Hindu festivals

[Guest guest]

Dear Raj

ji,

The following

post will

give you a detailed discussion as to why we must do mob mobilization for

streamlining our calendars instead of approaching " Vedic

Panchangakars " etc.. This mail was

posted on KPandit forum several years back.

AKK

****

***** *****

Dear Ramanji,

 

Namskar!

I really appreciate your stand since it is the stand of almost every

layman! In fact, till a few decades back, I was myself a " worse

layman " than any other layman! I did not know anything about

panchangas/jantris and was least bothered as to when we celebrated Shivaratri

or Dipavali and why! All I knew was that it would be the time of

merrymaking! I also did not know anything about astrology excepting

" Sade-Sati " and rashiphal!

This is what

the Saha Calendar Reform Committee had suggested as back as 1954 on Page 20 of

its Report: " India is the country of blind orthodoxy. Whenever any

improvement is proposed the people suppose that they will be drowned in the

torrent of improvements and they oppose the improvement blindly. Any

person who wants to introduce the improvement has to be firm and should not

give way to such resistance. Signatories of the memorandum (suggesting

Lahiri/nirayana Rashichakra) are the persons who would resist any

improvement. Now they would resist the improvements in the calendar and

if they become successful they would then resist the necessary improvements in

the Dharmasastra also. We should not take account of such

people "

It was very

much applicable to me since as there was always a difference between Rashtirya

Panchanga and our oldest Jantri/Panchana in Kashmir, I would always consider

Rashtriya Panchanga to be incorrect in the dates of festivals as well as the

ending moments of nakshatra etc. vis-a-vis our Kashmiri Jantri!

I do not want

you to get bored with all the details as to how and why I became a crusader for

the correct calendar. All I can say is that being a student of science, I

found that our Rishis were the greatest scientists of their times and the

actual criteria fixed by them for the fasts, festivals and muhurtas made more sense

in the light of today's astrophysics! Now somehow, our Panchanga makers,

including the Rashtriya Panchanga, have got solar ingresses (sankrantis)

advanced by about 24 days from the actual sankrantis as on date and will

continue to advance further by one more day ever seventy-two years! In

other words, if we continue to follow this Rashtriya Panchanga calendar, a time

may come when we will have to celebrate Makar Sankranti (which is actually

known as Shishir Sankranti in Kashmir) in Grishma i.e. " Winter

Solstice " will be celebrated in Summer! We will therefore have to

put a full stop to it and make the imaginary solar sankrantis coincide with the

actual sankrantis. That means we have to remove 24 days from our Mesha etc.

sankrantis today so that they coincide with the real Vishuva (Spring Equinox)

etc.

A similar

situation had cropped up about the Julian calendar since it had got de-linked

from the real seasons completely. Ten days had to be removed from that calendar

to make it consistent with the seasons.

Thus when Pope Gregory XIII introduced Gregorian calendar by issuing a bull in

the sixteenth century by omitting ten days between October 4 and 15 in

1582, and made October 15 follow October 4 in that year,

" laymen " came on the roads clamouring for the lost ten days of their

lives! However, the whole world (including our good old India!) adopted

that very calendar ultimately once the things were explained to them in a

proper way! Thus every " layman " became a " wise " man.

Since I do not

wield the " authority " of Pope Gregory XIII, I cannot issue a bull

myself! I have therefore been approaching the concerned authorities over the

last several years to issue such a " Bull " . I had the maximum

hope from the erstwhile BJP " Hindu Government " that they would

definitely do something about it but ironically, that was the most reluctant

government to do anything about it as they were more worried about the

vote bank of " Vedic Jyotishis " than the real Vedic calendar! Like the

Bhishma Pitamah of the Mahabharata, they turned a blind eye (though having the

vision) towards Draupadi being denuded by Kauravas---Indian " laymen "

being fleeced by panchanga-makers by prescribing wrong days for muhurtas and

fasts and festivals!

 

Prior to that, " panchanga-makers " , including the Rashtriya Panchanga,

had already been approached by me, but the reasons for their reluctance to do

anything about it were " summarized " in an indirect manner by Prof

Priyavrat Sharma, an erudite scholar of our dharmashastras and the editor

publisher of Martanda Panchangam, from Punjab, on pages 229 to 235 of his

" Grahayog aur dampatya jeevan " (meaning " conjugal life vis-a-vis

planetary combinations " ). I quote these from pages 109-110 of my

Shri Krishen Universal Ephemeris and Panchang for 2001

" On page

235 Prof. Priyavrat Sharma has summarized the contents of the article in bold

letters, a running translation of which could be, 'Chitrapaksha

longitudes are as per an unreal---fictitious--First Point of Aries. They

can therefore never give correct results in predictive astrology.. (By

implication it means that actual dates of festivals etc also cannot be decided

correctly on the basis of such fictitious longitudes). But it is not

equally possible now to use Revati Paksha longitudes either because then Revati

Paksha followers also will have to muster courage to throw all the panchangas

and horoscopes of the people (dead or alive) of past centuries into dustbin as

they were based on the Surya Sidhanta. They will also have to admit

clearly that whatever predictions Indian astrologers had been making (over the

last several centuries), the muhurtas they had been preparing and also the

matching of horoscopes they were doing in the past was all baseless'.

