What is astrology

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 this book. While 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. Sunsign astrology, for example, is based on categorizing people into 12 groups based on the solar month of birth. Some people may be convinced, based on their experiences, that people born in the same month share certain qualities. It is, however, not very logical from a rational perspective there are just too many people in this world, who are totally different from each other. So the month of one's birth is totally inadequate for guessing one's nature or fortune. Even the date and the hour of birth are not enough. We know that there are many twins in this world, who are significantly different from each other! What we mentioned just now is, by the way, a very important question to be answered it is like an acid test for any astrological doctrine. It is a known fact that there are many twins in this world, who are significantly different from each other and who lead totally different lives. Of course, some twins may have some common qualities between them, but the fact remains that several twins are significantly different. An astrological doctrine should be capable of explaining this fact in order to be considered as a meaningful subject.

Most astrological doctrines of the world fail this acid test. If an astrological doctrine assumes, like in the case of many popular astrological theories of the world, that two persons born within a couple of hours in nearby towns will have the same fortune, 4 Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach then that doctrine is obviously lacking in completeness and inadequate for confident use in real-life. It fails the acid test of twins.

1.2 India's astrology

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 just mentioned twins puzzle. 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 Part 1: Chart Analysis 5 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.

1.3 Basics

1.3.1 Grahas (planets)

The words planet and star are used in a slightly different sense in astrology than

in astronomy. For example, Sun (a star) and Moon (a satellite of earth) are called planets in astrology, along with Mars etc. Basically, a graha or a planet is a body that has considerable influence on the living beings on earth. Distant stars have negligible influence on us, but Sun, Moon and planets in the solar system have a great influence on our activities. So the word graha (or planet) is used to describe them. Seven planets are considered in Indian astrology. They are Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. In addition, two chaayaa grahas (shadow planets) are considered in Indian astrology Rahu and Ketu. These are also called the north node and the south node respectively (or the head and tail of dragon). Rahu and Ketu are not real planets; they are just some mathematical points. Apart from these 9 planets, there are 11 moving mathematical points known as Upagrahas (sub-planets or satellites). We also have lagna (ascendant), which is the point that rises on the eastern horizon as the earth rotates around itself. In addition, we have some mathematical points known as special ascendants".

1.3.2 Rasis (signs)

6 Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach The positions of all these planets, upagrahas, lagna and special lagnas in the zodiac are measured in degrees, minutes and seconds from the start of the zodiac (which is a fixed point in the sky). These positions are measured as seen from earth and they are called geocentric positions". For the positions (calculated in degrees, minutes and seconds) of planets, lagna, special lagnas and upagrahas, we also use the words longitude and sphuta. When watched from earth, the longitude of any planet in the skies can be from 00'0'' (0 degrees 0 minutes 0 seconds) to 35959'59''. It should be noted that 00'0'' corresponds to the beginning of the zodiac. Many western

astrologers consider Sayana or tropical (moving) zodiac, whereas Nirayana or sidereal (fixed) zodiac is considered in Vedic astrology. The zodiac (sky) lasts 360 as mentioned above and it is divided into 12 equal parts. They are called rasis .