With a heavy heart, I am writing the following. I have resisted this for many years but now that the cat is out of the bag, I want to bring out some facts. My apologies in advance, this is a lengthy Email and the subject matter is quite unpleasant.
Prof Suresh Upadhyay (PSU for short), is one the foremost scholars of Lal Kitab astrology. He retired as a professor of linguistics/ phonetics from a premier institute of India . Pt Vipin Shukla (Lalkitabee) , who is very close to my family, has always spoken extremely highly of PSU's devotion to Lal Kitab. Let me state here that Pt Shukla is not easily impressed by anyone; so this is a great testimonial to Prof Upadhyay's ability. Of all the people that I know, however, only three people have met PSU in person – Pt Shukla and others being PSU's former students; one of them is a member of various Lal Kitab forums. Other than that, none of the Lal Kitab devotees that I know of has ever seen him as he refuses/avoids to meet anyone from any of the forums. So we have to depend on Pt Shukla's testimonial. There is no question in my mind about PSU's deep study of Lal Kitab. He works tirelessly and provides remedial measures free of cost. Some of these are Lal Kitab based, others are mostly folk remedies collected from here and there and many are questionable and controversial. Yet all these are being dispensed by him under the name of, Lal Kitab (as if these were solely Lal Kitab remedies.) To his credit, he is quite diligent about this service. That is one aspect of his personality – a knowledgeable and compassionate person who perhaps spends his entire day being on the net, juggling between various roles concerning forum-related activities.
However, there is another aspect of PSU's personality, a very sad one, a painful subject to talk about but it has to be brought out to set the record straight. Right from the start of Lal Kitab Yahoo groups, he has always operated with multiple user-ids; has always acted as "good-guy" via some user-ids and as "bad-guy" via others; has always employed stealth and surreptitious methods with the ultimate goal of gaining an upper hand over everyone else when it comes to any Lal Kitab discussion, thus boosting his ego. Prof Suresh Upadhyay is none other than Pt Madam Bhushan Priya (a self assumed name in which he, very surprisingly, introduced himself as a woman, a "mother" and a novice trying to learn Lal Kitab.) Within a couple of months, Prof Upadhyay disappeared from the then-forum and this "new" woman became a Lal Kitab "expert" so much so that s/he started his/her own Lal Kitab group on Yahoo. With this came the "master stroke" – he also started a Lal Kitab "Discussion Group" where he became the great Gurujee with numerous (imaginary) disciples studying Lal Kitab under his tutelage. These "disciples" were all fake user-ids manufactured by PSU as needed – the number of such fake chelas is unknown.
In his forum, he has always been very careful to censor any dissenting opinion and delete Emails that question his tactics. In the process, many have been banned who were writing things that were inconvenient to PSU. Yet he unabashedly accepted mails from a few misguided and immature individuals who were openly taking pot shots at some others. Even Lal Kitab1941 (Gutka) transliterated by Sh Yograj was not spared. On the one hand PSU lauded the attempt and on the other hand, he let the same malicious people splash mud at the wonderful book and the people associated with it. Topics that were/are being discussed in AstroStudents forum were (and are) regularly hijacked to the great Gurujee's forum; even irrelevant non-topics from some pea-brained individuals were published as long as they splashed mud at some particular individuals, yours truly included. PSU really stooped low! At times PSU acted extremely abrasive, while at others he acted as a naive person with the express intent of be-fooling others. He has used circular logic, ignored the basic point of an inconvenient discussion and has never for once, conceded that he ever made a mistake. One example: Steel ring as a remedial measure suggested in Mercury 12 - through his illogical logic he has always maintained that the ring has to be open-ended and that is what he prescribes because once he has "pronounced" that, he won't rectify his mistake. This is despite the fact that I tried to correct him numerous times on this particular topic, sharing with one and all what Pt Rup Chand jee had to say about this remedial measure. He would have none of it – he firmly believes that he knows more than the originator of the system! Many of us have known about PSU's strange behavior for a long time but never said a word about it. As a moderator at another Lal Kitab group, I used to receive emails about this "fake id" business quite regularly but out of respect and decency towards a senior person and a former educator, I decided to reject/delete/ edit such mails. It does not matter, if that is how he gets his kicks - let it be. But repeatedly, he has crossed the limit of what is tolerable. On all possible occasions, he has, through his various fake ids, tried to blow the trumpet of Pt Krishan Ashant's blatant lies about Pt Rup Chand jee and as recently as a few weeks ago, he called Pt Jee a mere "scribe." I state very emphatically that this is crude, mean, low-class and vulgar – these are the politest words I can use. (When I say 'he' I mean one of his user-ids, his creation, his make-believe world.) Not only that, he even gloated in the recent past that there is no material ever written by Pt Rup Chand jee post-1952 that is in his son's (Pt Som Dutt jee's) or anyone else's possession and that if there is any such Lal Kitab related material, it must be "brought to Aligarh" "for authentication." Come on Prof Upadhyay, get real and get off your imaginary high horse. Your "virtual disciples" and the vaporous "Aligarh Group" will decide the authenticity of Lal Kitab? Get a life! Many seniors have laughed at this suggestion while others have pitied the so-called Aligarh Group's "intellect."
