BHAGAVAN VYASA, the celebrated compiler of the Vedas, was the son of the great sage Parasara. It was he who gave to the world the divine epic of the Mahabharata.
Having conceived the Mahabharata he thought of the means of giving the sacred story to the world. He meditated on Brahma, the Creator, who manifested himself before him
Vyasa then asks Brahma for help to find someone who could pen the Mahabarata for him. Brahma asks him to meditate on Lord Ganapati.
Lord Ganapati agrees to write the Mahabharat as Vyasa dictates, provided his pen would never stop ie: There was no pause in the narration
Vyasa agrees but with a counter proposition. As long as Lord Ganapati understood the meaning of the slokas before he wrote them down, Vyasa would keep up his end of the bargain, and so the Mahabharata got to be written, on the banks for River Saraswati, with Vyasa composing the poems and Lord Ganapati writing it down but only after understanding them, thereby giving ample time for Vyasa to compose some more.
A side tale to this, is River Saraswati flows very rapidly at the place where Vyasa chose to sit with Lord Ganapati to write the Mahabharata, high up in the Himalayas, close to Badrinath. Its flow here was often disturbing to both of them. They asked her to flow more slowly, but she being young and restless did not listen. It is said that Vyasa was enraged one day when she was making too much noise and caused her to disappear into the underground.
To this day at the Vyasa cave close to Bhadrinath, we see Saraswati gushing out of cave ( very noisily and then just as quickly disappearing into the underground, as a result.
So coming back to the beautiful story of Mahabharat,.Here is the cronological order in which it came to be passed on to all of us.
It was conceived by Vyasa , written by Lord Ganapati and first narrated by Vyasa to his son Suka maha rishi. Suka maharishi is supposed to have revealed this to Gandharvas, Raskshasas and Yakshas. Narada revealed it to the Devas. And then, Vaisampayana a great disciple of Vyasa spread this to the rest of humanity. He did this first at the Snake Sacrifice held by King Janamejaya. Suta maharishi learnt of it at the snake sacrifice and then on his way to Naimisha aranya he narrated it to other assembled rishis. Thus it was spread it to the rest of the world.
The interesting piece here is that, it is the first flashback story ever written as well, since, it starts with the Snake Sacrifice or Sarpa Yagam conducted by King Janamejaya ( a descendent of the Pandavas).
King Janamejaya is the son of Parikshit ( the grandson of Arjuna thru Abhimanyu). After the war, and after the Pandavas left their Kingdom and after the death of Sri Krishna, Parikshit is appointed king. He was a fair and just ruler, but one day, during a hunting trip he gets further away from his companions. Searching high and low for them and feeling very Thirsty he stumbles on to an Ashram of a Rishi. The Rishi is in meditation and does not answer any of his queries as he is in deep samadhi. Tired, hungry and Thirsty, king Parikshit is enraged, and he finds a dead snake nearby and rolls it around the rishi’s neck. The Rishi wakes up just as enraged, and curses Parikshit telling him that he will die in 7 days thru a snake bite . And true to the rishi’s words in 7 days the King is killed by a snake prince named “Takshak”, who is hidden inside a lemon.
On hearing the curse and being very afraid for his life, king Parikshit is supposed to have hid inside a a fort and locked himself up in a seven storey building but in vain since, the snake got to him via a lemon and killed him.
During those 7 days, Parikshit is said to have became extremely spiritual and he heard the Bhagavatam for the first time, extolling Lord Krishna., This is the first time that Bhagavatam as we know it was narrated to humanity .
But after Parikshit’s death, his son Janamejaya wanted to avenge his father’s untimely demise and therefore conducts what is called a “Sarpa Yagam” or Snake Sacrifice in which all snakes big and small were to be killed.
The goal was to find Takshak the snake that actually killed Parikshit but Takshak had sought help from Indira, the ruler of heaven.
Janamejaya was informed of this by a person named Astika ( who was born of a brahmin and a Naga women). Janamejaya was so pleased to learn of Takshak’s whereabouts from Astika, that he promised Astika a boon, anything he wanted. Astika said that he would ask for the boon but at a later time when he really needed it.
So Janamejaya is able to with the help of Mantras find Takshak and is ready to burn him in the sacrificial fire when, Astika came forward to stop him. He asks for his boon at this opportune time The boon is for Janamejaya to set Takshak , the prince of naga’s free and maintain a friendly relationship with the Naga’s from here on out.
