71. My Perspective on Jyotisha Sastra as a Body of Knowledge
- Vijayabhaskar Natarajan
- Jun 7
- 4 min read
Updated: 7 minutes ago
Let me start with a disclaimer - I am not an expert on Jyotisha Sastra. I am just looking at the mammoth volume of information originating from this body of knowledge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyoti%E1%B8%A5%C5%9B%C4%81stra) and I am unable to dismiss it as some kind of fiction. I think this body of knowledge needs to be looked at with all the seriousness it needs to understand its relevance better.
Astrology, as a body of knowledge, is as ancient as once can think of. It is said that once upon a time, Sage Parashara looked about the skies and sensed the signal for a profoundly auspicious time. He immediately spoke to a fisherwoman who was helping him cross the river and requested to help to conceive a child on this auspicious time – a child that can benefit the mankind for eons to come! Thus, was born Sage Veda Vyasa who organized Vedas and who wrote Mahabharata that is serving mankind with divine intelligence till today.
Originally astrology is part of Vedas itself and was called as Jyotisha. If we consider the parts of Vedas or Vedangas – the parts are listed as below, and some context is added from the references listed below:
1. Shiksha - Shiksha is the study of phonology, phonetics, and pronunciation.
2. Chhanda- Chhanda deals with the analysis of the types of meters used in the construction of various Vedic hymns.
3. Vyakarana- Vyakarana deals with Sanskrit grammar or the analysis and decomposition of words, word formation, root words and complex sentence structures, providing useful insights into the usage of words and sentences leading to the mastery of the language.
4. Nirukta - Nirutka deals with the etymological interpretations or explanations of obscure words especially those found in the Vedas. Technically it deals with the difficult and obscure words of a dictionary, whose analysis and interpretation is vital to the study and understanding of the Vedas which are replete with mysterious symbolism not usually understood by all. (Remember from Lalitha Sahasranamam - that even a single long word can be broken into several types of fragments giving raise to different interpretations!)
5. Jyotisha- Jyotisha deals with the astronomical and astrological aspects of fixing auspicious date and time to perform various Vedic rites and rituals including the sacraments or rites of passage. The auspicious time is usually determined based on the position of the luminous bodies (jyotis) namely the sun, the moon, the stars and other heavenly bodies.
6. Kalpa- Kalpa deals with the practical, ceremonial, sacrificial and ritual aspect of the Vedas. Technically it is the applied science of the Vedas. The method and the manner in which the sacrificial ceremonies and daily household rituals have to be performed are established in a compendium of sutras or aphorisms known as Kalpa Sutras, categorized together as shruti literature. Kalpa literally means sacred rule or law, or ordinance and sutra means a thread.
To quote from one of the references below:
The Jyotisha of today is wider in scope and purpose than the original Jyotisha of Vedic period. It is now divided into several branches and subbranches and cater to a wider audience for purposes other than performing Vedic ceremonies. Once considered to be an ancillary subject, the astrology of today is a profession by itself often practiced by people having little understanding of the Vedas and the Vedangas.
I always thought that there has to be a way to inform about any significant destiny changing events to the mankind from the divine so that he can plan for contingencies. For this reason, I tend to think that the divinity is using the Jyotis or the space canvas with celestial bodies as a medium to inform on the significant events and time that is coming up in the event horizon. When we look at the space, we are only seeing (after a lapse) a past rendition of the surrounding celestial bodies. But when you consider this in the perspective of Jyotisha- it means those renditions are signalling something about the future to the mankind that we are observing in the present! What a unique way to tie past, present and future!
To make Jothisha Sastra more relevant the following needs to be done:
1. With divine blessing, this body of knowledge showed be researched and developed and combined in line with the modern knowledge collection and dissemination systems. Care should be taken enough since this is considered as an esoteric subject and not pure science hence and solid faith and divine blessings are essential. Ideally, a faith based religious/spiritual organization may find more success in exploring this body of knowledge than the scientific institutions.
2. The true professionals of this Shastra should help the general public to identify the quacks from the real ones. The practice should be formalized and properly institutionalized.
3. Since, the karmic load of a person/group is ADHRSTA, negative speculation of future happenings should be avoided at least in the context of a single person.
4. I believe that certain personal effort towards mantra-chanting, sacraments, rituals and worshipping can strengthen the ICCAHA SAKTHI and can help imbibe this divine knowledge better. The strength built in such a manner which helps to master this knowledge is diminished by unintended but laterally induced bad karma due to negative speculations.
5. Such Jyotisha Sastra induced speculations can be amply supported by divine intuition related practices such as Prasannam, Nimitaa Sastra etc., which also should be properly researched and developed with divine blessings and solid faith. Here again, ideally, a faith based religious/spiritual organization may find more success in exploring this body of knowledge than the scientific institutions. We have to remind ourselves that this kind of Nimitaa Sastra can be having an ancient origin and may take different forms like use of cowries in Hinduism or use of tarot cards else where. The study has to be done both in a religious sense and in a spiritualistic sense.
References:
Hari Om!
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