Talk:Jyotisha:Not Blind Belief….
By Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swami
“Hindu śāstra-s are all nonsensical,” exclaim critics of our religion. “They say that north of the Earth is the Meru mountain, that our one year is one day for the Deva-s residing there, and that the Sūrya revolves around it. They believe that, besides the ocean of salt, there are oceans of sugarcane juice and milking fact, several kinds of oceans. They describe the Earth with its five continents as consisting of seven islands. It is all prattle.”
Why should the ocean be salty? Who put the salt in it? Why should there not have been an ocean tasting sweet or of milk? Is the talk about the seven islands and the seven oceans absurd? What do the śāstra-s say about the position of the Earth, the same śāstra-s that speak about the seven oceans and so on?
“Meruḥ uttarāsyāṃ diśi sthitaḥ,” they state. “Directly opposite to it is the Pole Star (Dhruva).”
The northern tip of the Earth is the North Pole. Is the Pole Star directly opposite to it? No. “Eons ago,” scientists explain, “it was so. But later, big changes took place, and the Earth tilted a bit.” The śāstra-s refer to a time when the Pole Star was directly opposite the North Pole, and at that time, the seven islands and the seven oceans must have existed. When the rotating Earth tilted a bit, the oceans must have mixed and become salty, and in the process, the seven islands must have become the five continents.
If there is a place above the North Pole, it must be Meru, where we have our svarga or paradise. Let us imagine that this Earth is a lemon. A spot on its top is the Meru peak. About that spot, any other part of the fruit is south. Where can you go from there - east or west? You can go only south. You will learn this if you mark a point on the top of the lemon. For all countries of the Earth, for all varṣa-s, the north is Meru. “Sarveṣām api varṣāṇām Merur uttarataḥ sthitaḥ.”
On the North Pole, it is six months of day and six months of night. We must have been taught this in our primary classes. It means our one year is one day on the North Pole. This is what is meant by saying that our one year is one day for the Deva-s.
When the Earth rotates, the northernmost and southernmost points are not affected. In some places, there will be sun for 18 hours, and in other places only for six hours. There are many differences in the durations of day and night in different places on Earth. Only on some days does the Sūrya rise directly in the east and is overhead without departing even by one degree. On other days, it rises from other angles (from northeast to southeast). Such is not the case at the North Pole. There, the Sūrya shines for six months, and the other six months it is darkness. And, again, during the sunny months, it would seem as if the Sūrya were revolving around this place (the North Pole).
The six-month period when the Sūrya is at the North Pole is called uttarāyaṇa, and the similar sunny period on the South Pole is dakṣiṇāyana.
The North Pole is called Sumeru, and the South Pole Kumeru. (“Sumeria” is from Sumeru. In that land, it is said, the Vaidika gods were worshipped.) Just as the North Pole is the abode of the gods, the South Pole is the abode of the pitṛ-s and naraka. To see the gods and the pitṛ-s who are in the form of spirits and the denizens of naraka, one must obtain divine sight through yoga. Merely because we do not possess such sight, we cannot deny their existence. There was Blavatsky, who was born in Russia, lived in America, and later came to India. She speaks about the worlds of the gods and of the spirits. A great scientist of our times, Sir Oliver Lodge, affirmed the existence of spirits and deities and stated that mankind could benefit from them. If you ask why Jyotiṣa, after dealing with the science of astronomy, should turn to spiritualism, the answer is that there is no contradiction between the two, as supported by the example of a scientist like Sir Oliver, who too turned to spiritualism.
Our śāstra-s came into existence at a time when mortals mixed with the gods. We would be able to appreciate this fact if we tried to understand the saṃkalpa we make at the time of performing any religious function. The saṃkalpa traces the present from the time of creation itself. From Jyotiṣa, we learn the position of the graha-s at the commencement of the yuga: then they were all in a line.
Some calculations about heavenly bodies today are different from those of the past. And if the findings at present are not the same as seen in the śāstra-s, it does not mean that the latter are all false. The śāstra-s have existed from the time the graha-s were in a line and the North Pole was directly opposite the Pole Star. Since then, vast changes have taken place in nature. Valleys have become mountains, mountains have become oceans, and oceans have become deserts, and so on. Geologists speak about such cataclysmic changes, and astronomers tell us about the changes in the courses of the heavenly bodies. So what we see today of the Earth and the heavenly bodies is different from what is mentioned in the śāstra-s.