Even though Janamejaya pleads with Astika, he does not budge from his request.
So ultimately Janamejaya has to give in and free Takshak ( Kal Yuga was by the way ushered in by Takshak) when he killed Parikshit.
So Janamejaya even though he is still tormented,since his sacrifice was incomplete asks Vyasa’s help to understand his ancesters better. Vyasa asked Vaisampayana ( his favourite disciple) to narrate the details of the Mahabharata and the story of the Pandavas to Janamejaya. And So it happened that the Mahabharata was narrated for the first time to King Janamejaya and the Brahmins who were present at the Snake sacrifice or “Sarpa Yagam”.
This was heard by Suta maharishi who then on his way back from the snake sacrifice narrated it again this time to assembled rishis in Naimisha aranya.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Fundamental concepts in Vedic Astrology
Astrology is a very fascinating subject, that immediately gets the attention of the masses. This has been very much a part of our lives as we grew up in India. But for the longest time, it remained a mystery to me, occasionally I would get a glimpse into it, when an astrologer was consulted for a wedding or something of that nature but by and large it was there but no one ventured to try and explain it in any detail.
The subject remained a dorment interest in my mind until I started reading a book "Modern Hindu astrology for a Western astrologer" by James Braha. This was one of the most useful books I have read on the subject. Extremely lucid and easy to understand.
But For a longest time, I wished I had something ( a book or an article) even more simpler, that presented some basic concepts in Astrology.Something that one would need even before one started studying the subject in earnest. I searched and searched but could never find one. Most documents I found were either obscure or written in a language few would understand.
Therefore here is an attempt to put some of these concepts in simple terms for laymen to understand and appreciate. Astrology is a vast subject, so we will be only able to cover some of the basic concepts here.
Astrology, to a lot of people is mumbo jumbo. I thought so too until I began to understand how mathematical it was, and how easily one could correlate incidents in life to a particular period or sub-period running at that time.
This has been proven time and again, with various people/horoscopes. One can also find a lot of correlation with subjects such as astronomy and cosmology as well and therefore this subject is well suited for Scientific minds and can become very interesting.
Astrology in the east developed into a predictive science, and its roots date back to almost 5000 years. The father of Modern Indian or Eastern Astrology is supposed to be Sage Parasara ( the father of Ved Vyasa from Mahabharat fame).His book Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra is the basis for most of the later astrological texts that are in use now.
The Astrology in the west is also old ( dates back to Babylonean times) but is used mostly for Personality analysis, and some limited predictions.
Eastern and Western astrology also differ fundamentally in that one is based on a Sidereal Zodiac ( Eastern) while the other is based on a Tropical (western) Zodiac.
Before we delve too deeply into these different zodiacs, let me first talk about the basis for Astrology. I will focus on Eastern Astrology or Jyotish Shastra for the sake of this description. In Eastern astrology or Jyotish Shastra ( from now I will refer to this as Jyotish), the following
Planets, satellites, nodal points and stars are used ( They will be referred to as Planets from now on). They are: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.
Sun and Moon need no explaination. They are usually called the Lights, and are the central focus of any Horoscope. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are self explainatory, they are Planets in our Solar System. Some of you may notice that we did not talk about Uranus, Neptune and Pluto ( since Astrology is a very old subject, when it was first developed, only first few planets had been discovered). Uranus was discovered in 1789, Neptune in 1800s and Pluto was around 1920.
Rahu and Ketu are nodal points that are supposed to be the points of intersection of the Moon’s Orbit around the earth to the Ecliptic. (The Ecliptic is the path traced by the sun in the sky as seen from the earth).. They , Rahu and Ketu are also placed in a horoscope and are points of great strength or Energy.
An understanding of the Zodiac is the next most important thing for understanding astrology.
The Zodiac is an imaginary BELT ( the kind we wear around our waist) of star clusters ( or constellations) in the sky. This imaginary Belt of about 16 degrees width is spherical, and is encircling the earth. The Ecliptic described earlier as the path of the Sun as seen from the earth is also part of this Zodiac belt .All planets,Sun, Rahu Ketu and Moon lie within this Zodiacal belt as seen from the earth. Please note that you will never see them anywhere else in the sky.
