When the Great Emperor Nala lost his Kingdom and wandering in the forests with his wife Damayanthi, due to cruel disposition of the planets in his horoscope, both the King and Queen had to beg and pray for food and cloth.
Even the Great King had to share half of the sarry worn by the Queen.
That is the way the planets play their game into our life.
When King Vikrama was in some one else's palace,The Saturn who was after the Great and truthful King Vikrama,entered the body of a swan in a life-less picture hanged to a wall, and swallowed a pearl necklace, only to bring bad name as thief to the King Vikrama.
There is a proverb : When the person looses strength,even the ground hits him.
That is why Shakespeare [King Lear ]says like this : "As theflies to the wanton boys , are we to the Gods?; They kill us for their sport;" Yet there is positive side in the game play of the planets.
They will not kill us, unless destined.
They make us to fight back.
After all life is full of fight; Full of activity.
When the planets make us to loose everything, due to cruel disposition, they give us something preciousin return, so that we sustain the fight and ultimately come back victorious;Getting , not only what we did lost,butalso additional glory and honour for being truthful and not deserting our duties and Dharma.
Accordingly, when the Kings named above , with one more addition ofBheema ofPandavas, have been driven to the state of beggars, The Mars came to the rescue.
The Kings are Mars people.
King Nala and Bheemasena of Pandavas were gifted with the art of cooking.
The art of cooking is synonym with these two Great Warrior Kings.
Both of them survived with this gift of art of cooking in their time of distress.
As quoted in my article ,Blame it on Mars,Mantreshwara praises Mars as residing in kitchen fire.
Unless the Mars bestows his grace, the food cooked will not get taste.
Provocation of taste buds is by Mars.
The fire in the kitchen is also due to Mars.
Firstly Mars represents fire.
Secondly the fuel we use consist ofcharcoal or fire-wood comes from Earth, who is mother of Mars.
There is a ritual under which little part of the rice foodprepared in a charcoal or firewood stove,is taken by hand and putin the fire for the fire-god.
Then only the food is offered to the other gods and later consumed.
TheGas stove also consumes gas which is taken from the womb of the Earth, from where the Mars is supposed to have come from.
Oven and Electrical stoves consume electricity,may need a different interpretation, since they do not come under directEarth fuel.
The food prepared in Gas or Oven, is not tasty also.
That is apart, the Kitchen fire representing Mars, gives us the power to sustain the life.
When Mars is in good position in a person's horoscope, that person is inclined to prepare the tasty food, even though he may be a good soldieror a Mars man brandishing muscles in other aspects.
The food prepared by such person gets a special taste.
Orwhen the kitchen is positioned in consonance with the Mars position, then also that place is blessed.
That is why some eating places, restaurants, hotels earn money bygettingname in their tasty foods.
Whenever there is in-digestion, the state of in-digestion it is called "Agni Mandya", meaning slowing down of the fire in our stomach.
Due to the ill-ness, the process ofburning the food called Oxidation gets affected.
In this process , the food we eat will not get digested, by the digestive organs in our body.
This disease is due to Mars effect.
Mars is bilious (Pitta) in nature.
Whenever the PH factor is affected, by the action and reaction of the Hydrochloric acid in our stomach, The Pittaalso varies.
When this pittais increased, a person looses balance of mind also.
Recently it isfound by researchers that the digestion of food is affected during winter, when the atmospheric temperature is down.
Digestion and water borne diseases increase during this period.
Thre are two good oldVritas called Chaturmasya and Dhanurmasa, which prescribe strict diet of easily digestible food and prohibit all the hard food.
Mars is there starting from preparation of food to till it is digested and energy to our body provided.
While describing a house, one will say like this : Drawing Room, Hall , Kitchen, Bed room , Toilet etc.
, Drawing Room is the place , where the morning Sun enters first.
Hall is the place which gives majestic appearance to a house.
Kitchen is the place where the life and energy of the family members is being created and sustained .
Look! There is a pattern.
In Astrology, Sun is the signficator of First House.
Jupiter and Mercury are the joint significators for the Second House.
Mars is the significator or Karaka of Third house for energy and prowess, which incidentally is Kitchen .
Energy in the body is obtained by a process of oxidation of cells.
A cell is divided intotwo.
Twobecomes four.
Likewise the process continues.
In this process heat is generated and this heat keeps the body warm, while providing energy to the body.
Agni,the fire god represents Mars, just as Yama and Varunarepresent Saturn.
The enormous and unlimited story of Agni is the story of Mars also.
That may require lot of space for such description and uses,which is not the scope of this article.
Agni is soul of Mars.
Agniin the form ofTejas also represents Sun.
A good wife is the one who provides good food to the family and good bed to her husband, thereby she dominates the family and controls her husband by gaining respect and command in the home.
Both these are controlled by Mars.
When Mars is in good position in horoscope, one can expectharmony in family life.
Things are disastrous, ifMars is ill-posited.
Food is prepared through Agni, the fire God represents Mars.
A good sex is represented by Venus- Mars combination in a horoscope.
Mars also brings argument,competition and conflict on the negative side.
When these factors enter kitchen, the ladies frequently quarrel.
That is why kitchen is often called the battleground of a family.
No two ladies agree just like clocks.
A lady representing Venus wishes, she tobe assertive and being possessive in the house hold.
The nature of Venus is that she enjoys the longing for possession, rather being possessed.
When the other lady also asserts in the same way conflict arises.
Look ! There is a pattern.
When pattern is there , there is a way to find out a remedy.
"This is elementary! Mr.
Watson", said Sherlock Holmes.
This appies to the malady of breakdown of Joint FamilyHome or the Matrimonial Home.
Astrology can be helpful, if only the problems are understood, by proper analysis.
The Counselors and Psycho-analysts can take advantage of Astrology, just like the Aurvedatakes the help of Astrology.