The date of creation, according to Jyotiṣa, agrees more or less with the view of modern science.
Kali-yuga—the age of Kali—has a span of 432,000 years. Dvāpara-yuga is twice as long, 864,000 years, Tretā-yuga is 1,296,000 years, and Kṛta-yuga is 1,728,000 years. The four yuga-s together, called the mahāyuga, are 4,320,000 years long. A thousand mahāyuga-s add up to the period of 14 Manu-s. The regnal period of a Manu is a manvantara. There are royal and republican rulers on Earth, but God has appointed Manu as ruler of all the worlds. Fourteen Manu-s have ruled the world successively since the creation of man. The words manuṣya and manuja are derived from Manu. So too the English word “man.” In the saṃkalpa for any ritual we perform, we mention the year of the seventh Manu, Vaivasvata. If we go back to the first Manu, Svāyambhuva, we arrive at a date for the origin of the human species which agrees with the view of modern science.
The Sanskrit word man means to think. Manu was the first of the human race with its power of thinking. There is a saying in English: “Man is a thinking animal.” Since man’s distinctive characteristic is his capacity to think, the descendants of Manu came to be called manuṣya-s.
The life-span of the fourteen Manu-s put together makes one day (divasa) of Brahmā, that is, 4,320,000,000 years. His night has the same length. While one day of Brahmā is thus 8,640,000,000 years, his one year is 365 such days, and his life-span is 100 such years. The life of his brahmāṇḍa is the same. When Brahmā's life comes to an end, Brahman alone will remain, and there will be no jagat. Then another Brahmā will start creation all over again. It is believed that Hanumān will be the next Brahmā.
Bhūloka, Bhuvarloka, Suvarloka, Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka, and Satyaloka comprise the seven worlds. The deva-s, mortals, and so on live in these worlds. Bhūloka, Bhuvarloka, and Suvarloka form one group. “Bhūr bhuvaḥ suvaḥ”, we pronounce this so often while performing rituals. The remaining four belong to higher planes. When Brahmā goes to sleep at night, the first three worlds will be dissolved in the pralaya (deluge). This is called avantara-pralaya (“intermediate deluge”). All other worlds will perish when his life span ends.
Scientists say that the heat of the Sūrya is decreasing imperceptibly. Without the warmth of the Sūrya, there would be no life on Earth. Scientists have calculated the time when the Sūrya's heat will be reduced so much that life on Earth cannot be sustained. Then this world itself will perish. The date on which this will occur agrees with that given by our śāstra-s for the next avantara-pralaya.
Half of Brahmā's allotted lifespan is over. This life span is divided into seven kalpa-s. Now we have come more than halfway through the fourth kalpa, Śvetavarāha. We mention in saṃkalpa how old Brahmā is at the time we perform a rite, which year we are in of the Śaka era, also the year according to the 60-year cycle beginning with Prabhava—all details of the pañcāṅga, including the day, the nakṣatra, and the lagna. The date of Brahmā’s appearance, according to this calculation, is said to agree with the view of modern science of when this cosmos came into being.
Brahmā is called parārdha-dvaya-jīvin. It means he lives for two parārdha-s. A parārdha is half the number meant by para. When Brahmā is called parārdha-dvaya-jīvin, it means he lives as many years as is meant by 2×1/2 para-s. Two half-parārdha-s are the same as one para. Then why say parārdha-dvaya instead of just one para? The reason for this is that Brahmā has already completed half of one para and is going on 51. So it is meaningful to use the term “half of a para” [two half-parārdha-s].
Fourteen Manu-s reign successively during one day of Brahmā, which lasts a thousand caturyuga-s. So one manvantara is 71 caturyuga-s. Now running is the 28th caturyuga, the Vaivasvata manvantara. And of it, it is Kali-yuga now. In our saṃkalpa, we mention all this and, in addition, the day according to the moon, the lagna, etc. We also mention how we are situated in the space, from the Brahmāṇḍa down to the locality where we are performing the function (for which the saṃkalpa is made). It is all similar to writing the date and address on a letter.