Although a scholar, PSU has been displaying a severe psychological aberration. He wants to be known and recognized as the high priest of Lal Kitab and lives in a fantasy world where he visualizes himself sitting at a high pedestal with numerous of his disciples standing around with bowed heads and folded hands, awaiting the words of wisdom - "The Oracle has spake." Why did he have to "change" his persona into a woman, Pt Bhushan Priya, who by "her" own admission, (also) taught at IIT, and had the same credentials as Prof Upadhyay, "She" went to a conference at IIT, Kharagpur as advertised in "her" "Discussion Group" (Little known to "her" that we have a copy of the names of invited guests and those who attended – "Priya" was NOT one of them, Prof Upadhyay was.) A liar always gets caught in his/her own web. As Priya, "she" also said, while writing to a woman, "... as a mother myself I know your feelings..." Why all this deceit and that too in the name of Lal Kitab? Don't you have any qualms about it?
To express his opinion and to spread the word, Prof Upadhyay would have earned a lot more respect had he started his own Lal Kitab blog. He didn't have to have a "spokesperson" in "Varun Trivedi" who, it seems, had nothing to do all day long except to wait for the great Gurujee to issue a farmaan or issue clarification or explanation – this chela knew everything! (Even now this "maanas chela" is explaining and writing and fielding questions even though the cat is out of the bag; thanks to Sh Ratan jee.)
I know that I am not setting a good example for our new members and I know numerous seniors will be pained to read this. But I can't tolerate Prof Upadhyay continually and knowingly spreading lies and misinformation about Lal Kitab and Pt Rup Chand Jee. I have expressed to him in the past internet discussions and will do so again, that his methodology of dispensing Lal Kitab Remedies Forum is also patently WRONG. He never ever verifies the correctness of a horoscope - his remedial measures are as if they came from a ready reckoner that he has compiled. Per Mr. Finn Wandahl, a scholar of Vedic astrology from Denmark (and fortunately a good friend) "A horoscope is always incorrect unless verified." [You have seen Emails from him from time to time. He was trained under some of the greatest astrologers of India including Prof B V Raman and he has spent numerous years studying Nadi and Bhrigu methods of astrology; currently Lal Kitab is his big passion. He is a one of Europe 's premier professional astrologers. ] Mr. Wandahl
is among the few who live by the golden rule of Lal Kitab - 'VERIFY BEFORE YOU SPECIFY'.) Many of us, if we can't verify the correctness/ validity of a horoscope, refuse to go any further with it. We can't act like quacks who must inject something into a patient whether they are able to diagnose the problem or not. Prof Upadhyay has chosen to ignore this ethical responsibility. The prescriber of a (possibly wrong) remedial measure is committing a sin.
In the end, I do pray to Almighty to put Prof Upadhyay on the right path. He is a learned person and should desist from such unbecoming activities. It really pains me to write such a long Email criticizing him but the truth has to be told and has to triumph.
My apologies for such ramblings.
Rajinder Bhatia
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