ASSAM
BooKs
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE FOR VEDIC ASTROLOGY - By Dr. Pranav Jyoti Deka
HOW
IT ALL BEGAN:
......
In the present day Indian gem market, where ninety percent of individual 'ring-size' gemstones are sold and purchased for astrological purposes and worn either to
placate the 'malevolent' or to encourage the 'benevolent' planets, even the most die-hard sceptical scientist gemologist will inadvertently learn the names of the planetary deities of Indian astrology and about their favourite gemstones.
The present author being a trained economic geologist that too in a strictly agnostic environment of the Communist Russia, imbibed the 'no nonsense' attitude and his notion of astrology related gem-therapy was totally negative.
The scenario suddenly changed in the autumn of 1993. After suffering from a prolonged bout of viral infection induced fever, resulting in mental depression, the author was moping at home for months, then his ever credulous spouse dispensed the age-old advice given by Indian house-wives through the ages, "why don't you consult some knowledgeable astrologer, and you should know them in plenty?"
The ignominy was enormous, but people do get desperate when box-full of medicines and arrays of specialists apparently cannot render any help. The pillar of rational thinking did go to an astrologer like any other lesser mortal.
Fortunately the astrologer gentleman was erudite, non-greedy, and a compassionate person. He went through the horoscope, praised the 'planetary conjunctions' under which yours truly was born. He proceeded to draw a number of circles and squares, did some arithmetic of the simplest nature, then solemnly declared that the recovery has already started and will be complete within a month or two as indicated by 'Mahadasha, Antardasha', Saturn, Rahu etc. etc. The author's wife and children will prosper, and he will live to ripe old age in comfort and honour. For an hour of comfort and solace he charged a very modest fee. The astrologer also provided a piece of paper with a picture of a circle divided into twelve equal segments. He assured that all the future happenings till death and beyond will be known from this piece of paper and whenever deciphering is felt to be necessary, we should not hesitate to consult the astrologer again.
The present author was more intrigued by the piece of paper than the lengthy discourse on planetary influences. Most of it could have been said by any astute, socially conscious person having no knowledge of astrology. The author all his adult life has dealt with 'a diamond for Venus and a ruby for the Sun', but when the planets faced him in real life in the form of a cryptic design, there was no elation, only confusion.
After few days of pondering, curiousity took the upperhand and it was decided to consult the astrologer again, not to have a peep at the future, but to understand how astrology works and the basis of the predictions. The result of the visit was highly disappointing. If there was only confusion in the first meeting, the second meeting was chaos.
The astrologer after hearing my request, and politely refusing the hefty fees offered, assured that there is nothing esoteric or confusing in Indian astrology. There are about fifteen widely accepted classical texts in Indian astrology with hundreds of tenets or rules, which one must first learn by heart. Then the aspiring astrologer must have a competent Guru (teacher) who only can teach him how to apply these rules in real life. Then with age and experience, the budding astrologer may turn into a famous or an insignificant astrologer as his fate dictates.
The mechanism is quite simple. "Just see", the gentleman took a sheet of paper, deftly drew a circle, two crosses within the circle, then divided the circle into twelve equal sectors, "this house belongs to the Sun, this one to Moon, these two to Mercury, two to Venus, two to Mars, similarly two each to Jupiter and Saturn. The Rahu and Ketu do not own any house."
"Why"?
"Because there was no vacant house left, all were occupied".
"I am not enquiring only why Rahu and Ketu were left homeless. I would have liked to know what made you decide that a particular segment belongs to Sun, and why the Sun and the Moon owns only one house each, while rest of the planets are hogging two houses leaving Rahu and Ketu without a roof over their heads?"
The modest astrologer took the banter lightly and replied in all seriousness. "I am but an ignorant astrologer, I doubt whether any astrologer even one trained in 'Kashi' will be able to provide an answer to this question".
Further discussion brought out that the gentleman had his training in a traditional 'Sanskrit tola' (school) where inquisitiveness was not considered to be a positive virtue. In toto repetition was the forte. At the same time, the present author's questions were not generated by any idle curiosity. His experience with the literature on classical Indian gemology has taught him that the authors of technical texts in the ancient India rarely if ever indulged in fantasy. Books of the genre of "Bestiary" are not found in Sanskrit. As the honest astrologers has claimed that not only himself but no other person can explain how astrology operates, and cannot even interpret the most basic tool in their profession, the design of the birth-chart, the astrologers are either perpetuating the greatest and the longest hoax on Earth, or else it is a case where the ancient knowledge got degraded and covered by ignorance of subsequent ages. While interpreting the verses on gemstones, the present author learnt that the ancient writers might have drawn occasionally wrong conclusions, but their observations were masters of obfuscation. Careless copying and wrong translation might have changed an individual 'sloka' to gibberish but on the whole the ancient Indian 'technocrats' did not waste their time in nonsense.
