology is not at all fatalistic: it prescribes many ways of altering the karma one was born with. Most yoga students will be familiar with these techniques. Hatha yoga and Ayurvedic cleaning and rejuvenation can help alleviate bad health karma, selfless service and charitable donations can help atone for pain we may have caused others in the past, and pilgrimage and asceticism help us untie the knots of fears and desires that may be stunting our spiritual development.

As students of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras know well, perhaps the most effective means of changing one’s karma for the better is meditation. In deep states of meditative absorption we can “fry” the seeds of our past karma so that they can never be reactivated. Once this occurs we experience moksha, “freedom from karma.”

Here at the Maha Kumbha Mela, at the confluence of heaven and earth, we are experiencing the pouring out of divine nectar into our lives. The Vedic sages always understood heaven as a metaphor for higher consciousness: the real source of healing, blessing and enlightening power streaming out of the celestial “kumbha” is our own higher Self.