Fundamental Principles Working in the Birth Chart of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati

Fundamental Yogas of Astrology

The three most fundamental yogas of classical Indian natal astrology are those concerning the neighbors and direct influences upon three points: the Ascendant, Sun and Moon. When a classical astrologer picks up a horoscope, the first thing he or she should do is evaluate these three fundamental groups of yogas. In so doing, he or she figures out the baseline and foundation on which to construct the rest of the interpretation of finer details in the horoscope.

Let’s see this principle in action, in the horoscope of the great astrologer and sadhu, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati.

His birth data is February 6, 1874 at 15:30 in Puri, Orissa, India. We calculate the chart in classical Indian style, which uses whole-signs for houses, and the tropical zodiac (as defined in classical Sanskrit texts and as most likely was employed by Bhaktisiddhanta himself), using European glyphs out of personal preference…

Confining ourselves to the three key points defined above, What do we observe here?

Ascendant:

• Nothing joins it or flanks it on either side.
• It’s dispositor is the Moon, which means anything affecting the Moon is doubly significant (since the Moon is already significant on its own).

Moon:

• Jupiter joins it. That sets a scope for reading the horoscope towards Jupiter-themes: honesty, learning, philosophy, religion, morality, law.
  • The junction is in the 4^th house. Jupiter in the 4^th indicates heartfelt morality and inner happiness.
  • Jupiter in Libra. This shows a modern, forward-thinking, non-conformist approach to morality, religion, philosophy, etc.
• Ketu in the 2^nd. Classically speaking, we’re not supposed to care about Ketu or Rahu in these positions, but it is hard to ignore the spiritual, mystical indication of Ketu in the 2^nd from the Moon while Jupiter joins the Moon.
• Many Trines. Many planets are trine to the Moon, in its 5^th house (showing intelligence) and the 8^th house from the ascendant (showing mysticism and research). Venus is particularly aligned with the Moon’s degree, causing it’s 5^th house aspect to be at its peak. Venus is the Moon’s own lord and the lord of the Moon’s 8^th – showing great inner emotional contentment and peace, as well as a great capacity for research into unknown / mystical topics.

Sun:

Mars in the 2^nd position from the Sun: Ambitious, independent, and sharp.

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was extremely ambitious: he “took on the world” and formed a whole new religious/spiritual movement with a global focus, preaching even to the British during the British occupation, and sending missionaries to Great Brittan.

He was extremely independent: he divorced himself from the popular Hindu understandings of culture and religion, accepted a guru in a non-conventional way, ascribed his lineage in a non-traditional way, gave himself sanyassa, and never married, and was completely aloof from public opinion.

He was extremely sharp – his words were like arrows, and his intellect was like a razor.

This places Mars in the 9^th house. Passion for religion (a Mars in the 9^th house indication) becomes more fundamental and sure in the chart because Mars in the 9^th house is also in the 2^nd position from the Sun.

Mars in Pisces adds to the above that the character of the passion for religion is philosophical and learned.

Saturn, Venus and Mercury join the Sun, in Aquarius. This shows the ability to use language poetically when expressing esoteric logics.

Summary

In this chart we find a very big emphasis has to be placed on the Moon. Why? (a) It is the Moon, which always deserves emphases (b) It disposits the Ascendant, which has no other significant influences (except an aspect from Mars in the 9^th house), and (c) because it (joined Jupiter) is alone amongst the Kendras (4 central houses: 1, 4, 7, and 10).

We also have to very significantly emphasize our interpretation of Mars, a single planet that affects all three important points.

• It aspects the ascendant (with 47 out of 60 virupas)
• It perfectly aspects the Moon (60/60)
• It is in the 2^nd position from the Sun.

So we are inclined to use the symbol of “the Moon joined Jupiter in 4^th house Libra” as the baseline for the chart, the foundation upon which the interpretation of this horoscope should be constructed. And the first condition we blend this with should be “Mars in the 9th house Pisces.”

Doing that without knowing who Bhaktisiddhanta was, we would quite easily come to these accurate interpretations

• Religion and philosophy was the main focus of his life (viz Jupiter),
• He was detached from external sources of happiness (viz Jupiter),
• He was passionate, ambitious, and independent (viz Mars),
• And he was quite learned (viz Moon/Jupiter/Sun).

This serves as example of how to build the basic understanding of the person by looking for the most important conditions affecting the Sun, Moon and Ascendant. Only after this basic understanding is formed can one surely proceed into finer details.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur on 29 March 1918 two days after taking sannyasa. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Practical, Modern Evaluation of the Yuga Defined in Vedanga Jyotisha

In Theory

A beautiful animation of the apparent phases of the Moon.

