When you go for a stroll in any
unfamiliar city, and, if you have a plan of the city with you, then, it will
come in handy, and, say, if you are looking for any acquaintance in the city,
you will need his proper address. When you go for a stroll at night across the
starry skies, a star chart will be of use to you, and, in order to search for a
star in the sky, you will need its address. The address of a star means its
coordinates in the sky. This speaks about the apparent place of a star in the
sky, not about its position in space.
To any
casual observer, the sky appears to be a half ball or sphere at which he looks
from inside and at the centre of which he is located. In fact, half of the
sphere is hidden below the horizon and all heavenly bodies appear to be distant
from us. Say, if we think all stars are located on the surface of the celestial
sphere, we can conveniently fix the apparent positions or coordinates of the
stars. By knowing these positions, we can easily find these stars in the sky.
As soon as we find a star in the sky, we can then easily note its place on the
star map. This is exactly what an astronomer has been doing since time
memorial.
Let us think
for a while, we are at the centre of the imaginary celestial sphere, mentally
extend through our eye a plane parallel to the plane of the Earth's equator,
then it will intersect the sphere in a large circle called the celestial
equator. Again imagine a line passing through our eyes and parallel to the axis
of the rotation of the Earth; it will intersect the celestial sphere at points
called the poles of the Universe. The northern pole happens to be close to a
bright star, called the Pole star, and can be easily found from a group of
seven bright stars arranged in the form of a dipper and called the
constellation Great Bear.
Both on Earth
and in the celestial sphere, it is possible for us to determine the position of
any point with two coordinates, and on Earth these coordinates are the
geographical latitude and longitude. As we have learnt in our school days,
latitude is reckoned in degrees starting at zero from the Earth's equator and
increasing along the arc of the meridian either towards the North or towards
the South Pole. The latitude of a point is the number of degrees from the
equator to it, whereas longitude is measured along the equator from a meridian
accepted as the base meridian to the meridian passing through the given
point.
In
case of geographic latitude for the celestial sphere declination is used. This
declination is also measured in degrees, like latitude, from the celestial
equator towards one of the poles of the Universe. For geographic longitude
right ascension is used on the celestial sphere. It is the angle between some
base celestial meridian and the meridian passing through the point in the
sky.
To sum up, the
declination and ascension of a body are its coordinates, its address, in the
sky. The overwhelming majority of "sky-dwellers" or in common
parlance stars are settled, that is they rest in the same place or address all
the time, apparently they seem so for sky grazers, but not for astronomers.
That said, there are some wandering bodies, known as celestial nomads,
which are better known as the planets and comets. In the Greek,
"planet" means "wanderer". It is thus clear that the
wandering bodies move in the solar system, relatively close to Earth.
Their
apparent location in the sky changes every moment as a result of their own
movement in space and also as a result of the movement of Earth. Though the
remaining bodies also appear to be static, as their movements are hardly perceptible
because they are so far away from us, yet over time, their imperceptible
movements can also be recorded by astronomers. Say, two thousand years ago some
sky gazers or astronomers have recorded the exact position, for example, of the
position of the Great Bears in the sky, and making comparison with their
today's position, definitely a perceptible change can easily be noticed.
Heavenly bodies like planets never follow a specific route, while taking
their round the sun, their pattern of movement is different every year, though
an astrologer/astronomer can easily predict their possible movement in heaven
and apparent relative position of even ten thousand years in future without any
effort or they can even find out what was their position in the background of
other heavenly bodies say five thousand years ago.
Distances between
bodies on the celestial sphere, like distances between points on any sphere,
are measured in degrees. In the sky two stars may appear too close to each
other, but in space they may be billions of light years apart.
What I am
trying to arrive at is: the recording made by ancient astrologers about the
places of planets in the sky at a particular point of time in some distant past
is of immense value today.
You might have
noted the planetary positions in yourself or your children's horoscope, which,
it is believed, is a prediction of the future events of the subject. The
details are meticulous. It is difficult for any roadside astrologer to prepare
any correct horoscope; one should possess a good knowledge of mathematics.
According to
Indian astrology there are nine heavenly bodies pretty close to us, which
impact the dwellers of Earth: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and
Neptune, Pluto is no longer a planet as it does not fulfil the criteria of a
planet, besides moon and sun. Uranus and Neptune are not visible to our naked
eyes, but they do impact the movement of other close heavenly bodies,
therefore, they were named by the ancient Indian astrologers as Rahu and Ketu.
They had long calculated their existence, by the impact exerted on other
planets relating to their movement. Don't think, planets move around the sun in
a circle, no, they hobble, being impacted by the gravitational pull of the
closer planets. This was how the Indian astronomers in the past calculated the
existence of Uranus and Neptune in the heavens, and the pattern of their
movement in the sky.
There are twelve
zodiacal signs in the sky as per both the Indian and western astrology. In
reality, they are the twelve constellations, and our earth's position is
calculated in terms of these twelve constellations in a year, though their positions
may vary every year however imperceptible they may seem to be. Two children
born on the same date may find the earth in different locations in terms of
planets and moon. The movement of the sun is never static; it moves to and fro
in its own prefixed destinations like a pendulum, which obviously impact our
body due to variations in its radiation like appearance of skin cancer. So the
position of stars and planets a few seconds earlier may not be the same after a
few seconds. One expert astrologer good at mathematics can easily calculate by
studying the planetary signs at a given period of time of any man his exact
age. Astrology is only a science of calculations, there is no superstitions,
though people with half-baked knowledge of such subjects simply try to give it
a bad name of superstitions, I call these people votary of western education,
though they can be called at best ignorant and they have not come out their
circle of limited knowledge.
