If you are like me, a non resident Indian, living in the West, you would have had several situations where you were asked about your country of origin and its great ancient culture and like a proud peacock ( the Indian national bird) you would have waxed eloquent about all these things, reeling out information about all its major cities, it’s movie extravaganzas, its lavish weddings made popular by movies like Bride and Prejudice, the Taj Mahal the one and only wonder that Indian’s can boast of, and other knick-knacks like the bindi, why we wear it? What is it with all those colors?
But deep down you know and they know (from Hollywood’s badly made stereotypical movies like the Slum Dog Millionaire and other such) that really it is all a dog and pony show with little substance or reality with present day India and Indians.
Recently it has become rather obvious that, we Indians have become a race of people, very cocky and superficial, with only superficial knowledge of what was once a great culture ( at least what we were lead to believe from all our books and mythologies ). As a people, we are trying to live and thrive and pretend greatness based on this past glory. We for the last several generations have never taken a single step to make our ancient culture into something that is living, so that its great cultural traditions and glory are reflected in our day to day living. Rather in reality we are carrying around a cultural dead body, hoping someone outside will presume it to be a shining crown and not look too deeply inside and figure out the truth.
Therefore, It is with great shame and embarrassment that I talk and write about what I believe makes and shapes our present day Indian psyche, thinking and behavioral patterns. I include myself in all of these criticisms below, because no matter what I have to say in this article, I know and acknowledge that I have the same blood running in my veins and come from the same stock of people and gene pool. But that doesn’t mean we/I cannot see things clearly for what they are and start the process of deep and thorough cleansing for a better India and a better, more fulfilled and complete Indian that we can all feel proud of.
This above statement is a promise being made in all sincerity and is meant to be both in word and in deed because we Indians are known to be great talkers with nothing to show for it in deed, because it is far too easy for us to discuss any subject without bothering to make any changes whatsoever in the way we live.
As a result of the above cleansing process, we as Indians should get to a point where we are a living breathing example of a proud and varied ancient culture I believe this understanding and incorporation of culture into our way of life is that which will lead our country and its people on to the path of true greatness .For in the vast repositories of our ancient mythology, folklore, and traditions lies hidden something so profound that it has the ability to help every other nation in the world to improve the well being of its people.
But first, I believe we should understand what is it we are cleansing? This can only be understood by actually tearing apart the thin veil of proprietary and image we Indians have developed and carry around with us all the time. The veil of being an ultra modern country and people that are on the brink of greatness because of growing IT strengths and novae riches, the veil of having a very liberal view of the world where everything is good, as long as we look at both sides of any issue, and don’t agree or disagree on anything of value. A veil that says that as long as we dress in ultra modern outfits and prance around like we are more Americanized than the average American we have arrived. As long as we don’t know or understand the values of the American life we are copying is based on ( honesty, integrity, hard work, creativity, banking on individual strength and courage) , we are just wearing a veil and pretending to be something we are not.
This is what I think needs to be thoroughly cleansed.
I would like to start of with a classification of modern day Indian stereotypes that we tend to run into in our daily lives, at work, on the street, in parties. As we read thru this classification I am hoping that we will emerge with a common thread of what constitutes the psyche of the LOST INDIAN that I am talking about and what we need to do to eradicate this ‘Lost ness” that we see so rampant among us. Here are a few, I am sure you will recognize.
The corporate ladder climber:
This person has used all of his English speaking abilities, no doubt brought about by his convent education to pretend that he knows everything there is to know about Technology. We have scores of these people that are quickly trying to impress their bosses to climb the ladder of success. Ask them about anything else and they are dumbfounded. Is there anything else other than becoming, “the chez” and showing off?
This person will be the first to brag about or make sure you know in a roundabout fashion where he/she is in his/her career and quickly proceed to give you advice on what you need to do to get further. He has absolutely no idea or interest in anything else, cultural or otherwise. He will start showing some interest in other activities as soon as his kids come of age and need to be exposed to their own people. Then the person will use whatever clout he/she has built up until that time to push their kids into our faces in all public and social activities.
The “All about my kids” mom:
This Indian mother never tires from talking about her kids. She will bring them into every conversation to make sure you know how successful her kid is at school and what a fantastic person she is becoming. Watch out for some venom if you happen to talk about another kid in her presence. She will make sure you know that her kid is the best. This person does not care for anyone or anything other than making sure she has given her utmost to her kids at the detriment of everything and everyone else.
The gadget guy/gal
This is the group of younger more “cool” crowd. This is a group that thinks having the latest gadgets in your hands is what makes you cool. What no IPod? Don’t even come near me, you aught to check out the latest stuff that Apple is dishing out? Have you seen their latest iPad I just got it for someone as a” present” This is the conversation you will hear from them. If you don’t have these things or not up to the mark on these gadgets you are definitely behind the times and not at all cool! There is no need to know anything else or do anything that benefits anyone else. Just make sure you get the latest gadget and you know you have arrived. Oh don’t forget to show it around whenever you get a chance at a party. No sense in having a gadget that someone has not seen or admired. Again this Indian is too involved in looking cool, there is no time do anything of substance for anyone else.
The talker:
This person will be able to talk about any topic under the sun. He knows a little about everything and nothing in detail. He will want to make sure he has a rapt, captive audience that is listening to his every word. This person tends to be self centered and wants to let you know that he has succeeded and needs you to corroborate that. It is seldom that these talkers are actually doers, but you will find a few that are just as good as their words and may end up doing something good for others after all.
The cat on the wall:
This person is always on the fringes and never makes a commitment or a definite statement on anything. He doesn’t really have an opinion it is the opinion of the strongest and loudest person in the group. He is also very self-centered and only interested in taking care of himself while appearing to be very concerned. He will not lift a finger or give a penny for charity. He doesn’t have a thought in his head about anyone else except how to please his neighbors by not saying anything controversial.
The snake in the grass:
These are the kinds who are for ever comparing themselves to everyone else, and while praising them upfront are trying desperately to find a way to bring these people down or move up themselves. They will not do anything for anyone unless it directly benefits them in someway.
The spiritualist:
This person or persons pretend to know all about spirituality. They will show up at every spiritual discussion, very serious about learning more jargon that they can use on unsuspecting people and impress them. Their lives are mostly self motivated with hardly a spiritual bent in anything they do.
The perpetual reader:
This person is always up to speed on all the latest books and news. But he is not ready to bring that knowledge to bear into working towards helping anyone else. It is theoretical knowledge that only useful to the one person who gets it.
The money maker:
This person uses any and all means to become rich. He will not hesitate to do anything shady to get deals. But will spend an inordinate amount of time in prayer and spirituality probably to overcome something akin to guilt for not paying attention to anything else.
The preacher:
Will preach to anyone who will listen on what is the right thing to do. He will quote all spiritual texts to ensure he has a captive audience. Only a few of these kinds of people will actually practice what they preach.
The Street Smart Indian
This is the Indian that has learnt to use the “street smart policy” in his everyday life.
Now this street smart policy or worldly wisdom is a very recent phenomenon. What it means is the Indian need to be the most “Chaalu” at every instance of his life. I will explain this fantastic word in a second for it describes to perfection what this Indian would do. He will talk sweetly with everyone around. Find the most perfect, cost effective, most useful (only for himself) thing to do, and will do it, even if it is not the RIGHT thing to do. And that is being “Chaalu”. This is a Gujarati word (Gujarat is a state in India and the language spoke there is called Gujarati), which means doing things a certain way to get by and make the most of everything around you including using people, and trampling them if it suits you. The height of this activity is achieved when the people really can’t figure out if you trampled them or someone else trampled them for you. You remain the sweet talking Indian. So the more street smarter or Chaalu you are, the better for and you will go far.
We can continue to come up with several other stereotypes of Indians but the idea is to realize that across all these people there is one common thread. I call this the one missing element. This missing element is the utter lack of public interest. By this I mean, their interest in anything only extends to the individual in question and their immediate family. The Interest that the individual does have is a very materialistic interest that he/she uses to make the most of everything available to him to improve only the lot of himself and his family for this life and beyond (that is why you can see this individual at religious ceremonies and sometimes in spiritual discussions). But under no circumstances will this interest extend to anyone else.
So for a person that is struck with this malady, there is NO INTEREST whatsoever in doing anything that does not directly benefit the individual or his immediate family. So Community and Civic duties are a far cry. There is no public outcry on anything outrageous that happens in the society around since it does not directly affect the individual or his immediate family. This utter apathy for anything outside of his self interest is the missing element or the malady that has stricken the Indian anywhere whether the person lives in India or abroad.
I would have to call this above malady stricken Indian, the Lost Indian and you will not be able to miss him in all of the stereotypes described above and anywhere else in present day India and abroad. It is so rampant even God, Religion and Culture and anything remotely different from day to day mundane activities are all molded into a format that would feed this malady in the individual described above.
Today when you visit India for a vacation, you can see a mass of Individuals stricken by this malady running thru the rat race of our time, feeding and caring only for himself and his family and this individual. He/she does not have the time or the energy to look beyond himself and his malady described above to see the horror of the world around them.
If you look at India today, it is one of the dirtiest counties in the world. Literally every where we look at whether it is a village, a town or a city bustling with activity and people we see trash everywhere we look, no garden or park or roadside is immune from this. We cannot walk on the streets least we step on human and animal waste that abounds everywhere there is a wall or a road. So we live in this shit but try to pretend it is one of the greatest countries in the world.
An Lost Indian, when confronted with this, would immediately direct your attention to the high tech industry that is growing by leaps and bounds, high tech cities, lots of modern cars, great looking individual bungalows. Look at all this he would say, see how successful we are becoming. We have the most gold and money in the world. Look how intelligent we are, how many PhD’s and Engineers we produce every year.
We blame all ugliness on the Municipality and of course the panacea for all evils, our ever increasing population. We complain that the country has not kept up with this unprecedented growth. There is no infrastructure so what can we as individuals do?
So the individual must do what he must do, just shift his focus to himself and his family and try to forget the shit around him literally.
Yes definitely our Municipality is so out and out corrupt that we cannot even expect them to the do the basic things like pick up the trash we throw out on the streets even once a week, let alone hope for trash pickup on a daily basis. Our population is huge , well so is China and so are other small countries in the world with the same or sometimes higher population densities, but nowhere, I mean NOWHERE in the world do we see shit on the road. Isn’t that something to be ashamed of? The Lost Indian does not have time even to discuss this. It takes away the time from his other very necessary chores to join the rat race and make money for himself and his family.
Of course we can talk about the corruption having made its way to all rungs of the ladder from the peon to the top. We all know that. We have known it for 50 years. We the people don’t think we have any responsibility expect we will complain about it. That is the Indian psyche. Don’t do anything about it, we can’t do anything. The system is bad, we don’t have an infrastructure. The Government needs to do something, but no we only need to complain or protect ourselves by being “Chaalu”.
This corruption that we speak above is not just corruption in terms of money but the corruption of our minds. The movies are a prime example of this. For example the Telugu movies that the Tollywood industry spews out every second talk about one thing. “Love”
Boy meets girl, boy falls in love instantly and they break out into stupid, lewd dance sequences. We all seem to be ok with it. This is huge money making business and no one is about to listen to you, even if you are quite aware of the impact of these things on young and old minds alike There is not even a thought thrown in to figure out what we can each do to improve our country and life of our people, all our people not just our individual families.
So coming to the point, where is the discriminating mind in this Lost Indian.
A mind, that realizes that the life of human being cannot be all about materialistic satisfaction of an individual and his immediate family. It is about the Individual’s other responsibilities. For example, his social responsibility for one, What about the responsibility of building a society that looks beyond itself for the preservation of all that is beautiful in our living world? Where is the Indian that is conscious about this? I have not seen one Indian that has taken any of these responsibilities beyond talking about it in a social gathering or writing a paper or it.
By the way, writing a paper is one of the symptoms of the above Lost Indian malady.
This writing a paper symptom is probably a remnant of British Colonization. We Indian’s can write a paper on anything. We learn this from childhood. All it takes is find a few good books and plagiarize as many ideas as you can from them, and call them your own, after all you took the trouble of writing it.
Please note if India has produced so many PhD’s. It is not because we are a country of creative geniuses. It is because we as a country have learnt the easiest and best way to produce PhD’s. Please note again, the student doesn’t have to solve an important problem that will help society in anyway. He doesn’t even have to do most of the creative things himself. All he has to do is find a problem (no matter how obscure it is) and figure out where he can get information about it. He can score any number of libraries and now the internet to find papers that are similar and add or delete from them to get this obscure problem solved. At the end of the day, it does not solve any pressing problem in society anyway it is just another paper that another aspiring PhD can use for his own thesis at a later time.
So we will only be scarcely able to show a PhD in India that has done genuine research in any area where creativity and some thinking is required and involved. Most of the time, the thesis would be rehash of someone else’s thinking and a pretence that it was a product of a genius mind. I am generalizing here but it is not at all difficult to see that the majority of PhD’s could fall into this category.
Again this is not a criticism on PhDs, nor any other person who is genuinely trying to do something in the most appropriate manner. It is a criticism of a system that produced the Lost Indian. An Indian movie that was released recently tried to address the problem our failing educational system that produces these lost Indians.. It was called the 3 idiots,
Why can’t we as individuals, look at all the options available to one in one’s situation and fix things where they are not up to the mark? Thus maintaining a sense of one’s identity and culture in one’s personality? After all we have so much to fall back on. We come from a country that is known for its ancient culture that was once called the Crown Jewel that had produced stalwarts in all walks of life over the millennia. Where are those people anymore? What we have in their place is this “Lost Indian”
I think in the rat race of getting somewhere and in the mode of slavishly aping the west, we have forgotten what it means to be a true Indian and have become a lost Indian.
Let us go back and figure out what is it that is so beautiful and lasting in our Indian way of life that allowed the culture to exist for more than 5000 years. What is it we lost over the last century or actually last few centuries since we were colonized by the British. They, the British, taught us to hate or look demeaningly at our own heritage and culture and which got so imbibed in our psyche that we now don’t need anyone to tell us to demean our culture anymore. We can do it freely and on our own accord. We sneer at old traditions, we don’t remember anything about our scriptures, if someone talks about them we call him an old foggy, we only talk about the Vedas with absolutely no clue about what they are. We quote the Upanishads and the Bhagavat Gita as if we are experts at it when we have not imbibed a single ounce of knowledge into our daily lives. We think if we have access to all Electronic gadgets and know how to use them, we have become great, when the true inventors of these things are never us, we only know how to use them, and are clueless about what makes them run. But we have to have them to show how cool we are.
We read about murders, killings and rape in our country and just think it is a statistic that someone will worry about. We don’t have time for that. We don’t care that corruption is rampant in India we are willing to do our part in helping the corruption grow. After all we did not create this situation we are only learning to live with it.
