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

 

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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,