04-19-2006, 08:23 PM
I am interested in knowing what experts have to say about this.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> jyotirved <jyotirved@sify.com> to *****
Dear Friends,
Namaste!
We Kashmiri Pandits are as addicted to Patri Melapak (Tekini milnavuni) as anybody else! Besides, there is hardly anyone, even if he does not know ABC of jyotish, who does not want to know as to when his âbadsharwarâ (sadeâsati) will start or end etc. etc. I have gone through all those pangs myself and made a thorough study of all the astrological works besides a lot of astronomical books! I even studied Western system of astrology and had become a âfamousâ astrologer, though my predictions were as correct as anybody elseâs i.e. hardly 50%. However, this is a secret that no other âjyotishiâ shares with anybody -- that his/her predictions are hardly more correct than fifty per cent, whatever logic or Ayanamsha he may use! When I analyzed the reasons for such a dismal rate of success/failure, the conclusions were startling! And I am keeping those very conclusions before you!
I have been asked very often whether I would prefer Western system of predictions to the Indian system or vice-versa!
To arrive at any conclusions about such a discussion, we have to bear the following facts in our minds:
1.  Whether Indian or Western, no system of predictions has any sanction either from the Vedas or even Puranas least of all our dharmashastras etc.Â
2.  All our shastras admonish us from consulting ânakshatra jeevisâ so much so that the Manusmriti calls these nakshatrajeevis as outcastes and not fit to sit in any sabha of learned people.
3.  The Manusmriti advises that âThe king must keep a watch on his kingdom like a heron and act with prowess like a lionâ --- nowhere has he advised to consult some soothsayer before undertaking any activity!
4.  All the Ramayanas, whether Valmiki or Adhyatma or Ramacharitamanasa etc. etc. say that before deciding about the coronation of Bhagwan Rama, Dashratha wanted his guru Vasishtha to find some suitable muhurtas for that function. It was on the advice of Bhagwan Vasishtha that Dasharatha decided to anoint the Yuvraja the very next day, as it was âTishyaâ then. It is clear that either Vasishtha Muni did not know as to what was going to happen to Dasharatha by declaring Bhagwan Rama as crown-prince or he kept quiet deliberately since he did not want to interfere in the divine dispensation!
Obviously, being the son of Brahmaji and being a highly exalted yogi as well as jnyani, Vasishtha-muni could peep into past as well as future. It means that even if some exalted souls can foresee as to what is going to happen, they do not reveal our âbhavishyaâ before hand, unlike the breed of astrologers of today, who masquerade as âPaasharasâ and âVamadevasâ to tell us even our past and future janmas just by glancing at our birth-charts, even if those charts are fundamentally incorrect.
5. Almost all the jyotishis suggest one or the other remedial measure to their clients, and mostly these are in the form of various gems. What is surprising is that we have become so dimwitted that we forget our entire itihasa of our past!
(i)Â Â Â Â Â Â Why was Dasharatha not suggested some ârubyâ or âcoralâ to ward off the evil Dasha that was going to kill him when Rama would leave for the forests?Â
Because our Rishis were not greedy to have claimed to cheat death by just making him buy some gems!
(ii) Bhagwan Krishna was born in a prison ---  I wonder why He could not use some  âsapphireâ to take birth in a palace!
(iii)Vasudeva and Devaki---the parents of Bhagwan Krishna--- were in chains when He was born! It is said that Lord Krishna was a complete â 16 kala sampoorna --- divine incarnation of Vishnu and was thus really Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient! He could loosen the chains of His mother as well as father while taking birth in a prison! He could make all the guards of Kansaâs prison fall asleep while being taken out of prison by Vasudeva! He demonstrated His Omnipotence by making Yamuna recede while Vasudeva was carrying Him to Gokul from Mathura! He guided Vasudeva on his way back from Gokul to Mathura in a dark night full of torrential rains and storms! The guards remained asleep till Vasudeva entered the prison after bringing Yogamaya from Mathura with him! It all shows that Krishna was really Omnipotent!
But then the moment Vasudeva was back in prison, his fetters were again gridlocked automatically! Same was the case with Devaki! Both Devaki and Vasudeva remained in fetters till Kansa was killed by Krishna!
What does it demonstrate? Just the fact that if the Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent Krishna could not ameliorate the miseries of His own father or mother before the appointed time, how can a ruby or a sapphire---or some Mangala or Shani yagya--- remove all our miseries or give us a Union Ministerâs seat!
Obviously, we are being taken for a ride by such Jyotishis!
Then not in the distant past, Smti Indira Gandhi would run after astrologers for knowing her future. She had a rare and original ekamukhi rudraksha, which only either the Maharaja of Nepal had or she was wearing! It is said that some top-notch jyotishis had suggested that rudraksha to her! Ironically, both the King of Nepal as well Mrs. Indira Gandhi were assassinated âby the peopleâ they âhad trustedâ ekamukhi rudraksha not withstanding!Â
What does it prove? That we should not be hoodwinked by soothsayers!
Then again a well known Tantrik of yore---highly respected by the then PM--- is out on bail, not by dint of his âTantra-Kriyaâ but because of some legal loopholes in FERA!
