“O great saintly person, you have compiled the astrological knowledge by which one can understand past, present and future unseen things. By the strength of this knowledge, any human being can understand what he has done in his past life and how it affects his present life. This is known to you.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.8.5]
“…any gentleman, dhira, must be interested in Jyotish, astrology.” — Srila Prabhupada
What is Vedic Astrology?
Vedic Astrology is properly called Jyotish (jyo-teesh), a Sanskrit term. Sanskrit is the most ancient language on Earth. It is divine in origin; its alphabet is called Devanagari, meaning ‘city of the gods.’ Sanskrit is also the language of the Vedas, the most ancient sacred literature. Scholars recognize it as the root of most of the languages of the modern world such as Hindi, Bengali, Farsi, Greek, Latin, the Romance languages and English. In Sanskrit, Jyoti means light and Ish is short for Ishwara, the Universal Controller or God. So Jyoti + ishwara become the compound word Jyotish, meaning the Light of God.
The roots of Jyotish go deep. Its original author is Parasara Muni, the father of Srila Vyasadeva, the famous author of the Vedas. It is therefore older than the written Vedas; at least 15,000 years old by its own internal dating system. We still use the original source material and literature of Jyotish today. Nothing has been lost or changed in all that time, and the original knowledge is still as fresh and useful as it was when first revealed to Mankind. Down through the ages, many great sages have made contributions to the Jyotish literature.
Jyotish recognizes that God does His work of bringing up His children, all the living beings of the universe, through a complex interactive system of energy, or light. The main lights are the Sun and Moon, followed by the planets and fixed stars. Through these lights, in their ever-swirling dance around our planetary system, we can read the unfolding of God’s plan for our lives.
That is, if we hold the key of Jyotish wisdom, this plan can be read in our horoscope. A horoscope is simply a map of the heavenly bodies in the sky at the time of our birth. It also includes the transits, or angles the planets make with the placements in our birth chart as they move in their orbits.
How is Jyotish different from Western astrology?
What’s your sign? No, what’s your real sign? It’s usually different in Vedic and Western astrology charts! Why? First, the Vedic astrology system uses the actual physically observed positions of the stars and planets in the sky at the place and time of your birth. It’s basically a map of the sky.
Jyotish is much older than Western astrology. In fact, it is the original astrological science and the source of Western astrology. But when Jyotish was brought to Europe it was translated from the original Sanskrit to Persian, then to Arabic, to Greek and then Latin. Naturally, something was lost in the process of being translated through so many languages.
Because of this misunderstanding, Western astrologers started calculating planetary positions differently from what they actually saw in the sky. By now, 3,000 years later, these positions differ by more than 23 degrees. For example, in the Vedic chart at right the Sun appears at 9° Aquarius. In the corresponding Western chart, the Sun is at 3° Pisces. You can ask any astrologer about this; it’s called the ayanamsha.
In fact, one of the most persuasive arguments materialistic science has against Western astrology is that it doesn’t even use the actual position of the stars and planets in the sky! Jyotish refutes this argument because it uses the actual planetary positions as observed by modern science.
There are other differences. Western astrology puts a lot of stress on the Sun sign. The Sun represents the ego. But we’ve all heard the saying, “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” There is a lot more to life than the desires and plans of the ego! Jyotish handles these complexities of life nicely. It places more stress on the rising sign and Moon placement than the Sun in interpreting your chart. This results in very precise predictions unmatched by any other astrological system.
First of all, let me guarantee you that Jyotish does work. And it works most elegantly and accurately. There are very few things that one cannot know or predict about a person’s life using Jyotish. After all, it is the science and art of reading light, God’s control system for the universe!
How does it work?
Imagine for a moment exactly how complex and interactive the control system of Nature must be. It is very complex indeed, therefore the task of deciphering the complexities of the interactions of natural forces is a tall order. To perfect his art, the astrologer must study his own chart, and those of people he knows well, for years to build up a wealth of experienced interpretive knowledge.
To that base of realized knowledge he must apply a large helping of broad-minded spiritual intuition. This is the difference between a mediocre astrologer and a great Jyotishi, and it is largely a matter of talent. The Vedic astrologer must become like a receptive antenna, speaking transparently on behalf of the controlling forces of the person’s karma as read through the medium of their chart.
The great sages of ancient India received the science of Jyotish from God, and passed it down accurately through many generations of disciples. More than 5,000 years ago they began to write it down, and ever since then Jyotish has been passed on in book form.
Now, in modern times, we have all the advantages of accurate astronomical observations and computers. We’ve perfected the science of chart calculation with our advanced technology, but nothing in books or technology can help us understand and interpret the deep meanings of the chart. Reading a horoscope remains a mystical intutive art, limited only by the openness, intuition and spiritual knowledge of the Jyotishi (Vedic astrologer).
That art is a delicate skill that the individual Jyotishi must develop over many years of training and practice. And it is also dependent on the natural inborn talents of the individual. But it is this intuition that enables the skilled astrologer to see past the mechanics of the chart and understand the complex karmic causes and interactions of the events and challenges of our lives in the past, present and on into the future. This spiritual wisdom also allows the Jyotishi to suggest strategies, solutions and actions that are likely to be successful.
Samudrik- Jyotish :
Means the Oceanic knowledge of Jyotish. When applied this helps a lot in predicting future and in pinpointing the signs in the Birth Chart. Here Palmistry, Your physique, Marks, Moles, Scars, etc. on your body indicate a lot. So, even if you don’t have the correct day or time . Still Dr. Gupta who is a Samudrik Jyotishi could help you.