Planets are constantly in motion with respect to earth in the skies. The positions of Sun, Moon and some planets close to earth can give important clues about the fortunes of individual human beings and groups of human beings. That is the basic premise of astrology. How exactly we can make guesses about the fortunes of individual human beings and groups of human beings based on the positions of those planets in the skies is the question that we will attempt to answer in these lessons. Astrology is the subject that deals with this question. There are many theories and philosophies in vogue and they are significantly different from each other.
Materialistically speaking, India may not be a rich country today, but India has extremely rich cultural heritage. The depth of some of India's ancient knowledge (like astrology) is just amazing and it makes one wonder if the history of this great civilization is correctly represented in the pages of modern history. Astrology of India is the most comprehensive and complete system of astrology available today and it is the only one that comes close to answering the “twins puzzle” (namely, why are there so many twins in this world, who have a lot of significant differences between them). India's astrology can explain how twins can be different. The principles used in India's astrology are so sensitive to changes in birthtime that people born within 1-2 minutes can be significantly different in some aspects and similar in some others. This approach distinguishes between what a person truly is, what a person wants to be, what he thinks he is and what the world thinks he is. It has enough parameters, tools, techniques and degrees of freedom to model the extremely complicated human life.
This astrological approach is known in the world by many names. Early pioneers of modern Indian astrology, like Dr. B.V. Raman, called it “Hindu astrology”, because this system was first taught by ancient Hindu sages. However, some people do not like this expression because “Hindu” is not a Sanskrit word. This word was later coined by the western invaders from the name of a river flowing on the northwestern border of India (river “Sindhu” or “Indus”). They used the word “Hindu” to describe the land and the people on the eastern side of this river.
The religion practiced by a majority of Indians is known as “Hindu” religion today, but the fact is that there is no name for this religion in India's Sanskrit language, the language in which most of the literature of this religion – and astrology – appeared! Most other religions are known by the name of their main propagator, but India's ancient religion had no single propagator or prophet. This religion consisted of knowledge that revealed itself to spiritual masters of many generations. So there was no name for this religion and the word “Hindu” coined by western invaders was accepted by the world. However, as already stressed, this word finds no place in Sanskrit literature. Some people do not like using a non-Sanskrit word to describe India's astrology, considering that most of India's classical literature in astrology appeared in Sanskrit.
Later day authors came up with the name – “Vedic astrology". The word “Vedic” means “pertaining to Vedas". Vedas are the sacred scriptures of, what is known today as, Hinduism and they are supposed to contain knowledge of all subjects. Moreover, astrology in particular is supposed to be a “Vedaanga” (which means a limb of Vedas). In particular, it is said to be the eye of the Vedas. So the name “Vedic astrology” is becoming popular these days. This author also suggests using “Vedic astrology” or “Jyotish” (meaning “science of light"). Jyotishi is a practitioner of Jyotish, i.e. a Vedic astrologer.
The Ayanmasha
The zodiac that is used in Vedic Astrology is very different from the one used in Western Astrology. The Vedic system uses the sidereal (fixed) zodiac, which is based on the actual positions of the stars. The zodiac used in Western Astrology is the tropical zodiac, which is based on the seasons, and has in principle no particular connection with the position of the stars. The difference between the sidereal and tropical zodiac is called the Ayanamsha. In this century, the difference is around 23 degrees, less than 1 sign. If you know the sign and degree of a planet in a Western Astrology horoscope, you will have to subtract the Ayanamsha to find the position according to the Vedic method. In many cases (about 75%), the Grahas in the Vedic chart are one sign prior to the Western chart. For example three quarters of the people who think of themselves of being a "Virgo" are actually a "Leo" in Vedic |