For the sake of astrological analysis, this belt or 360 degree circle is used. To make things easier,it is divided into 30 degree parts ( so we will have 12 of them in a 360 degree circle) and each part is characterised or identified by a group of star clusters ( or constellations) that are most noticeable within that 30 degrees. So Aries, Tauras,Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricon,Aquarius, Pisces are all Constellations or star clusters used to identify the 30 degree parts of the belt. Please note that this is the order of the constellations along the 360 degree belt..
Now a Astrological Horoscope is nothing but a drawing of this belt and the Planets are then placed in this belt based on their respective motion. ( remember the Planets are moving and will be in different parts of the sky at different times but please note that they will always be within this belt we are describing).
A little explaination of Astronomy is required here inorder to comprehend this. As you know,From our Earth, we should be able to see the Planets ( Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). From the Moon’s position, we can calculate the position of Rahu and Ketu. Which are imaginary intersection points as mentioned earlier.The ancient scientists in their study of the stars discovered that all of these Planets and the Sun and the Moon move within the Zodiac belt ( even Rahu and Ketu). Like I said earlier, they (the planets)will always be within this belt and we can identify where they are, by recognizing the constellation or star cluster they are close too ( meaning Aries, Taurus etc).
Now within any given day, all these constellations will rise in the sky. Six constellations rise in the morning and the remaining six will rise as the evening progresses. That means within 24 hours of a day, each constellation or Zodiac sign ( Aries to Pisces) will have risen in the eastern sky). This is an important point to grasp. Again please note that along with the zodiac signs the Planets are also somewhere in the sky, within a particular sign of the zodiac belt. So if we drew the Zodiac belt on a piece of paper, we could now place the planets somewhere on that belt. This is what is done in a horoscope.
In South india this is drawn like a belt, and divided into 12 houses each of 30 degrees and then the planets are placed in them.The constellation that is seen rising in the eastern sky at the time of birth is called the Ascendant or Lagna. Now this becomes the Horoscope that the Jyotishi ( or astrologer).analyses. He has a Rasi Chakra and a Navamsa chakra for starters and then we are lost in his Mumbo Jumbo.This will be described later so don’t worry too much about Rasi and Navamsa just yet.
Now earlier, I had referred to the Sidereal and Tropical Zodiacs. The same Zodiacal belt is used in both Eastern and Western horoscopes. Scientists have noticed that due to the tilt of the earth, every year the starting point of Aries has moved by 50.2 seconds ( celestial longitude) westward. That means that the earth never returns back to the same position every year after completing its revolution around the sun. It will only return to the same position in 26000 years. So in the meantime, we have to apply a correction. We ( meaning Indian Astrologers use the current postion of Aries ( this is the Sidereal Zodiac), the western astrologers use the old position of Aries ( Tropical Zodiac). The two Zodiacs used to be the same in 285AD, but after that because of what I described above ( called precission of equinoxes), we now have to, subtract some degrees from their (Western Zodiac)positions to get our positions, and this amount that we substract is called Ayanamsa. So if they( Western astrologers) say that the Sun is in Aries ( in say 20 degrees Aries) for us it is really means it is in 27 degrees Pisces. ( we subtracted the Ayanamsa from their position). Most Indians use the Lahiri Ayanamsa of 23 degrees and 48 minutes.
With this background and a sample Horoscope we can now proceed with analysis. This is where Astrology becomes more empherical and abstract. Each of the Planets is given some attributes or qualities that signify something in a Human Being’s life like his Personality, Looks, Character, etc.
The Zodiac Belt which is the background of the Horoscope, when divided into 12 , 30 degree parts , represents 12 houses in which the planets reside and each of these houses again signifies an aspect of a person’s life like his Personality, Family, Siblings, Mother, Children, Health, Spouse, Longevity,Spirituality, Career, Income and Loss. These things are put together for a person based on the time and place of birth. After the Horoscope has been cast, then using what we call Dasha Analysis, predictions can be made on possible events in the person’s life.
The above details were intended as an introduction for those of you who are interested in pursuing this subject of Astrology. To begin making use of this vast subject, some things have to become part of your vocabulary and some of the attributes must almost become second nature to your understanding of either a Planet or a Zodiac sign in which the Planet is located. The Houses or the 30 degree divisions of the 360 degree belt also have associated with them some properties that will have to become part and parcel of your analysis. These fundamentals are a necessary step in understanding Astrology, otherwise it will remain an enigma.
Alot of good text books are available that can now take you deeper into the subject.But my Suggestion is that, this subject be approached scientifically rather than fatalistically .