Dhirendra Brahmachari, another high profile âTantrikâ, met with an accident in the plane he was flying himself! If he could not see his own death looming large how could he forewarn others!
6. The Gita is said to be the gist of all our shastras. When Arjuna expressed his doubt about whether Pandavas would win or lose the battle, Bhagwan Krishna neither asked him to consult some soothsayer nor did He tell him to wear some ruby! On the other hand, He just advised him to fight and either get killed on the battlefield and go to heavens or win the battle to be the ruler of the entire earth!
What does that prove? Obviously, it warns us against relying on any soothsayers, especially if they call themselves âVedic Jyotishisâ since they are taking us for a ride literally.
7. Yes, Bhagwan Ram did worship Shiva at the time of going to war at Rameshwaram but that was not to please Mangal or Shani, but to show respect to the divine trinity -- Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh---in this case Vishnu worshipping Shiva!
Similarly, at the time of the Mahabharata war Arjuna was asked to worship Maha-Shakti but not to please Rahu or Ketu but to gain strength from his own ATMA-Shakti, in the form of Divine Shakti!
The Gita is very clear âye yatha mam prapadyante tanstathaiva bajameahamâ --- âI will âworshipâ you in whatever way you worship Meâ.
  8. There is no mention of any Rishi like Vasishtha or Garga or Brighu ever having written    any works of predictive astrology in any of the Puranas. The Vishnu Purana by Parasharis is full of astronomical references ---and that also sayana i.e. the seasonal year when Mesha sankranti is another name of Spring Equinox and so on, but we do not find any mention of any Brihat Parasharis Hora Shastra there! Obviously, it is the worst concoction that can ever be had, and that is why it is the bible of âVedic astrologersâ
  9. In India, we have started going downhill ever since our rulers started runningafter Jyotishis. In ancient days, during the time of Mahabharata, it was a dharma yudha that we had to fight against our own Duryodhanas but ever since the advent of astrology before the invasion of Alexander the Great, and with him the âYavana Jatakamâ of Sphujidwaja and the Surya Sidhanta of Maya the Yavana (mlechha!), we had to fight outsiders! The more the outsiders invaded us the more our rulers started consulting soothsayers whom they called Rajyajyotishis! (In those days jyotishis did not dare to call themselves Vedic Jyotishis since the general public was not then that illiterate about the Vedic principles as they are thee days, thanks to Vedic Jyotishis!)
 10. These monarchs wanted to know if at all their horoscopes indicated whether they would win or lose and for winning the battles, instead of making military preparations they just started wearing rubies and diamonds to ward off evil spirits!
 11. The maximum credit for creating such a fear of omens and ghosts and ghouls and storms  and even clouds goes to Varahamihira! It appears he later reincarnated as N. C. Lahiri since both of them had their own axes to grind -- the former wanted to make his Brihatsamhita/Brihat Jatakam and Panchasidhantika world famous and the latter wanted to sell the maximum copies of his Bangla Vishudha Sidhanta Panjika and âLahiriâs Indian Ephemerisââ. Before venturing into the battlefield, these monarchs would ask their soothsayer to prepare ânarpati jaya charyaâ and consult Brihat Samhita etc. to see whether the âketucharaâ was favorable at that time or not! No wonder with such a preliminary and hopeless knowledge of astronomical facts, we were being pushed back into dark ages by these jyotishis!Â
12.  Our historical records are witness to the fact that we were  vanquished in every battle    whether it was with Alexander the Great or Chengiz Khan or Muhamud of Gazni or Nadir Shah or the Moguls or finally the East India Company, thanks to the dependence of our monarchs on soothsayers (Rajajyotishis, huh!) instead of the principles of war strategy and statecraft as adumbrated by Chanakya, who chided the kings for consulting soothsayers!
12. The fate of BJP has not been any better than that of our earlier monarchs by depending more on their âVedic Jyotishisâ who were responsible for getting âVedic Jyotisha (sic!)â prescribed in Indian Universities! It is that very move that boomeranged on the party and even the âMinister of astrologyâ did not even win his own parliamentary seat, let alone being the Union Minister again, lest these âVedic jyotishisâ continued to perpetuate Adharma in the guise of âVedic Jyotishaâ! Do you need any other proofs of the fact that these âVedic Jyotishisâ are really a scourge who will make you lose your seat of power just by making you advance your elections?Â
13. If we continue to follow the trend of our âmonarchsâ of having blind faith in our soothsayers, there is no doubt that sooner than later we will become yesteryearsâ Babylon, which is known as Iraq these days!
 14. It was priest class i.e. Brahmins the most respected community with whom   the secrets of predictive gimmicks were supposed to rest! Just see the plight of the Brahmin community these days! They age treated worse than any OBC in case of government jobs and other quotas! Why so? Simply because they lost their dharma by being nakshatra jeevis, caring two hoots for the admonishments of the Manu! No wonder they â the Brahmins are not fit for being consulted in any sabha of scholars!
