Guest guest Posted April 3, 2005 Report Share Posted April 3, 2005 Namaste friends, Saaji sent a mail on varahamihira a while ago. He gave a quote from Mundakopanishat and said that he wanted to believe that astrology was a para vidya but did not find a classical reference to counter a weighty reference such as Mundakopanishat. He asked others if they had other references. I am afraid he was grossly misunderstood by others who started attacking him for giving a genuine quote in a very scholarly fashion. But that is not what I want to talk about. I want to address Saaji's quote. The word para vidya means different things to different people. That is where the problem lies. The strictest meaning of "para" is "supreme". So para vidya means "supreme knowledge". Knowledge of Brahman alone is supreme. All other knowledge, including the knowledge of Vedas, Vedangas and Upanishats, is inferior to that knowledge. Mundakopanishat obviously uses this strict definition and hence calls Jyotisha an apara vidya (non-supreme knowledge). Some people use a less strict meaning. For them, apara vidya means material knowledge and para vidya means spiritual knowledge. Such people are naturally surprised to find a respected Upanishat saying that Jyotisha is apara vidya. Just because chemistry and Jyotisha are both apara vidyas (non-supreme knowledge), it does not mean they are both material subjects. Some apara vidya is grossly material, while some apara vidya is spiritual. Even though a vidya may be apara (non-supreme), it can aid one in attaining para vidya (supreme knowledge of self). Thus, I see no inconsistency between the common understanding in our tradition that Jyotisha is a spiritual subject unlike material subjects like chemistry and the quote from Mundakopanishat. If respected gurus, elders and authorities allow me to make a non-technical suggestion, I will suggest that we should encourage students like Saaji to raise this kind of issues so that we can have an impassionate and scholarly discussion and prepare ourselves better to debate with people outside our tradition. In particular, I found Saaji very sincere, learned and brilliant. He was most misunderstood and lost his balance only at the end. May Jupiter's light shine on us,Narasimha-------------------------------Free Jyotish lessons (MP3): http://vedicastro.home.comcast.netFree Jyotish software (Windows): http://www.VedicAstrologer.org SJC website: http://www.SriJagannath.org------------------------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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