By Scientifically I mean: approaching it from a Astronomy point of view ( meaning understanding Planets in the solar system, their movement within the night sky and then using the statistics compiled by generations of Astrologers to now add attributes and qualities to Planets, Houses and Zodiac signs. My belief is that with this kind of approach, a level of objectivity can be maintained and our Analysis will be able to sustain and overcome any scrutiny by disbelievers or sceptics.
Given the time, I would like to follow this up with articles on the details necessary for good predictions, but in the meantime, I believe that sufficient background information is now available to you, to continue on your quest, while you wait for the next article on this subject.
The subject remained a dorment interest in my mind until I started reading a book "Modern Hindu astrology for a Western astrologer" by James Braha. This was one of the most useful books I have read on the subject. Extremely lucid and easy to understand.
But For a longest time, I wished I had something ( a book or an article) even more simpler, that presented some basic concepts in Astrology.Something that one would need even before one started studying the subject in earnest. I searched and searched but could never find one. Most documents I found were either obscure or written in a language few would understand.
Therefore here is an attempt to put some of these concepts in simple terms for laymen to understand and appreciate. Astrology is a vast subject, so we will be only able to cover some of the basic concepts here.
Astrology, to a lot of people is mumbo jumbo. I thought so too until I began to understand how mathematical it was, and how easily one could correlate incidents in life to a particular period or sub-period running at that time.
This has been proven time and again, with various people/horoscopes. One can also find a lot of correlation with subjects such as astronomy and cosmology as well and therefore this subject is well suited for Scientific minds and can become very interesting.
Astrology in the east developed into a predictive science, and its roots date back to almost 5000 years. The father of Modern Indian or Eastern Astrology is supposed to be Sage Parasara ( the father of Ved Vyasa from Mahabharat fame).His book Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra is the basis for most of the later astrological texts that are in use now.
The Astrology in the west is also old ( dates back to Babylonean times) but is used mostly for Personality analysis, and some limited predictions.
Eastern and Western astrology also differ fundamentally in that one is based on a Sidereal Zodiac ( Eastern) while the other is based on a Tropical (western) Zodiac.
Before we delve too deeply into these different zodiacs, let me first talk about the basis for Astrology. I will focus on Eastern Astrology or Jyotish Shastra for the sake of this description. In Eastern astrology or Jyotish Shastra ( from now I will refer to this as Jyotish), the following
Planets, satellites, nodal points and stars are used ( They will be referred to as Planets from now on). They are: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.
Sun and Moon need no explaination. They are usually called the Lights, and are the central focus of any Horoscope. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are self explainatory, they are Planets in our Solar System. Some of you may notice that we did not talk about Uranus, Neptune and Pluto ( since Astrology is a very old subject, when it was first developed, only first few planets had been discovered). Uranus was discovered in 1789, Neptune in 1800s and Pluto was around 1920.
Rahu and Ketu are nodal points that are supposed to be the points of intersection of the Moon’s Orbit around the earth to the Ecliptic. (The Ecliptic is the path traced by the sun in the sky as seen from the earth).. They , Rahu and Ketu are also placed in a horoscope and are points of great strength or Energy.
An understanding of the Zodiac is the next most important thing for understanding astrology.
The Zodiac is an imaginary BELT ( the kind we wear around our waist) of star clusters ( or constellations) in the sky. This imaginary Belt of about 16 degrees width is spherical, and is encircling the earth. The Ecliptic described earlier as the path of the Sun as seen from the earth is also part of this Zodiac belt .All planets,Sun, Rahu Ketu and Moon lie within this Zodiacal belt as seen from the earth. Please note that you will never see them anywhere else in the sky.
For the sake of astrological analysis, this belt or 360 degree circle is used. To make things easier,it is divided into 30 degree parts ( so we will have 12 of them in a 360 degree circle) and each part is characterised or identified by a group of star clusters ( or constellations) that are most noticeable within that 30 degrees. So Aries, Tauras,Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricon,Aquarius, Pisces are all Constellations or star clusters used to identify the 30 degree parts of the belt. Please note that this is the order of the constellations along the 360 degree belt..
Now a Astrological Horoscope is nothing but a drawing of this belt and the Planets are then placed in this belt based on their respective motion. ( remember the Planets are moving and will be in different parts of the sky at different times but please note that they will always be within this belt we are describing).