 15. I must put on record that as a Kashmiri Pandit, I have more to blame predictive gimmicks and soothsayers, including the panchanga makers, than anything or anybody else since they never âforearmedâ (their pet dialogue is âforewarned is forearmed!)us about any calamities that were going to befall us! On the other hand, just to prove their astrological gimmicks, they just made ---and are still making --- us celebrate all our festivals, including Mahashivaratri on wrong days. It is these very jyotishis, whom we had treated as our friends, philosophers and guides, who are responsible for our downfall as Kahsmiri Pandits, since they proved neither our friends, nor philosophers least of all our guides! These Panchanga makers/jyotishis were the first to flee from Kashmir --- like the king Hari Sigh at the time of Pakistani raid in 1948 (hope he had consulted his ârajajyotishiâ to decide the muhurtas for taking the last flight to Jammu/Mumbai)----since they had already made their alternate homes in safer places like Jammu and Delhi  They just proved to be Shylocks, who were only interested in their Pound of flesh by way of Dakshinas for janmapatris and panchangas and matching of horoscopes -- all cheating and nothing else!
 16. These soothsayers have such a hypnotic grip on us that initially even I was brain washed to believe that the Vedas had nothing else to tell us excepting teaching us predictive astrology! I was also so convinced that it appeared that even the principle of Secondary Progressions must have been exported from India to Western countries since the principle of âA day equals a yearâ was mentioned in our Vedas!
 17. However, there are neither rashis like Mesha etc. nor planets like Mangal, Shani etc.
in the Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmanas etc. etc. Similarly, Vedanga Jyotisha, as has been made clear several times already, is an astronomical work of 14th century BCE and tells us as to how to calculate mean tithi, nakshatra and Uttarayana-cum-Tapah-cum Magha etc. months. It does not list any rashis nor any planets like Mangal, Budha etc. Same is the case with Yajur Jyotisha of about 11th century BCE and later Atharva Jyotisha of about 5th century BCE. As such, it is really a fraud on the Vedas being played by some charlatans to call any predictive gimmicks as Vedic astrology and hail themselves âVedic Jyotishisâ. It is equally a crime under Consumer Protection Act since it is a misrepresentation of facts to a client and is thus a deficiency in service.
  18.It is being said that Sir Isaac Newton believed in astrology! That just is not possible!  The astronomical ephemeredes, from which horoscopes are made, were so incorrect that âHorary Astrologyâ by a world famous Western astrologer, William Lilly, of 17th century, published by American Federation of Astrologers, has the planetary positions of all the charts incorrect! He was a contemporary of Sir Isaac Newton, and thus even if Newton had wanted to believe in predictive astrology, he could never have done so since the astronomical works of that period were fundamentally incorrect as they were mostly based on Ptolemyâs Almagest!
   In other words, the astronomical works of the West were hardly better than the Surya Sidhanta or Aryabhati of India!
  19.Similarly, Albert Einstein is supposed to have believed in astrology! Dr. B. V. Raman has not said so anywhere in his âworld famousâ book âNotable Horoscopesâ while discussing the horoscope of Einstein! Similarly, there has been no such indication in any of the astrological magazines which normally jump on such hearsays to encash them! It maybe mentioned here that even in the âNotable Horoscopesâ hardly any chart even of the 20th century is correct, leave alone the charts of Bhagwan Krishna or Gautama the Budha or Shankaracharya! There is also a difference of heaven and earth in the planetary longitudes of the same work in a consolidated form given at pages 426 to 431 and the main charts given in the chart form! Even the chart of the erstwhile editor of the Astrological Magazine viz. Dr. B. V. Raman himself given at page No. 401 is incorrect! And he was supposed to be the âgreatest Vedic astrologerâ of the twentieth century but surprisingly, could not calculate even his own horoscope properly!
   Same is the case with the chart No. 74, which is actually the chart of the spouse of Dr. B. V. Raman! The planetary longitudes on that page do not at all tally with the ones given at page 470 in the same book!
   And the delineations of all such charts are correct! In other words, âVedic astrologyâ can make correct predictions only from incorrect data!
 20. We have demonstrated it practically through âMaheshâ that it is impossible for any astrological predictions to have been correct in the past either based as they were on the data from the Surya Sidhanta or Aryabhati or Brahma Sphuta Sidhanta or Sidhanta Shiromani ----whether they were supposed to be so called nirayana or so called sayana! But then may be that is the beauty of predictive astrology -- whether âVedicâ or ânot-so-Vedicâ --- to make correct predictions from incorrect data!
 21. Predictive astrology is supposed to be a âscienceâ! What a preposterous statement! When the data on which predictions were based or are based these days are not correct, how can the results be correct and how can we draw correct inferences when we have not made correct observations at all!
 22. It is said that stars affect us! It appears either these astrologers have gone honkers themselves or they suppose that all the world has really gone mad! Let us see how:
I am a tiny human being on this small planet called earth. The sun is hundreds of thousands of times larger than the earth! And there are other stars of our nakshatra/rashichakra that are supposed to affect me individually as per the Dasha-Bhukti that is running in my horoscope! However, this fantastic statement has no leg to stand upon since the nearest star of that Rashichakra is Alpha Aquilae which is known as Shravana in Sanskrit! And do you know its distance from me? It is seventeen light years! And it is several times larger than our sun! In other words, if that star wants to âaffectâ me individually, it will take it at least seventeen years to do so even if that âeffectâ travels at the speed of light! And by then, my Rahu or Shani or whatever Dasha it may be must have been over!