After an hour-long pestering with 'hows' and 'whys' 'the patience of Job' gave in. The exasperated gentleman asked, "Do you understand Sanskrit language?"
"Upto an elementary level" was the answer. The astrologer picked up a well-thumbed, thick book from his table and handed over to the present author with these words "all right, take this book and go though it. This is 'Parasar's Vrihat Hora Sastra'. The Indian astrology is founded on this book. I should also warn you, for thousands of years, thousands of best brains in the world tried to decipher this design of the natal-chart, and how astrological predictions are made, and unfortunately quite a good number of them went mad. If you find the book useful, keep it with you, but in all probability you will return the book within a day or two, just like few others before you did." Thereafter the author was curtly dismissed.
The donated book is still with us, and it took about three years for the author to understand that the venerable and well-meaning astrologer was very much in wrong in every count.
1. Parasara's 'Hora Sastra' is not the 'foundation'
of Indian astrology. The foundation was laid during the period of Rig-Veda,
and the ground work was Vedanga and Yajusha Jyotisha.
2. 'Hora Sastra' is a general system of astrology,
which differs from some other parallel schools as Jaimini, Vrigu,
'Nadi system' etc. Within the Parasara system there are number of
sub-systems and what goes in the name of 'Vrihat Parasara Hora Sastra'
and 'Laghu Parasara Hora Sastra' must have been penned by scores of
different astrologers in different centuries. Some of the slokas must
have been composed in the 7th, 8th century B.C. and some are as young
as 14th century A.D. In between, a number of authoritative books on
astrology must have been in circulation, some survived only through
the works of later astrologers. Some of the slokas of Phala-Deepika
and Jataka Parijata (14-15th A.D.) do not only carry similar meaning,
even the words used are the same, which indicate that both the author
must have used the same source literature which is now lost (the same
is true between Narayan Bhatta and Jibannatha).
Classification of Naksatras given in the Parasara is much nearer to Varahamihiras classification than the Vedic classification expounded in Taiteriya Brahmana, though chronologically Parasara is nearer to Vedic period than to second Hindu renaissance (4th-6th century A.D.)
3. There is no evidence that any Indian astrologer including the most daring genius among them, Varahamihira challenged the validity of the design of the birth-chart, and added or subtracted any feature or even tried to explain its construction. The design of the natal-chart and house ownership of different planets was accepted as 'fait accompli'. Nobody defied or questioned the supremacy of zodiacal- ascendant astrology over the venerable stellar-lunar astrology, only Satyacharya repeatedly cautioned about this new fangled idea and advised to step carefully.
4. The design of the natal chart is in fact very simple, and there was no necessity to lose one's sanity trying to decipher it. Probably the ancient astrologers found it so common and useful that just like 'gravity before Newton' nobody found any necessity to enquire about it.
The present author found Parasara full of self-contradictions, interpolations, and humility in the acknowledgement of limitation of astrology, and at the same time, and at the same time complete faith on astrology. From the Parasara the author's reading proceeded upstream to Vedic and Vedanga Jyotisha; Garga and Vashistha (whatever small scraps have survived); then downstream to Mansagar through Satyacharya,
Yavanacharya, Varahamihira, Kalyana Varmana, Jayadeva, Vaidyanatha, Kalidasa, Mantreswara, Narayana Bhatta, Ramanujacharya, Khan Khanan and lesser luminaries (as for the Brigu Samhita, there are two entirely different schools, both claiming authenticity) and it became apparent, that these plethora of authors differ only in their 'phaladesh' (results of planetary positions), there is virtually complete unanimity about the attributed appearance, and the physical, mental and sexual characters of the planets. Nobody questioned the house ownership or exalted or debilitated positions of the planets. This universal concurrence indicates that the astrologers were following same well-laid, indisputable, absolute dictum, which they did not dare to change (like some complicated, imported machinery, which the local mechanics do not dare to modify). In contrast, we find that the stellar-lunar astrology, the 'Dasa system' and Rahu or Ketu positions were continuously revised, modified and there was no unanimity among the Indian astrologers, which indicate their local origin.