The theory presented by Vedāṁga is that a unit of time called a “yuga” begins every five years when the Sun and Moon conjoin at a specific point in space; a point equivalent to what we nowadays call 0° Tropical Capricorn – the “winter solstice.”

For this to be true, the Moon most progress a certain amount each year, so that in five years it returns to the same point. The amount of the progression must therefore be some multiple of 360° divided by five.

The Vedāṁga itself says that the moon will progress 12 “tithi” each year.  A “tithi” is a measurement of the lunar phase. There are 15 tithi in the waxing period of the Moon, and another fifteen in the waning. Adding 12 to the 1^st tithi is easy: it’s the 13^th tithi. But adding 12 to the 13^th tithi gets confusing at first, because after 15 it becomes the 1^st tithi of the waning cycle. So instead of 25, the tithi is 25-15: 10. The 10^th tithi of the waning cycle. Similarly, adding 12 is not the 22^nd tithi of the waning cycle; because the waning cycle finished on the 15^th tithi. Instead it is 22-15: 7; the 7^th tithi of the waxing cycle.

In total there are 30 phases. So if we count the phases sequentially from 0, anything less than 15 is a waxing phase, anything else is a waning phase. Anything higher than 29 is a repeat. So the 36^th phase, is identical to the 7^th phase, etc.

Dividing the lunar cycle into 30 units means that each unit contains 12° of arc (360 divided by 30 is 12). So, by saying that there is a progressive difference of 12 tithis each successive New Year, the Vedāṁga tells us that the Moon will progress 144° each year (12 multiplied by 12 is 144).

Here is a theoretical presentation of how the New Years (winter solstices) would work within a yuga:

Year	Tithi Name	Phase Ordinal	Degrees Progressed
One	1st waxing	0	0°
Two	13th waxing	12	144°
Three	10th waning	24	288°
Four	7th waxing	36	432°
Five	4th waning	48	576°

 

Where would the Moon be on the sixth New Year? Adding 12 tithi to the Moons location the previous New Year we would once again be at the 1^st waxing tithi. It would be the 60^th phase ordinal, and the Moon would have progressed a total of 720°. Since 720 is an exact multiple of 360, this means the Moon would join the Sun at the same exact place it did five years earlier.

Thus, a “yuga” ends, and the next one starts.

In Reality

The average daily motion of the Moon is about 13.2°. The average daily motion of the Sun is about 0.986°. Thus it takes the Sun about 365.24 days to progress 360°. The Moon moves about 4,821° in the same amount of time. Let’s cast out all the 360° units from that number. There are 13 of them, with an extra .392, roughly. 39.2% of 360° is a bit more than 141°.

That is indeed very close to the theoretical 144° the Moon needs to progress relative to the Sun each year, to make the Vedāṁga’s yuga work.

The Vedāṁga’s “tithi” is not an exact conjunction by is the 12° span of various phases. So we have leeway, theoretically as much as 12° leeway, before the synchronicity of this yuga measurement breaks and needs to be fixed. Since there is about 3° inaccuracy per year: we have about four years before we need to adjust the calendar with some variation of a “leap year.”

But the problem becomes that although the yuga will work on a paper calendar that follows certain rules, gradually it will lose connection to the natural phenomenon that original marked it. As such the five year yuga very gradually fell out of vogue as an important time-keeping device.

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Vedic Yugas… Five Years Long

This continues my presentation of Vedanga Jyotish – the oldest complete treatise on Indian calendrical astronomy.

Yugas

A yuga contains 5 years, 1830 days, and 62 synodic (lunar) months. Knowing this, we can calculate many other ways of measuring the yuga.

• The star named Dhaniṣṭhā will rise 1835 times. [i.e. A yuga has 1835 sidereal days. A sidereal day is the duration between the rising of a star, in this case Dhaniṣṭhā. Every year there is one extra sidereal day than a normal day (measured as the duration between the rising of the Sun), and there are five years in a yuga.]
• There will be 67 lunar cycles. [62 synodic months in 5 years, plus one extra cycle for each year]
• The moon will rise 1768 times. [sidereal days minus one day per each lunar cycle]
• The Moon will cross the equator 134 times [the number of constellations traversed by the Sun in 5 years, minus one]

The yuga has 60+1 months of sunrises, 60+2 synodic months, and 60+7 lunar cycles. There are 30 sunrises in such a month. The solar month however has 30.5 days.

