A calendrical dream

[Guest guest]

Shri T. V. Sivaraman ji,

Jai Shri Ram,

 

It is a fascinating piece you have posted.

 

In the Yoga-Vasishtha there is a discussion between Shri Ram and his Guru

Vasishtha where the former asked that if Parabrahman is beyond words and

reasoning and cannot be attained by shastras, why were we having all the

shastras around. Vasishtha narrated a story to Him of a miser who lost a

" kauri " and started searching for it. The miser kept on searching for the same

day and night continuously through the whole jungle for several days without

food and water The miser ultimately found a " Chintamani " ---a gem supposed to

yield all the desired results!

 

Vasishtha explained to Shri Ram that if that miser had not kept on looking for

the " kauri " and ransacked the whole jungle for the same, he would never have got

" Chintamani " . He explained further that by looking for " kauris " in the

shasstras, people with a burning desire ultimately realize the Supreme!

 

It is a similar story about calendar reform! What is a useless and unrelated

activity according to you, and several other members, about the date of Valmiki

Ramayana or the Mahabharata or my tirade against " Vedic astrology " is in fact a

real quest---brain storming---for the real Vedic-cum-Pauranic calendar! It is

in fact a Clarion Call to the entire Hindu community that they must come out of

their fatal infatuation with " Vedic astrology " and look for the real Vedic

festivals etc.

 

You might have observed it for yourself that every body is criticizing the

efforts in a highly derisive manner, instead of giving some constructive

suggestions. That is just because ninety-nine percent of Hindu population

(Hindu Civilization!) comprises " Vedic jyotishis " and ninety-nine per cent of

those jyotishis are so called nirayana-walas and ninety-nine per cent of those

nirayana-walas are Lahiriwalas!

 

Because there is a direct conflict between Mesha etc. Rashis, especially the

so called nirayana rashis, and the Vedic calendar, " Vedic astrologers " are

making every effort to scuttle my efforts by calling me a " Christian " and

" Proselytizing " and so on. They even take shelter behind " parokshya-professor "

like Arjuna took behind Shikhandi who was actually a straw as compared to

Bhishma!

 

Hindu jyotishis have been using so called sayana rashis in India at the time of

Alberuni's visit in tenth century, and that is evident from Bhatotpala's

comments also that in Kashmir as well, Sayana planetary longitudes were used for

predictive astrology as well as calendar making, after Munjala's Laghumanasa had

become popular.

That sayana Rashis were used as per agamas also as is clear from Tantraloka,

wherein Acharya Abhinavagupta has talked of Mesha Sanrkanti as day being equal

to night and so on! (Pl. see BVB6.doc) and Abhinavagupta was around in eleventh

century AD.

 

Thus, if we have to use Rashis for Hindu calendar, they have to be so called

sayana rashis, though there were no rashis in the Vedas or the VJ etc., in

spite of " parokshya professor's " claims to the contrary! But Sayana rashis is

an anathema to " Vedic astrologers " . If a miniscule number of people have

accepted the sayana rashis for Vedic calendar, they are doing so only because

they are experimenting with so called sayana rashis with predictive gimmicks and

that is why they call " Sayana jyotish " as the " real Vedic jyotish " like some

overseas Pondicherrywalas and their shishyas etc. They have actually no faith

in the Vedic calendar but all they are intested in is making " correct

predictions form (sayana instead of nirayana) rashis " !

But the problem with those sayana rashis is that they cannot be linked to

Ashvini, Bharni etc. nakshatras at all, though as per Alberuni's India, he has

given proofs that nakshatras were clubbed with Sayana rashis in his period!

But then that is wrong and we cannot continue to do that because no nakshatra

falls in any namesake division if we take sayana rashis vis-a-vis nakshatras.

We thus fall back again to so called nirayana rashis! But that again is not

possible since not only cannot the nakshatra divisions be accommodated in

respective nirayana rashi division either, we also have the festivals

completely delinked from the seasonal festivals and instead of Pauranic Makar or

Mesha or any other Sankranti, all we are doing is celebrating Lahiri Makar and

Kumbha etc. Sankrantis!