Then how can such a star which is trillions of times larger than me send its rays in a concentrated from just to haunt me at a particular point of time! Can you imagine what type of laughing stocks we are making of ourselves by believing in such hocus pocus!
Similarly, the next nearest star of our Rashichakra is Alpha Bootis known as Swati in Sanskrit! It is away by 26 light years from me and is again several times larger than our sun!!
It thus defies imagination as to how a scientist like Albert Einstein could have made a statement like âstars affect usâ! I m sure he could not have been cowed down by the special âauraâ or âhaloâ which these âJyotishisâ are supposed to have since that is only to befool simpletons like ignorant adivasis!
Secondly, by quoting Newton and Einstein, these âVedic Jyotishisâ are themselves proving that they have no common sense at all! If at all these two scientists did claim to believe in astrology, they would have believed in Western system since there was no âVedic Jyotishâ around those days! And these two systems are just antitheses to one another â they cannot be integrated at any point of time since if my sayana moon is in Vrisha, my nirayana moon is in Mesha and so on! Similarly, there are no Dasha bhuktis in the Western system nor is there any Sade-Sati etc. Thus whatever support they try to muster for their preposterous claims goes in fact against the very grain of their own arguments! Â
23. It is being said that quite a few Western âVamadevasâ and other  âRishisâ have  started believing in âVedic Jyotishâ. We must not forget that Westerners like their Eastern counter-parts are interested in earning a few bucks the quickest way! Just by reading a few books by Dr. B. V. Raman or K. N. Rao etc. etc. and the much touted âBrihat Parashara Hora Shastramâ they can declare themselves as qualified âVedic astrologersâ It is immaterial if they cannot pronounce even the words of shantipath like âpoornam adah poornam idamâ properly or correctly, leave alone understanding their meaning, but then we have become so blind because of greed and avarice that we just let them masquerade as âVamadevasâ and âParasharasâ. This can happen only with Hindu religion, which we are supposed to defend! Why donât these âVamadevasâ proclaim themselves to be re-incarnations of Jesus Christ or St. Paul or St. John and so on! We have already a glut of so many incarnations like Radha and Dattatreya and so on and so forth that we hardly need imported Vamadevas! Thus instead of preserving our cultural integrity, we are appreciating the efforts of âVedic Jyotishi East India Companyâ to help us disintegrate our own culture by propagating some non-sense called âVedic Jyotishâ in overseas countries as well as in India.
I do not know how many times I will have to repeat it that predictive gimmicks are against the letter as well as spirit of the Vedas, Puranas, Itihasas and Smritis and therefore, have to be shunned at the earliest! And naturally, these imported âVamadevasâ are just jugglers who have no other motives but to make fools of us and make us deviate from our cultural heritage, pretending as if they are propagating it!
24.I have yet to receive any response to my challenge to all these jyotishis to quote even a single reference from any of our shastras which has advised us to marry only after matching horoscopes! Leave alone shastras, they cannot quote anything even from their own âJyotisha biblesâ. What type of experts are these âVamadevasâ and âParasharasâ and âVarahamihirasâ if they cannot vindicate their statements/stands even by a single shastric text?
Do you need any other proofs to understand that you are really being made a fool by these jyotishis?
The last nail in the coffin of astrological gimmicks is the chart for the new lunar year! It has been proved by me already quoting all the relevant Vedas and shastras that the current lunar New Year started on February 28, 2006, with the topocentric New Moon for Delhi at exactly 5hrs 0mts IST. But then all the vernacular papers, apart from astrological magazines, are making predictions for the new year on the basis of a lunar New Year supposed to start from March 30, 2006, with the chart for New Moon being prepared for 15hrs 45 mts. IST on March 29, 2006. In fact that is the time of Geocentric New Moon for an imaginary âcentre of the earthâ whereas the actual time of topocentric New Moon for Delhi on that date is 17hrs 26 mts. IST!
You can see it for yourself that not only is the very date of the New Year chart for a wrong date â March 29 instead of February 28, but even the timing of erecting that chart is based on a geocentric New Moon instead of the New Moon with parallax corrections for Delhi, which is known as topocentric phenomenon!
But then, as usual, these jyotishis will claim to have made correct predictions for our âmatribhoomiâ i.e. Bharatavarsha since, even at the cost of repeating a statement for the umpteenth time, these Vedic jyotishis can make correct predictions only from fundamentally incorrect data!
In view of the above discussion, it is clear that predictive gimmicks have no basis either as per the shastras or modern sciences. It is immaterial whether these predictive techniques are of Indian system â euphemistically known as âVedic Jyotishaâ or Western system. On the other hand, the so called Vedic Jyotisha has made us celebrate all our festivals on wrong days and the earlier we shun it the better so that we can start using a seasonal year for deciding our fasts, fairs, festivals and muhurtas.
When are you going to do that?