In a yuga, the Moon enters each constellation 67 times. The Sun stays in each constellation for 13 5/9 days.

Since Dhaniṣṭhā will rise 1,835 times, and since there are 27 constellations like Dhaniṣṭhā, there are 49,545 lagna [ascendants] in a yuga (1,835 x 27 = 49,545).

Since there are six ṛtu in a year, if we apply this to the Moon’s “year” (a lunar cycle) we find that there are 402 lunar ṛtu (“seasons”) in a yuga (67 x 6 = 402).

Beginning of the Yuga

The five-year yuga begins when the Sun and Moon come together in Dhaniṣṭhā. It will be the lunar month of Maghā, the solar month of Tapas. The Moon’s waxing will begin, and both the Sun and Moon will begin moving northward in reference to the equator. The Yuga ends with the waning moon of the month of Pauṣa.

When the Sun and Moon are at the beginning of Dhaniṣṭhā’s area, they begin moving northward. When they are in the middle of Āśleṣā they begin moving southward. In the Sun’s case this always happens in the months of Māgha and Śrāvaṇa, respectively.

Solstices during the Yuga

Tithi [lunar-phase-day] and nakṣatra of the beginning [winter solstice] and midpoints [summer solstice] of each year of the yuga:

• First Year:           1^st waxing / Dhaniṣṭhā [“Winter”]             7^th waxing / Citrā [“Summer”]
• Second Year:     13^th waxing / Ārdrā                                          4^th waning / Pūrva Bhādrapadā
• Third Year:          10^th waning / Anurādhā                                                 1^st waxing / Āśleṣā
• Fourth Year:       7^th waxing / Aśvinī                                            13^th waxing / Pūrva Aṣāḍhā
• Fifth  Year:          4^th waning / Uttara Phālgunī                        10^th waning / Rohiṇī

Comment: this translation should be fact checked. The details may be in wrong arrangement.

Equinoxes during the Yuga

The equinoxes of the Yuga occur:

• First Year:           3^rd waxing (“Vernal”)      9^th waxing (“Autumnal”)
• Second Year:     Full Moon                            6^th waning
• Third Year:          12^th waning                         3^rd waxing
• Fourth Year:       9^th waxing                            Full Moon
• Fifth Year:           6^th waning                           12^th waning

The formulae for obtaining this information:

Double the ordinal of the equinox; subtract one; then multiply by six. This number is the number of waxing and waning periods of the Moon which have passed between the beginning of the yuga and the equinox in question. [odd numbers are waxing periods, even numbers are waning periods.]

If you half this number you will know on which tithi [lunar-phase day] the equinox will occur.

Maintaining Synchronicity Between the Calendar and Reality

Every two synodic months and two synodic days, a new season begins. However, the eighth season begins on the 15^th synodic day [not the 16^th].

Comment: The addition of two and sometimes one synodic day is a method for synchronizing approximated and rounded cylindrical measurements.

 

If the end of the waxing or waning period [the syzygy of Earth, Moon and Sun] occurs before mid-day, you can omit that day from the calendar. If not, subtract 30 kāṣṭhā  from the kāṣṭhā of the syzygy  for each waxing or waning period elapsed [since the Yuga began].

Comment: I am not clear on the exact meaning of the second half of this statement.

An Interpolated Verse

Comment: I will mention a verse without a number and found in only one of the two versions of the book, clearly added to the text at a later date:

 

Note the zodiac sign that Jupiter is in when the Yuga begins. Count it from Pisces. Divide that by five. Take the remainder. That is the number of the year in the five-year cycle.

 

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com

Vedāṁga Jyotiṣa – Part 1

I will organize this presentation in leiu of the work of Professor T.S. Kuppanna Sastry and Dr. K.V Sarma. It combines the two versions of Vedāṁga Jyotiṣa found in Ṛg and Yajur Veda.

Introduction

I purify myself by bowing my head to the Creator, whom I envision as being the power within the five-year cycles [“yuga”], and the body on which days, months, seasons, and half-years are limbs.

I also bow my head to the Goddess of Intellect, Sarasvati – so that I may write on the science of time, as explained by Sage Lagadha.  This science is meritorious and dear to the learned, because by it one can understand the perfect times to make auspicious endeavors.

The Vedas exist so that we can successfully obtain the results of our efforts and sacrifices, but doing so is very dependent on timing. Therefore one who understands the science of time, Jyotiṣa, also understands the science of successful efforts.  So they say that this science of Jyotiṣa is the foremost appendix to Vedic knowledge – much like the feathers of a peacock, or the treasures of a dragon.