A little explaination of Astronomy is required here inorder to comprehend this. As you know,From our Earth, we should be able to see the Planets ( Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). From the Moon’s position, we can calculate the position of Rahu and Ketu. Which are imaginary intersection points as mentioned earlier.The ancient scientists in their study of the stars discovered that all of these Planets and the Sun and the Moon move within the Zodiac belt ( even Rahu and Ketu). Like I said earlier, they (the planets)will always be within this belt and we can identify where they are, by recognizing the constellation or star cluster they are close too ( meaning Aries, Taurus etc).
Now within any given day, all these constellations will rise in the sky. Six constellations rise in the morning and the remaining six will rise as the evening progresses. That means within 24 hours of a day, each constellation or Zodiac sign ( Aries to Pisces) will have risen in the eastern sky). This is an important point to grasp. Again please note that along with the zodiac signs the Planets are also somewhere in the sky, within a particular sign of the zodiac belt. So if we drew the Zodiac belt on a piece of paper, we could now place the planets somewhere on that belt. This is what is done in a horoscope.
In South india this is drawn like a belt, and divided into 12 houses each of 30 degrees and then the planets are placed in them.The constellation that is seen rising in the eastern sky at the time of birth is called the Ascendant or Lagna. Now this becomes the Horoscope that the Jyotishi ( or astrologer).analyses. He has a Rasi Chakra and a Navamsa chakra for starters and then we are lost in his Mumbo Jumbo.This will be described later so don’t worry too much about Rasi and Navamsa just yet.
Now earlier, I had referred to the Sidereal and Tropical Zodiacs. The same Zodiacal belt is used in both Eastern and Western horoscopes. Scientists have noticed that due to the tilt of the earth, every year the starting point of Aries has moved by 50.2 seconds ( celestial longitude) westward. That means that the earth never returns back to the same position every year after completing its revolution around the sun. It will only return to the same position in 26000 years. So in the meantime, we have to apply a correction. We ( meaning Indian Astrologers use the current postion of Aries ( this is the Sidereal Zodiac), the western astrologers use the old position of Aries ( Tropical Zodiac). The two Zodiacs used to be the same in 285AD, but after that because of what I described above ( called precission of equinoxes), we now have to, subtract some degrees from their (Western Zodiac)positions to get our positions, and this amount that we substract is called Ayanamsa. So if they( Western astrologers) say that the Sun is in Aries ( in say 20 degrees Aries) for us it is really means it is in 27 degrees Pisces. ( we subtracted the Ayanamsa from their position). Most Indians use the Lahiri Ayanamsa of 23 degrees and 48 minutes.
With this background and a sample Horoscope we can now proceed with analysis. This is where Astrology becomes more empherical and abstract. Each of the Planets is given some attributes or qualities that signify something in a Human Being’s life like his Personality, Looks, Character, etc.
The Zodiac Belt which is the background of the Horoscope, when divided into 12 , 30 degree parts , represents 12 houses in which the planets reside and each of these houses again signifies an aspect of a person’s life like his Personality, Family, Siblings, Mother, Children, Health, Spouse, Longevity,Spirituality, Career, Income and Loss. These things are put together for a person based on the time and place of birth. After the Horoscope has been cast, then using what we call Dasha Analysis, predictions can be made on possible events in the person’s life.
The above details were intended as an introduction for those of you who are interested in pursuing this subject of Astrology. To begin making use of this vast subject, some things have to become part of your vocabulary and some of the attributes must almost become second nature to your understanding of either a Planet or a Zodiac sign in which the Planet is located. The Houses or the 30 degree divisions of the 360 degree belt also have associated with them some properties that will have to become part and parcel of your analysis. These fundamentals are a necessary step in understanding Astrology, otherwise it will remain an enigma.
Alot of good text books are available that can now take you deeper into the subject.But my Suggestion is that, this subject be approached scientifically rather than fatalistically .
By Scientifically I mean: approaching it from a Astronomy point of view ( meaning understanding Planets in the solar system, their movement within the night sky and then using the statistics compiled by generations of Astrologers to now add attributes and qualities to Planets, Houses and Zodiac signs. My belief is that with this kind of approach, a level of objectivity can be maintained and our Analysis will be able to sustain and overcome any scrutiny by disbelievers or sceptics.
Given the time, I would like to follow this up with articles on the details necessary for good predictions, but in the meantime, I believe that sufficient background information is now available to you, to continue on your quest, while you wait for the next article on this subject.
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