Nowhere could the author find any semblance of explanation on how astrology functions, except one universally known 'sloka', where it is stated that "it is the Sun which control the 'fate' of everybody on this Earth, also "the Sun is the first initiator of astrology".
The author's foray into the western astrology was even more disappointing. The Indian astrologer authors were at least honest in their conviction, whereas the western astrologers always kept a nervous, apprehensive eye on the belligerent church in the medieval period and on modern science in the present age. In the recent astrological literature, sentences are so much obfuscated and carry such ambiguity, that literally they do not convey any sense.
From the Eighties of the last century, a few votaries of western astrology tried to put the garb of scientific respectability on astrology by freely using terms as 'cosmic forces', 'cosmic rays', 'personal electricity', 'magnetic resonance', 'colour vibration' etc. without clearly defining these terminologies.
To the scientific community in general, astrology is nothing but pure superstition. A few intrepid souls as M. Gauquelin; P. Davies; H. J. Eysensk; D.K.B. Nias; R. Brown; R. Beckman etc. (Astrology and Science -Piter Davies -London 1969; Astrology Science or Superstition -St. Martin press. 1982; The Cosmic Clocks -Piter Owens -London 1969; Biological Clocks -Boston 1962; Down Wave -Panbook -London 1983) tried to establish the veracity of astrological predictions with the help of statistics and the theory of probability. Intrinsic weakness of this method of investigation is that the same base data may be generated by varied processes. As for example, the basic information may be, "a person is sure to die if his head is severed". If this datum is taken as the cardinal regulatory factor, a dead body with severed head will be recognized as a victim of decapitation. The problem with such statistics is that possibility of the head getting severed after the death is generally overlooked.
From the Thirties of the 20th century when it was noticed that number of accidents and incidence of crime with violence increases on Earth with the increase of the number and areas of sunspots and enhancement of solar activities, a vague notion arose that the solar electro-magnetic energy reaching this Earth's surface somehow influences the thinking process (emotion?) of the human brain.
Though originally suggested by J. Eysenck and D.K.B. Nias (1982), it was Percy Seymour (Astrology: The Evidences of Science 1988, Lennard Publishing) who came out boldly with the postulation that the solar-terrestrial, and interplanetary -terrestrial magnetic impulses are the agents of astrological 'Planetary influence'.
Seymour's book was subjected to severe criticism by established astronomers and astrophysicists as "unsupported speculation, founded neither on known facts nor on physical calculations". Astrologers were also not happy with this work. Credentials of Seymour as an astronomer and astrophysicist is beyond reproach, but his handling of astrology at the best can be described as amateurish. Fervent enthusiasm is a poor substitute of cold fact. Percy Seymour relied upon western astrology which is primarily planetary transition and aspect based, a little understood branch of astrology bereft of universally accepted grammar. Due to the use of 'aspect based astrology' Seymour is of the opinion that the solar planets from time to time to time fall into striking geometric patterns (trine, square, angle etc.) and array themselves on one or the other side of the Sun. The enhanced pull of combined gravity will influence the emission of solar wind. Certain planetary patterns are responsible for the reversal of the Sun's magnetic field and a new sunspot cycle begins. Planetary alignments are thus the impetus for violent solar activities which in turn will influence the terrestrial magnetic field, and through it the whole biosphere.
Astronomers will not buy this suggestion easily. Not to say anything about computer -simulation, even comparatively easy calculation done with the help of any standard ephemeris will show the planetary alignment in a definite period in any individual year. These could have been superimposed on the available data on sunspot intensity. Astrologers will find Seymour's hypothesis unacceptable, as the wholesale increase or decrease of solar magnetic intensity will affect the solar system in totality including the biosphere on the Earth. It is not clear how it can affect the 'Fate of an individual' separately. Moreover Yavanacharya and Vaidyanath Dixit have separately worked out the 60 yrs. cycle of good or bad years (Abdaphalam) where the periodicity of bad years has close resemblance with the periodicity of sunspot cycles a few centuries before even H. J. Eysenck suggested the possibility.
This wide but unsystematic reading by the present author resulted
in the emergence of a conviction that the mainstream Indian astrology,
which some scholars prefer to call the "Hindu astrology"
is actually comprised of three independent strands of astrology either
generated within or imported in different historical period to India
and then woven together to form the mainstream Indian predictive astrology.
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