K. N. Rao

Kotamraju Narayana Rao belongs to an illustrious Andhra Brahmin family. He is the second of the four sons of the famous journalist of the pre-independence era, Sri K. Rama Rao, the founder editor of the National Herald and editor of more than thirty journals in his long journalistic career. His elder brother K.Pratap Rao retired from the Indian Foreign service as an ambassador. One of his younger brothers K.Vikram Rao was the President of the All India working Journalists association and apart from being a BBC special correspondent, retired as the Editor of Times of India Lucknow. His youngest brother retired as a bank manager. K.N.Rao took his Masters in English Literature and was a lecturer in English before joining the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, from which he retired as the Director General in November 1990. During his service career, he was the planner, organizer and teacher of three international courses on Audit of Receipts, as a joint director once and as a director twice. He was initiated into astrology by his late mother, Srimati K. Sarasvani Devi, at the age of twelve in 1943. He regards her as the best astrologer he has known in three areas, Marriage, Children and Prashna (horary). More interested in games and sports than in astrology in his youth, Rao won brilliancy prizes in chess competitions and two state championships in bridge competitions. He played ten other games, which is why in his astrological writings also there are references to games often. His interactions with foreigners have been both on professional and astrological levels for more than two decades which is why he has, as an astrologer, a large international network of friends. He went on doing all his fundamental researches in astrology during his service career because of which, he went on collecting horoscopes systematically in thousands. He has in his possession more than 50,000 horoscopes with important events of each individual noted with him. It is perhaps, the largest individual collection of horoscopes data any astrologer has. The strain of doing astrology as a mission without charging any fee, almost made him give up astrology many times. But in December 1981, he was forced out of his shell to participate in a three-day seminar on astrology in Delhi. After his ground breaking speech, there has been a persistent demand for his astrological articles. From then onwards he has been sharing with his readers his original researches for which he has won worldwide praise. Between 1993 and 1995, Rao has visited the USA on five lecture tours. He was the Chief Guest at the Second Conference of the American Council of Astrology in 1993. He was requested to be present in the Third Conference also in 1994 on the opening day because of the crowds he would draw. His name was advertised till November 1995 also for the Fourth Conference though he had made it clear that he would not be available anymore for the American conferences. As a result of his academic approach, he has thousands of students in India and abroad. He was instrumental in starting the Astrology course in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi and is the Advisor and senior teacher of Astrology Courses. As on date the Bharatiya Vidya Bhava is rated as the best Astrology institute. What impelled Rao to do it is well explained in his own horoscope where the lagna and the 10th lords get combined in the lagna, with an exalted Jupiter in the 10th house. All this was foreseen by his Jyotish Guru, Yogi Bhaskarananda of Gujarat whom Rao describes as the last of the Rishi astrologers in the purest classical mould. He had told him that he would have to visit many foreign countries to give astrology the honour, recognition and dignity which it did not have till then. An American summed up the impact of the first ever foreign visit of Rao to the USA in 1993 as, “Astrology before Rao and after Rao”. What different yogis have said about astrology as a Vedanga which he must not give up has been quoted in his book, Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time. His desire never to turn into a professional astrologer, has won him thousands of admirers and also some enemies from the community of professional astrologers who felt threatened. Both his mantra guru, Swami Paramananda Saraswati, and his jyotish guru, Yogi Bhaskarananda, taught him some secrets of spiritual astrology which are not given usually in any book of astrology. Rao has revealed some of these secrets in his book, “Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time”. His own mother, who was his first jyotish guru, knew many such traditional secrets, parts of which Rao has revealed in his three books “Ups and Downs in Careers”, “Astrology, Destiny and the Wheel of Time” and “Planets and Children”. It was the mantra guru of Rao, Swami Paramananda Saraswati, who first asked Rao not to give up astrology as it had to be an integral part of his sadhana. Later a great yogi, Swami Moorkhanandji, prophesied in 1982 that he would be the architect of a great astrological renaissance. Whether that is already fulfilled or not can be gauged from the impressive list of his researches published in his writings. Among his many fundamental and most original researches are his two books “Predicting through Jaimini’s Chara Dasha” and “Predicting through Karakamsha and Mandook Dasha”. He has authored several books and is the guide and editor for several books written by others. He is the chief editor of the prestigious “Journal of Astrology”. One of his greatest achievements is the introduction of Astrology as a UGC course in the Indian Universities and later defending it in the Supreme Court of India. Among his many regular visitors and followers are former Indian President Narayanan and the Human Resources Minister Murali Manohar Joshi. It is essentially his influence on them which led to the BJP Govt. introducing Astrology as a study course in the Indian Universities. The pseudo intellectual scientists and journalist criticized this and a writ was filed in the Hyderabad High Court, describing astrology as unscientific and it as waste of public money and “Safronising” India. The Hyderabad High Court Justice F.M.IBRAHIM KALIFULLA upheld the appeal and directed the UGC not to introduce Astrology as a UGC approved course!! Appeal was made to the Supreme Court. The UGC & the Human Resources Ministry hardly prepared any grounds to defend the case – so typical of our Govt organizations. That is when K.N.Rao swung in to action. He was past 70 and because of a severe Diabetics attack both his legs were almost paralyzed and he was barely able to move about in crutches. But his mind and will were as good as ever. He hand picked several senior teachers and research students of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan study group and prepared the ground for defense. Quotations from dozens of ancient scriptures describing astrological combinations and were collected. Excerpts from the Moghul documents like Akbarnama, Jahangirnama and Babar nama were collected showing that even the Muslim rulers frequently consulted astrologers and rewarded them for accurate forecasts. A long list of accurate forecasts given by several astrologers was prepared. Armed with irrefutable evidence, K.N.Rao himself went and argued in the court. The Supreme Court of India reversed the ruling of the Hyderabad High Court and permitted UGC to introduce Astrology as a course in the Indian Universities. K.N.Rao gave a series of interviews in several Indian TV channels to dispel the several misconceptions and myths about Astrology – like Kala Sarpa Dosha, Mangala Dosha, and Sadesati etc. He repeatedly warns people not to be misled by the bogus astrologers whose aim is to extract money through fear psychosis.