We believe that as Indians we are entitled to an image of a very culturally advanced civilization that is 5000 years old. We talk about the Ramayana and Mahabharata,(our answer to the Iliad and Odyssey from the ancient Greek civilization) we know all the names of the characters in the Ramayana and Mahabharata and the more you know about them and can talk about them , the holier than thou we become .
Where is the substance of these great books in our day to day life? For example, Rama in the Ramayana was this exemplary character that lived a life of “Maryada” or righteousness. Everything he said and did was based on a moral code of right and wrong, and no matter what the temptation, he stuck with the path of always doing the right thing. Try that on an Indian and he will tell you, that there is no such thing as a right and wrong, just a lot of grey and everything has some right in it and some wrong in it. This is the bane of an Indian’s view point. Don’t ever say something is wrong (when deep down you know it is really wrong) least someone finds you doing it and is living such a life. We Indians get shallower by the minute because we always talk about things that should be done right but the very first step we take is a compromise or something we know will be the path of least resistance, since we cannot ruffle feathers. That would be utter foolishness and must never be done.
And there goes our attempt to try and emulate some of the greatest people that we know once existed in India. We will build temples and talk hours on end about what Rama did or what Hanuman did or what Vibhishana did. We can have a healthy debate on whether they were always right or sometimes wrong, but we forget that the essential nature of these people was to find the path of truth and stick with it. Show me an Indian that lives by this code of conduct? No that is too impractical and not at all a street smart thing to do.
So we continue living, this way, the way of the lost Indian, lost to everything except to himself and his immediate family
When will we wake up and realize that life is passing us by, and we are not only loosing time for ourselves but are also making our next generation wallow in the same cesspool we find ourselves in?
All I can say is “Come on, wake up and find your way back”. Look for what is right not just for you but for the human race. Mold your life towards achieving that goal. Look for examples from the past and try to emulate that in your day to day life. And you will see that over time, you will no longer be Lost but would have found a path for yourself and for humanity.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Horoscope Analysis : Lord Rama
Recently , I came upon the following website where Lord Rama’s horoscope was provided,
http://www.planetarypositions.com/site-map.html and it intrigued me enough to see if I could use whatever astrological skills I have and my knowledge of “Ramayanam” to try and authenticate it. This may turn out to be a fascinating exercise since, all of us know about the main events in Rama’s life, and to have a chart that is claimed to be the chart of Lord Rama is in itself something almost akin to a miracle ( albeit, no one knows how accurate it is, since no one knows if Ramayanam is just a story or or a part of ithaasam or History since it is supposed to have happened centuries and centuries ago , that is if it really happened at all.
Chart Details :
Lagna : Cancer
Moon and Jupiter are in the Lagna ( Moon is in its own house and Jupiter is exalted)
Saturn is in the 4th in Libra , it is exalted
Rahu is in 6th in Sagittarius
Mars is in Capricon, it is exalted
Venus is in Pisces and is exalted
The chart in the website shows Sun is in the 10th house in Aries ( Exalted) and Mercury in Tauras in the 11th house.
Ketu is in Gemini in the 12th house
Please note that there is a lot of conjecture and assumptions in the Analysis since we really don’t have some important factors like the exact time of birth or the degree of each planet. But given what we have, a chart that is supposed to be Lord Rama’s chart with some background information already available to us in terms of some facts like when Rama Navami is celebrated every year, and the milestones in Rama’s life via the Ramayanam, here is a attempt to reconcile this with a Vedic Astrological interpretation.
As I proceeded with my analysis, to my surprise, I could almost conclude that the chart was probably quite accurate ( except that I would have to agree with one of the comments posted on that website that probably Mercury should have been with the Sun in the 10th house causing a Buddha Aditya Yoga). I will try and explain this anamoly later as we get deeper into the analysis.
So, using the general principles of Astrology (Parashari) and basic knowledge of Ramayanam , (with reasonable knowledge of the milestones in Rama’s life) and some common sense thrown in to make sure the arguments are acceptable even to myself J , here is my attempt at this rather daunting task. Again please note the one caveat above. ( Possible Buddha Aditya Yoga or placement of Mercury in the 10th house along with the Sun ) submitted as a modification to the chart provided in the website
We all know that Rama was born in Punarvasu Nakshatram (Chaitra Suddha Navami), meaning, he was born in the month of Chaitra in the constellation of Punarvasu on the Tithi if Navami. This means, the Sun must have been in Aries, and the Moon must have been in Cancer, based on our Parasari system of Horoscope casting.
This fact helps authenticate the placement of the Sun and the Moon in the given chart. ( Sun is shown to be in Aries and Moon is in Cancer, which is also supposed to be the Lagna or the first house). Moving on to Jupiter’s placement. The chart shows his Jupiter to be exalted in Cancer in the Lagna or first house. Having Jupiter in the first house normally means that the start of life is very good, and being born in Punarvasu means the native also starts his life in Jupiter dasa ( Using Vimshottari dasa system). So having Jupiter in the first house also seems to be acceptable and accurate, since Rama’s childhood was supposed to have been idyllic with a doting father and 3 doting mothers. ( Moon being with exalted Jupiter may indicate abundance of mothers). So so far this ties well with the given horoscope.
The Chart shows that his Lagna is in Cancer. This would have to mean the following ( the basis for this is normal understanding of the motion of the Sun in the sky). In Chaitra maasam or the month of Chaitra ( late March/ early Apr), the Sun would have risen in Aries, ( assuming Sun rise was around 5.30 to 6am) adding two hours for the movement of the lagna from one sign to the next, it would mean that he lord Rama was born around 11.30am ?? to have his Lagna in Cancer ?? This is debatable, (and I am not even sure how this piece of information is useful for the following analysis), but in the interest of taking all available information into consideration, I looked at it anyway…..:)
For lack of better information on the Moon’s exact position at the time of birth (this is used in Vimshottari Dasa calculations), I would venture to make a guess, so this again is a guess and will result in some discrepancy in timing of various events. But we have to start somewhere………Since the last pada of punarvasu falls in Cancer ( per our Nakashatra pada system) and that is the onlt pada of punarvasu in Cancer, we will assume that Rama was born in Punarvasu Nakshatram, 4th padam and in the very early degrees of the forth padam. This would mean that, he would have started his life in Jupiter dasa and would experience most of the 16 years of Jupiter dasa. With exalted Jupiter in the first house with the moon ( in its own house Cancer). Would mean he has a beautiful face , has a life bestowed with maximum opportunities and good luck ( Jupiter
looks at the 9th house) atleast the part about good luck could be seen during the Jupiter Maha dasa, though one could debate that the latter part of his life proved quite unlucky and difficult. ( in my personal opinion).
We know from Ramayanam that Viswamitra requested that Rama accompany him to the forest to help him keep his “Yagam” safe from Rakshasa’s, and Dasaratha pleads with him stating that his Son Rama, is very young, not even 16 or something to that effect. So accepting that, at around 16 years of age, while he must have been still in the last phases of Jupiter Dasa, we know that he fought with Tataki etc ( probably during Jupiter Mars and also got married during that time). He won the battle with Tataki because his Mars is exalted and is a warrior planet. He got married in Jupiter/Mars since Jupiter, since the 7th house has the full aspect of Jupiter, and Mars is exalted in that house.
One has to think that right after that he was almost going to be coronated, but he must have entered his Saturn Dasa ( say almost around 16 years of age) and even though Saturn is exalted in 4th, he is being challenged by the exalted Sun looking at its fallen spot) and it being in the 4th house, it could be said that there was a challenge at home with the mother ( 4th house being indicative of house and mother). I would then say that even though Saturn is exalted, it forces him to face some obstacles for the first 14 years of the 19 year Saturn Dasa. This is when he, Rama is banished to the forest by his father and step mother ( father could be the exalted Sun looking at its fallen place). Coming back from the forest, and winning the battle over Ravana could be
seen with Rahu and would have occurred during Saturn Rahu ( Rahu is strong in Sagittarius in the 6th house, a strong 6th indicates defeat of enemies). Rama viyogam or separation from Seetha , during the 14 years was for 1 year during the last year of his 14 year exhile. So this was in the 13th year, could be explained to have happened during Saturn Rahu, and towards the end of Saturn Rahu he defeats Ravana . As soon as he enter Saturn Jupiter ( the last few years of 19 year Saturn Dasa) he is re crowned as the King of Ayodhya, since Saturn is in exaltation with Jupiter also exalted in the 1st house. And with a strong 10th house with exalted Sun, this could have happened either during Saturn Jupiter Mars or Saturn Jupiter Sun or Saturn Jupiter Mercury. My vote would be for Saturn Jupiter Mercury to time this earlier rather than later in the Saturn Jupiter Bhukti.
The Buddha Aditya Yoga in the 10th house ( BTW this is the change to the horoscope provided, and is better suited to explain the events that followed during his 17 year Mercury Dasa. This could explain the Rama Rajya and fantastic reigh over Ayodhya during that time.
But there were other important events that occurred after Rama took over the reigns of Ayodhya and we need to see if that matches as well.
Soon after taking over, Rama had to deal with internal dischord in the form of people talking about Sita, and his ultimate sacrifice of sending her away yet another time to the forest even though he was aware that she was pregnant. The most likely astrological explanation for this could be that he was in his Mercury dasa , Mars Bhukti, when he had to finally separate from Sita again. His internal/mental struggle could be explained with the full aspect of Mars on the 10th house that had his Sun and Dasa lord Mercury ( representing his intellect under siege from the fiery Mars).
Now here is my attempt to analyse why Rama had some issues with Children, and why he could not enjoy his own children’s childhood, and was only back in their life after they reached approximately 12 years of age.
Rama’s 5th house ( on house of children) is flanked by Saturn on one side and Rahu on the other, indicating restrictions and struggle with children.
In the Rasi chart, Jupiter aspects the fifth house, and it being exalted, helps with the fact that he had two children ( and there was no issue about not having children). But nevertheless the native would have some struggle in that area of life because the fifth house is flanked by two malefic planets on either side.
Also this is the house where astrologically the moon is fallen or is at its weakest, if it is placed there. I am venturing to guess that Jupiter’s aspect on this house, activates the degree where moon is fallen, and this should affect things indicated by the moon negatively, ( this would explain why one of the twins was not a girl , for example even though the moon is conjunct Jupiter and Jupiter aspects the 5th house, normally this indicate a female progeny, but that did not happen in the case of Rama.
If the rest of the analysis above is accurate and we assume that even though Mars is exalted in the 7th house, it causes problems with the spouse . I would guess that during Mercury Dasa Mars Bhukti , Sita is pregnant ( Mars rules the 5th house). , but has to leave for the forest either during Mercury Mars Rahu or Mercury Rahu. So approx the last 7 years of Mercury Dasa and the 7 years of Ketu Dasa that followed should have resulted his Kids growing up far away from him, and there is a loss with respect to his missing their childhood. During the last part of Ketu Dasa is when he must have lost his wife ( Sita gets engulfed by the earth, Ketu is looking at the 6th house,and that is 12th from the 7th house of Spouse).The 20 year Venus Dasa that followed should have brought better and happier times for him.
I have noticed that in charts with several exalted planets, some houses that get full aspect of exalted planets don’t do too well since if the aspect is exact and activates the exact degree where another planet is fallen, that particular aspect indicated by the fallen planet would show up during that time. So essentially this could explain the final part of his life with loss of his Sibling Lakshmana, and ultimately his own end in the Sarayu. ( Venus aspects the 3rd house of siblings where Mercury is fallen and Mercury rules the the 3rd house. So most probably during Venus Mercury is when Rama lost Lakshmana and during Venus Ketu is when his own end came. ( Ketu in the 12th indicates Moksham, or end of life). So Venus /Ketu /Saturn is probably when that happened. Saturn is the Maraka planet for this horoscope.
Hopefully the above analysis is taken in a spirit of research and understanding. I am not
too worried about it being absolutely accurate or supported by other astrologers. This was taken up just as an exercise to see if one could do an complete analysis with the available information.
http://www.planetarypositions.com/site-map.html and it intrigued me enough to see if I could use whatever astrological skills I have and my knowledge of “Ramayanam” to try and authenticate it. This may turn out to be a fascinating exercise since, all of us know about the main events in Rama’s life, and to have a chart that is claimed to be the chart of Lord Rama is in itself something almost akin to a miracle ( albeit, no one knows how accurate it is, since no one knows if Ramayanam is just a story or or a part of ithaasam or History since it is supposed to have happened centuries and centuries ago , that is if it really happened at all.
Chart Details :
Lagna : Cancer
Moon and Jupiter are in the Lagna ( Moon is in its own house and Jupiter is exalted)
Saturn is in the 4th in Libra , it is exalted
Rahu is in 6th in Sagittarius
Mars is in Capricon, it is exalted
Venus is in Pisces and is exalted
The chart in the website shows Sun is in the 10th house in Aries ( Exalted) and Mercury in Tauras in the 11th house.
Ketu is in Gemini in the 12th house
Please note that there is a lot of conjecture and assumptions in the Analysis since we really don’t have some important factors like the exact time of birth or the degree of each planet. But given what we have, a chart that is supposed to be Lord Rama’s chart with some background information already available to us in terms of some facts like when Rama Navami is celebrated every year, and the milestones in Rama’s life via the Ramayanam, here is a attempt to reconcile this with a Vedic Astrological interpretation.
As I proceeded with my analysis, to my surprise, I could almost conclude that the chart was probably quite accurate ( except that I would have to agree with one of the comments posted on that website that probably Mercury should have been with the Sun in the 10th house causing a Buddha Aditya Yoga). I will try and explain this anamoly later as we get deeper into the analysis.
So, using the general principles of Astrology (Parashari) and basic knowledge of Ramayanam , (with reasonable knowledge of the milestones in Rama’s life) and some common sense thrown in to make sure the arguments are acceptable even to myself J , here is my attempt at this rather daunting task. Again please note the one caveat above. ( Possible Buddha Aditya Yoga or placement of Mercury in the 10th house along with the Sun ) submitted as a modification to the chart provided in the website
We all know that Rama was born in Punarvasu Nakshatram (Chaitra Suddha Navami), meaning, he was born in the month of Chaitra in the constellation of Punarvasu on the Tithi if Navami. This means, the Sun must have been in Aries, and the Moon must have been in Cancer, based on our Parasari system of Horoscope casting.
This fact helps authenticate the placement of the Sun and the Moon in the given chart. ( Sun is shown to be in Aries and Moon is in Cancer, which is also supposed to be the Lagna or the first house). Moving on to Jupiter’s placement. The chart shows his Jupiter to be exalted in Cancer in the Lagna or first house. Having Jupiter in the first house normally means that the start of life is very good, and being born in Punarvasu means the native also starts his life in Jupiter dasa ( Using Vimshottari dasa system). So having Jupiter in the first house also seems to be acceptable and accurate, since Rama’s childhood was supposed to have been idyllic with a doting father and 3 doting mothers. ( Moon being with exalted Jupiter may indicate abundance of mothers). So so far this ties well with the given horoscope.