Anyone who understands the Vedas and also understands the movements of the Sun and Moon will become prosperous in this world and afterwards will go to where the Sun and Moon move about in the heavens.

Measuring Time

The time it takes to pronounce a long vowel is an akṣara. Five of them is a kāṣṭhā. Four groups of thirty-one kāṣṭhā are a kalā. 10.05 kalā is a nāḍikā. Two nāḍikā are a muhūrta. Thirty muhūrta are a day, which is equivalent to 603 kalā.

A year is 366 days. It has two ayana, six ṛtu, and twelve months.

A yuga is five years.

Also: a nāḍikā is three sixteenths of an āḍhaka, during which time a clepsydra will drain 50 pala of water. Four āḍhaka are a droṇa. And a Ṛtu equals 4.5 constellations.

Comment:

Assuming for now that a day is “24 hours” the approximate modern values of these time units are as follows.

Droṇa:                 512 minutes (>8.5 hours)

Āḍhaka:             128 minutes

Muhurta:           48 minutes

Nadika:               24 minutes

Kalā:                     2.4(-) minutes

Kāṣṭhā group: 4.5(-) second

Kāṣṭhā:                1(+) second

Akṣara:                ¼ of a second

Now, for the longer periods of time, approximately:

Yuga:                    5 years

Year:                     366 days

Ayana:                 183 days

Ṛtu:                       61 days

Month:                30(+) days

The text gives three ways to check the measurements in the real world. We can do it starting from the Akṣara, assigning it the amount of time it takes to pronounce two short-vowel syllables or one long-vowel syllable in normal speech. Or we can start from the āḍhaka, assigning it the amount of time it takes to drain a clepsydra (basically a pot with a pinhole in it) holding a fixed amount of water. Or we start from the ṛtu, assigning it the amount of time it takes the Sun to move 60 degrees of arc in reference to a zodiac star.

Since we have mentioned the zodiac stars, lets now pull together the definitive verses concerning the zodiac constellations.

Zodiac Constellations

The zodiac constellations with their deities are:

1. Kṛttikā                           Agni (God of fire)
2. Rohiṇī                            Prajāpati (the Creator, Brahmā)
3. Mṛgaśīrṣā                     Soma (God of the immortal elixir)
4. Ārdrā                             Rudra (God of destruction)
5. Punarvasu                   Aditi (Goddess of space)
6. Puṣya                             Bṛhaspati (God of prayer)
7. Āśleṣā                            Naga (Dragons)
8. Maghā                           Pitṛ (Ancestral spirits)
9. Pūrva Phālgunī           Bhaga (God of love)
10. Uttara Phālgunī         Aryamā (God of vows)
11. Hasta                             Savitā (God of awakening)
12. Citrā                               Tvaṣṭā (God of design)
13. Svāti                               Vāyu (God of breath/air)
14. Viśākhā                         Indrāgñi (God of sacrificial fire)
15. Anurādhā                     Mitra (God of devotion/ friendship)
16. Jyeṣṭhā                         Indra (Chief of the gods)
17. Mūla                              Nirṛti (Goddess of destruction)
18. Pūrva Aṣāḍhā             Apa (Goddess of water)
19. Uttara Aṣāḍhā            Viśvadeva (All divinities)
20. Śravaṇa                         Viṣṇu (God of existence)
21. Dhaniṣṭhā                    Vasu (Gods of elements)
22. Śatabhiṣaj                    Varuṇa (God of night/ the underworld)
23. Pūrva Bhādrapadā    Ajaikapāt (Fire dragon)
24. Uttara Bhādrapadā Ahirbudhnya (Water dragon)
25. Revatī                            Pūṣan (God of protection)
26. Aśvinī                             Aśvini (Twin children of the Sun)
27. Bharaṇī                         Yama (God of death)

Those who understand the science of sacrifice recall that the names of these gods should be used in place of our own name, according to the constellation under which we are born, whenever we make serious sacrifices and efforts.

Ārdrā, Citrā, Viśākhā, Śravaṇa and Aśvinī have “fierce” qualities. Maghā, Svāti, Jyeṣṭhā, Mūla and Bharaṇī  have “harsh” qualities.

Importance of Cross Multiplication

The following very common elementary equation will often be used in our calculations: a/b = c/x. Which is solved as: x = bc/a.

To be continued… stay tuned…

- Vic DiCara

www.vicdicara.com