What is equally problematic about calendar making is the position of nakshatras!

Do we take them of equal division or of unequal division? What is the starting

point of nakshatras? Which is the starting nakshatra and why? The Junction

stars of nakshatras--do they have some real connection with the nakshatras of

their respective names or were they also an invention by Maya the mlechha, since

prior to the Surya Sidhanta, we do not have any records that we had the present

junction stars for nakshatras! The Vedas do tell us about different nakshatras,

like " kirittikasu agnim adadeeta " but we do not know from which Star Krittika

division started and why during the Vedic time.

If the Junction Stars are really aligned to nakshatras, how do we account for

Chitra and Swati stars having a distance of less than half a degree and that of

Svati and Vishakha about 21 degrees and so on? Did the Vedic seers really name

the respective nakshatra divisions on the basis of the present nomenclature of

junction stars or did they follow some other method?

 

All these are very inconvenient and terse questions. But then we have to find

answers to all of them. And we could have expected some solution from " Vedic

astrologers " since they must be the real pundits in this field, but then they

are more interested in preserving the sanctity of Lahiri or Ramana or Chandra

Hari Ayanamsha than arriving at Truth and nothing but Truth!

 

That is why I am asking everybody to give his/her opinion! And all that I am

getting is innumerable mails from Shri Hari Malla, which make neither head nor

tail, since he just wants to put the Hindu community out of the frying pan into

fire! Instead of Lahiri and Ramana and Chandra Hari mess, Shri Hari Mall wants

the Hindu community to fall into Hari Malla mess!

 

In view of the above, I have decided to continue with uploading the list of

festivals of correct dates before the start of next year, on the basis of the

Vedic months Madhu, Madhava etc., which may be clubbed with Pauranic (instead of

Lahiri or Ramaana etc.!) Mina Sanrkanti and so on. People may erroneously call

them sayana rashis, but they are only a stop gap arrangement---till the general

public gets weaned from them.

Regarding nakshatras, I will request every member to give his/her opinion, so

that we can make some real progress in that direction also.

Weekdays are neither Sayana nor nirayana! There is no controversy, even if they

have been imported from overseas! We can continue to use them -- from one

sunrise to next sunrise in India.

Regarding, Preeti, Vishkumbha, Ayushman etc. yogas, I would again request the

members to give their views. We do not find any mention of them in any of the

Vedas or the Vedanga Jyotisha or Atharva Jyotisha etc.

 

I would also request the members that my views are not at all sacrosanct. They

are subject to peer review since we have to arrive at Truth and nothing but

Truth.

With regards,

A K Kaul

HinduCalendar , SIVA EXPORIUM <sivaexpo wrote:

>

 

Namasthe to all friends:

 

 

 

Being member of half a dozen I spend around two hours a day reading

mails,

 

especially in the Hindu calendar, Hindu civilization and iyer123

 

 

 

As I laid my limbs on my bed and slept away the other day, I had a terrible

dream, may be

 

around early morning... I felt engulfed by a dark hot matter which sucked me

into a tunnel.

 

Soon I found light at the other end and landed in a what appeared as a

wrestler's arena.

 

Only a couple of competitors were there.

 

 

 

All our festivals are celebrated on wrong dates and I want to bring back the

vedic style

 

around, a divine voice echoed. Imported things have no place here added the

voice.

 

 

 

A charlatan suddenly appeared on the scene. Noting is imported he averred; all

are only

 

evolved here in the course of time. If that be the case why don't you call days

as one two

 

three and four instead of Sunday, Monday etc and why then seven days in a

week,

 

why not fifteen?

 

 

 

This is a necessary evil said the divine one.

 

 

 

But Rasis are definitely imported and there is no Mesha, Rishaba etc in the

vedas and

 

come what may I will not allow that. So too, no other planets like Mangal, Sani,

etc except

 

sun and moon -- uttered the untiring.

 

 

 

Just then Ahura Mazda appeared " Ashem Vohu Vashistem asti; Ushtã asti; Ushtã

ahmãi;

 

Hyat ashãi1; Vahishtãi ashem. " (Righteousness is the best good and it is

happiness.

