Vedic Astrology [MLBD]

Vedic Astrology

IN THE AUTUMN OF 1976, I was fortunate enough to travel overland to India where I had the rare opportunity to study Jyotish (Hindu or Vedic astrology) in Benares, first with Dr. Muralil Sharma, a Professor of Jyotish at Sanskrit University, and later with Pandit Deoki Nandan Shastri, a practicing astrologer. It was an exceptional time, .as many Westerners both young and old had embarked on the same quest for Eastern knowledge and culture to bring back home to Europe and America. Starting out from Athens, our tour bus with its 22 passengers journeyed through eastern Greece, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan before reaching its final destination: India. My memories of the mosques of Istanbul, the city of Teheran torn between the Shah of Iran’s modernization and its traditional Islamic culture, the expansive barren deserts and wild-eyed no-mads of Afghanistan, and the Golden Temple of the Sikhs in Amritsar, India (later used as a fortress during their internal strife with the Hindus) bring back images that are as vivid and clear today as they were when I first encountered them. Looking back, I feel lucky that I was able to travel through Asia during this historically unique period when there was still the chance to view firsthand Iran and Afghanistan-countries that have since been transformed and will never again be the way they once were.

When we finally arrived in India, my first reaction to this strange land was, to say the least, one of total disorientation and complete cultural shock. While I had expected India to be consummately different from both Europe and America, never in my wildest dreams had I envisioned the overwhelming pandemonium which I encountered there. Everywhere I looked I saw cows-deemed holy by the Hindus-freely roaming the streets, seeming at times more human than the homeless beggars whose frail bodies dotted every street corner. The cyclists and rickshaw drivers, not unlike the motorists and taxi drivers of any Western metropolitan city, added to the chaos by obstructing and tying up traffic. To add to the confusion, tea shops, clothing stores, and perfume stands were all wedged together waiting to be patronized by the crowds of exotic Indian men and women dressed in their kurtas and saris. The styles and materials of these garments have not been altered by the passage of time and seem to parallel Jyotish, whose basic principles can be found in ancient and definitive texts written as far back as the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. The application of the rules of Jyotish to the lives of contemporary Indians evinces their adherence to the tenets of Hinduism-a centuries-old religion-and contributes to the cohesiveness of a society virtually untouched by modern life.

In the capital city of New Delhi, the endpoint of the bus ride, I inquired as to where I could learn Hindu astrology to supplement my knowledge of Occidental astrology. I was told to go to Benares, 1 a city in the north-central province of Uttar Pradesh, which houses Benares Hindu University, one of the largest and most diverse centres of learning in India. In addition to the University’s matriculated Indian population, its enrolment boasts a huge cross-section of international students whose education is conducted in English. In Benares, where I lived for the next six months, I met many Europeans and Americans who were studying subjects such as religion, philosophy, Indian music, Hindi and Sanskrit both at the University and/or with a private tutor. None of them, however, were familiar with anybody studying or teaching Jyotish, the actual term for the mathematical and astronomical principles which are the foundation of what is now more popularly called Vedic astrology. I learned that Jyotish was taught at Sanskrit University, located at the opposite end of the city. However, there was one drawback. Instruction at Sanskrit University was con-ducted using Sanskrit texts, the ancient written language of India.

By chance (if there is such a thing), Dr. Muralil Sharma, a Professor of Jyotish, was in the Mathematics Department office at Sanskrit University at the precise moment of my inquiry and promptly offered to tutor me for one hour every day. Further-more, his English was impeccable. When I brought up the question of payment, his reply was simple: Because I had travelled such it long distance in search of knowledge, it was his professional obligation to teach me whatever he could for the duration of my stay. This attitude exemplifies the Hindu conviction of predestination to fulfil a particular task. Dr. Sharma was grateful that the gods had entrusted him with their wisdom and, by passing it on to others, he was repaying them for granting him that knowledge.

In order to take notes from Dr. Sharma for one hour each morning, I bicycled crosstown faithfully each day to the San-ilk it University campus, braving the intense heat, the freely roaming cows, and the aggressive rickshaw drivers. Dr. Sharma imarticted me to wear a traditional Indian sari so as not to dis-tract the young Indian men on campus, and it was imperative that I prepare for my daily lesson by reciting what I had learned the previous day. Because Dr. Sharma knew that the length of my stay in India was limited to six months, he gave me n crash course in Jyotish by enlightening me about the ancient scriptural writings most relevant to modern life. He de-fined the nature of the Sidereal Zodiac, Tithis, Nakshatras, and other astronomical principles unique to Jyotish and explained ‘hove fundamental interpretive techniques which required the learnt complicated mathematical calculations. In order to illustrate the intrinsic relationship between astrology and Hinduism, Dr. Sharma also pointed out the horoscopic indications of an individual’s patron god or goddess, caste, previous incarnations, and other religious principles which could affect him or her.