The Chart shows that his Lagna is in Cancer. This would have to mean the following ( the basis for this is normal understanding of the motion of the Sun in the sky). In Chaitra maasam or the month of Chaitra ( late March/ early Apr), the Sun would have risen in Aries, ( assuming Sun rise was around 5.30 to 6am) adding two hours for the movement of the lagna from one sign to the next, it would mean that he lord Rama was born around 11.30am ?? to have his Lagna in Cancer ?? This is debatable, (and I am not even sure how this piece of information is useful for the following analysis), but in the interest of taking all available information into consideration, I looked at it anyway…..:)
For lack of better information on the Moon’s exact position at the time of birth (this is used in Vimshottari Dasa calculations), I would venture to make a guess, so this again is a guess and will result in some discrepancy in timing of various events. But we have to start somewhere………Since the last pada of punarvasu falls in Cancer ( per our Nakashatra pada system) and that is the onlt pada of punarvasu in Cancer, we will assume that Rama was born in Punarvasu Nakshatram, 4th padam and in the very early degrees of the forth padam. This would mean that, he would have started his life in Jupiter dasa and would experience most of the 16 years of Jupiter dasa. With exalted Jupiter in the first house with the moon ( in its own house Cancer). Would mean he has a beautiful face , has a life bestowed with maximum opportunities and good luck ( Jupiter
looks at the 9th house) atleast the part about good luck could be seen during the Jupiter Maha dasa, though one could debate that the latter part of his life proved quite unlucky and difficult. ( in my personal opinion).
We know from Ramayanam that Viswamitra requested that Rama accompany him to the forest to help him keep his “Yagam” safe from Rakshasa’s, and Dasaratha pleads with him stating that his Son Rama, is very young, not even 16 or something to that effect. So accepting that, at around 16 years of age, while he must have been still in the last phases of Jupiter Dasa, we know that he fought with Tataki etc ( probably during Jupiter Mars and also got married during that time). He won the battle with Tataki because his Mars is exalted and is a warrior planet. He got married in Jupiter/Mars since Jupiter, since the 7th house has the full aspect of Jupiter, and Mars is exalted in that house.
One has to think that right after that he was almost going to be coronated, but he must have entered his Saturn Dasa ( say almost around 16 years of age) and even though Saturn is exalted in 4th, he is being challenged by the exalted Sun looking at its fallen spot) and it being in the 4th house, it could be said that there was a challenge at home with the mother ( 4th house being indicative of house and mother). I would then say that even though Saturn is exalted, it forces him to face some obstacles for the first 14 years of the 19 year Saturn Dasa. This is when he, Rama is banished to the forest by his father and step mother ( father could be the exalted Sun looking at its fallen place). Coming back from the forest, and winning the battle over Ravana could be
seen with Rahu and would have occurred during Saturn Rahu ( Rahu is strong in Sagittarius in the 6th house, a strong 6th indicates defeat of enemies). Rama viyogam or separation from Seetha , during the 14 years was for 1 year during the last year of his 14 year exhile. So this was in the 13th year, could be explained to have happened during Saturn Rahu, and towards the end of Saturn Rahu he defeats Ravana . As soon as he enter Saturn Jupiter ( the last few years of 19 year Saturn Dasa) he is re crowned as the King of Ayodhya, since Saturn is in exaltation with Jupiter also exalted in the 1st house. And with a strong 10th house with exalted Sun, this could have happened either during Saturn Jupiter Mars or Saturn Jupiter Sun or Saturn Jupiter Mercury. My vote would be for Saturn Jupiter Mercury to time this earlier rather than later in the Saturn Jupiter Bhukti.
The Buddha Aditya Yoga in the 10th house ( BTW this is the change to the horoscope provided, and is better suited to explain the events that followed during his 17 year Mercury Dasa. This could explain the Rama Rajya and fantastic reigh over Ayodhya during that time.
But there were other important events that occurred after Rama took over the reigns of Ayodhya and we need to see if that matches as well.
Soon after taking over, Rama had to deal with internal dischord in the form of people talking about Sita, and his ultimate sacrifice of sending her away yet another time to the forest even though he was aware that she was pregnant. The most likely astrological explanation for this could be that he was in his Mercury dasa , Mars Bhukti, when he had to finally separate from Sita again. His internal/mental struggle could be explained with the full aspect of Mars on the 10th house that had his Sun and Dasa lord Mercury ( representing his intellect under siege from the fiery Mars).
Now here is my attempt to analyse why Rama had some issues with Children, and why he could not enjoy his own children’s childhood, and was only back in their life after they reached approximately 12 years of age.
Rama’s 5th house ( on house of children) is flanked by Saturn on one side and Rahu on the other, indicating restrictions and struggle with children.
In the Rasi chart, Jupiter aspects the fifth house, and it being exalted, helps with the fact that he had two children ( and there was no issue about not having children). But nevertheless the native would have some struggle in that area of life because the fifth house is flanked by two malefic planets on either side.
Also this is the house where astrologically the moon is fallen or is at its weakest, if it is placed there. I am venturing to guess that Jupiter’s aspect on this house, activates the degree where moon is fallen, and this should affect things indicated by the moon negatively, ( this would explain why one of the twins was not a girl , for example even though the moon is conjunct Jupiter and Jupiter aspects the 5th house, normally this indicate a female progeny, but that did not happen in the case of Rama.
If the rest of the analysis above is accurate and we assume that even though Mars is exalted in the 7th house, it causes problems with the spouse . I would guess that during Mercury Dasa Mars Bhukti , Sita is pregnant ( Mars rules the 5th house). , but has to leave for the forest either during Mercury Mars Rahu or Mercury Rahu. So approx the last 7 years of Mercury Dasa and the 7 years of Ketu Dasa that followed should have resulted his Kids growing up far away from him, and there is a loss with respect to his missing their childhood. During the last part of Ketu Dasa is when he must have lost his wife ( Sita gets engulfed by the earth, Ketu is looking at the 6th house,and that is 12th from the 7th house of Spouse).The 20 year Venus Dasa that followed should have brought better and happier times for him.
I have noticed that in charts with several exalted planets, some houses that get full aspect of exalted planets don’t do too well since if the aspect is exact and activates the exact degree where another planet is fallen, that particular aspect indicated by the fallen planet would show up during that time. So essentially this could explain the final part of his life with loss of his Sibling Lakshmana, and ultimately his own end in the Sarayu. ( Venus aspects the 3rd house of siblings where Mercury is fallen and Mercury rules the the 3rd house. So most probably during Venus Mercury is when Rama lost Lakshmana and during Venus Ketu is when his own end came. ( Ketu in the 12th indicates Moksham, or end of life). So Venus /Ketu /Saturn is probably when that happened. Saturn is the Maraka planet for this horoscope.
Hopefully the above analysis is taken in a spirit of research and understanding. I am not
too worried about it being absolutely accurate or supported by other astrologers. This was taken up just as an exercise to see if one could do an complete analysis with the available information.
Friday, October 10, 2008
My Universe Musings
Please note this article is still in a draft form and will continue to undergo changes over time as my own understanding of this subject grows......
A lot of what was put together in this article is really an attempt to piece together varied ideas and facts from various scientific and philosophical books and articles, and evaluating them based on my own understanding of these subjects.
Please note that where ever appropriate, I have indicated quotations from
various authors and my sources for various scientific ideas and facts.
Start of the article............................................................................................... ....
Since the dawn of humanity, man has been fascinated by the sky and beyond. As man’s understanding grew over the ages, numerous theories of the Universe emerged. Some looked towards Religion/God/ mythology for answers while others looked to science for deeper understanding.
This article attempts to find a link between a modern Physicist’s/ Cosmologist’s understanding of the Universe and its origins, with some of our ancient Hindu beliefs and Vedantic understanding of the Universe that can be found in Hindu Religious Texts, Mythology and folklore
I would like to start the discussion from a modern cosmologists viewpoint and then try to piece together some of its similarities with the Vedantic viewpoint, while always trying to verify with current scientific understanding and use that to explore these philosophical view points further.
Before we dive into this subject, It would be prudent to establish the ground rules for the scientific understanding so that we can then proceed with this discussion at a scientific level based on accepted and established facts in physics/cosmology. Anytime I deviate from established fact, I will try to make sure that the reader would become aware of it and take it as a mere statement on my part. It would help if the reader also could subscribe to and agree with the Scientific method of analysis and deduction so that we have a defined basis for this article.
The scientific method of exploration is a process by which in science, a hypothesis is tested with experimental proof, again and again and is only accepted as scientific fact when every experimental result validates the hypothesis. Even one failed experiment is enough to discard the hypothesis. This method of testing of a hypothesis, must pass the scrutiny of numerous others who are either testing the authenticity of current hypothesis itself or using it to test the authenticity of some other hypothesis that may have some bearing on this one.
Essentially, the point is that a scientific method of enquiry is one of the best ways to differentiate fact from fiction or just mere understanding from fact, since this method is designed just for that purpose. As explained above, this method rests on experimentation and proof of repeatability with the expectation of the same results over and over again to continuously refine the theory and make it into an irrefutable “Fact”.
Therefore with this kind of basis, Scientists/Cosmologists have been able to make some startling predictions about the origins of the Universe and have been able to probe deep into its mysteries to provide us a pretty thorough knowledge of the Universe and its beginnings. Their understanding is by no means anywhere near complete. They have merely been able to scratch the surface, but it is enough to get us started on this discussion on what it means as compared to age old philosophical views of the Universe. Before we set the stage for the Philosophical discussion there are a few more scientific facts that I would like to draw your attention to, since they will have a bearing on what we will compare against in Hindu Philosophy and Vedantic understanding of the Universe.
Based on measurements , scientists have been able to come up with a chart of the Temperature readings at various points in the Universe and have used that and the presense of microwave background radiation that is found to pervade all of the Universe, to date the Universe as having begun approximately 13.7 billion years ago with a Big Bang. (This is called the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the Universe). These days the Big Bang theory has emerged as the most accepted scientific theory of the origin of the Universe though there are numerous other Theories of the origin of the Universe, one of which is the Steady state theory that suggests that the Universe has always been there and will always be there. The Big Bang Theory has emerged as the strong contender, with some solid proof to back it up. So we will use this Theory as a basis for our arguments in this article
According to the Big Bang Theory, the Universe began from a singularity ( *) or single point with a Big Bang, and all the countless stars and galaxies emerged from this single point and over time became the unfathomable and Gigantic Universe we all know and love.
(*) The Singularity by itself is something that Scientists like Stephen Hawkins and other stalwarts like him are trying to understand, since it is the single point at which macro scopic scientific theories and equations from Newtonian mechanics* (* physics of large or Macroscopic objects in layman’s terms) , no longer apply, and one needs to start considering the physics of small and microscopic particles called quantum mechanics* (*the science of the microscopic or very tiny particles). The effort is to find the answer to “how everything came out of this single point? “. The point at which everything began , a point before which there was no time, there was no space, there was no “before”. This is a point at which there is no answer to , “where” “how”,” when” , “why” it all began. Before that one could say it is just absolute nothingness from which something as vast and as unfathomable as this Universe came into being.
The above statement is almost an incomprehensible fact that scientists are butting against as they accept the Big Bang theory and as they go backward in time to reconstruct what must have happened 13.7 Billion years ago when according to them it all began with the Big Bang and from a single point or singularity. So it is very interesting that Science as it tries to reconstruct the past comes to a point at which there are either no answers or the answers are starting to get rather smudgy and only lead to more questions for which there are no answers yet.
The answers for this confounding question of how the almost infinite space and time and countless billion of billions stars and galaxies in our Universe were born from a single point, less than the size of a pin head ( a pin head is way too big to describe the singularity) is a question that is being wrestled with by the greatest scientific minds of this century. Arguably they are all using Quantum mechanics ( the physics at the microscopic level) to understand and answer some of the questions that are posed by this enigma.
Quantum mechanics was first introduced to the world of science in 1920s by Schrodinger, and Bohr and other great minds who worked at the microscopic particle level and were trying to explain some of the strange phenomena that they had seen at that level. At that level , Classical physics or the physics we know about regarding large bodies ie :Newtonian mechanics fails. Or in simple terms, Particles do not behave the same way as you would expect them to behave when you compare their behavior with larger objects, whose behavior has been very thoroughly explained since Newton . That is why the subject is called Newtonian Mechanics.
First of all, at this microscopic or quantum level, physicists cannot say whether we were dealing with particles or waves. The particle seems to exhibit both particle and wave properties. A particle cannot be shown to exist with certainty at a point and with a certain speed. The act of measuring it creates a certain uncertainty. The particles seem to exist in sort of a cloud and cannot be pin pointed with certainty.
Because of this wave/particle duality, Schrodinger applied corrections to Newton’s equation and came up with an wave equation that could describe the properties of all matter, and it could be reduced to either a particle or a wave function as needed to describe the characteristics of these particles and generally any matter.
Also that was not the only problem they noticed with Quantum mechanics. So the particle could be a particle or a wave, but also at the particle level, a fundamental observation was that these particles don’t come into existence as we know it unless we actually “measure it” . Or” the act of observation or measurement seems to cause the particle to come into existence”. This is a very difficult point to grasp and can lead to a lot of philosophical questions about reality itself, but let us shelf that for the time being. So, as long as we don’t measure it, a particle only shows “a tendency to exist” in that space, and an atomic event only shows a “tendency to occur” at a particular time till we actually measure it. Sort of like a wave function or cloudiness mentioned above that doesn’t culminate into something till we actually measure it.
Stated another way, The Quantum enigma is that at sub atomic levels one cannot correctly pinpoint both the location and speed of the particle at the same time. The very act of measuring it introduces a certain uncertainty in location or the momentum of the particle.
Numerous studies and experiments have been carried out and it has been proven that at a sub-atomic level, matter does not exist with certainty at a certain place unless you measure it. It merely shows a “tendency to exist” at that place and atomic events do not occur with certainty at certain times and certain places rather they show “a tendency to occur” unless you measure it. ( Capra, 1982, p 80).
In fact there is a famous hypothetical experiment proposed by Schrodinger, who imagined a cat in a box in a quantum world where quantum laws applied . The box was supposed to be booby trapped, meaning if the cat tripped on a certain lever, this action would release cyanide poison and the cat would die. So the hypotheitical experiment showed that if one was to use quantum mechanical principles , then depending on ‘when” we “observed” the cat in the box, the cat would be alive or dead and continue to remain alive or dead with a past history of the cat having not tripped the lever or having tripped the lever. This is a hard experiment to grasp since Schrodinger was trying to apply quantum principles to an object larger than an atom but was trying to really show that at the atomic level “Observation” is the key thing that makes a difference between existence and non existence and between one reality or another and one past history or another. So the essential point that Schrodinger was trying to make was that the very act of “Observation” creates a reality and a past for that reality in the Quantum world. And an observation is what determines existence or non existence of a particle at an atomic level
When this point is taken to a higher level where we are talking about all matter ( since all matter is made up of tiny particles) we start to have questions about what we see around us as “reality”. Since the questions that arise is “Did we cause the reality to occur (with a history behind it) by the act of observation or maybe because we are sentient beings that are capable of observation and understanding did we cause the reality to occur?.
