Astrology - a note of Time

Astrology - a note of Time

We have all seen time tables, didn't we?.  In earlier days, the railway time table was the most common time table known to many.  Let us try to see what that time table contained. 

A railway time table shows, the details of a train - among others, when it starts from a place and when it would stop at the successive stations before it reached the destination.  I am not pretty sure as to how this was arrived at - whether by statistical inference, or by mathematical extrapolation, or by any predictive analysis of the efficiency of the engine considered along with the durability of the bogies or by some other means!.  In any case, our Indian Railways do have some mechanism to calculate this so accurately because, they usually showed the time correct to the last minute!.

Having said so, does the train always keep time of travel to that right minute as given in the time table?  Sometimes Yes !! or Sometimes No!! would be the answer.   However, the train certainly does travel by the time table,  though sometimes later or at times earlier ?!!

Does it help any one blaming the time-table for the early arrival or the late arrival of the train?  Is it also well guaranteed that the train would travel on all days as mentioned in the time table?.   The answer would be "Not Necessarily". 

Why is this so?  Because, there is something called 'Environmental Affects'.  The train does or should have traveled  as per the time table.  However, due to other environmental affects, many a times, the train would not stick to the time.  For eg. Heavy unprecedented rains, any other natural calamity or temporary breakdowns or obstacles could come in the way of the smooth journey. 

For this, is the train at fault, is the time-table at fault, is the station at fault or is the Govt.at fault?.

Therefore, this makes us believe that there is something that is attached to any creation that determines its time-table.  Even a rock upon your nearby hill does not stay eternal in the same form as it was at the time it was created. 

When we think about human creation, we can see that our own creation is a time-taking process. Further, our development from egg can also be measured as in the case of a train traveling through the stations!!.

A small stone dropped into a pond creates ripples and have we not watched how the ripples seem to move out and away from the centre of its birth?  

A blown bubble floats in the air for some time and then blows apart.

Time - a measurement

Ancient Rishis of India observed this phenomenon of time and thoroughly understood it and therefore, symbolized it as 'Kaal' - the ultimate.  'Kaal' is known as the Lord of Death and is also called the Dharma-Rajah meaning the Lord of Justice.   (This is akin to the 'Last Judgement' of the semetic religions).  Kaal, Kali, Kaali, Kaalapurusha, Kalki etc. are all the same 'Time'.

Could the fish like 'beejam' / sperm (Matsyam) through the Tortoise like 'pupa' or foetus (Koorma), short limbed 'Boar', the half-man-half-lion (Nara-Simha), and after the birth, the miniature 'human' (Vaaman); the violent 'Parasu-Raama', the matured 'Raama', the Super-man / attractive 'Krishna' and the final 'Kalki' be the Time-Table of a human being!!?!!

    

Kaala=Time

Kaala is Time.

In Ancient Indian Scriptures, the word Kaala is used in many places to indicate time as well as death.  There are  many variants to this as well viz. Kaala, Kaal, Kalki, Kaali, Kali, Kaala-sarpa etc. 

Kaala is also termed as dark in colour.  So Yama - the God of Death, Krishnah etc. are dark.  While Kaala-andhaka or destroyer of Kaala - ie. Shiva is white in color - body smeared with hot-white ash of the cremation grounds.  

A note on Yama, the God of Death:-

- Yama comes from Sun - is the son of Sun because Sun gives us the sense of Time.  Yama also is a measure of time equivalent to 1/4 th of a day (light) or night equivalent to 3 hrs.   (Must see:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_units_of_time)

The 'Remover of Obstacles' - Lord Ganesha also rides the dark one (mouse) - Kaala and is called Kaala-Mooshaka. 'Mooshakah' means thief. Thus the Mooshakah steals away our time and there is no way we can recover it from it.  If there are obstacles then the time is again lost.  Therefore the destroyer of obstacles has always the full control of Time.  Lord Ganesha, the 'stenographer' to the epic 'Mahabharata' completed the world's largest epic of more than a lakh verses in record time.  Even when his scribe/pen broke off, the determined Ganesha, sacrificed his own pointed tooth by breaking off one of his own tusks to replace it for the pen and continued with his job.   

