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There are many " how to " books which have been recently produced for the Vedic

( Hindu ) astrology market, and one may question the necessity for another one.

There are several reasons for this. For one thing, it does not seem that the

modern astrological writers in India who have presented the science in English

anticipated exactly how it would be accepted. It is all right enough to write

in English for an Indian audience. Hindu readers are accustomed to receiving

information about their own culture without changing it all around or grafting

it on to something else; they are quite comfortable with their culture and they

are very traditional to begin with. But in the West a more challenging and

experimental approach is the norm. Thus, even though the Hindus writers, by and

large, have done a reasonable job of making a presentation of the science of

astrology to the English-reading public, they have presented it to a public

lacking perpective on it.

In this sense, the present effort is truly unique. The beginning chapters

practically prepare one’s intellect for reading the rest of the book. Some very

unique philosophical perspectives and mindsets are presented.

 

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The initial chapters also acquaint the reader with the concept of the "

Parampara " system, a system of disciplic succession. Information received from

this disciplic succession is not empiric or experimental. It comes to us from

celestial beings who generated and fostered humanity on the earthly plane, and

through rishis and sages who were their earthly medium. Thus, this knowledge is

special as it was handed down, which precludes the need to add or subtract from

it- in contrast to the tendency to hodge podge systems of astrology, which is

so common in the West nowadays.After presenting the reader with parampara

concepts, the book then proceeds to map out before the reader the main

components of Vedic astrology, giving all components their proportionate weight

and consideration. In so doing, an attempt is made to support the astrological

principles and concepts with both logic as well as appropriate statements from

the ancient astrological writings. A constant thread runs through the book in

this sense, such that a harmonic justification, peculiar to the author's style,

is not lost sight of at any stage.It may be questioned, then, why there have

been so many quotes from modern Indian ( Hindu ) writers in the book, given

that many modern Hindu writers have a tendency to mix up systems and depart

from the standard of old. (Know that this quoting of modern writers has mostly

been done in the chapter which deals with the signs of the zodiac.) The answer

is twofold: first of all, the ancient writers did not typically delineate at

length on the nature of the zodiacal signs themselves, although they did map

out the rest of the science in great detail. This may have been due to

compositional constraints, such that the information had to fit into a certain

slot determined by Sanskrit meter and rhyme. It seems that the ancient Sanskrit

writers composed in more of a pleasing and poetic way rather than in the modern,

frank fashion.A reason which is possibly closer to the truth would be that the

ancient writers didn't have to delineate in terms of the basics. A student

would usually learn sign characteristics, which was common knowledge among

astrologer brahmins, from any local village astrologer. The theme of sign

characteristics was perhaps too simple to warrant a display of learning, maybe

as embarassing as discovering onion soup. And some works had a fairly narrow

focus rather than a complete presentation of the science; they purported to

preserve certain elements of the science which, for some reason, they felt

needed delineation.At any rate, an expanded description of the signs is hard to

come by in the ancient writings, and there are modern writers who have done a

good job of expressing the characteristics of the signs. For this reason,

proper recognition of their comments has been given where due, though

recognition is not necessary in the case of the observations which are not

original or which are obvious or generally accepted.

This in no way, however, elevates the modern scribes to an absolute pedestal

otherwise, or implies an automatic acceptance of any other comments which they

might have made. In spite of flashes of brillance, many modern Hindu writers

fall short or deviate in some fundamental way, and their writings have to be

read with a grain of salt. Thus the author has only quoted appropriate

insights.In addition to the " as it is " perspective, and the inclusion of all

the main component factors -giving proper weight and allotment- the book

comes to a conclusion with a sample interpretation of the horoscope of John

Lennon in which all of the lessons of the book are properly applied.

Pages of Interest

Daitya Guru Shubha Birth of Parikshit Astro Vedica Cancer

Astro Vedica on the First House Astro Vedica on the Navamsha On Time and

Astrology

Astro Vedica on Planets in the Signs Astro Vedica on Astrological Determinism

 

The Horoscope of George Washington The Horoscope of the Titanic

Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In

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