If one agrees that all large objects that we see in reality are made up of small particles, then we now have to question the “reality” itself since it looks like reality comes into existence because of an active act of observation or that reality is essentially an illusion or Maya as has been propounded by Hindu Philosophy for ages.
The next enigma with Quantum mechanics is one of “Non Locality”. Quantum non locality is another paradox that was first described by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen in 1935, which essentially states that measurement on quantum systems which are spatially separated can instantaneously influence one another.
What this means to a lay person is that at the particle level , when one measures something,(that is when this something seems to come into existence after we measure it) and also if this something is part of a system of two particles, this set of two particles( that were born out of one system) seem inseparable and anything done to one influences the other instantaneously, even if we separate the two of them by millions of miles. For example , if we measure the spin of one particle, (that particle comes into existence with a particle spin since we measured it) ,then its twin that is millions of miles away, even though we don’t measure it comes into existence with the opposite spin instantaneously.
That is, there is a principle of holistic interconnectedness operating at the quantum level which contradicts the localistic assumptions of classical, Newtonian physics. Meaning some particle came into existence with certain properties when we measured some other particle from the same system somewhere else.
Quantum non locality does not prove that signals somehow travel faster than the speed of light, and somehow this signal told the other particle to behave that way but rather one has to believe that somehow the phenomena was instantaneously connected regardless of distance.
Basically, It says that even though certain particles are far far apart they tend to influence one another instantaneously.
So at the quantum level, instantaneous actions occur at a distance. Two particles that are part of a single system continue to act in concert with one another no matter how far apart they appear to be separated by space and time, and one came into existence due to our measuring it, the other one came into existence with opposing properties.
Quantum nonlocality as suggested by Bell's theorem is a fact of nature that has now been experimentally verified on many occasions. Alain Aspect's experiments in 1982 at the University of Paris-South proved the existence of quantum nonlocality. These experiments have been refined and repeated many times since.
The implication of this is that, We can no longer consider particles as independently existing entities that can be localized in well-defined regions of space and time. They are interconnected in ways not even conceivable .
Since all large objects are essentially made up these particles then wouldn’t the same thing hold true for them also?
Nature has shown us that our concept of reality, consisting of units that can be considered as separate from each other, is fundamentally wrong and everything is really interconnected and part of a whole.
For this reason, Bell's theorem may be the most profound discovery of science. (Kafatos and Kafatou, 1991, 64-65)
Quantum nonlocality proves that "particles that were once together in an interaction remain in some sense parts of a single system which responds together to further interactions" (Gribbin, 1984).
Since the entire universe originated in a flash of light known as the Big Bang, the existence of quantum nonlocality points toward a profound cosmological holism and suggests that If everything that ever interacted in the Big Bang maintains its connection with everything it interacted with, then every particle in every star and galaxy that we can see "knows" about the existence of every other particle. (Gribbin, 1984).
So we have come to the path of Philosophy that shows the essential interconnectedness of everything that originated at the Big Bang and Singularity and it also tells us that essentially at the smallest level a particle does not come into existence with specific properties until it is measured or observed.
So so far, we have seen that at a particle level, there seems to be a certain interconnectedness with these particles that come from the same system and there seems to be non existence till we observe something as stated earlier.
The above arguments from Science and Physicists are really proving what we always believed in our hindu philosophy regarding the oneness of everyone and everything. All of us emanating from the one universal being, which from a physicists point of view is the singularity or the big bang from which everything came and everything is proven to be one interconnected whole.
The concepts in Quantum Mechanics that tell us that the existence of a particle at a quantum level is dependant on whether it was observed at one point or another raises the baffling question of whether the reality that we see is really only because at some point we observed it and it would not have existed were it not observed. This begs the question of whether our philosophers knew this all along and that is why they called it as “Maya” or illusion?..
As Physicists struggle to answer the questions that were uncovered by their own scientific enquiry into the origins if the Universe ( using an irrefutable scientific method for finding facts), we can look back to Ancient Hindu Philosophers to see how they grappled with some of these questions and other similar ones in the Upanishads. For example we touched on the subject of “Maya” or illusion referred to in Bhagavat Geeta, the Upanishads and folklore, which describe the world as mere illusion and the only truth being that of the soul. We can also go back and explore some of the other interesting concepts regarding the Universe and find parallels in Hindu Philosophy for each of these concepts.
So , If one was to go back and review Hindu Philosophy and Vedantic thinking in our Upanishads, they point to several interesting ideas and thoughts about our Universe. They do not refer to the Universe as being born in a Big Bang from a singularity but do believe it to be egg shaped and lasting forever, but stuck in continuous contracting/expanding cycles of creation and destruction, resulting in several yugas, kalas and manvantaras ( their method of counting time). Please note that a parallel to this is , present day cosmologists also believe that the Universe is ellipsoid in shape and there is a possibility of finding some proof that it will go through countless contraction and expansion cycles. ( this by the way does not contradict anything we said so far regarding the Big Bang theory). For example they believe that the Universe is currently expanding but at some point has to start contracting when it reaches a certain critical mass. Apart from this our Hindu Philospohy talks about ten dimensions of our Universe not unlike the 10 dimension theory that is now being proposed by String theorists ( who are physicists that subscibe to the idea of strings, that will be explained in the following paragraphs. ( Please note that String theory at the present time is only a theory and does not have proof to back it up).
The above paragraph warrants an explaination of String Theory or alteast some basic concepts of String Theory.
(ie: this theory states that everything in this Universe is made out of multi dimensional strings (ie 10 dimensions) and the M-theory, a follow on theory that suggests that there may actually be a 11th dimension.
Just for clarity, so we understand what strings are : scientists have proven that every atom is made up of Electrons and Protons and Neutrons in the nucleus, and each of these subatomic particles are made up of Quarks. So far, all this is fact and proven time and again. Now the String theory states that each quark is really made of multi dimensional strings, ( the dimensions are based on curvature, rotation differences in the String etc). Now the part about sub atomic particles being made of quarks is a proven fact. The part about quarks being made of strings is only a hypothesis, with equations to prove that these must be string like things, but no proof since no one has ever proved the existence of strings. The recent inauguration of the CERN experiment may actually prove the existence of Strings but that is still to be seen. So in the case of String Theory, it is still undergoing the scientific method of proof by experimentation and repeatability, and is not an established fact, but Quarks are an established fact. But, if for the sake of argument one was to accept the String Theory as fact, then one starts to see one more parallels with Hindu Philosophy, the parallel of existence of multiple dimensions.
If at some point when it is proven, we accept String theory then it would mean the presence of all pervading strings everywhere in the Universe that allow us to determine the size, shape, properties of material things. Not unlike something God like that pervades all things big and small, living and non living in the Universe. The concept of an Omni presence of God. So if one was to accept the Big Bang theory and the origin of the Universe from the single point or singularity and the accept the existence of Strings, now we are talking about
A single point being the source of all things that now exist in the Universe including sentient beings such as ourselves. One could also very well say that singularity from which all matter and non matter, time and space and stars and galaxies and our solar system began is the crux of everything. It is the seed that then gave rise to all that we know off in this Universe.
So if that was the case and there was this cosmic seed that gave rise to everything, whatever was in the cosmic seed must therefore be present in everything. Or there is scope for Omni presense of something throughout the Universe, not unlike our understanding of God.
But it helps us now to take a leap of faith and say, even science seems to be saying that we are all born from a cosmic seed that pervades all animate and inanimate objects alike in the Universe. One needs to understand the strings further to figure out why some things are animate ( with consciousness) vs others are inanimate ( without consciousness) but it still seems to be saying, we are all in one and one in all. Meaning Strings are the omnipresent thing in anything and everything in the Universe.
Now the above statement is not too different then the same statement made by Lord Krishna in the Baghavat Gita. “ I am in all and all are in me, I am omnipresent, omniscient and all pervading”. So can we assume that in using the scientific method to find out the origins of the universe one inadvertantly stumbled onto an omnipresent, omniscient and all pervading thing or things that makeup the whole universe that is essentially interconnected, and we also have proof to show that the whole thing could be a Maya or illusion.
So if one was to make a sweeping generalization…………..
Can we say we are starting to realize the one thing we all want to realize, the existence of God in one glorious scientific proof ? Not exactly but we are getting very very close.
A lot of what was put together in this article is really an attempt to piece together varied ideas and facts from various scientific and philosophical books and articles, and evaluating them based on my own understanding of these subjects.
Please note that where ever appropriate, I have indicated quotations from
various authors and my sources for various scientific ideas and facts.
Start of the article............................................................................................... ....
Since the dawn of humanity, man has been fascinated by the sky and beyond. As man’s understanding grew over the ages, numerous theories of the Universe emerged. Some looked towards Religion/God/ mythology for answers while others looked to science for deeper understanding.
This article attempts to find a link between a modern Physicist’s/ Cosmologist’s understanding of the Universe and its origins, with some of our ancient Hindu beliefs and Vedantic understanding of the Universe that can be found in Hindu Religious Texts, Mythology and folklore
I would like to start the discussion from a modern cosmologists viewpoint and then try to piece together some of its similarities with the Vedantic viewpoint, while always trying to verify with current scientific understanding and use that to explore these philosophical view points further.
Before we dive into this subject, It would be prudent to establish the ground rules for the scientific understanding so that we can then proceed with this discussion at a scientific level based on accepted and established facts in physics/cosmology. Anytime I deviate from established fact, I will try to make sure that the reader would become aware of it and take it as a mere statement on my part. It would help if the reader also could subscribe to and agree with the Scientific method of analysis and deduction so that we have a defined basis for this article.
The scientific method of exploration is a process by which in science, a hypothesis is tested with experimental proof, again and again and is only accepted as scientific fact when every experimental result validates the hypothesis. Even one failed experiment is enough to discard the hypothesis. This method of testing of a hypothesis, must pass the scrutiny of numerous others who are either testing the authenticity of current hypothesis itself or using it to test the authenticity of some other hypothesis that may have some bearing on this one.
Essentially, the point is that a scientific method of enquiry is one of the best ways to differentiate fact from fiction or just mere understanding from fact, since this method is designed just for that purpose. As explained above, this method rests on experimentation and proof of repeatability with the expectation of the same results over and over again to continuously refine the theory and make it into an irrefutable “Fact”.
Therefore with this kind of basis, Scientists/Cosmologists have been able to make some startling predictions about the origins of the Universe and have been able to probe deep into its mysteries to provide us a pretty thorough knowledge of the Universe and its beginnings. Their understanding is by no means anywhere near complete. They have merely been able to scratch the surface, but it is enough to get us started on this discussion on what it means as compared to age old philosophical views of the Universe. Before we set the stage for the Philosophical discussion there are a few more scientific facts that I would like to draw your attention to, since they will have a bearing on what we will compare against in Hindu Philosophy and Vedantic understanding of the Universe.
Based on measurements , scientists have been able to come up with a chart of the Temperature readings at various points in the Universe and have used that and the presense of microwave background radiation that is found to pervade all of the Universe, to date the Universe as having begun approximately 13.7 billion years ago with a Big Bang. (This is called the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the Universe). These days the Big Bang theory has emerged as the most accepted scientific theory of the origin of the Universe though there are numerous other Theories of the origin of the Universe, one of which is the Steady state theory that suggests that the Universe has always been there and will always be there. The Big Bang Theory has emerged as the strong contender, with some solid proof to back it up. So we will use this Theory as a basis for our arguments in this article
According to the Big Bang Theory, the Universe began from a singularity ( *) or single point with a Big Bang, and all the countless stars and galaxies emerged from this single point and over time became the unfathomable and Gigantic Universe we all know and love.
(*) The Singularity by itself is something that Scientists like Stephen Hawkins and other stalwarts like him are trying to understand, since it is the single point at which macro scopic scientific theories and equations from Newtonian mechanics* (* physics of large or Macroscopic objects in layman’s terms) , no longer apply, and one needs to start considering the physics of small and microscopic particles called quantum mechanics* (*the science of the microscopic or very tiny particles). The effort is to find the answer to “how everything came out of this single point? “. The point at which everything began , a point before which there was no time, there was no space, there was no “before”. This is a point at which there is no answer to , “where” “how”,” when” , “why” it all began. Before that one could say it is just absolute nothingness from which something as vast and as unfathomable as this Universe came into being.
The above statement is almost an incomprehensible fact that scientists are butting against as they accept the Big Bang theory and as they go backward in time to reconstruct what must have happened 13.7 Billion years ago when according to them it all began with the Big Bang and from a single point or singularity. So it is very interesting that Science as it tries to reconstruct the past comes to a point at which there are either no answers or the answers are starting to get rather smudgy and only lead to more questions for which there are no answers yet.
The answers for this confounding question of how the almost infinite space and time and countless billion of billions stars and galaxies in our Universe were born from a single point, less than the size of a pin head ( a pin head is way too big to describe the singularity) is a question that is being wrestled with by the greatest scientific minds of this century. Arguably they are all using Quantum mechanics ( the physics at the microscopic level) to understand and answer some of the questions that are posed by this enigma.
Quantum mechanics was first introduced to the world of science in 1920s by Schrodinger, and Bohr and other great minds who worked at the microscopic particle level and were trying to explain some of the strange phenomena that they had seen at that level. At that level , Classical physics or the physics we know about regarding large bodies ie :Newtonian mechanics fails. Or in simple terms, Particles do not behave the same way as you would expect them to behave when you compare their behavior with larger objects, whose behavior has been very thoroughly explained since Newton . That is why the subject is called Newtonian Mechanics.
First of all, at this microscopic or quantum level, physicists cannot say whether we were dealing with particles or waves. The particle seems to exhibit both particle and wave properties. A particle cannot be shown to exist with certainty at a point and with a certain speed. The act of measuring it creates a certain uncertainty. The particles seem to exist in sort of a cloud and cannot be pin pointed with certainty.
Because of this wave/particle duality, Schrodinger applied corrections to Newton’s equation and came up with an wave equation that could describe the properties of all matter, and it could be reduced to either a particle or a wave function as needed to describe the characteristics of these particles and generally any matter.