With kind regards,
Avtar Krishen Kaul   Â
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> jyotirved <jyotirved@sify.com> to *****
Dear Friends,
Namaste!
We Kashmiri Pandits are as addicted to Patri Melapak (Tekini milnavuni) as anybody else! Besides, there is hardly anyone, even if he does not know ABC of jyotish, who does not want to know as to when his âbadsharwarâ (sadeâsati) will start or end etc. etc. I have gone through all those pangs myself and made a thorough study of all the astrological works besides a lot of astronomical books! I even studied Western system of astrology and had become a âfamousâ astrologer, though my predictions were as correct as anybody elseâs i.e. hardly 50%. However, this is a secret that no other âjyotishiâ shares with anybody -- that his/her predictions are hardly more correct than fifty per cent, whatever logic or Ayanamsha he may use! When I analyzed the reasons for such a dismal rate of success/failure, the conclusions were startling! And I am keeping those very conclusions before you!
I have been asked very often whether I would prefer Western system of predictions to the Indian system or vice-versa!
To arrive at any conclusions about such a discussion, we have to bear the following facts in our minds:
1.  Whether Indian or Western, no system of predictions has any sanction either from the Vedas or even Puranas least of all our dharmashastras etc.Â
2.  All our shastras admonish us from consulting ânakshatra jeevisâ so much so that the Manusmriti calls these nakshatrajeevis as outcastes and not fit to sit in any sabha of learned people.
3.  The Manusmriti advises that âThe king must keep a watch on his kingdom like a heron and act with prowess like a lionâ --- nowhere has he advised to consult some soothsayer before undertaking any activity!
4.  All the Ramayanas, whether Valmiki or Adhyatma or Ramacharitamanasa etc. etc. say that before deciding about the coronation of Bhagwan Rama, Dashratha wanted his guru Vasishtha to find some suitable muhurtas for that function. It was on the advice of Bhagwan Vasishtha that Dasharatha decided to anoint the Yuvraja the very next day, as it was âTishyaâ then. It is clear that either Vasishtha Muni did not know as to what was going to happen to Dasharatha by declaring Bhagwan Rama as crown-prince or he kept quiet deliberately since he did not want to interfere in the divine dispensation!
Obviously, being the son of Brahmaji and being a highly exalted yogi as well as jnyani, Vasishtha-muni could peep into past as well as future. It means that even if some exalted souls can foresee as to what is going to happen, they do not reveal our âbhavishyaâ before hand, unlike the breed of astrologers of today, who masquerade as âPaasharasâ and âVamadevasâ to tell us even our past and future janmas just by glancing at our birth-charts, even if those charts are fundamentally incorrect.
5. Almost all the jyotishis suggest one or the other remedial measure to their clients, and mostly these are in the form of various gems. What is surprising is that we have become so dimwitted that we forget our entire itihasa of our past!
(i)Â Â Â Â Â Â Why was Dasharatha not suggested some ârubyâ or âcoralâ to ward off the evil Dasha that was going to kill him when Rama would leave for the forests?Â
Because our Rishis were not greedy to have claimed to cheat death by just making him buy some gems!
(ii) Bhagwan Krishna was born in a prison ---  I wonder why He could not use some  âsapphireâ to take birth in a palace!
(iii)Vasudeva and Devaki---the parents of Bhagwan Krishna--- were in chains when He was born! It is said that Lord Krishna was a complete â 16 kala sampoorna --- divine incarnation of Vishnu and was thus really Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient! He could loosen the chains of His mother as well as father while taking birth in a prison! He could make all the guards of Kansaâs prison fall asleep while being taken out of prison by Vasudeva! He demonstrated His Omnipotence by making Yamuna recede while Vasudeva was carrying Him to Gokul from Mathura! He guided Vasudeva on his way back from Gokul to Mathura in a dark night full of torrential rains and storms! The guards remained asleep till Vasudeva entered the prison after bringing Yogamaya from Mathura with him! It all shows that Krishna was really Omnipotent!
But then the moment Vasudeva was back in prison, his fetters were again gridlocked automatically! Same was the case with Devaki! Both Devaki and Vasudeva remained in fetters till Kansa was killed by Krishna!
What does it demonstrate? Just the fact that if the Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent Krishna could not ameliorate the miseries of His own father or mother before the appointed time, how can a ruby or a sapphire---or some Mangala or Shani yagya--- remove all our miseries or give us a Union Ministerâs seat!
Obviously, we are being taken for a ride by such Jyotishis!
Then not in the distant past, Smti Indira Gandhi would run after astrologers for knowing her future. She had a rare and original ekamukhi rudraksha, which only either the Maharaja of Nepal had or she was wearing! It is said that some top-notch jyotishis had suggested that rudraksha to her! Ironically, both the King of Nepal as well Mrs. Indira Gandhi were assassinated âby the peopleâ they âhad trustedâ ekamukhi rudraksha not withstanding!Â
What does it prove? That we should not be hoodwinked by soothsayers!
Then again a well known Tantrik of yore---highly respected by the then PM--- is out on bail, not by dint of his âTantra-Kriyaâ but because of some legal loopholes in FERA!
