journey towards stars - 1-6

Astrology is derived from two Greek words astron (star) and logos (science, study) and Astronomy from two words astron and nomos (arrangement, law or order). Indian astrology or Jyotisham took birth to reckon the time. The definition given to it is very similar to the word Astrology. Later on it was developed to peep into the individual lives. New branches were added to it in the course of time. Thus it has three main branches and all of them have their significance and they all interlinked with each other. Let us go through its salient features which are rather neglected in the course of time and much of it lost its significance at present.
Indian Jyotish was evaluated to reckon the time. It was required to perform the Yajna, the main object of the Veda, the oldest literature of the World. Time is a precious commodity of our life too. It has neither beginning nor ending. So, according to Arybhata, it is being inferred with the help of the planets and the constellations on the zodiac. The zodiac is an imaginary circle around the earth where we observe all celestial bodies at one place irrespective of their distance from the earth. The zodiac has been divided into twelve similar parts and each one has thirty similar divisions and each subdivision has sixty divisions. These divisions are in line with the divisions of time. The time taken by the planets to complete these divisions by their angular motion is asserted as the similar division of time. The time thus calculated from the angular motions of the planets is being stored in a device called panchang (almanac) which is enough familiar to us. Some of these divisions have been spelt in the Veda. Veda is not a literature purely dealing with Jyotish. So the divisions as and when required have been spelt there. So searching for all is not a viable effort.
A celestial system with limitations has been used to calculate the time. The name Jyotish has been derived from that system. A celestial body with some spark is called Jyotish in Sanskrit and Study done with the help of the celestial bodies is called Jyotisham. The object of the time reckoning is fulfilled with system adopted where seven celestial bodies including the sun and the moon are observable around the earth on the imaginary circle. Though their angular motions are calculated on this circular path they are corrected with the arc difference with their true planets. This phenomenon will be discussed later in detail. But one thing worth notable at this point is the geocentric movement of the planets. Angular velocity of them is calculated in respect of the centre of the earth which is used to reckon the time. All those differences due to their movement around the sun and their dissimilar distance from the earth have been corrected through the formulas evaluated. So the system adopted for some purpose may not be considered as a wrong concept in respect of the heliocentric system. It has been made enough clear in the Indian astrology and it will be clarified later in detail.
We have already noticed the difference between astrology and Jyotish. Both are completely different from each other. Now, to go deeply, we need to understand some of the major concepts of this subject (i.e., Jyotish). So, in this episode, we try to understand one of the major concepts called geocentric theory. At first we need to differentiate it with the heliocentric theory to weed out the wrong concepts of the learners and to under stand the need of such concept.

Jyotish is quite different from astrology (Astro logos). Their objects too differ from each other. The astrology is a science or study of celestial bodies where Jyotish is a study done with the help of the celestial bodies. That means it investigates time etc with the help of the celestial bodies and it has no interest in the origin, development or any such related things of celestial bodies which is quite noticeable in the previous episode.

As per the astrology (starting from Nicholas Copernicus) planets revolve around the Sun. While revolving around the sun they move far and near to the sun which clears that the path is not a circular one. In a circle each and every point of the circumpherence is in equal distance from the centre. Indian culture has strong routes to Veda, the oldest literature of the universe. Veda gives utmost significance to the Sun. Each and every ritual, every sacrifice and daily performance of sandhya etc give maximum significance to Sun only. We seek knowledge from the Sun by chanting the Gayatri Mantra and our culture names it the mother of all other Mantras. While calculating or inferring the time or while predicting ones life we depend on the Sun only to attain others. That means our culture is completely centralized by the sun. We talk about the Sun based or centralized universe only. We never or no where deny the fact that all are controlled by the sun. So by word and spirit we follow the heliocentric theory since the time immemorial. For example: (asavadityo brahma, surya atma jagatasthasthushascha

We need to calculate or infer time, we need to measure the cosmic affect of the celestial bodies on living and non living objects, we need to ascertain the effects of the planets on individuals and we need to do so and so. There is a similarity in all these requirements. We perform all of them in respect of the Earth only as we are on it and we require all those components listed above on the earth only. So to achieve them we use the celestial bodies who are visible from the earth and whose effect, cosmic or else, can reach the earth or affect the earth and the objects on it etc. Though the planets are not revolving around the earth, though the distance of all those visible celestial bodies is not similar from the centre of the earth we observe all of them at equal distance and in a circular path around the earth. We named that circular path the Zodiac and divided it into signs etc which may enable us to infer the time. We do not bother about their liner velocity and we calculate their angular velocity only in respect of the centre of the earth. But the major interesting point is the corrections which we perform to calculate their angular motions. We correct the planets in the circular path with the arc difference which they have from their original planets and this simple declaration makes it clear that the planets are not revolving in circular paths and not around the earth also. We call the arc difference which arise due to the non circular path as mandaphala and the difference which arises due to their movement around the Sun (not around the Earth) as Sheeghra Phala. These above revelations make it clear that we adopted the geo centric system to obtain our requirements with the help of the celestial bodies and we are never intended to study them(with some exceptions which we discuss later). And it is the geocentric theory adopted by Indian Jyotisham.