Also that was not the only problem they noticed with Quantum mechanics. So the particle could be a particle or a wave, but also at the particle level, a fundamental observation was that these particles don’t come into existence as we know it unless we actually “measure it” . Or” the act of observation or measurement seems to cause the particle to come into existence”. This is a very difficult point to grasp and can lead to a lot of philosophical questions about reality itself, but let us shelf that for the time being. So, as long as we don’t measure it, a particle only shows “a tendency to exist” in that space, and an atomic event only shows a “tendency to occur” at a particular time till we actually measure it. Sort of like a wave function or cloudiness mentioned above that doesn’t culminate into something till we actually measure it.
Stated another way, The Quantum enigma is that at sub atomic levels one cannot correctly pinpoint both the location and speed of the particle at the same time. The very act of measuring it introduces a certain uncertainty in location or the momentum of the particle.
Numerous studies and experiments have been carried out and it has been proven that at a sub-atomic level, matter does not exist with certainty at a certain place unless you measure it. It merely shows a “tendency to exist” at that place and atomic events do not occur with certainty at certain times and certain places rather they show “a tendency to occur” unless you measure it. ( Capra, 1982, p 80).
In fact there is a famous hypothetical experiment proposed by Schrodinger, who imagined a cat in a box in a quantum world where quantum laws applied . The box was supposed to be booby trapped, meaning if the cat tripped on a certain lever, this action would release cyanide poison and the cat would die. So the hypotheitical experiment showed that if one was to use quantum mechanical principles , then depending on ‘when” we “observed” the cat in the box, the cat would be alive or dead and continue to remain alive or dead with a past history of the cat having not tripped the lever or having tripped the lever. This is a hard experiment to grasp since Schrodinger was trying to apply quantum principles to an object larger than an atom but was trying to really show that at the atomic level “Observation” is the key thing that makes a difference between existence and non existence and between one reality or another and one past history or another. So the essential point that Schrodinger was trying to make was that the very act of “Observation” creates a reality and a past for that reality in the Quantum world. And an observation is what determines existence or non existence of a particle at an atomic level
When this point is taken to a higher level where we are talking about all matter ( since all matter is made up of tiny particles) we start to have questions about what we see around us as “reality”. Since the questions that arise is “Did we cause the reality to occur (with a history behind it) by the act of observation or maybe because we are sentient beings that are capable of observation and understanding did we cause the reality to occur?.
If one agrees that all large objects that we see in reality are made up of small particles, then we now have to question the “reality” itself since it looks like reality comes into existence because of an active act of observation or that reality is essentially an illusion or Maya as has been propounded by Hindu Philosophy for ages.
The next enigma with Quantum mechanics is one of “Non Locality”. Quantum non locality is another paradox that was first described by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen in 1935, which essentially states that measurement on quantum systems which are spatially separated can instantaneously influence one another.
What this means to a lay person is that at the particle level , when one measures something,(that is when this something seems to come into existence after we measure it) and also if this something is part of a system of two particles, this set of two particles( that were born out of one system) seem inseparable and anything done to one influences the other instantaneously, even if we separate the two of them by millions of miles. For example , if we measure the spin of one particle, (that particle comes into existence with a particle spin since we measured it) ,then its twin that is millions of miles away, even though we don’t measure it comes into existence with the opposite spin instantaneously.
That is, there is a principle of holistic interconnectedness operating at the quantum level which contradicts the localistic assumptions of classical, Newtonian physics. Meaning some particle came into existence with certain properties when we measured some other particle from the same system somewhere else.
Quantum non locality does not prove that signals somehow travel faster than the speed of light, and somehow this signal told the other particle to behave that way but rather one has to believe that somehow the phenomena was instantaneously connected regardless of distance.
Basically, It says that even though certain particles are far far apart they tend to influence one another instantaneously.
So at the quantum level, instantaneous actions occur at a distance. Two particles that are part of a single system continue to act in concert with one another no matter how far apart they appear to be separated by space and time, and one came into existence due to our measuring it, the other one came into existence with opposing properties.
Quantum nonlocality as suggested by Bell's theorem is a fact of nature that has now been experimentally verified on many occasions. Alain Aspect's experiments in 1982 at the University of Paris-South proved the existence of quantum nonlocality. These experiments have been refined and repeated many times since.
The implication of this is that, We can no longer consider particles as independently existing entities that can be localized in well-defined regions of space and time. They are interconnected in ways not even conceivable .
Since all large objects are essentially made up these particles then wouldn’t the same thing hold true for them also?
Nature has shown us that our concept of reality, consisting of units that can be considered as separate from each other, is fundamentally wrong and everything is really interconnected and part of a whole.
For this reason, Bell's theorem may be the most profound discovery of science. (Kafatos and Kafatou, 1991, 64-65)
Quantum nonlocality proves that "particles that were once together in an interaction remain in some sense parts of a single system which responds together to further interactions" (Gribbin, 1984).
Since the entire universe originated in a flash of light known as the Big Bang, the existence of quantum nonlocality points toward a profound cosmological holism and suggests that If everything that ever interacted in the Big Bang maintains its connection with everything it interacted with, then every particle in every star and galaxy that we can see "knows" about the existence of every other particle. (Gribbin, 1984).
So we have come to the path of Philosophy that shows the essential interconnectedness of everything that originated at the Big Bang and Singularity and it also tells us that essentially at the smallest level a particle does not come into existence with specific properties until it is measured or observed.
So so far, we have seen that at a particle level, there seems to be a certain interconnectedness with these particles that come from the same system and there seems to be non existence till we observe something as stated earlier.
The above arguments from Science and Physicists are really proving what we always believed in our hindu philosophy regarding the oneness of everyone and everything. All of us emanating from the one universal being, which from a physicists point of view is the singularity or the big bang from which everything came and everything is proven to be one interconnected whole.
The concepts in Quantum Mechanics that tell us that the existence of a particle at a quantum level is dependant on whether it was observed at one point or another raises the baffling question of whether the reality that we see is really only because at some point we observed it and it would not have existed were it not observed. This begs the question of whether our philosophers knew this all along and that is why they called it as “Maya” or illusion?..
As Physicists struggle to answer the questions that were uncovered by their own scientific enquiry into the origins if the Universe ( using an irrefutable scientific method for finding facts), we can look back to Ancient Hindu Philosophers to see how they grappled with some of these questions and other similar ones in the Upanishads. For example we touched on the subject of “Maya” or illusion referred to in Bhagavat Geeta, the Upanishads and folklore, which describe the world as mere illusion and the only truth being that of the soul. We can also go back and explore some of the other interesting concepts regarding the Universe and find parallels in Hindu Philosophy for each of these concepts.
So , If one was to go back and review Hindu Philosophy and Vedantic thinking in our Upanishads, they point to several interesting ideas and thoughts about our Universe. They do not refer to the Universe as being born in a Big Bang from a singularity but do believe it to be egg shaped and lasting forever, but stuck in continuous contracting/expanding cycles of creation and destruction, resulting in several yugas, kalas and manvantaras ( their method of counting time). Please note that a parallel to this is , present day cosmologists also believe that the Universe is ellipsoid in shape and there is a possibility of finding some proof that it will go through countless contraction and expansion cycles. ( this by the way does not contradict anything we said so far regarding the Big Bang theory). For example they believe that the Universe is currently expanding but at some point has to start contracting when it reaches a certain critical mass. Apart from this our Hindu Philospohy talks about ten dimensions of our Universe not unlike the 10 dimension theory that is now being proposed by String theorists ( who are physicists that subscibe to the idea of strings, that will be explained in the following paragraphs. ( Please note that String theory at the present time is only a theory and does not have proof to back it up).
The above paragraph warrants an explaination of String Theory or alteast some basic concepts of String Theory.
(ie: this theory states that everything in this Universe is made out of multi dimensional strings (ie 10 dimensions) and the M-theory, a follow on theory that suggests that there may actually be a 11th dimension.
Just for clarity, so we understand what strings are : scientists have proven that every atom is made up of Electrons and Protons and Neutrons in the nucleus, and each of these subatomic particles are made up of Quarks. So far, all this is fact and proven time and again. Now the String theory states that each quark is really made of multi dimensional strings, ( the dimensions are based on curvature, rotation differences in the String etc). Now the part about sub atomic particles being made of quarks is a proven fact. The part about quarks being made of strings is only a hypothesis, with equations to prove that these must be string like things, but no proof since no one has ever proved the existence of strings. The recent inauguration of the CERN experiment may actually prove the existence of Strings but that is still to be seen. So in the case of String Theory, it is still undergoing the scientific method of proof by experimentation and repeatability, and is not an established fact, but Quarks are an established fact. But, if for the sake of argument one was to accept the String Theory as fact, then one starts to see one more parallels with Hindu Philosophy, the parallel of existence of multiple dimensions.
If at some point when it is proven, we accept String theory then it would mean the presence of all pervading strings everywhere in the Universe that allow us to determine the size, shape, properties of material things. Not unlike something God like that pervades all things big and small, living and non living in the Universe. The concept of an Omni presence of God. So if one was to accept the Big Bang theory and the origin of the Universe from the single point or singularity and the accept the existence of Strings, now we are talking about
A single point being the source of all things that now exist in the Universe including sentient beings such as ourselves. One could also very well say that singularity from which all matter and non matter, time and space and stars and galaxies and our solar system began is the crux of everything. It is the seed that then gave rise to all that we know off in this Universe.
So if that was the case and there was this cosmic seed that gave rise to everything, whatever was in the cosmic seed must therefore be present in everything. Or there is scope for Omni presense of something throughout the Universe, not unlike our understanding of God.
But it helps us now to take a leap of faith and say, even science seems to be saying that we are all born from a cosmic seed that pervades all animate and inanimate objects alike in the Universe. One needs to understand the strings further to figure out why some things are animate ( with consciousness) vs others are inanimate ( without consciousness) but it still seems to be saying, we are all in one and one in all. Meaning Strings are the omnipresent thing in anything and everything in the Universe.
Now the above statement is not too different then the same statement made by Lord Krishna in the Baghavat Gita. “ I am in all and all are in me, I am omnipresent, omniscient and all pervading”. So can we assume that in using the scientific method to find out the origins of the universe one inadvertantly stumbled onto an omnipresent, omniscient and all pervading thing or things that makeup the whole universe that is essentially interconnected, and we also have proof to show that the whole thing could be a Maya or illusion.
So if one was to make a sweeping generalization…………..
Can we say we are starting to realize the one thing we all want to realize, the existence of God in one glorious scientific proof ? Not exactly but we are getting very very close.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Soundarya Lahiri : A Kaleidoscope of colors
Soundarya Lahiri : A kaleidoscope of colors
In this article, we present The exquisite beauty of Indian Silk Sarees, the traditional drapery for Indian women. The Saree, with its grace, glamour and beauty is very aptly described in Ancient Indian literature in glowing terms for example, in "Silappadhikaram" , the Tamil epic from Sangam Literature and "Kadambari " by Banabhatta.
The word Saree evolved from the Prakrit word Sattika as mentioned in the earliest Buddhist Jain literature.
The history of Indian clothing trace the Saree even further back to the Indus valley civilization, which flourished in 2800- 1800 BC. The earliest known depiction of the Saree in the Indian subcontinent is the statue of an Indus valley priest wearing a drape, sort of like a saree.
The most common style is for the Saree to be wrapped around the waist with a loose end of the drape worn over the shoulder. A saree can be draped in several different styles.
Traditionally Sarees are woven with one plain end that is concealed inside the wrap , two long decorative borders running the length of the saree, and a one to three foot section at the other end that continues and elaborates on the length wise decoration. This end is called the pallu
In the past sarees were woven in either silk or cotton. The rich could afford finely woven silk sarees that according to folklore could be passed through a finger ring. The poor wore coarsely woven cotton saris. All sarees were handwoven and represented considerable investment in time and money.
Some poets like Sri Sri wrote satires on Rich Indian women wearing Sarees that blew beautifully in the breeze while traditional weavers with hardly a cloth on their back, eked out a living from worn out cottages where they spun the wheels of their loom. With the advent of machine made textiles this poetic description has moved very close to present day reality of these weavers.
Silk has always been a highly revered fabric in India and is considered very auspicious and celemonial wear at all religious rituals and weddings. So a silk saree is something an Indian women is proud to possess. It combines the glamour and shine associated with silk and this combined with the traditional styles and decorations from each region of India, results in a kaleidoscope of color, style and galmour
Tonight we let our "Telugu Vanithas" take you through a tour of traditional silk saris from all over India with beautiful narration in Telugu by Smt Ramani Vishnubhotla.
-----------------------------------------------End of Introduction-------------------------------------
India is a land of rich and varied culture and tradition.
The Kaleidoscope of colors, glamour and style that we wish to depict in our presentation of Soundarya Lahiri focuses on the Exquisite colors and textures of Silk Sarees worn by Indian women from all over India. These are worn for all religious and ceremonial occasions.
Kashmir Silk Sarees:
Starting with the Jewel in India’s crown, the Kashmir Valley boosts of the beautiful
Kashmir silk sarees. These are famous for two reasons. First the perfection of hand embroidery work and secondly for the traditional Kashmiri patterns of Embroidery.
These sarees are worn as party wear or for weddings and usually retail at anywhere between $150 and $900 only.
Benaras Silk Sarees:
Benaras is one of the leading silk saree production centers in India. Benaras silk sarees are known for their heavy gold and silver brocade in the sarees. The gold and silver wires are made hair thin by heating the metal and letting it pass through minute holes. These wires of gold and silk are then used with Silk Yarn for weaving.
The tradition of making benarasi sarees is very ancient. Even today one will find thousands of weavers making silk sarees in the sacred city. The training usually begins at a very early age. It is believed that the Benarasi saree gained prominence during the Mughal rule. Persian motifs were fudged with Indian designs on silk to create distinct flowery patterns. Created in eye catching shades and patterns these Sarees usually fall into 4 categories, pure silk ( katan), Organza ( kora) with Zari and silk, georgette and and Shatir. This is weaved on a power loom and it takes three people 15 days to make one benaras silk sari.
Balucheri Sarees :
Silk Weaving of Balucher continues to be an important landmark of Bengal’s handloom tradition.
These Sarees from west Bengal involve a special balucher technique weaving brocades with untwisted silk thread. The pallu of these sarees have pattern that resemble miniature paintings. The intricately carved terracotta temples of Bishnupur provide ample inspiration to the weavers to reproduce whole epics on the pallu of the Sari.
The base colors range from sober beige to resplendent hues and reds with contrast borders on fine mulberry silk.,
Tussar Silk Sarees:
Tussar silks from Bihar are valued for its purity and texture. Available in natural shades of gold, dark, honey, tawny, beige, cream, Tussar sarees are considered very auspicious. Tussar silk is obtained from a special variety of cocoons raised from Arjun and Sal trees.
The sarees come in many colors and are decorated with a variety of natural motifs.