Dhirendra Brahmachari, another high profile âTantrikâ, met with an accident in the plane he was flying himself! If he could not see his own death looming large how could he forewarn others!
6. The Gita is said to be the gist of all our shastras. When Arjuna expressed his doubt about whether Pandavas would win or lose the battle, Bhagwan Krishna neither asked him to consult some soothsayer nor did He tell him to wear some ruby! On the other hand, He just advised him to fight and either get killed on the battlefield and go to heavens or win the battle to be the ruler of the entire earth!
What does that prove? Obviously, it warns us against relying on any soothsayers, especially if they call themselves âVedic Jyotishisâ since they are taking us for a ride literally.
7. Yes, Bhagwan Ram did worship Shiva at the time of going to war at Rameshwaram but that was not to please Mangal or Shani, but to show respect to the divine trinity -- Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh---in this case Vishnu worshipping Shiva!
Similarly, at the time of the Mahabharata war Arjuna was asked to worship Maha-Shakti but not to please Rahu or Ketu but to gain strength from his own ATMA-Shakti, in the form of Divine Shakti!
The Gita is very clear âye yatha mam prapadyante tanstathaiva bajameahamâ --- âI will âworshipâ you in whatever way you worship Meâ.
  8. There is no mention of any Rishi like Vasishtha or Garga or Brighu ever having written    any works of predictive astrology in any of the Puranas. The Vishnu Purana by Parasharis is full of astronomical references ---and that also sayana i.e. the seasonal year when Mesha sankranti is another name of Spring Equinox and so on, but we do not find any mention of any Brihat Parasharis Hora Shastra there! Obviously, it is the worst concoction that can ever be had, and that is why it is the bible of âVedic astrologersâ
  9. In India, we have started going downhill ever since our rulers started runningafter Jyotishis. In ancient days, during the time of Mahabharata, it was a dharma yudha that we had to fight against our own Duryodhanas but ever since the advent of astrology before the invasion of Alexander the Great, and with him the âYavana Jatakamâ of Sphujidwaja and the Surya Sidhanta of Maya the Yavana (mlechha!), we had to fight outsiders! The more the outsiders invaded us the more our rulers started consulting soothsayers whom they called Rajyajyotishis! (In those days jyotishis did not dare to call themselves Vedic Jyotishis since the general public was not then that illiterate about the Vedic principles as they are thee days, thanks to Vedic Jyotishis!)
 10. These monarchs wanted to know if at all their horoscopes indicated whether they would win or lose and for winning the battles, instead of making military preparations they just started wearing rubies and diamonds to ward off evil spirits!
 11. The maximum credit for creating such a fear of omens and ghosts and ghouls and storms  and even clouds goes to Varahamihira! It appears he later reincarnated as N. C. Lahiri since both of them had their own axes to grind -- the former wanted to make his Brihatsamhita/Brihat Jatakam and Panchasidhantika world famous and the latter wanted to sell the maximum copies of his Bangla Vishudha Sidhanta Panjika and âLahiriâs Indian Ephemerisââ. Before venturing into the battlefield, these monarchs would ask their soothsayer to prepare ânarpati jaya charyaâ and consult Brihat Samhita etc. to see whether the âketucharaâ was favorable at that time or not! No wonder with such a preliminary and hopeless knowledge of astronomical facts, we were being pushed back into dark ages by these jyotishis!Â
12.  Our historical records are witness to the fact that we were  vanquished in every battle    whether it was with Alexander the Great or Chengiz Khan or Muhamud of Gazni or Nadir Shah or the Moguls or finally the East India Company, thanks to the dependence of our monarchs on soothsayers (Rajajyotishis, huh!) instead of the principles of war strategy and statecraft as adumbrated by Chanakya, who chided the kings for consulting soothsayers!
12. The fate of BJP has not been any better than that of our earlier monarchs by depending more on their âVedic Jyotishisâ who were responsible for getting âVedic Jyotisha (sic!)â prescribed in Indian Universities! It is that very move that boomeranged on the party and even the âMinister of astrologyâ did not even win his own parliamentary seat, let alone being the Union Minister again, lest these âVedic jyotishisâ continued to perpetuate Adharma in the guise of âVedic Jyotishaâ! Do you need any other proofs of the fact that these âVedic Jyotishisâ are really a scourge who will make you lose your seat of power just by making you advance your elections?Â
13. If we continue to follow the trend of our âmonarchsâ of having blind faith in our soothsayers, there is no doubt that sooner than later we will become yesteryearsâ Babylon, which is known as Iraq these days!
 14. It was priest class i.e. Brahmins the most respected community with whom   the secrets of predictive gimmicks were supposed to rest! Just see the plight of the Brahmin community these days! They age treated worse than any OBC in case of government jobs and other quotas! Why so? Simply because they lost their dharma by being nakshatra jeevis, caring two hoots for the admonishments of the Manu! No wonder they â the Brahmins are not fit for being consulted in any sabha of scholars!
