About Ganesh

I am based in Leuven, Belgium. I am a scientific researcher by profession with a Ph.D. degree in Micro and Nanoelectronics. I practice Jyothish as a secondary profession. Furthermore, I have over 9 years of experience in reading birth charts. I have been studying astrology for over 12 years and student of Ernst Wilhelm for ~10 years (as of June 2022). My primary goal is counseling you about your astrological placements and direct you towards self-realization. 

Parampara:

My ancestor’s hail from Ayodhya, the present state of Uttar Pradesh that is believed to be Rama Janma Bhoomi (the birthplace of Sri Rama who is an incarnation of Vishnu). Their ancestral lineage belongs to the Varathantu Maharishi Gotra. Maharishi Varathantu is believed to be the Kulapati (head of a lineage) of a Gurukula in Pratishtapur and Raghu who was the forefather of Sri Rama is said to have reigned as the King during that time period.

Due to unknown reasons or maybe even following Sri Rama on his journey to Lanka, my ancestors decided to move South of India several centuries ago and have been residing in present-day Bangalore, Karnataka since at least ten generations. They belong to the Vaishya, mercantile class of people from India. My ancestral background includes predominantly business people involved in the financial sector, artists, engineers, doctors, samskritha scholars but very few astrologers. Although, they belonged to the merchant class, in terms of spiritual practices my ancestors followed the Smarta Brahmin traditions.

I was born in Bangalore, India. My father, a very faithful devotee of Lord Ganesha, observed significant vratas (religious obligation) before my birth. Hence, my name also follows the Lord’s. My grandfather’s views were against the caste system that prevailed in India during his time, and hence as an act of rebellion against the system he decided to drop the surname of ‘Shetty’ from the family lineage.

I was born in a family, which based its values on strong ideals, morals and philosophies from the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads. My grandparents and parents gave utmost importance to spiritual merit. As a very young child, I was surrounded by esoteric literature, mythology and Vedanta philosophy. My grandfather read me stories from the sacred scriptures like Mahabharatha, Ramayana, and other Puranas on a daily basis. At age 10, my father admitted me to the Vivekananda balaka sangha, as a result, a big part of teenage years revolved around being involved in an institute that specializes in teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. At age 16, I was initiated into Kriya Yoga meditation as part of the Ananda Ashram in Bangalore, which I even practice to this date. Although I come from a religious household and was involved in philosophical pursuits from a very young age, the harsh realities of my childhood and the financial struggles my parents had to bear tilted my reality towards atheism for almost a decade. At this stage, I decided to focus intensely on academia. I completed my B.Eng. degree in Electronics and Communication from Bangalore. At age 22, I moved to the UK and finished my M.Sc. in Electronics Design at the University of Glasgow. At age 24, I moved to Stockholm, Sweden and completed my Ph.D. in Micro and Nanoelectronics. Currently, I am residing in Belgium and work as a R&D Scientist at a multinational company.

Love for esoteric sciences:

My first interest in astrology dates back to when I was in the sixth grade. I recall reading one of my favorite novels of all time ‘Malgudi days’ by R.K Narayan (Book, TV series). There is a specific short story titled ‘An astrologer’s day’ which induced a certain reminiscent melancholic and yet captivating feeling about astrology. Since my parents were keen to know the future of my educational pursuits, at age 16 they got me an astrological reading once I finished my X grade. Traditionally, in India, it is expected that the client is present onsite in order to receive an astrological reading. With the dawn of computers, such rules are not paid much heed these days. Although the report was a computer-generated document and I had almost no knowledge about the astrology field, once I began reading the report I was able to grasp many points. That was my very first-hand experience with astrology, and I thought it was pretty interesting.