Orissa Silk sarees:
Orissa Sarees have a close relation with the Jagannath culture. Originally , the four basic colors which are found in Jagannath, black, White, red and yellow were extensively used in Oriya Sarees. Even motifs such as a temple border, lotus, conch and wheel signify affinity with the reigning deity.
Chanderi Sarees of Madhya Pradesh:
In the heart of India beyond the forests and Valleys are the famous weavers of the town of Chanderi in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh. Once Chanderi cottons were comparable to Dacca Muslin. When the British introduced mill made fabrics to compete with Indian Handlooms, the weavers of Chanderi created the present form of Chanderi saris. They used Silk wrap with fine cotton without compromising on the intricate gold borders and the jewel like buttis. The weave continued to remain as delicate and exquisite as ever. Color was introduced into Chanderi weaving 50 years ago. Till then these were only white saris which were washed in saffron to get the characteristic golden hue and fragrance. Flowers were also used for dyeing these saris into soft pastel shades. Now the sarees are available in a huge range of colors.
Gadwal Sarees from Andhra Pradesh
Gadwal is one of the centers where typical, traditional Andhra saris are made, that are unusually different. The Sari body is cotton while the richly brocaded borders and pallu are in silk. The cotton and silk fabrics are woven separately and then attached together. Rich traditional and elaborate designs adorn the pallu and the border. The mango motif is usually used in the designs. Yellow, parrot- green, pink and beige are the colours used most often.
Venkatagiri Sarees from Andhra Pradesh:
Venkatagiri saris are woven with locally made jalas and are among the best examples of the jacquard weave with graceful strains of gold all over.. The Weaving is with fine threads and the body of the Saree is in sheer cotton ornamented with gold motifs, dots, coins, leaves, parrots,or simple geometric designs. The borders usually have pure silver zari and brocade designs and the sarees are available in pleasant colors.
Pocchampalli Sarees from Andhrapradesh
The Pochampalli textiles are made using the tie and dye technique of yarn. Different coloured yarns are woven into geometrical designs. Dress materials, sarees and home-furnishings are also made in these designs. Pochampalli sarees and dress materials are available in both cotton and silk.
Kanchi Pattu Sarees:
Kanchipuram is a famous weaving center in Tamil nadu. The Salgars ( the weavers, named after Salika , Sanskrit word for weaver) claim descent from Sage Markhanda, who is said to be the weaver of gods. The tradition of Kanchipuram sarees arose from the temple traditions of the Kamakshi temple where the women folk wore only silk saris for festivals and weddings.
Two weavers work on 3 shuttles to make the saree. The Pallu is done separately and the saree is almost always woven with contrast borders.These sarees are regarded as one of the finest Silk Sarees there is. Heavy silk background is dotted with embroidery made of real gold and silver to give it a very rich look. Some of the sarees worn at weddings have real gold woven all over the entire saree. Typical modtifs used for the Saree are the sun, moon, chariots, swans, peacocks, parrots mangoes etc.
These Sarees are usually made in brilliant colors like red, saffron, orange, emerald green maroon, peackock blue with contrasting borders and have been passed down from mother to daughter for generations. Maintenance of kanjivarams or Kanchi Pattus require careful folding and wrapping after use. Machine wash is not recommended. If maintained properly, kanjeevarams can last a hundred years
Last but not the least………………..
Ahimsa Silk: Silk Saree without killing a single silkworm
We have seen many protests worldwide against the use of leather products. However, surprisingly, there hasn’t been much resistance against the use of silk garments, especially considering the fact that thousands of silkworms are killed in order to make a small piece of fabric. Kusuma Rajaiah, of Hyderabad, has come up with an initiative to produce silk without killing silk worms. Not many of us may know this, but the silk Industry produces silk by dropping the cocoons of the silk worm in boiling water when they are ten days old before they metamorphose into moths. This is preferred since if they waited for the cocoon to open naturally the continuity of the fibre is lost. But for one man this has been a crusade. He purchases cocoons from mulberry farms in Chittoor district and rears them in large baskets. He lets the moths emerge out of the pierced cocoon after 10 days and the pierced cocoons are spun into yarn. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi he calls the silk Ahimsa. This silk may lack the luster of regular silk but is wrinkle free and has a better fall according to him.
.
In this article, we present The exquisite beauty of Indian Silk Sarees, the traditional drapery for Indian women. The Saree, with its grace, glamour and beauty is very aptly described in Ancient Indian literature in glowing terms for example, in "Silappadhikaram" , the Tamil epic from Sangam Literature and "Kadambari " by Banabhatta.
The word Saree evolved from the Prakrit word Sattika as mentioned in the earliest Buddhist Jain literature.
The history of Indian clothing trace the Saree even further back to the Indus valley civilization, which flourished in 2800- 1800 BC. The earliest known depiction of the Saree in the Indian subcontinent is the statue of an Indus valley priest wearing a drape, sort of like a saree.
The most common style is for the Saree to be wrapped around the waist with a loose end of the drape worn over the shoulder. A saree can be draped in several different styles.
Traditionally Sarees are woven with one plain end that is concealed inside the wrap , two long decorative borders running the length of the saree, and a one to three foot section at the other end that continues and elaborates on the length wise decoration. This end is called the pallu
In the past sarees were woven in either silk or cotton. The rich could afford finely woven silk sarees that according to folklore could be passed through a finger ring. The poor wore coarsely woven cotton saris. All sarees were handwoven and represented considerable investment in time and money.
Some poets like Sri Sri wrote satires on Rich Indian women wearing Sarees that blew beautifully in the breeze while traditional weavers with hardly a cloth on their back, eked out a living from worn out cottages where they spun the wheels of their loom. With the advent of machine made textiles this poetic description has moved very close to present day reality of these weavers.
Silk has always been a highly revered fabric in India and is considered very auspicious and celemonial wear at all religious rituals and weddings. So a silk saree is something an Indian women is proud to possess. It combines the glamour and shine associated with silk and this combined with the traditional styles and decorations from each region of India, results in a kaleidoscope of color, style and galmour
Tonight we let our "Telugu Vanithas" take you through a tour of traditional silk saris from all over India with beautiful narration in Telugu by Smt Ramani Vishnubhotla.
-----------------------------------------------End of Introduction-------------------------------------
India is a land of rich and varied culture and tradition.
The Kaleidoscope of colors, glamour and style that we wish to depict in our presentation of Soundarya Lahiri focuses on the Exquisite colors and textures of Silk Sarees worn by Indian women from all over India. These are worn for all religious and ceremonial occasions.
Kashmir Silk Sarees:
Starting with the Jewel in India’s crown, the Kashmir Valley boosts of the beautiful
Kashmir silk sarees. These are famous for two reasons. First the perfection of hand embroidery work and secondly for the traditional Kashmiri patterns of Embroidery.
These sarees are worn as party wear or for weddings and usually retail at anywhere between $150 and $900 only.
Benaras Silk Sarees:
Benaras is one of the leading silk saree production centers in India. Benaras silk sarees are known for their heavy gold and silver brocade in the sarees. The gold and silver wires are made hair thin by heating the metal and letting it pass through minute holes. These wires of gold and silk are then used with Silk Yarn for weaving.
The tradition of making benarasi sarees is very ancient. Even today one will find thousands of weavers making silk sarees in the sacred city. The training usually begins at a very early age. It is believed that the Benarasi saree gained prominence during the Mughal rule. Persian motifs were fudged with Indian designs on silk to create distinct flowery patterns. Created in eye catching shades and patterns these Sarees usually fall into 4 categories, pure silk ( katan), Organza ( kora) with Zari and silk, georgette and and Shatir. This is weaved on a power loom and it takes three people 15 days to make one benaras silk sari.
Balucheri Sarees :
Silk Weaving of Balucher continues to be an important landmark of Bengal’s handloom tradition.
These Sarees from west Bengal involve a special balucher technique weaving brocades with untwisted silk thread. The pallu of these sarees have pattern that resemble miniature paintings. The intricately carved terracotta temples of Bishnupur provide ample inspiration to the weavers to reproduce whole epics on the pallu of the Sari.
The base colors range from sober beige to resplendent hues and reds with contrast borders on fine mulberry silk.,
Tussar Silk Sarees:
Tussar silks from Bihar are valued for its purity and texture. Available in natural shades of gold, dark, honey, tawny, beige, cream, Tussar sarees are considered very auspicious. Tussar silk is obtained from a special variety of cocoons raised from Arjun and Sal trees.
The sarees come in many colors and are decorated with a variety of natural motifs.
Orissa Silk sarees:
Orissa Sarees have a close relation with the Jagannath culture. Originally , the four basic colors which are found in Jagannath, black, White, red and yellow were extensively used in Oriya Sarees. Even motifs such as a temple border, lotus, conch and wheel signify affinity with the reigning deity.
Chanderi Sarees of Madhya Pradesh:
In the heart of India beyond the forests and Valleys are the famous weavers of the town of Chanderi in Guna district of Madhya Pradesh. Once Chanderi cottons were comparable to Dacca Muslin. When the British introduced mill made fabrics to compete with Indian Handlooms, the weavers of Chanderi created the present form of Chanderi saris. They used Silk wrap with fine cotton without compromising on the intricate gold borders and the jewel like buttis. The weave continued to remain as delicate and exquisite as ever. Color was introduced into Chanderi weaving 50 years ago. Till then these were only white saris which were washed in saffron to get the characteristic golden hue and fragrance. Flowers were also used for dyeing these saris into soft pastel shades. Now the sarees are available in a huge range of colors.
Gadwal Sarees from Andhra Pradesh
Gadwal is one of the centers where typical, traditional Andhra saris are made, that are unusually different. The Sari body is cotton while the richly brocaded borders and pallu are in silk. The cotton and silk fabrics are woven separately and then attached together. Rich traditional and elaborate designs adorn the pallu and the border. The mango motif is usually used in the designs. Yellow, parrot- green, pink and beige are the colours used most often.
Venkatagiri Sarees from Andhra Pradesh:
Venkatagiri saris are woven with locally made jalas and are among the best examples of the jacquard weave with graceful strains of gold all over.. The Weaving is with fine threads and the body of the Saree is in sheer cotton ornamented with gold motifs, dots, coins, leaves, parrots,or simple geometric designs. The borders usually have pure silver zari and brocade designs and the sarees are available in pleasant colors.
Pocchampalli Sarees from Andhrapradesh
The Pochampalli textiles are made using the tie and dye technique of yarn. Different coloured yarns are woven into geometrical designs. Dress materials, sarees and home-furnishings are also made in these designs. Pochampalli sarees and dress materials are available in both cotton and silk.
Kanchi Pattu Sarees:
Kanchipuram is a famous weaving center in Tamil nadu. The Salgars ( the weavers, named after Salika , Sanskrit word for weaver) claim descent from Sage Markhanda, who is said to be the weaver of gods. The tradition of Kanchipuram sarees arose from the temple traditions of the Kamakshi temple where the women folk wore only silk saris for festivals and weddings.
Two weavers work on 3 shuttles to make the saree. The Pallu is done separately and the saree is almost always woven with contrast borders.These sarees are regarded as one of the finest Silk Sarees there is. Heavy silk background is dotted with embroidery made of real gold and silver to give it a very rich look. Some of the sarees worn at weddings have real gold woven all over the entire saree. Typical modtifs used for the Saree are the sun, moon, chariots, swans, peacocks, parrots mangoes etc.
These Sarees are usually made in brilliant colors like red, saffron, orange, emerald green maroon, peackock blue with contrasting borders and have been passed down from mother to daughter for generations. Maintenance of kanjivarams or Kanchi Pattus require careful folding and wrapping after use. Machine wash is not recommended. If maintained properly, kanjeevarams can last a hundred years
Last but not the least………………..
Ahimsa Silk: Silk Saree without killing a single silkworm
We have seen many protests worldwide against the use of leather products. However, surprisingly, there hasn’t been much resistance against the use of silk garments, especially considering the fact that thousands of silkworms are killed in order to make a small piece of fabric. Kusuma Rajaiah, of Hyderabad, has come up with an initiative to produce silk without killing silk worms. Not many of us may know this, but the silk Industry produces silk by dropping the cocoons of the silk worm in boiling water when they are ten days old before they metamorphose into moths. This is preferred since if they waited for the cocoon to open naturally the continuity of the fibre is lost. But for one man this has been a crusade. He purchases cocoons from mulberry farms in Chittoor district and rears them in large baskets. He lets the moths emerge out of the pierced cocoon after 10 days and the pierced cocoons are spun into yarn. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi he calls the silk Ahimsa. This silk may lack the luster of regular silk but is wrinkle free and has a better fall according to him.
.
Friday, August 22, 2008
The Story of Ganga
The following is the story of Ganga written as an introduction to a dance drama for the Telugu Cultural Association of Austin. This introduction was accompanied by a slide show before the actual dance drama commenced.
The Story of Ganga : Ganga Avarohanam : Dance drama for the TCA Diwali function in 2007.
Tonight we are proud to present ‘Ganga’ a legendary tale about a mighty river that is considered one of the most sacred rivers by Hindus all over.
Beginning high in the snowy Himalayas, Ganga rises in the Gangotri glacier at Goumukh in the state of Uttaranchal in India. Couched in the magnificent Garhwal hills, Gangotri is at an altitude of 3048 meters above sea level and is very near the Indo-Tibetan border.
Here the river is known as Bhagirathi after King -Bhagirath.
Rising in the icy caves of Gangotri glacier, the gushing , tossing and gurgling Bhagirathi starts its long journey downwards where it joins river 'Alaknanda' and becomes Ganga.It flows 2150Km across a vast plain to the Bay of Bengal. The fertile Ganges plain is one of the most densely populated regions in the world
There are many legends associated with river Ganga and its heavenly origins.
This descent of Ganga from its heavenly abode, is a beautiful educational tale that illustrates the glory of this great river and the greatness of the people who were able to bring it forth and harness its purfying properties for the benefit of mankind.
The honor of performing this formidable task falls upon a descendant of king Sagara , named Bhagiratha.
King Sagara was a mighty monarch of Suryavamsam, and wanted to declare his supremacy by performing the Aswamedha Yagna or Horse Sacrifice. This was an accepted practice of ancient Hindu kings, who, in order to declare themselves emperors, released a horse into neighbouring kingdoms, and proclaimed suzereignity over the lands where the horse wandered freely
As the Aswamedha progressed, Indra the heavenly monarch started to feel threatened and quietly stole the horse and tied it close to the hermitage/ashram of Sage Kapila.
Sagara’s 60,000 sons were sent out in search of the horse and found it in Sage Kapila’s Ashram, When they saw this, they set about freeing the horse and destroying everything in sight.
The Sage, who was performing austerities at that time, was rudely awakened from his meditation. In his anger, he reduced the 60,000 princes to ashes.