 

Happiness is to him who is righteous for the sake of the best righteousness --

Righteousness

 

is truth ( The Veda's - Ritam cha satyam cha tapaso adi jayate ). If these

are imported were

 

not the exporters also part of you? Was not the Chaldean Marduk your Indra?

Is not apsu

 

( Chaldean abzu ) a Sanskrit word for watery abyss ?

 

Uru-ashi is Chaldean for waters of the night --- your celestial nymph Urvasi

( ap-sara ) .

 

Vedic and all these cultures originated from an Artic home. Are we not part

of your Vedic

 

heritage ? Ahura exclaimed.

 

 

 

Are you not today importing from NASA, Switzerland your planetary charts? Is not

your

 

computing system imported? , the charlatan asked again. Why do you fight on a

name?

 

What does it matter to the heavens if you call your imaginary thirty degrees as

mesh ,

 

vrishabha or madhu or madhava. Will man on the street know what Madhu and

 

Madhava are? They are as alien as what the imported are to you.

 

 

 

Just then a thundering voice was heard and a mlecha descendent on the arena. Why

 

do you flay me day in and day out? I was ordained to propound astronomy and

 

also architecture around the world. My Siddhartha was placed for your beneficial

 

use, ages ago, and if there was any flaw you have only to improve on it and not

to

 

find fault with me now. It is not my fault that you have not corrected your

calendar

 

for precession of the equinoxes. Your lethargy was the cause.

 

 

 

You, mlecha, are the cause of all the trouble now; the ayanamsas are also a

humbug,

 

the divine scolded him again. The entire country is intoxicated with the lahari

of

 

a Lihiri, he lamented.

 

 

 

Just then, a rocket landed from Sriharikotta. . Hari Om where is the starting

point.

 

It must be a coordinated one and not anything else is acceptable to me. A long

 

drawn out malla yuddha was on stage..

 

 

 

Let us leave it at that, Sani is changing the house; let us urgently cast the

horoscopes of

 

bhagawan Ram and Krisha. They are waiting on the line to see our prediction

 

for the next year, some one was heard saying.

 

 

 

A whole array of the planets shouted from heaven. Where we not mentioned

 

in your vedas? Why do you deny us. Are we only acid fuming, inhospitable

 

desolate waste, and matter no grass to the earthlings? What when the Atharvan

 

worshiped us " divi chara griha " were we not inclusive ? Then why do you go

 

after the stars that are far far away from us and bother about their division?

 

 

 

Some one was heard saying that you imported the 28 stars also from China.

 

Then you are net importer only-- just like for consumer goods also now?

 

 

 

The mlecha warned of what is going to happen on the doomsday 13 number

 

he propounded in long count calendar, that lay just a couple of years ahead,

 

on the winter solstice day of December 21, 2012. Earth quakes, tsunamis,

 

continental shifts, wobbling of the earth, change of poles, etc. Satellite

 

communication systems will be destroyed; solar flares will swallow a large

 

chunk of humanity, the planets will be forced to change their courses -- a

horrible

 

list of things to come -- not so far off.

 

 

 

We have heard of predictions in the past. Only Vedic astrologers are capable of

 

predicting correct events from wrong data, the wise voice averred.

 

 

 

Yes, said the Mlecha; if the above predictions go wrong at least, will you agree

 

that my siddanatha is correct?

 

 

 

Will you correct your calendar before this date and return to your Vedic

 

prescription or dissolve in the disaster ?

 

 

 

Just then a bearded bard from Bengal flashed on the scene:

 

 

 

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

 

Where knowledge is free;

 

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow

 

domestic walls;

 

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

 

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

 

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the

 

dreary desert sand of dead habit;

 

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action

 

Into that heaven of freedom, let my country awake.

 

 

 

Do not build domestic walls to the heavens. The heavens belong to the entire

 

world and there is no import or export. What is familiar please take as it is,

 

but correct your calendar, the bard seemed to counsel.

 

 

 

Just then on the arena's bill board some one pasted a notice. A new Vedic

calendar was that,

 

unfolded by a darsini. Will it save the times .Ke sara sara.

 

 

 

 

 

T.V.Sivaraman