 15. I must put on record that as a Kashmiri Pandit, I have more to blame predictive gimmicks and soothsayers, including the panchanga makers, than anything or anybody else since they never âforearmedâ (their pet dialogue is âforewarned is forearmed!)us about any calamities that were going to befall us! On the other hand, just to prove their astrological gimmicks, they just made ---and are still making --- us celebrate all our festivals, including Mahashivaratri on wrong days. It is these very jyotishis, whom we had treated as our friends, philosophers and guides, who are responsible for our downfall as Kahsmiri Pandits, since they proved neither our friends, nor philosophers least of all our guides! These Panchanga makers/jyotishis were the first to flee from Kashmir --- like the king Hari Sigh at the time of Pakistani raid in 1948 (hope he had consulted his ârajajyotishiâ to decide the muhurtas for taking the last flight to Jammu/Mumbai)----since they had already made their alternate homes in safer places like Jammu and Delhi  They just proved to be Shylocks, who were only interested in their Pound of flesh by way of Dakshinas for janmapatris and panchangas and matching of horoscopes -- all cheating and nothing else!
 16. These soothsayers have such a hypnotic grip on us that initially even I was brain washed to believe that the Vedas had nothing else to tell us excepting teaching us predictive astrology! I was also so convinced that it appeared that even the principle of Secondary Progressions must have been exported from India to Western countries since the principle of âA day equals a yearâ was mentioned in our Vedas!
 17. However, there are neither rashis like Mesha etc. nor planets like Mangal, Shani etc.
in the Vedas, Upanishads, Brahmanas etc. etc. Similarly, Vedanga Jyotisha, as has been made clear several times already, is an astronomical work of 14th century BCE and tells us as to how to calculate mean tithi, nakshatra and Uttarayana-cum-Tapah-cum Magha etc. months. It does not list any rashis nor any planets like Mangal, Budha etc. Same is the case with Yajur Jyotisha of about 11th century BCE and later Atharva Jyotisha of about 5th century BCE. As such, it is really a fraud on the Vedas being played by some charlatans to call any predictive gimmicks as Vedic astrology and hail themselves âVedic Jyotishisâ. It is equally a crime under Consumer Protection Act since it is a misrepresentation of facts to a client and is thus a deficiency in service.
  18.It is being said that Sir Isaac Newton believed in astrology! That just is not possible!  The astronomical ephemeredes, from which horoscopes are made, were so incorrect that âHorary Astrologyâ by a world famous Western astrologer, William Lilly, of 17th century, published by American Federation of Astrologers, has the planetary positions of all the charts incorrect! He was a contemporary of Sir Isaac Newton, and thus even if Newton had wanted to believe in predictive astrology, he could never have done so since the astronomical works of that period were fundamentally incorrect as they were mostly based on Ptolemyâs Almagest!
   In other words, the astronomical works of the West were hardly better than the Surya Sidhanta or Aryabhati of India!
  19.Similarly, Albert Einstein is supposed to have believed in astrology! Dr. B. V. Raman has not said so anywhere in his âworld famousâ book âNotable Horoscopesâ while discussing the horoscope of Einstein! Similarly, there has been no such indication in any of the astrological magazines which normally jump on such hearsays to encash them! It maybe mentioned here that even in the âNotable Horoscopesâ hardly any chart even of the 20th century is correct, leave alone the charts of Bhagwan Krishna or Gautama the Budha or Shankaracharya! There is also a difference of heaven and earth in the planetary longitudes of the same work in a consolidated form given at pages 426 to 431 and the main charts given in the chart form! Even the chart of the erstwhile editor of the Astrological Magazine viz. Dr. B. V. Raman himself given at page No. 401 is incorrect! And he was supposed to be the âgreatest Vedic astrologerâ of the twentieth century but surprisingly, could not calculate even his own horoscope properly!
   Same is the case with the chart No. 74, which is actually the chart of the spouse of Dr. B. V. Raman! The planetary longitudes on that page do not at all tally with the ones given at page 470 in the same book!
   And the delineations of all such charts are correct! In other words, âVedic astrologyâ can make correct predictions only from incorrect data!
 20. We have demonstrated it practically through âMaheshâ that it is impossible for any astrological predictions to have been correct in the past either based as they were on the data from the Surya Sidhanta or Aryabhati or Brahma Sphuta Sidhanta or Sidhanta Shiromani ----whether they were supposed to be so called nirayana or so called sayana! But then may be that is the beauty of predictive astrology -- whether âVedicâ or ânot-so-Vedicâ --- to make correct predictions from incorrect data!
 21. Predictive astrology is supposed to be a âscienceâ! What a preposterous statement! When the data on which predictions were based or are based these days are not correct, how can the results be correct and how can we draw correct inferences when we have not made correct observations at all!
 22. It is said that stars affect us! It appears either these astrologers have gone honkers themselves or they suppose that all the world has really gone mad! Let us see how:
I am a tiny human being on this small planet called earth. The sun is hundreds of thousands of times larger than the earth! And there are other stars of our nakshatra/rashichakra that are supposed to affect me individually as per the Dasha-Bhukti that is running in my horoscope! However, this fantastic statement has no leg to stand upon since the nearest star of that Rashichakra is Alpha Aquilae which is known as Shravana in Sanskrit! And do you know its distance from me? It is seventeen light years! And it is several times larger than our sun! In other words, if that star wants to âaffectâ me individually, it will take it at least seventeen years to do so even if that âeffectâ travels at the speed of light! And by then, my Rahu or Shani or whatever Dasha it may be must have been over!