King Sagara later begged for forgiveness from the sage, but couldn;t do anything about his loss.He found out that the only way he could provide salvation or liberation for his sons souls was to pray to Brahma and through him persuade Ganga to descend to earth and wash away their impurities, so that their souls may ascend to heaven.
King Sagara and his succeeding generations tried in vain to accomplish this daunting task but failed.
It was only the seventh descendant of Sagara, a just and noble king named Bhagiratha who could manage enough austerities to make Brahma appear before him.
Happy with Bhagiratha's conduct, Brahma asked Bhagiratha to pray to Ganga and request her to flow to the earth from her current abode in heaven. Ganga agreed, but also warned the prince that if she flowed directly to the terrestrial world, the earth, it would be helpless against her overwhelming current, and all life would be washed away in its flood. She asked him to find a suitable holding place for her. The only recourse left to Bhagiratha was to pray to Lord Shiva, whose matted hair held sufficient power to withstand the onslaught of Ganga's forceful fall. Bhagiratha continued his austerities, this time focussed on pleasing lord Shiva, which he eventually did.
‘Ganga’ is visualized in Indian thought as a virtuous, but mischievous and restless maiden, just as many young lasses are. She allowed herself to follow Brahma's dictate to descend to earth, but couldn't playfully resist the unwarranted and undeserved feeling that she could sweep away even the mighty Shiva in her forceful current. Shiva, gauging her thoughts, decided to teach her a lesson. Spreading open his serpentine coils of hair, he covered the entire sky, and collected all the waves of Ganga in his outspread locks.
Then with a mighty swoop, he captured Ganga in the infinite swirls and whirls of his hair. Ganga still flowed with tremendous force, but could not escape, and remained imprisoned and confined inside Shiva's hair.
Bhagiratha, perplexed at the happenings, appealed to Shiva to release Ganga, so that she could wash away the sins of his ancestors, symbolized in their mortal remains. Shiva relented, and in any case Ganga had learnt her lesson. Thus Ganga again followed Bhagiratha, who showed her the way. But there were still more adventures to come.
Just near their ultimate destination lay the hermitage of another accomplished sage, known as Jahnu. Ganga, ever the playful maiden, hurried over to what she perceived was a new and curious place. And lo and behold, barely had she entered upon the precincts of the ashram (hermitage), that it became flooded, and all sacrificial fires were extinguished. The ritual utensils and tools were washed away, and the inhabitants of the sanctuary became frightened and anxious. The leader of the ashram, sage Jahnu, became livid at Ganga's intrusion. He then chanted a mantra, and took a sip of the water flowing all around his hermitage. With the power of his mantra, he swallowed away Ganga with all her waters. All traces of Ganga were gone.
Bhagiratha was in a fix. No sooner had he overcome one hurdle, than another was created, mostly due to the impulsiveness and restlessness of Ganga. He hurried over to Jahnu, and explained to him the magnitude and significance of the task he was out to accomplish. Jahnu gave him a sympathetic hearing and appreciated his hard work in bringing Ganga to the earthly realm. Consoling Bhagiratha, he said: " For you, I will release Ganga immediately," and saying this,he let Ganga flow out of his ear. The waters of Ganga flew out like a fountain. Hence Ganga came to be known as Jahnvi, the daughter of sage Jahnu. She is still known by that name in that part of the world.
Thankfully, the rest of the way was without any further adventures, and Bhagiratha successfully showed Ganga the way to the ashes of his ancestors. As soon as Ganga touched the ashes, the ancestors arose, glowing forth in their astral bodies, and ascended towards heaven. Carrying away their mortal remains, Ganga merged into the ocean, which hitherto had been dry.
From that day onwards, the ocean came to be known as 'Sagara,' in honor of the king who started it all in the first place. The place where Ganga merged in the ocean, came to be known as Ganga-Sagar.
This legend makes amply clear that Ganga's purity and auspiciousness springs in no small measure from her proximity to various important divinities and holy sages. Falling onto Shiva's head, where she meanders through his tangled locks, the mighty Ganga appears in this world after having been made more sacred by her direct contact with Shiva, and also the accomplished ascetic Jahnu. The river then spreads the divine potency of these hallowed personalities into the world, when she flows into the terrestrial realm.
Tonight, we will witness this impressive descent of the mighty river from its heavenly abode to the land of mere mortals in our presentation of “Ganga”.
The Story of Ganga : Ganga Avarohanam : Dance drama for the TCA Diwali function in 2007.
Tonight we are proud to present ‘Ganga’ a legendary tale about a mighty river that is considered one of the most sacred rivers by Hindus all over.
Beginning high in the snowy Himalayas, Ganga rises in the Gangotri glacier at Goumukh in the state of Uttaranchal in India. Couched in the magnificent Garhwal hills, Gangotri is at an altitude of 3048 meters above sea level and is very near the Indo-Tibetan border.
Here the river is known as Bhagirathi after King -Bhagirath.
Rising in the icy caves of Gangotri glacier, the gushing , tossing and gurgling Bhagirathi starts its long journey downwards where it joins river 'Alaknanda' and becomes Ganga.It flows 2150Km across a vast plain to the Bay of Bengal. The fertile Ganges plain is one of the most densely populated regions in the world
There are many legends associated with river Ganga and its heavenly origins.
This descent of Ganga from its heavenly abode, is a beautiful educational tale that illustrates the glory of this great river and the greatness of the people who were able to bring it forth and harness its purfying properties for the benefit of mankind.
The honor of performing this formidable task falls upon a descendant of king Sagara , named Bhagiratha.
King Sagara was a mighty monarch of Suryavamsam, and wanted to declare his supremacy by performing the Aswamedha Yagna or Horse Sacrifice. This was an accepted practice of ancient Hindu kings, who, in order to declare themselves emperors, released a horse into neighbouring kingdoms, and proclaimed suzereignity over the lands where the horse wandered freely
As the Aswamedha progressed, Indra the heavenly monarch started to feel threatened and quietly stole the horse and tied it close to the hermitage/ashram of Sage Kapila.
Sagara’s 60,000 sons were sent out in search of the horse and found it in Sage Kapila’s Ashram, When they saw this, they set about freeing the horse and destroying everything in sight.
The Sage, who was performing austerities at that time, was rudely awakened from his meditation. In his anger, he reduced the 60,000 princes to ashes.
King Sagara later begged for forgiveness from the sage, but couldn;t do anything about his loss.He found out that the only way he could provide salvation or liberation for his sons souls was to pray to Brahma and through him persuade Ganga to descend to earth and wash away their impurities, so that their souls may ascend to heaven.
King Sagara and his succeeding generations tried in vain to accomplish this daunting task but failed.
It was only the seventh descendant of Sagara, a just and noble king named Bhagiratha who could manage enough austerities to make Brahma appear before him.
Happy with Bhagiratha's conduct, Brahma asked Bhagiratha to pray to Ganga and request her to flow to the earth from her current abode in heaven. Ganga agreed, but also warned the prince that if she flowed directly to the terrestrial world, the earth, it would be helpless against her overwhelming current, and all life would be washed away in its flood. She asked him to find a suitable holding place for her. The only recourse left to Bhagiratha was to pray to Lord Shiva, whose matted hair held sufficient power to withstand the onslaught of Ganga's forceful fall. Bhagiratha continued his austerities, this time focussed on pleasing lord Shiva, which he eventually did.
‘Ganga’ is visualized in Indian thought as a virtuous, but mischievous and restless maiden, just as many young lasses are. She allowed herself to follow Brahma's dictate to descend to earth, but couldn't playfully resist the unwarranted and undeserved feeling that she could sweep away even the mighty Shiva in her forceful current. Shiva, gauging her thoughts, decided to teach her a lesson. Spreading open his serpentine coils of hair, he covered the entire sky, and collected all the waves of Ganga in his outspread locks.
Then with a mighty swoop, he captured Ganga in the infinite swirls and whirls of his hair. Ganga still flowed with tremendous force, but could not escape, and remained imprisoned and confined inside Shiva's hair.
Bhagiratha, perplexed at the happenings, appealed to Shiva to release Ganga, so that she could wash away the sins of his ancestors, symbolized in their mortal remains. Shiva relented, and in any case Ganga had learnt her lesson. Thus Ganga again followed Bhagiratha, who showed her the way. But there were still more adventures to come.
Just near their ultimate destination lay the hermitage of another accomplished sage, known as Jahnu. Ganga, ever the playful maiden, hurried over to what she perceived was a new and curious place. And lo and behold, barely had she entered upon the precincts of the ashram (hermitage), that it became flooded, and all sacrificial fires were extinguished. The ritual utensils and tools were washed away, and the inhabitants of the sanctuary became frightened and anxious. The leader of the ashram, sage Jahnu, became livid at Ganga's intrusion. He then chanted a mantra, and took a sip of the water flowing all around his hermitage. With the power of his mantra, he swallowed away Ganga with all her waters. All traces of Ganga were gone.
Bhagiratha was in a fix. No sooner had he overcome one hurdle, than another was created, mostly due to the impulsiveness and restlessness of Ganga. He hurried over to Jahnu, and explained to him the magnitude and significance of the task he was out to accomplish. Jahnu gave him a sympathetic hearing and appreciated his hard work in bringing Ganga to the earthly realm. Consoling Bhagiratha, he said: " For you, I will release Ganga immediately," and saying this,he let Ganga flow out of his ear. The waters of Ganga flew out like a fountain. Hence Ganga came to be known as Jahnvi, the daughter of sage Jahnu. She is still known by that name in that part of the world.
Thankfully, the rest of the way was without any further adventures, and Bhagiratha successfully showed Ganga the way to the ashes of his ancestors. As soon as Ganga touched the ashes, the ancestors arose, glowing forth in their astral bodies, and ascended towards heaven. Carrying away their mortal remains, Ganga merged into the ocean, which hitherto had been dry.
From that day onwards, the ocean came to be known as 'Sagara,' in honor of the king who started it all in the first place. The place where Ganga merged in the ocean, came to be known as Ganga-Sagar.
This legend makes amply clear that Ganga's purity and auspiciousness springs in no small measure from her proximity to various important divinities and holy sages. Falling onto Shiva's head, where she meanders through his tangled locks, the mighty Ganga appears in this world after having been made more sacred by her direct contact with Shiva, and also the accomplished ascetic Jahnu. The river then spreads the divine potency of these hallowed personalities into the world, when she flows into the terrestrial realm.
Tonight, we will witness this impressive descent of the mighty river from its heavenly abode to the land of mere mortals in our presentation of “Ganga”.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Electional Astrology or Muhurta basics
Electional Astrology (Muhurtham)
The branch of Astrology that deals with Electing a suitable time for commencement of any activity is called Electional Astrology. A lot of research has been done on this subject. The following is a very early and perhaps very feeble attempt to put all the factors considered in Electing a Muhurtam in one place for quick reference. Most of this information is taken from B.V.Raman’s book on Muhurta.
Disclaimer: In many cases for simplicity, things have been stated as being good or bad. Please do not take this at face value and please do adequate research before accepting this one way or another.
For commencement of any activity, it is very important to fix a proper Muhurtham (auspicious time, because one finds that certain activities when started at an auspicious time are prone to be more successful than those started at other times). This is a debateable point and this article is not being written to convince anyone of the authenticity or merit of Electional Astrology, but is really meant to be a quick reference for those who are interested in practicing it in a small scale at home.
In fixing the Muhurtham, effect of different planetary positions and stars( or Nakshatras) on the suitability and unsuitability of the time for commencing different activities is studied and the time best suited is elected for commencing an activity. The five main factors that are taken into consideration for fixing the Muhurtham are Thithi (Lunar day), Vaaram(Day of the week), Nakshatram (Constellation), Yoga (Luni-solar day) and Karana(half a lunar day).
Tithi
Each Thithi or Lunar day is in reality equal to 0.9483 of a day.So a Lunar month will be equal to 29.53 days. Usually in a panchanga or calendar, the ending of the Thithi is given, and this means that the moon is away from the Sun in multiples of 12 degrees. So when the Moon is away from the sun by exactly 12 degrees the padyami day ends, similarly by end of Pournami (opposition point), the Moon is away from the sun by 180 degrees, and by Amavasya’s end, the moon is 0 degrees away from the Sun or in Conjunction with the Sun.
In simple terms, A Thithi is a 30th part of a lunar month. Thithis are 15 in number, beginning with the first day after full moon( Pounami) and first day after new moon( Amavasya). This means that we use the same names for Thithis after Pournami ( full moon) and also after Amavasya ( or New moon).The lunar 15-day period is called a "Paksham" or part. So, a lunar month has two pakshams, "Suklapaksham", which is the waxing phase or bright half of the Moon as it goes towards Pournima and "Krishnapaksham", which is the waning phase or the dark half of the Moon going towards Amavasya. The names of the Thithis are given in the table below and a gross judgement has been made on these days being good and bad. This should be investigated thoroughly for acceptance.
LUNAR DAY Good/Bad
1 prathipada/padyami Good
2 vidiya Good
3 thadiya Good
4 chavithi/chathurthi Bad
5 panchami Good
6 shashti Good
7 sapthami Good
8 ashtami Bad
9 navami Good
10 dasami Good
11 kadasi Good
12 dwadasi Bad *
13 thrayodasi Good
14 chathurdasi Bad
15 Pournami/Amavasya Good
*Depending upon other factors, this can be sometimes considered for aupicious activites.
The bad days listed above are not suitable for auspicious activites both during the Shukla paksha and Krishna paksha.
During Shuklapaksha all the days sited as good in the above table can be treated as such. During Krishna paksha, usually padyami, vidiya, tadhiya and panchami are considered as good. This can be understood by thinking about the Moon’s waxing and waning cycles and then one decides how good the rest of the days are based on the brightness of the moon. Keeping in mind that the Moon’s Brightness increases as we reach Pournami and then starts to decrease during the Krishna Paksha. So as an example, a Dhasami during Krishna Paksha is not so good as a Dhasami during Shukla Paksha.
Vaaram
Vaaram denotes the day of the week. A planet rules each day. Rahu and Ketu are not associated with any Vaaram.