The Trinity

Trinity is a concept seen in most religions of the world. 

Ancient Indian scriptures refer to it as Tri-Murty  meaning the Three Symbols/Idols. (A physical Idol is a 3 Dimensional Symbol).

The Vedic Rshis referred to them as 'Creation', 'Sustenance' or 'Preservation' and 'Destruction' or 'Dissolution'.   They also observed that these three is  cyclic by its nature and therefore could be represented as vertices of a triangle.  This triangle is further inscribed within a circular disc to symbolize its property of being cyclic.   Further on, if the disc is rotated, the points leave behind a trace.  The combination of the trace along with the connections therefore symbolizes what is popularly known as the swastik.  If the rotation is rightwards, it is considered positive and if leftwards, it is considered negative.  

'Swasti'  means well-being.  'Swastik' is that which gives/radiates well-being.  Whoever/whatever radiates/gives is God.  Therefore Swastik is itself God.  Swastik imbibes in itself, the components of creation, sustenance and dissolution.

Onam & its Significance

'Onam' is a popular festival of Kerala, a small southern most state of the peninsula of India in Asia) where the vernacular is Malayalam.  It is celebrated by people of all religions with the same fervour of the famous 'Saarva-janik' (of all peoples) Ganesh Festival of India's economic capital - Mumbai.

It is a ten day festival starting from the day when the moon transits the 'Hasta' star (commonly used, but loosely translated from the word 'Nakshatram' is in fact a collection of stars) in the month of 'Simha' (Leo) in the Hindu Zodiac.  It ends on the day the moon transits 'Shravana' star.  The name Onam is therefore the colloquial of 'Shravana'.  Onam is also known as 'Shraavanotsavam' or the festival of 'Shravana'.

Astronomical Significance: 

'Hasta' or 'Atham' star in Hindu astronomy/astrology is the spread between 10 degrees  and 23 degrees 20 minutes in 'Kannya' (Virgo).  (A star in Hindu astronomy is equivalent to a section comprising of 13 degrees and 20 minutes of the zodiac.  A quarter of a star is called a 'paada' and is equivalent to 4 degrees and 20 minutes).  

Hasta ::          comprising of associated stars of  α, β, γ, δ and ε Corvi

By the division of the Hindu zodiac, the Hasta is positioned under 'Simha' (Leo - 120 degrees to 150 degrees) Raasi. The Lord of this star is Moon, the Deity is Sun, and the Symbol is 'Hand' - also considered as the hand of determination and power and that brings smile and laughter. Incidently, 'Hasta' also means laughter!.

Shravana ::        comprising of associated stars of α, β and γ Aquilae

'Shravanam' or 'Onam' or 'Thiru-Onam' (Revered Onam) is the star that is spread between 10 degrees and 23 degree 20 minutes in 'Makara' (Capricorn).  The Lord of this star is Moon, the Deity is Vishnu - preserver of the universe, and the symbol is either 'Ear' or 'Three Foot prints'. 'Shravana' also represents the climax of the lunar energy and is shown in the celestial horizon as the eagle - not to mention that Vishnu's vehicle is Garuda, the great eagle. 

'Shravana' is also the birthday of 'Saraswati' the Goddess of Learning and Knowledge. (Kerala notably has a tradition of celebrating Navaraatri and Vijaya-Dashami as Vidya-Aarambham dedicated to Goddess Saraswati).

Interestingly, there is a halo-star with zero dimension just before 'Shravana' called 'Abhijit' meaning victorious whose Lord is Brahmah the Creator.  (One need to ponder whether the zero dimension Abhijit star of the Hindu Zodiac, governed by Lord Brahmah the creator is by anyways the point of singularity of the Bing-bang assumed to be having zero dimension?).   From the four heads of Brahmah came the four streams of Knowlege (Vedas :  Rg, Yajur, Saama & Atharva)  and Saraswati the consort of Brahmah naturally became the goddess of Learning, Knowledge and Wisdom.  The word 'Shravana' also means Listening (Shrav, Shrut) which is probably why, one of the symbols is the 'Ear'.