Thus, the celestial bodies revolve around the Sun in non-circular paths. This fact has been adopted in letter and spirit by the Vedic period and still we follow the same institution and keeping its strength in mind we can say that it will lost forever. We use some of the celestial bodies in respect of the Earth and utilize them to reckon time and to predict the coming issues. We are very well aware of the different perceptions and we take knowledge above all. In the next episode we will discuss about the logics of the geocentric system adopted by us and about the arc differences of the planets.
Now it is clear from the previous episode that the comparison of geocentric and heliocentric planetary movements is unjustified. Both are significant and both have been accepted and adopted in Indian astrology and Hindu heritage. Now it is also clear that the geocentric system has been adopted to ascertain the objects as listed in the previous episode. Now in this episode let us discuss the significance of the geocentric version of the movement.
The ability of the naked eye is limited. Naked eye covers a fixed space around the earth and it is equal in all sides. Naked eye observes all celestial bodies at the end of the covered space around earth irrespective of their distance from the earth and from themselves also. The celestial bodies move in their own orbits and they are directly or indirectly not monitored by the earth. The end of the observed space in the space around the earth forms a circle due to the equidistance of all points of that from the naked eye. That imaginary circle is called the Kaksha Vritta or Drig Vritta or Rashichakra (zodiac). This simple logic laid way to adopt the geocentric theory which ultimately paved way to the discovery of spherical geometry etc.
Assume that a light moves around an object in a non-circular path. The impact of the light on the object is very similar to the impact of a light moving in a circular path. Though the impact seems similar it has some difference also. The concentration of the rays or the effect of the rays on the body is different when the light is nearer to the object and farer to the object. But to a person or a living being situated on the object the light seems to be in equidistance from the object all around it although he experiences the different effects of the light. So naturally that living being tries to differentiate the difference of the effect and not the distance of the light. The same logic paved way for the geocentric imagination of the celestial bodies which bestow the different effects on the objects on the earth.

The distance covered by a planet in its orbit in a day could not be measured some thousand years ago with the help of a shadow or with the help of any instrument used to to ascertain the position of the celestial bodies in those days. Satellites ushered the human history some decades back. The dissimilar tracks of the celestial bodies make no sense also of measuring the same. One requires to have a unique method to measure the movements and that method should give accurate positions of the celestial bodies when observed and require to show the same effect on living beings in the course of time. Undoubtedly these guidelines or requirements gave birth to a unique and unquestionable system on this land. Though we strongly feel that the subject dates back to the Veda and Veda is immortal we repeatedly utter possibilities of the origin of the ideas just to make it better understandable to the present day intellectuals to whom all these subjects look nothing other than the mess.

Planets do move around the earth in circular paths and their eastward movement generates an angel in the centre of the earth. So all those planets which are quite observable in the space around the earth with a naked eye and which have significant cosmic or otherwise effect on all those living and nonliving objects generate angle at earth's centre and obviously that angle measures up to 360 degrees. So keeping the centre in the centre point the whole space around the earth has been divided into 360 equal parts, and 12 equal groups which subsequently resemble the days and months of one cycle or year. So the divisions at far and near to the earth resemble the same angle though it differs in the linear distance of the different paths. This simple logic gave birth to galaxy of astronomers before and after the great ARYABHATA who produced his treatise at the age of 23 and which is incomparable even today.
The angle produced in arc by a planet by its eastward movement in the rashichakra is being calculated by the sine of the arc and that sine has been ascertained with the help of mathematics which born to fulfil this object of human beings on the earth and we all know that it has been spread all over the earth from this place.
This complete narration simply reflects the unimaginable logical power of the human beings received after the stage of completed transformation of man to maharshi who was able to observe the immortal construction of the sound or wave (the swara) around him which has been named the Veda. Here, we conclude the know-how process of the birth of this subject, which sometimes look very sensitive and tricky and from the next episode we do initiate to the subject with some more perspectives added.

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