The truly fated nature of astrology:

I had hit a rough patch in my last year of Engineering due to surmounting education loans. Although I had an offer for a job at two big firms in India IBM and Mindtree Ltd, due to the severe global recession of 2008 they never offered the call letters. So to know the future of my jobs, my parents suggested I get an astrological reading. I took their advice and called up one of the best astrologers in Bangalore to book a reading. I felt that the astrologer just didn’t want to read my chart because he just messed with me by not giving me a time slot even after making hundreds of phone calls, or it just meant that it was not the time for me get an astrological reading. He just postponed it indefinitely. I waited for two years and still had not gotten a positive sign that I was getting an appointment with him. During those years, I was also more than ever in conflict with myself over the debate of science versus spirituality. Life directed me towards astrological studies in search of answers to such topics.

Frustrated with the fact that I was unable to get an astrology reading and also seeking answers to some of the questions that were bothering me, I took up my own astrological studies. Since the past decade, India boasts plenty of celebrity astrologers who share their daily dose of astrology and wisdom on TV. I occasionally watched such shows without any serious interest. During those years I can still recall those moments when astrology took the spotlight in my life even without me enthusiastically yearning it. I began to read books from eminent authors in the field, such as Dr. B.V Raman, Sri K.N Rao and some western ones like Linda Goodman. Unfortunately, I was not able to make much sense out of these books, as I was unable to relate completely to neither the Indian sidereal zodiac nor the Western tropical zodiac. At this point, I was not even aware that there was an ayanamsa crisis in the astrological community.

Disappointingly, I halted my astrological studies and life took another turn, this time towards UK in pursuit of another academic title. Even while I was deeply submerged with my academic pursuits and projects, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about astrology, and its huge set of sutras and rules etc. Looking back at those years, I tend to believe it was truly fated that I learned astrology. The deeply imbibed philosophical knowledge of my childhood lit another spark of interest in psychology. In order to understand the psychology of people around me, I resorted to astrology. Around this time, I met a new friend in the UK, an Indian person who had even vast background knowledge about astrology yet faced the same dilemma. We worked together for a few months on the finer details of astrology such as the elemental theory and tested it on many charts. Later, we arrived at the conclusion that the western tropical system of rasis had to be merged with the eastern philosophy of nakshatras to arrive at the correct zodiac. We even had plans of writing a book together. Unfortunately, due to other commitments both of us had to attend in our lives, that project was completely halted.

During this time, I completed my M.Sc. and priorities of life shifted towards finding a job/ Ph.D. That search led me to Sweden. Even during my initial years of Ph.D., I was constantly keeping myself updated with the latest astrological news by watching videos on YouTube and reading books from noted authors. Although I was an atheist during those years and critically scrutinized astrology, I had an open-mind when I first approached this esoteric science. In my opinion, having that unbiased opinion at the very beginning actually served as my biggest source of strength.

It was not until October 2013, that I had a breakthrough and met my teacher, Ernst Wilhelm. I first contacted Ernst to also get a reading. Since he was very heavily booked, he put me in his queue. Meanwhile, I read an article on his website which encouraged people to be their own astrologer. Without even having any second thoughts, I signed up for his courses, as Ernst’s philosophies about astrology struck a chord with my own. Ernst is one of the best teachers I have come across, and his teachings were very easy to grasp. As a result, it solidified my foundation and as of today, I have completed all his courses. During my studies under Ernst, I realized that I have a very good combination to be an astrologer and astrology will be a very big player in my life. Currently, I am also independently pursuing my studies and research in this vast field.

My vision for astrology is to arrive at an ayanamsa that works best with all the known techniques from different cultures. Besides this, I would like to research more on the nodes, past-life, re-incarnation, and nakshatras.

With respect to readings, I don’t believe in quantity, but would like to give importance to the quality of work. My current focus is predominantly on researching new techniques of prediction and testing already documented techniques to qualify and quantify this great esoteric knowledge. Since all this takes place adjacent to my professional research career, there is very little time to do many readings. However, during a relaxed weekend, I am able to handle 1-2 charts at best. Due to my busy professional work schedules, I am only available for online consultation. You will receive your reading as a mp3 file or document, and all correspondence will be via email.