Needless to say here that 'Chitrapaksha' means 'Lahiri Ayanamsha'

" The

oldest Panchanga/Jantri of Kashmir had indicated in one of its Panchangas that

now it has started getting planetary data from Martanda Panchangam instead of

from 'Makranda'/Grahalaghava'. Even otherwise also, about 99 per cent of

Indian Panchangas/Jantris, including 'Rashtriya Panchanga' are prepared from

this very 'Chitrapaksha' i.e. 'Lahiri Ayanamsha'!......Obviously the learned

editor advises his readers and disciples to continue following a Rashichakra for

festivals and muhurtas that he himself knows to be neither as per scriptures

nor modern astronomy nor the sidhantas. He wants us to follow it only

because the horoscopes and panchangas based on those wrong data will have to be

thrown into dustbin otherwise....It is virtually like a doctor advising his

patients to continue to use the wrong medicine he had prescribed knowingly as

otherwise the medicine will go waste! It is immaterial for the doctor if

the patients die---the medicine should not be 'thrown into dustbin' as it will

be a financial loss to the doctor Sahib "

 

The question arises as to why we are following such a messy situation

then. Even this question has been answered by the Saha Calendar Reform

Committee of 1954 on page 25 of their Report in the following words, " Even

today Panchanga making was a financial proposition. Astrology flourished

on the principle 'remember if it fits and forget if it misses.... " .

It is clear

from all my correspondence that these Panchanga-makers are turning a deaf ear

to all my pleading deliberately. Why? It is not difficult to

surmise! These Panchamgamakers cannot contradict any of the proofs of the

shastras and sidhantas or modern astronomy that I have advocated that the

calendar or Rashichakra we are using these days is based neither on the

shastras nor on modern astronomy. They cannot muster the courage either

to admit that they have been taking the general public for a ride!

Besides, it is also a tremendous financial loss to them since all the patri-melapak

they have been doing; all the astrological predictions they have been making or

all the remedial measures they have been advocating are based on that very

festival-rashichakra and they do not want to suffer a financial loss

also! ! Hundreds of magazines are published every month on

“Vedic astrology” and thousands of books every year to “make

predictions more successful”. The business of all these jyotishis

and panchangamakers and tantriks and magazine publishers etc. is running into

trillions of rupees. This is apart from the " Vedic astrology "

software that has been dished out. So you can well imagine that it is not an

easy job for them to suffer the loss of face as well as finances! They

must be and are cursing me like anything for having touched this hornet's nest!

It is in fact a Catch-22 situation for them!

It is only In

view of these unpleasant facts that I call today's " Vedic

astrologers " worse than Duryodhana!

The next best alternative available with us was to approach the revered

Shankarcharya and other saints and appraise them of this situation. Even

that has been done! But somehow, almost all of them are silent and God

only knows why! They are acting just like Dhronacharya and Kripacharya of

Mahabharata! While Draupadi was being disrobed by Duryodhana and

Dushasana, both the “acharyas” kept their mouths---in spite of

being Acharyas!---shut for reasons not difficult to judge.

Thus I have

already approached " laymen " like you " Pope Gregories "

like the Government of India; and all our scholarly " Panchanga

makers " besides our revered spiritual leaders (Dronachayras and

Kripacharyas!) besides “Bhishmapitamahas” of the “Hindu

Rajya”.

..Since there

has been a deafening (eloquen?) silence from all of them, we have again to

approach " laymen " like you so that there is a mass uprising against

this tyrannical grip of these false Messiahs like “Vedic

astrologers” and “Varahamihiras” and “Parasharas”

besides “Bhishmapitamahas” and “”Dronacharyas”

and “Krpiacharyas”!

I can

understand the “paucity” of time busy people like you have. I

do not have a lot of " free " time myself either! However, it is not

only the material wealth alone that we have to strive for. Being real

Hindus, we have to " spare " sometime for delving deeper into our

cultural heritage also. And celebrating festivals and conducting shradhas

on correct days is one of the most visible identities of our culture. So there

is no question of " qatta " of " taaluk " . Inshallah,

phir milenge!

 

With regards,

Avtar Krishen

Kaul

PS: I am

sending copies of this letter together with your original letter to the

Hon'ble President of India; Hon'ble Vice President of India; the Hon'ble Prime

Minister of ndia; the Hon'ble Speaker of the Loksabha; Smti Sonia Gandhi,

Chairperson of the UPA; Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, Chairman NDA; Shri L K

Advani, Leader of the Opposition in the Loksabha; India Meteorological

Department; Positional Astronomy Centre; UGC; besides the revered Kanchi

Kamakoti Shankaracharya; KBhaiji; VHP-Delhi; VHP USA,RSS etc. with further

reference to my earlier representation of June 27, 2004 and July 9, 2004, so

that they understand the frustration of a common man and kindly issue a

" bull " to the concerned authorities, at least to the publishers of

Rashtriya Panchanga, to align our calendars to the seasons instead of to some

imaginary Lahiri Rashichakra, which even the " Vedic Panchanga-makers "

themselves believe to be neither as per the shastras nor as per modern

astronomy!

----- Original

Message

 

" Raman Kaul " <rk_kaul

<KPandit >

Tuesday, July 27, 2004 9:00 PM

* KP eForum * Re: " Mourning " on Dipavali and

" celebrating " marriages during shradhapaksha

> Dear Avtar ji,