Astrology is
not only the favourite of Indians, the Greeks and Romans also did some
astrological calculations, they also studied the planetary positions, otherwise
how could they record planetary positions during the birth of Jesus. If you
read the Valmiki Ramayana, you will be surprised to find the descriptions of
planetary positions during the birth of Lord Ram, same thing you will get in
the Bhagavad about the birth of Lord Krishna, now just think for a while how
could Vasudev, his father, knew at what time the water in the River Jamuna
would be in low tide, that was apparently done through astronomical
calculations, and hence particular spot was found from where he could cross the
river apparently walking in the minimal level of water.
Now take up the
case of the Red Sea, how Moses knew at what time there would ebb tide, and, he
learnt this by making calculations of time and he identified a suitable place,
where the Red Sea was broad with shallow depth. Even he judged beforehand how
much time it would take for the Israelite to cross over the sea before it
became flooded again. This is a historical event, and never repeated every
year. While chasing the Israelite, when the Egyptian soldiers tried to cross
over the Red Sea, it once again became flooded and drowned them.
If you study
these events meticulously, then you can easily calculate the exact year of such
a phenomenon. The book of Matthew in the Bible tells that when Jesus was born a
bright star appeared in the eastern sky, and think scientifically, what was
that bright star, it was actually the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, now
think, in which century did that conjunction occur, and find out the exact date
and time of the birth of Jesus Christ.
This
phenomenon occurred in May, October and December of 7 B.C., in February 6 B.C.
a third planet Mars, moved into the grouping and this made to appear the rise
of a single bright star, though it consisted of three planets, Jupiter, Saturn
and Mars. Therefore, the astronomers say, possibly Jesus was born sometime in
April of 6 B.C., when this phenomenon occurred in the sky.
But
please don't get confused with the celebration of Christmas, it has nothing to
do with the birth date of Jesus, 25th December is the last day of winter, and
from then on the season of Spring begins, so it is a day of celebration to mark
the beginning of a new hope. In the southern hemisphere, Christmas is
celebrated in mid-winter, which falls in June.
Now I am
quoting from the Valmiki Ramayana, the birth date of Lord Ram: "On the
ninth lunar day of Chaitra (according to lunar calendar) ... five planets
(viz., the Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and Venus) happened to be exalted (appeared
in zodiacal signs of Aries, Capricornus, Libra, Cancer, and Pisces
respectively) and Jupiter in conjunction with Moon appeared in the zodiacal
sign of Cancer, mother Kausalya (the eldest wife of Dasharatha) gave birth to a
highly blessed son named Sri Rama..." (1:13), now settling down to find
out the date and time of occurrence of this novel astronomical phenomenon it
stands out: 12.05 PM of January 10, 5114 BCE. Likewise, if you consult the
Mahabharata, of course in original, the astronomical phenomenon during the occurrence
of the Mahabharata War, you will be surprised to find, the exact date appears
as: October 13, 3139 BCE. By consulting the different texts of Indian
mythology, and position of stars and planets at that time when Lord Krishna was
born, one can easily arrive at a specific year that is 3228 BCE.
Now coming to
the great event of Exodus, when the Red Sea parted making way for the
Israelites to cross at the behest of Moses, its exact date is not mentioned in
the Old Testament of the Bible, yet from the contemporary situations comparing
it with the Egyptian chronology, it perhaps happened sometime in between 1200
and 1500 BCE, but when this event is connected to the name of the city Raamses,
which the Israelites built before the Exodus, and also comparing with the
contemporary phenomenal event of deflooding of the Red Sea, an exact year of
1134 BCE can be reached, however, to find out the exact date, it requires
meticulous study of the contemporary geographical phenomenon to be sanguine.
Anyway, read this line from the Exodus chapter of the Holy Bible: "Then
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go
back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and
the waters were divided." (14:21). Please note in those days, there was no
outlet in the Red Sea in the North, which joined it with the
Mediterranean!
As lines on
palms of two hands are never similar, so also is every planetary position, it
is always unique. By meticulously studying the planetary positions in a given
situation, one can easily arrive at an exact date and time of any particular
historical event.
Not only in ancient
times, but also in medieval India, it was a practice to write horoscopes of
every new born king primarily studying the contemporary planetary positions.
Every planetary position is unique in itself and never recurs twice, therefore,
such descriptions of planetary positions can easily be analysed to know the
exact year and time of any historical event, though it requires meticulous
study and analysis, which is not possible without the thorough knowledge of
mathematics.
Based on the
contemporary available records of planetary positions of the past events, we
can easily verify the authenticity of every such historical incident. This is
the only reliable and authentic way. As I tried to prove above only with a few
examples, the names like the Ram, Krishna, Jesus, Moses, or the narratives like
Exodus, the Mahabharata War etc. were either true historical figures or true
events. Astrology, based on scientific astronomical calculations, is a great
science, and needs further empirical study to make it more accessible to the
common men or to make it more palatable to modern science. Whether or not we
accept it, every planet and its specific position in the sky at a particular
point of time will invariably impact our day to day life, though it requires
further meticulous study. Astrology as a science was highly advanced in India
once upon a time, but with the introduction of western education the study of
this science has lost its lustre among the scholars, besides its study is not
that easy, it is pure mathematics. I feel, those with fair knowledge in
mathematics can make an attempt to study astrology once again to restore the
lost glory of this great legacy of India's past before the modern world, which
has been relegated into oblivion with passage of time and also due to
fascination for western education.
What more, can you
imagine today, most of the mystery science like numerology, palmistry,
necromancy even hypnotism originated in India besides astrology?
(Email: drpkchhetri7@gmail.com)