Shravana also translates to 'Aswattha' or the Pipal which has great significance in the Vedic philosophy.  (Significance of Aswattha is described in 'Bhagawad Gita' by Shri. Krishna.) It is also told that Vishnu was seen as a small child biting his foot and floating on a heart-shaped 'Aswattha' leaf at the end of the maha-pralaya (the great deluge) by Satya-vrata (the first Manu - Vaivasvata-Manu) who was in his large boat / ark with his collection of 'bija' (seed) of every species of life while he and his disciples sailed through the deluge, as described in the 'Matsya' puranam.

  

The Onam festival is about welcoming the pleasant season (mostly after a good harvest) after the heavy rains when the flowers start blossoming aplenty to decorate each home for yet another year of prosperity, equality and happy and peaceful living. 

Mythology:-

Indeed, there is also a mythological story attached to this astronomical occasion.  The event is about the first human avatar of Maha-Vishnu.  Maha Vishnu is one of the Trinities of Hindu Mythology who is responsible for the time between the start (creation) and the end (annihilation); that is the time of sustenance.  Vishnu literally means presence - ie. existence. 

Maha-Bali, son of Virochana was the grandson of a great devotee of Maha-Vishnu, named Prahlaad - whose egotistic father Hiranya-kashipu, Vishnu had slain (and thereby liberated) in his earlier avatar as Nara-Simha (Half man; Half Lion).  Maha-Bali also, was a powerful leader and a very virtuous king (who also had earlier extended help in the churning of the Milky-way which led to the formation of the various systems in space.).  However, unlike his great-grandfather, Hiranya-Kashipu, who was egotistic by virtue of his almost invincible powers acquired through his penance from Brahmah the creator, Mahabali, believed in kindness to such an extent that 'Kindness' though a virtue by itself, made him egotistic about that virtue - that none other was more kind than him!  He was so virtuous that even at the sight of him, Indra, the king of the devas, couldn't stand before his grace and ran away, foresaking the throne entailing Mahabali rule the heaven as well.  Here lies the beauty of the Indian Philosophy & Mythology that, even virtuous deeds could lead one to state of feeling of invincibility that translates itself to egoism (aham-kaara) and feeling of power.  Thus Maha-Bali became egoistic about himself, assuming that he was so powerful to grant anything anybody asked him.

 

Maha-Vishnu, therefore always has his ways of removing aham-kaara.  While removing the aham-kaara of Hiranya Kashipu (Prahlaad's father), Vishnu had adopted a different scheme; but in this case, he approached Maha-Bali as an insignificant human-being - as a dwarf - and sought from him all that came under his three foot-steps.  Hearing such a silly requirement, he offered vaamana, additionally, land, wealth, cattle etc., to which the vaamana declined and requested to give him only what he had asked for initially.  Maha-bali therefore, granted the wish immediately; even defying the advises of his own preceptor Guru Sukra-achaarya.  Moreover, Sukra-achaarya was forced to turn blind eye and subsequently remained one-eyed after the Vaamana forced-in a sharp darbha grass, thereby blinding one of the eyes; those eyes that saw the truth behind everything through many perspectives.   It is known that the sense of multi-dimension is lost if looked only through one.  In other-words, we need at least two eyes to see a third dimension object.

Thus, having lost the ability to see things in multi-dimensional perspectives (as well as to abide learned advises), and having engulfed by pride and over-confidence, however competent he might have been, it was just a strain that was required to bring him down below earth into the nether world.

No sooner had he granted the small human (vaamana) the dwarf - the vaaman, in the traditional mode of signing the 'contact' / 'treaty' by conferring three palms of holy water onto the Vaamana's palms, the Vaamana grew above the skies and measured the entire universe and whatever exists beyond, with just two feet and thereby demanded Maha-Bali to show the place so that he could own whatever came under the measure of the remaining one foot as well.

The virtuous and intelligent Maha-Bali then realized that all that material that existed is of the Lord and what left to be given was only his ego.  So he said "Lord, thank you for revealing to me!  I hand over thee myself and therefore you may symbolically keep your feet on my head.".  The Lord agreed to this proposal because one's ego is just as large as what was already measured with His foot.  

