an e magazine from ASSAM & NAGALAND      

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE FOR VEDIC ASTROLOGY

- By Dr. Pranav Jyoti Deka

ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Aryan sages of the Vedic period accepted astrology as an enlightenment, beyond the mundane sphere of knowledge (Jnyan chakshu). On the other hand Vishnu Gupta Chanakya, one of the most knowledgeable persons of ancient India derided astrology as 'mere superstition.'

Votaries of astrology all over the world call astrology the "mystic science", the "occult science" or "secret science" etc. adding the suffix science without over caring to establish its scientific rationale. The die-hard, incredulous scientists dismiss astrology as rigmarole and superstition without even caring to know what astrology comprises of.

The word superstition is defined in the standard English language dictionaries as, "ignorant, irrational and unfounded general belief". Andre Nataf in his Dictionary of the Occult (1994.p.66. The Wordsworth.) stated, "superstition may derived from a degraded form of ancient knowledge".

Every major civilization of the ancient world practised some form of astrology. Astrology can be defined as an applied branch of knowledge where the mundane affairs are linked with the spatial observations of the celestial bodies, and with the help of statistical calculations the future is predicted on the basis of precedents.

This fledgling 'science' degraded itself to superstition probably owing to the following reasons:

(A) Capability of correctly predicting future events being a powerful tool in the hands of the priestly class, to intellectually subdue laymen, it was declared as a 'divine gift' and the subject an esoteric one. All knowledge in this direction was kept confined to the immediate family or to close-knit school of disciples. With this aim, all astrological rules were composed in a cryptic way. As for example, "The native having sun on this first house will have a disease prone childhood", simply means a child born during the early morning period, in general will have weak constitution in tender age.

(B) The 'science' of astrology is purely statistics based, and the causative principles were never studied and understood properly. From its advent, astrology was considered as a part of religious cults and the priests/astrologers hedged their ignorance with the 'divine will'. Even when the astrologers knew any occurrence to be a natural phenomenon, and its causative factors, even then they did not care to take the public into confidence. Two classic examples are:

(i) The Mesopotamians could not have drawn the basic design of the natal-zodiacal chart and attribute the 'ownership of houses to various planets', as they did, without knowing definitely that the six planets of the solar system known at that time (including Earth) revolve round the Sun and also the relative positions of the solar planets in this system. To the best of our knowledge they did not leave any record explaining how they could come to this true conclusion sans 'Newtonian mathematics', 'Copernican revolution' and Aristotelian philosophy'.

(ii) During the period of Rig Veda itself the sage Atri in all probability understood the celestial mechanism of the solar eclipse (Rg. Ve. V. 40. 5-9). It was after a lapse of nearly two thousand years Varahmihira evulgated the sacrosanct knowledge that 'solar eclipse occurs because of the shadow of the Moon', and that the 'great snake', the 'demons' or the nodes have got nothing to do with eclipses. (It will be interesting to note that the myth of great serpent swallowing the Sun during the solar eclipse was evolved in ancient Egypt at the minimum of 3000 B.C.).

(C) Nearly all the ancient and many thriving religions consider divination as a part of a religious cult. Astrology is also included in 'divination', but there is an inherent contradiction between religion and astrology. Astrology puts a limit to the omnipotence of the 'God' by stating that the 'divine will' too follows certain mathematical laws and rules of precedents. The propagators of monotheism understood this contrariety, and in all the three 'Religions of the Book', astrology is an anathema. To the true believers of Buddhist and Jain philosophy of karmic 'crime and punishment', astrology would be superfluous, but still they indulge in divination.

Few ancient emperors used to decapitate the astrologers, medieval religious zealots preferred auto-da-fe, and political dictators even today incarcerate them. The modern scientific community ridicules astrology and astrologers. Facing all these onslaughts, through the ages astrology could survive only because in all probability it is a "degraded form of ancient knowledge".

The present author, a product of the modern technical education and believer of Fortean philosophy, which advocates "temporary acceptance rather than absolute belief", came in contact with astrology through rather prosaic a material- gemstones.

In India, ninety percent of the 'ring-size' gemstones are purchased and worn on the advices of the astrologers to placate the wrathful and encourage the benevolent planets. The most cavalier attitude of ours towards gem-therapy and interlinked astrology suddenly took a drastic turn when yours truly decided to write a book on "Ancient Indian Gemology". As we had to delve into various 'Puranas', 'Sastra', Samhitas', 'Rasayanas' and 'natal-Jatakas', dealing with medicinal and astrological uses of different gemstones in ancient India, what impressed us most was that the ancient and medieval scholars of India followed a definite system of investigation which was based on meticulous observations and repeated experimentation. Astrological and astronomical tenets were revised repeatedly in the light of new experiences and calculations. It was never a blind adherence to 'earlier workers opinion'. They are social documents and not religious literature. When in these literature rational causative explanations are not available, it was not because of the lack of intellectual curiosity and capability of the scholars, but because of technical inadequacy of that time.

At present there is a big communication gap between the scientists and the astrologers, and false pretences of both the parties have increased the chasm. Before trying to lessen this rift, it would be proper to point out that:

(a) Astrology is just a system of general prediction of a trend, comparable to stock-exchange prognosis. Any accurate fulfillment of an 'improbable and detailed prediction' would surprise the astrologer concerned even more than this clients. As a rule, the astrologer is not able to repeat this

feat at will, and often he may not be even able to support his successful prediction with appropriate texts from classical astrological works. Such successful predictions probably belong to the realm of 'intuition' and parapsychology. In the ancient India of 'Puranas' and 'Epics', to obtain an accurate picture of the future, sages were supposed to take recourse of meditation (Dhyana) and not of astrology.

(b) The most banal objection raised against the Indian astrology is that the 'Rahu' and 'Ketu' (the nodes) are accepted as 'planets', whereas no such planets exist in reality within the solar system. It is no fault of the astrologers that the word 'Graha' in Sanskrit has been wrongly translated into the English word 'planet' (Sun too is a graha in the Indian astrology). Varahmihira clearly stated that Rahu and Ketu are not celestial bodies, nor have they got anything to do with the solar or lunar eclipse. Rahu and Ketu are simply two points of 'hidden effect' (Pravaba, or Chayan graha).