> Greetings/Namaskar,
> I'm an astrology enthusiast. I know of you enough to
> recognise your
> excellence in this subject.
> My point of discussion for this mail is : IAU's
> status change of pluto. Does
> this mean there will be a change in the software
> Jagannath hora, to
> accomodate this change? Have'nt we vedics always
> restricted ourselves to the
> divine nine, excluding even Neptune and Uranus? Does
> the current controversy
> in IAU classification have any bearing on vedic
> astrology? Would'nt
> including Uranus and Neptune into consideration mean
> questioning the
> astroprudence of ancient rishis?
> Kindly clarify these questions of my confused mind.
> Humbly yours,
> Regards,
> I'm an astrology enthusiast. I know of you enough to
> recognise your
> excellence in this subject.
> My point of discussion for this mail is : IAU's
> status change of pluto. Does
> this mean there will be a change in the software
> Jagannath hora, to
> accomodate this change? Have'nt we vedics always
> restricted ourselves to the
> divine nine, excluding even Neptune and Uranus? Does
> the current controversy
> in IAU classification have any bearing on vedic
> astrology? Would'nt
> including Uranus and Neptune into consideration mean
> questioning the
> astroprudence of ancient rishis?
> Kindly clarify these questions of my confused mind.
> Humbly yours,
> Regards,
From: Narasimha P.V.R. Rao <pvr@charter.net>
Date: Aug 26, 2006 1:02 PM
Subject: [sohamsa] Pluto Question and Mahaganapathi Homam
To: vedic-astrology@yahoogroups.com, sohamsa@yahoogroups.com, sjcBoston@yahoogroups.com , JyotishGroup@yahoogroups.com, sjc-boston@yahoogroups.com
Namaste Sir,
Hoping you won't mind, I am cc'ing this to some yahoogroups.
This demotion of Pluto has no impact on true Vedic astrology. Though some Vedic astrologers influenced by western astrology use Pluto, classical Vedic astrology doesn't use Pluto.
In fact, Uranus and Neptune are also not used in classical Vedic astrology. Though there are clear indications that sages were aware of them, sages did not use them in natal horoscopy. Our distance to Uranus is about twice the distance to Saturn. If Saturn is the size of a basket ball, Uranus is the size of a tennis ball. Probably, such a small object at such a larger distance has negigible impact on us.
Which celestial bodies are called "planets" by scientists and which are not is irrelevant to astrologers. We only care about "grahas", the celestial bodies whose consciousness can "catch hold of" (or grasp) our consciousness. Graha means catching hold of. Science does not even have the concept of "consciousness". But, our ancient sages and seers understood that all animate and inanimate objects of this universe have a consciousness and that all these individual consciousnesses have a nice interplay. They formulated Jyotisha (Vedic astrology) based on an understanding of the nature of that interplay.
Sun is not a planet - he is a star. But his consciousness has a huge impact on ours. Hence Sun is a graha. Moon is not a planet - he is a satellite of earth. But his consciousness has a huge impact on ours. Hence Moon is a graha. Rahu and Ketu are imaginary abstract points - the intersection points of Moon's orbit around earth and earth's orbit around Sun. They have a consciousness and that consciousness has a huge impact on us. Hence they were labeled as grahas. Sages found that the consciousnesses of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto have a negible impact on our consciousness and they did not include them as grahas.
The foundation of Jyotisha is at the level of consciousness. It is beyond the grasp of science at this point.
We all have three bodies - sthoola sareera (gross body), sookshma sareera (subtle body) and kaarana sareera (causal body). Science only recognizes gross body. Concsciousness permeates all the three bodies and, in fact, interplay of the consciousnesses of various bodies (e.g. grahas and people) happens mainly at the level of causal body, though it may translate into something happening at the gross level finally. How can science, which does not even recognize subtle and causal bodies, understand anything about those interplays?
Bottomline is: Scientists may change their mind hundred times about which bodies are planets and which are not. But, we don't care. Foundations of Jyotisha were laid by the intelligence of rishis.
Hope this helps.
* * *
Happy Ganaeha Chaturthi to all of you!
On the occasion of Ganesha Chaturthi, I am doing "Sree Mahaganapathi Homam" during 6:00 am-1:30 pm (EDT) tomorrow (Sunday, Aug 27) at my home in South Grafton (near Boston). The homam will be elaborate and conducted based on vaidika agnimukha ritual. Apart from many other mantras, we will be chanting Ganapathi Atharva Seersham (aka Ganeshopanishat) 40 times. Atharva seersham is the highest prayer of Ganesha and it extolls Ganapathi as the Parama Purusha (supreme cosmic being) who is in the Sahasrara chakra of all beings. When chanted with the correct intonation, atharva seersham is magical. Some people fell in love with it after listening to it at my house.
If you are interested and live nearby, you are welcome to come and join us in the chanting and finally have prasadam for lunch. Swami Sathasivom from Sri Kalikambal temple in Chennai will be a guest at the homam and you can take his blessings too.
Pooja to haridra Ganapathi will start at 6 am. Varuna pooja and Punyahavachanam will probably start around 6:15 am. Agni pratishthapana will be around 6:30 am. The poorvaanga procedure including a shodasopachara pooja will happen till 7 am. One maala each of mooalmantra, "ganaanaam tvaa" mantra and Ganesha Gayatri mantra will happen till 8 am or so. Then we will do small counts of 30-40 miscellaneous mantras of Ganesha. That will take a couple of hours. Around 10 am, I expect start reading various sooktas, in preparation for atharva seersham. They will take around half hour. Then atharva seersham may start around 10:30 am. It will take around 2.5 hours. At around 1 pm, we will offer poornahuti. Then another shodasopachaara pooja, uttaraangam, jayaadi homam, anaajnaataadi praayaschitta homam will happen and we expect to offer tarpanas and shuddhaanna bali at around 1:25 pm. We plan to end around 1:30 pm.
Please feel free to come at the beginning and stay till the end or to come in the middle also. You can come without RSVP'ing also. Just drop in if you want. Call 508-839-1218 for directions.
* * *
Fire is a good medium for chanting mantras. Mantras chanted in front a fire can increase the bhootagni, burn karmas and cleanse the subtle body. Especially in people with low bhootagni, homam can increase bhootagni and increase the effect of their mantra.
If any of you are interested in doing a Ganapathi homam yourself every month or week or day, I will be glad to help you with the procedure. It is not all that difficult. In fact, it is quite easy. Though I do an elaborate homam on important occasions such as tomorrow, I do a shorter version every morning. It takes only 55 minutes and energizes me for the rest of the day. Please send a mail to pvr@charter.net if you are interested in learning how to perform a daily homam.
The next few years may be important for the world. A few people doing sadhana calmly in various corners of the world will be helpful. Internal sadhanas such as mantra japam and meditation are excellent for individual spiritual evolution, but external rituals such as homam will be very helpful too. It will be good to have people doing homam in various corners of the world.
Sarvam SreeKrishnaarpanamastu,
Narasimha
----------------------------------------------------------------
Free Jyotish lessons (MP3): http://vedicastro.home.comcast.net
Free Jyotish software (Windows): http://www.VedicAst rologer.org
Sri Jagannath Centre (SJC) website: http://www.SriJagan nath.org
----------------------------------------------------------------