Then how can such a star which is trillions of times larger than me send its rays in a concentrated from just to haunt me at a particular point of time! Can you imagine what type of laughing stocks we are making of ourselves by believing in such hocus pocus!
Similarly, the next nearest star of our Rashichakra is Alpha Bootis known as Swati in Sanskrit! It is away by 26 light years from me and is again several times larger than our sun!!
It thus defies imagination as to how a scientist like Albert Einstein could have made a statement like âstars affect usâ! I m sure he could not have been cowed down by the special âauraâ or âhaloâ which these âJyotishisâ are supposed to have since that is only to befool simpletons like ignorant adivasis!
Secondly, by quoting Newton and Einstein, these âVedic Jyotishisâ are themselves proving that they have no common sense at all! If at all these two scientists did claim to believe in astrology, they would have believed in Western system since there was no âVedic Jyotishâ around those days! And these two systems are just antitheses to one another â they cannot be integrated at any point of time since if my sayana moon is in Vrisha, my nirayana moon is in Mesha and so on! Similarly, there are no Dasha bhuktis in the Western system nor is there any Sade-Sati etc. Thus whatever support they try to muster for their preposterous claims goes in fact against the very grain of their own arguments! Â
23. It is being said that quite a few Western âVamadevasâ and other  âRishisâ have  started believing in âVedic Jyotishâ. We must not forget that Westerners like their Eastern counter-parts are interested in earning a few bucks the quickest way! Just by reading a few books by Dr. B. V. Raman or K. N. Rao etc. etc. and the much touted âBrihat Parashara Hora Shastramâ they can declare themselves as qualified âVedic astrologersâ It is immaterial if they cannot pronounce even the words of shantipath like âpoornam adah poornam idamâ properly or correctly, leave alone understanding their meaning, but then we have become so blind because of greed and avarice that we just let them masquerade as âVamadevasâ and âParasharasâ. This can happen only with Hindu religion, which we are supposed to defend! Why donât these âVamadevasâ proclaim themselves to be re-incarnations of Jesus Christ or St. Paul or St. John and so on! We have already a glut of so many incarnations like Radha and Dattatreya and so on and so forth that we hardly need imported Vamadevas! Thus instead of preserving our cultural integrity, we are appreciating the efforts of âVedic Jyotishi East India Companyâ to help us disintegrate our own culture by propagating some non-sense called âVedic Jyotishâ in overseas countries as well as in India.
I do not know how many times I will have to repeat it that predictive gimmicks are against the letter as well as spirit of the Vedas, Puranas, Itihasas and Smritis and therefore, have to be shunned at the earliest! And naturally, these imported âVamadevasâ are just jugglers who have no other motives but to make fools of us and make us deviate from our cultural heritage, pretending as if they are propagating it!
24.I have yet to receive any response to my challenge to all these jyotishis to quote even a single reference from any of our shastras which has advised us to marry only after matching horoscopes! Leave alone shastras, they cannot quote anything even from their own âJyotisha biblesâ. What type of experts are these âVamadevasâ and âParasharasâ and âVarahamihirasâ if they cannot vindicate their statements/stands even by a single shastric text?
Do you need any other proofs to understand that you are really being made a fool by these jyotishis?
The last nail in the coffin of astrological gimmicks is the chart for the new lunar year! It has been proved by me already quoting all the relevant Vedas and shastras that the current lunar New Year started on February 28, 2006, with the topocentric New Moon for Delhi at exactly 5hrs 0mts IST. But then all the vernacular papers, apart from astrological magazines, are making predictions for the new year on the basis of a lunar New Year supposed to start from March 30, 2006, with the chart for New Moon being prepared for 15hrs 45 mts. IST on March 29, 2006. In fact that is the time of Geocentric New Moon for an imaginary âcentre of the earthâ whereas the actual time of topocentric New Moon for Delhi on that date is 17hrs 26 mts. IST!
You can see it for yourself that not only is the very date of the New Year chart for a wrong date â March 29 instead of February 28, but even the timing of erecting that chart is based on a geocentric New Moon instead of the New Moon with parallax corrections for Delhi, which is known as topocentric phenomenon!
But then, as usual, these jyotishis will claim to have made correct predictions for our âmatribhoomiâ i.e. Bharatavarsha since, even at the cost of repeating a statement for the umpteenth time, these Vedic jyotishis can make correct predictions only from fundamentally incorrect data!
In view of the above discussion, it is clear that predictive gimmicks have no basis either as per the shastras or modern sciences. It is immaterial whether these predictive techniques are of Indian system â euphemistically known as âVedic Jyotishaâ or Western system. On the other hand, the so called Vedic Jyotisha has made us celebrate all our festivals on wrong days and the earlier we shun it the better so that we can start using a seasonal year for deciding our fasts, fairs, festivals and muhurtas.
When are you going to do that?
With kind regards,
Avtar Krishen Kaul   Â
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