Thus was the Great Maha-bali liberated by the Lord and became one with the Omnipresent.  Bhaagawatam mentions that he was awarded 'Su-tala' a place of prosperity. (Su = Good, Tala = State or Level) and the Lord agreed to be the guardian angel to that nether-world.

Referring again to the astronomical significance, the symbol of 'Shraavan' turns out to be really meaningful especially in understanding the symbolic meaning of the three-foot-prints.

Onam is thus celebrated as the occasion when the virtuous King Mahabali who ruled the world visit once a year his subjects in Kerala.   He is welcomed with the grandeur of flower decorations in traditional concentric circles (signifying the orbits and the zodiac).

Pranavam - AUM

ॐ 

ॐ : (AUM) : This is the start of everything, the continuation of anything and the termination of everything.

From what I have gathered from many places and have also analyzed myself I have come to understand that this 'beeja mantra' is in fact a representation of the trinity of life.   The Trinity of Life force consists of Creation (Brahmaa), Continuation/Subsistence /Preservation (Naaraayana), Termination (Shivah).  Any object that has to exist need to go through the above three stages of life.

Trinity

1. Brahma - is from Brihat Manah (Great Mind).  All creations arise from Great Mind - for without mind, there cannot be creation (for that matter not even creativity).  If we need to start to office daily, there requires a mind to start that life-in-office-for-that-day.
2. Naaraayana - is of prevalence and indicates (ayanam) movement/metabolism.  Without metabolism or some sort of activity (karma), there cannot be prevalence or existence. Thus after reaching office, we do some work and that continues until evening before we close for the day.
3. Shivah - is of Goodness & Perfection - it is of Completion / Termination.    End-of-the-day, we complete our work and close it and terminate it after having reached the level of perfection that generates great happiness (Shivam) in ourselves.  Thus termination / completion renders happiness. Shivah is therefore also Kaala-Antaka (Terminator -Antaka of Time - Kaala).  In ancient days, the unit of time was called Yaama.  Yama was therefore the Lord of Time.  Time is also known as Kaala.  Needless to say, that it is Time (Kaala) that determines the Life of anything.

Pranavam

Having understood the Trinities, let us dwell a bit upon the AUM and its origin.  It is said that AUM is the Pranava-Mantram.   Pranava is that of Praana (Life).   Pratyaksha (visible) Praana is closely synonymous with Air.  Thus movement of air indicated breathing and breath indicated life.  The first sound produced by a baby born is just gushing of air outside without any obstruction.  Any sound made without any obstruction is known as a vowel.  Vowels start with अ and prevail through उ to terminate with अं .  It is said that the अ starts in the stomach, उ in the chest/heart and अं closes at the tip of the lips.  The generation of this pranava-mantram doesn't require any teeth or even tongue - even a new born baby, very aged or even a dumb can invoke this mantram.

English Alphabet Similarity

 The English alphabet starts with the letter 'a' or 'alpha'.  The 'a' is similar to that of the head of a cow or bull.  According to Hindu scriptures, the most revered animal is the cow or the bull.  While the Vaishnavaic tradition adores the cow - especially with Sri Krishna closely related to the cow (also called Nandini), the Shaivaite tradition has imbibed the bull (also called Nandi).  The head of the bull/cow is representative of the letter 'alpha'.  It also denotes the first of the zodiac - Aries.  Further, it is easy to see that the letters 'a', 'o' and 'm' constitute the pranavam described above.  If we look at the mouth of the person chanting 'a' (like in father), 'o' (like in omni), and 'm' (like in him),  we can see that the letters are created by the lips and the mouth.  The cry of the baby gives the symbol 'a', with a curve up and a curve down.  The 'o' takes the full circle and the ending 'm' shows a closed mouth with the lips in the form of an 'm'.

Decimal Similarity

The denote ॐ is a combination of अ , उ and अं.   To denote rightly, they are taken of partials of अ , ु  and  ँ .   Interestingly & incidently, the Deva-naagiri (of the Town of Gods) script for the decimal digits have striking similarity in their mirror images of these characters in the numbers Six (६), Eight (८) and Seven (७ ) in their mirror images !!