VAARAM PLANET GOOD/BAD Color Gemstone
1 Adi (Sunday) Sun Good Red/Maroon Ruby/Garnet
2Soma (Mon) Moon Good Off White Pearl
3Mangal( Tues) Mars Bad Coral (Orange) Coral
4Budha (Wed) Mercury Neutral Green Emerald
5Guru (Thur) Jupiter Good Yellow yellow Sapphire/Topaz
6Sukra (Friday) Venus Good White Diamond
7Sani (Saturday) Saturn Bad Dark Blue Blue Sapphire
Nakshatram
There are twenty-seven stars, all of which have been listed in the previous Article. These are listed here again, for quick easy reference. The order of the Nakshatras is : Aswini, Bharini, Kritika Rohini etc, . Please read the table one column at a time for the correct order.This has been written in this way to be able to show the rulars for each group of Nakshatras
Nakshatra ( and #) Nakshatra (and #) Nakshatra (and #) Rular
Aswini (1) Makha (10) Moola (19) Ketu
Bharani (2) Poorvaphalguni (11) (Pubba)Poorvashada (20)Venus
Krittika (3) Uttaraphalguni (12) Uttarashada (21) Sun
Rohini (4) Hasta (13) Sravanam (22) Moon
Mrigasira (5) Chitta ( chitra) (14) Dhanista (23) Mars
Arudra (6) Swati (15) Shatabisham (24) Rahu
Punarvasu (7) Vishaka (16) Poorvabadra (25) Jupiter
Pushyami (8) Anuradha (17) Uttarabadra (26) Saturn
Aslesha (9) Jyesta (18) Revati (27) Mercury
Note: Between Sravanam (22) and Dhanista (23), there is another Nakshatram that sometimes appears in Calendars. This is called Abhijit and is supposed to be very auspicious. This is generally not counted in any of our calculations.
To determine if the nakshatram at the time of the event is good for you or not, find out what Nakshatram is operating that day. This you will find in an Indian Calendar or with a Panchang.Start counting from your Janma Nakshatram, in multiples of 9, until you reach the particular Nakshatram for that day. Then refer to the table below, labeled Star and their Associations for general indications on the particular Nakshatram on yourself. Remember that the Calendar or Panchang lists the ending time of the Nakshatram and if it is an Indian Calendar, all these times are in Indian Standard Time, so they need to be converted to your local time.
Stars and their Associations:
1 Very Good : Janma Tara. (Soul Mates for compatibility studies in synastry or marriage partners)
2 Good : Dhana Tara. Sampat tara. Wealth.
3 Bad: Vipat Tara. Obstacles
4 Good: Kshema tara, for prosperity, Mother. Real Estate.etc
5 Bad : Enemy or pratyak tara, obstacles
6 Good: Refers to Health, debts etc,also called sadana tara, realisation of ambition.
7 Very bad : Naidana Tara. Dangers
8 Good : Mitra (Friend)
9 Very Good: Parama Mitra. (Best Friend)
Yoga*:
For the purpose of Electional Astrology and Understanding of the Panchanga, A Yoga is supposed to be the period of time during which the joint motion of the Moon and the Sun amounts to 13 degrees and 20 minutes. There are a total of 27 yogas. Again the calendar and Panchanga give the ending time of a yoga. Yogas are supposed to be able to strengthen our bodies , free them of diseases and help us enjoy health and life.
In order to understand the concept of joint motion of the Sun and Moon, a good way to look at it would be to remember that the Moon would take approximately one lunar day to complete moving through the 4 padas of a Nakshatra, which is equivalent to 13 degrees and 20 minutes. The Sun on the other hand moves about 1 degree in a solar day, since it will have to traverse a 30 degree sign in 30 days. So roughly speaking you will have one yoga a day.
This means that if the sum of the longitude of the sun and the moon is 281 degrees, we are in Siddha yoga ( add 13 degrees and 20 minutes for each yoga from Vishkambha to get 280 degrees).
*Please note that there are other Yogas in Astrology which should not be confused with this description of Yoga. The above description only pertains to Electional Astrology( Muhurtam) and Panchanga.
The following is the list of yogas
#Name of Yoga # Name of Yoga
1 Vishkambha (bad or inauspicious) 15 Vajra (bad or inauspicious)
2 Priti 16 Siddhi
3 Ayushman 17 Vyatipata (bad or inauspicious)
4 Saubhagya 18 Variyan
5 Sobhana 19 Parigha (bad or inauspicious)
6 Atiganda (bad or inauspicious) 20 Siva
7 Sukarman 21 Siddha
8 Dhriti 22 Sadhya
9 Soola (bad or inauspicious) 23 Subha
10 Ganda (bad or inauspicious) 24 Sukla
11 Vriddhi 25 Brahma
12 Dhruva 26 Indra
13 Vyaghata (bad or inauspicious) 27Vaidhriti (bad or inauspicious)
14 Harshana
Karana:
A Karana is defined as half a lunar day. Again this would be a motion of about 6 degrees total between the Sun and the Moon. There are 11 Karanas listed in the table below. So there will be two Karanas in a Lunar day.
The first Seven Karanas occur 8 times during a lunar month but commencing with the 2nd half of the first Lunar day ( this comes after Amavasya)
The last 4 are said to be permanent Karanas and occur in order starting at the 2nd half of the 29th Lunar day.
So the last four Karanas will come just before and during Amavasya. After which the new Lunar month starts and we will go thru the Karanas Bava thru Vishti 8 times, and just before Amavasya and during Amavasya we will have the last four karanas.
# Karana # Karana
1 Bava 7 Vishti Unfavourable
2 Balava 8 Sakuna UnfavourablePermanent
3 Kaulava 9 Chatuspada Unfavourable Permanent
4 Taitula 10 Naga Unfavourable Permanent
5 Girija 11 Kimstunda Unfavourable Permanent
6 Vanija
Yoga:
It is supposed to be the period of time during which the joint motion of the Moon and the Sun amounts to 13 degrees and 20 minutes. There are 27 yogas. Again the calendar and Panchaga gives the ending time of a yoga. Yogas are supposed to be able to strengthen our bodies , free them of diseases and help us enjoy health and life.
The branch of Astrology that deals with Electing a suitable time for commencement of any activity is called Electional Astrology. A lot of research has been done on this subject. The following is a very early and perhaps very feeble attempt to put all the factors considered in Electing a Muhurtam in one place for quick reference. Most of this information is taken from B.V.Raman’s book on Muhurta.
Disclaimer: In many cases for simplicity, things have been stated as being good or bad. Please do not take this at face value and please do adequate research before accepting this one way or another.
For commencement of any activity, it is very important to fix a proper Muhurtham (auspicious time, because one finds that certain activities when started at an auspicious time are prone to be more successful than those started at other times). This is a debateable point and this article is not being written to convince anyone of the authenticity or merit of Electional Astrology, but is really meant to be a quick reference for those who are interested in practicing it in a small scale at home.
In fixing the Muhurtham, effect of different planetary positions and stars( or Nakshatras) on the suitability and unsuitability of the time for commencing different activities is studied and the time best suited is elected for commencing an activity. The five main factors that are taken into consideration for fixing the Muhurtham are Thithi (Lunar day), Vaaram(Day of the week), Nakshatram (Constellation), Yoga (Luni-solar day) and Karana(half a lunar day).
Tithi
Each Thithi or Lunar day is in reality equal to 0.9483 of a day.So a Lunar month will be equal to 29.53 days. Usually in a panchanga or calendar, the ending of the Thithi is given, and this means that the moon is away from the Sun in multiples of 12 degrees. So when the Moon is away from the sun by exactly 12 degrees the padyami day ends, similarly by end of Pournami (opposition point), the Moon is away from the sun by 180 degrees, and by Amavasya’s end, the moon is 0 degrees away from the Sun or in Conjunction with the Sun.
In simple terms, A Thithi is a 30th part of a lunar month. Thithis are 15 in number, beginning with the first day after full moon( Pounami) and first day after new moon( Amavasya). This means that we use the same names for Thithis after Pournami ( full moon) and also after Amavasya ( or New moon).The lunar 15-day period is called a "Paksham" or part. So, a lunar month has two pakshams, "Suklapaksham", which is the waxing phase or bright half of the Moon as it goes towards Pournima and "Krishnapaksham", which is the waning phase or the dark half of the Moon going towards Amavasya. The names of the Thithis are given in the table below and a gross judgement has been made on these days being good and bad. This should be investigated thoroughly for acceptance.
LUNAR DAY Good/Bad
1 prathipada/padyami Good
2 vidiya Good
3 thadiya Good
4 chavithi/chathurthi Bad
5 panchami Good
6 shashti Good
7 sapthami Good
8 ashtami Bad
9 navami Good
10 dasami Good
11 kadasi Good
12 dwadasi Bad *
13 thrayodasi Good
14 chathurdasi Bad
15 Pournami/Amavasya Good
*Depending upon other factors, this can be sometimes considered for aupicious activites.
The bad days listed above are not suitable for auspicious activites both during the Shukla paksha and Krishna paksha.
During Shuklapaksha all the days sited as good in the above table can be treated as such. During Krishna paksha, usually padyami, vidiya, tadhiya and panchami are considered as good. This can be understood by thinking about the Moon’s waxing and waning cycles and then one decides how good the rest of the days are based on the brightness of the moon. Keeping in mind that the Moon’s Brightness increases as we reach Pournami and then starts to decrease during the Krishna Paksha. So as an example, a Dhasami during Krishna Paksha is not so good as a Dhasami during Shukla Paksha.
Vaaram
Vaaram denotes the day of the week. A planet rules each day. Rahu and Ketu are not associated with any Vaaram.
VAARAM PLANET GOOD/BAD Color Gemstone
1 Adi (Sunday) Sun Good Red/Maroon Ruby/Garnet
2Soma (Mon) Moon Good Off White Pearl
3Mangal( Tues) Mars Bad Coral (Orange) Coral
4Budha (Wed) Mercury Neutral Green Emerald
5Guru (Thur) Jupiter Good Yellow yellow Sapphire/Topaz
6Sukra (Friday) Venus Good White Diamond
7Sani (Saturday) Saturn Bad Dark Blue Blue Sapphire
Nakshatram
There are twenty-seven stars, all of which have been listed in the previous Article. These are listed here again, for quick easy reference. The order of the Nakshatras is : Aswini, Bharini, Kritika Rohini etc, . Please read the table one column at a time for the correct order.This has been written in this way to be able to show the rulars for each group of Nakshatras
Nakshatra ( and #) Nakshatra (and #) Nakshatra (and #) Rular
Aswini (1) Makha (10) Moola (19) Ketu
Bharani (2) Poorvaphalguni (11) (Pubba)Poorvashada (20)Venus
Krittika (3) Uttaraphalguni (12) Uttarashada (21) Sun
Rohini (4) Hasta (13) Sravanam (22) Moon
Mrigasira (5) Chitta ( chitra) (14) Dhanista (23) Mars
Arudra (6) Swati (15) Shatabisham (24) Rahu
Punarvasu (7) Vishaka (16) Poorvabadra (25) Jupiter
Pushyami (8) Anuradha (17) Uttarabadra (26) Saturn
Aslesha (9) Jyesta (18) Revati (27) Mercury
Note: Between Sravanam (22) and Dhanista (23), there is another Nakshatram that sometimes appears in Calendars. This is called Abhijit and is supposed to be very auspicious. This is generally not counted in any of our calculations.
To determine if the nakshatram at the time of the event is good for you or not, find out what Nakshatram is operating that day. This you will find in an Indian Calendar or with a Panchang.Start counting from your Janma Nakshatram, in multiples of 9, until you reach the particular Nakshatram for that day. Then refer to the table below, labeled Star and their Associations for general indications on the particular Nakshatram on yourself. Remember that the Calendar or Panchang lists the ending time of the Nakshatram and if it is an Indian Calendar, all these times are in Indian Standard Time, so they need to be converted to your local time.
Stars and their Associations:
1 Very Good : Janma Tara. (Soul Mates for compatibility studies in synastry or marriage partners)
2 Good : Dhana Tara. Sampat tara. Wealth.
3 Bad: Vipat Tara. Obstacles
4 Good: Kshema tara, for prosperity, Mother. Real Estate.etc
5 Bad : Enemy or pratyak tara, obstacles
6 Good: Refers to Health, debts etc,also called sadana tara, realisation of ambition.
7 Very bad : Naidana Tara. Dangers
8 Good : Mitra (Friend)
9 Very Good: Parama Mitra. (Best Friend)
Yoga*:
For the purpose of Electional Astrology and Understanding of the Panchanga, A Yoga is supposed to be the period of time during which the joint motion of the Moon and the Sun amounts to 13 degrees and 20 minutes. There are a total of 27 yogas. Again the calendar and Panchanga give the ending time of a yoga. Yogas are supposed to be able to strengthen our bodies , free them of diseases and help us enjoy health and life.
In order to understand the concept of joint motion of the Sun and Moon, a good way to look at it would be to remember that the Moon would take approximately one lunar day to complete moving through the 4 padas of a Nakshatra, which is equivalent to 13 degrees and 20 minutes. The Sun on the other hand moves about 1 degree in a solar day, since it will have to traverse a 30 degree sign in 30 days. So roughly speaking you will have one yoga a day.
This means that if the sum of the longitude of the sun and the moon is 281 degrees, we are in Siddha yoga ( add 13 degrees and 20 minutes for each yoga from Vishkambha to get 280 degrees).
*Please note that there are other Yogas in Astrology which should not be confused with this description of Yoga. The above description only pertains to Electional Astrology( Muhurtam) and Panchanga.
The following is the list of yogas
#Name of Yoga # Name of Yoga
1 Vishkambha (bad or inauspicious) 15 Vajra (bad or inauspicious)
2 Priti 16 Siddhi
3 Ayushman 17 Vyatipata (bad or inauspicious)
4 Saubhagya 18 Variyan
5 Sobhana 19 Parigha (bad or inauspicious)
6 Atiganda (bad or inauspicious) 20 Siva
7 Sukarman 21 Siddha
8 Dhriti 22 Sadhya
9 Soola (bad or inauspicious) 23 Subha
10 Ganda (bad or inauspicious) 24 Sukla
11 Vriddhi 25 Brahma
12 Dhruva 26 Indra
13 Vyaghata (bad or inauspicious) 27Vaidhriti (bad or inauspicious)
14 Harshana
Karana:
A Karana is defined as half a lunar day. Again this would be a motion of about 6 degrees total between the Sun and the Moon. There are 11 Karanas listed in the table below. So there will be two Karanas in a Lunar day.
The first Seven Karanas occur 8 times during a lunar month but commencing with the 2nd half of the first Lunar day ( this comes after Amavasya)
The last 4 are said to be permanent Karanas and occur in order starting at the 2nd half of the 29th Lunar day.
So the last four Karanas will come just before and during Amavasya. After which the new Lunar month starts and we will go thru the Karanas Bava thru Vishti 8 times, and just before Amavasya and during Amavasya we will have the last four karanas.
# Karana # Karana
1 Bava 7 Vishti Unfavourable
2 Balava 8 Sakuna UnfavourablePermanent
3 Kaulava 9 Chatuspada Unfavourable Permanent
4 Taitula 10 Naga Unfavourable Permanent
5 Girija 11 Kimstunda Unfavourable Permanent
6 Vanija
Yoga:
It is supposed to be the period of time during which the joint motion of the Moon and the Sun amounts to 13 degrees and 20 minutes. There are 27 yogas. Again the calendar and Panchaga gives the ending time of a yoga. Yogas are supposed to be able to strengthen our bodies , free them of diseases and help us enjoy health and life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)