Hindu-Arabic Numerals

It is well known that the ancient sages of India found the Decimal Number system.  An entire Vedic hymn alone is about counting 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000 and so on indicating that even the Vedic seers observed Decimal number system thousands of years earlier to Romans who founded and used English alphabet viz., I, II, III, IV, V etc., a complicated representation that would turn one mad if he ever had to write beyond one hundred - and still worse had he to find the product of even two digit numbers !!.

It is again interesting to note that the Vedic Decimal System observed a representation of digits with the lowest significant digit written first on the left most side.  In an age when it was more to do with oral calculation than written calculation, this representation not only increased faster response, but also ensured accuracy of calculations.  In otherwords, adding Dwaa-dasi (Dwaa=2, Dasi=10) to Trayo-dasi (Trayo=3, Dasi=10) meant adding the first two digits to get 5 and then the next two tens to get Twenty; thereby giving Pancha-Vimshati (Panch=5, Vimshati=20).   This improved the speed of arithmetic addition for example, in case the numbers were much bigger, as it was possible to add up and arrive at interim results as and when the digits of the second number were orally spelled; without the need to wait until the last digit of the second number is spelt (as in present scenario).

When the Arabs came to India and interacted with the Indians and took along with them the Hindu Decimal System which they learnt from the Hindus of India, they were rightly taught and did rightly learn the system and therefore, wrote in their style of writing which was from right to left instead of the Devanaagiri writing from left to right.   Thus when (Trayo-Dasi) written as 31 indicated thirteen in Devanagiri, 13 indicated thirteen in Arabic as they wrote from right to left.  However, later on, when the Arabs taught Decimal Number system to the English, they insisted upon not changing the order because, by that time, the reason for Hindus permitting Arabs to change the order was not known to (or rather got sublimated when it reached) Arabs  who didn't observe the same flexibility (or catholicity) and wisdom (which the Hindus showed towards them), while transferring the knowledge to the Europeans.   For this reason, when the Europeans  discarded the Roman System and adopted the Hindu-Arabic System,  they adopted what we use today. Interestingly, reminiscence of the same is indicated in the numbers viz. Thirteen (Three+Ten), Fourteen (Four+Ten), Fifteen (Five+Ten), Sixteen (Six+Ten), Seventeen (Seven+Ten), Eighteen (Eight+Ten), Nineteen (Nine+Ten).

I have mentioned above when I wrote about Decimal Similarity, that there are three digits whose mirror images form the Pranava-Mantram ie. ॐ.  Those digits are 7, 8, 6.  I was awe-struck to observe that these digits are considered very sacred and regarded high in the Arab-World as well as in India by the Muslims who consider this number to be the number of God !!  It is not possible to assume that the mirroring of digits is by coincidence and un-intentional, particularly in the light of the fact that the Islamic culture is greatly a culture of Mirror-Images!.  This is because, we will find strange rules in Islamic culture like, No mustache or Hair on the Head, but hair only on the beard; write from right-to-left instead of the commonly found left-to-right.   Thus 786 is but a representation of ॐ

The Star

You would have observed the Star symbol used in the Israeli national flag.  Insert the ॐ (Aum) inside a triangle and you will find that in its mirror image form, the three sides of the triangle will point to the letters Six & Eight in the base and Seven at the top. A mirror image of that triangle drawn upside down (ie. with the base on top), would correspondingly indicate the  Three (३) as mirror of Six (६), Four (४) as mirror to Seven (७), and Two (२ ) as mirror to Eight (८). And 324 (३२४) is ॐ in the left to right perspective, that we usually use.

The Rice

Rice is a very important element in any Vedic ritual.  We have been taught that the Aryans followed or rather brought the Vedic religion to India when they came and conquered India.  We are also taught that the Dravidians who were the aboriginals of India were driven out by Aryans so that they settled down South.  However, it is also interesting to note that while all Vedic rituals needed rice as an important material, it is the Dravidians who always even today are fully dependant on rice.  The North Indians always depended more on wheat for their staple food.  Does it mean that the Vedic religion actually belonged to the Dravidians and that, they were the actual followers of that religion?

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