Origin of Hindu Astrology

The study of the influence of heavenly bodies on living things and terrestrial affairs on earth was created not by ordinary human beings but by the divine people.

Indian Astronomy relates to the period more than 3,000 years before Christ.A general conjunction of the Sun,Moon and the Planets took place at the midnight between 17th and 18th of Feb,3102 B.C.The Hindus declared this time as the beginning of the epoch ‘kaliyuga’The Hindus had many other epochs carrying their calculations to much earlier periods.The “Kalpa” was a period of 4,320,000,000 years.A period of 4,320,000 years was the Maha Yuga.Any one of the epochs can be considered for computing the mean places of the Sun,Moon and the planets.

A cycle of 60 years was developed which was a combination of a period of 12 years of the biggest Planet,the “Jupiter” and a period of 5 years from the Vedas.The history of Chinese emperors was written with reference to the cycle of 60 years with effect from 2757 B.C.The Period of 60 years was in use by the Chaldeans under the name ‘Sosos.’

The Hindus,the Romans,the Egyptians and the Chinese lived together in Central Asia in pre-historic times.They developed common ideas on the heavenly bodies and they had a common language. The Mystic and legendary knowledge was used by the ancients to transfer the esoteric knowledge from one generation to another.

Divine people,the ancient Hindu Seers Knowns as “Rishis” observed that the Nine Planets enter into the organism by way of their emanations and take control of the same and make the human beings act in a particular way. The ancient Seers codified their observations into rational principles and developed a system for astrological analysis,namely”Vedas”,meaning Sacred Knowledge.

‘Vedas’embraces astronomy,medicine,Ecology,Philosophy,Psychology,Economics,Religious rituals among other disciplines.The Vedas became the sacred books for the Hindus . Astrology was used in the forecasts of weather,natural calamities,wars,revolutions,rise and fall of empires,etc.all based on planetary influence .

Accurate astronomical records and tables were constructed in ancient India,called “Panchangam” (Almanac) in Tamil language.This depicted the assembly of stars,Planets and Satellites,their rotation,revolution,Velocity,direction,distances travelled,Path of the Planetary motion, distance between other heavenly bodies accurately, at any point of time and for any number of years.The contemporary Scientists are very much surprised at these astronomical findings and calculations which had been well prepared during the ancient periods when there were no scientific awareness,equipments and knowledge.

Hindu Religion

Hindu Religion is the oldest among all religions in the world.There is no historical evidence to show the existence of any other religion before the start of Hindu religion.Persians invaded India through the way of the North West Frontier Himalayas and called the Sindhu River Delta region as ‘Sindhu’ and called the people living there as ‘Hindus’.The persian word ‘Sindhu’ later came into being as ‘Hindu’.

Religions such as Buddhism,Christianity, Islam,etc.are all founded by someone whom we know.We also knew when these religions were founded.But,there is no founder for the Hindu Religion or we do not know who founded the Hindu religion and when it was founded.The origination of Hindu Religion is not known to mankind.

Aryans wrote a book of poems,namely the Vedas.There are four Vedas.(1)The Rig Vedas,the oldest one.(2)The Sama Veda(3)The yajur Veda and (4)The Atharva Veda. The Vedas are full of hymns in praise of Gods and invoking their blessings.People prayed and offered sacrifices to obtain victory in war,abundant rain,good harvests and greater prosperity.

The Vedas was personified as a living being .Each living being sprouted from the Vedic Corpus,was genetically termed in the name of a “Goddess”.This Goddesses were worshipped so profoundly as to develop personal relationship in the sense that the Goddess can possess the worshipper.

In the beginning,the Vedic Religion was merely Nature Worship.Since the peasant was at the mercy of the forces of nature,he worshipped the Sun,the Moon,the Wind, the Rain and so on.In course of time,these forces were deified and came to be known as Prithivi(Earth),Agni(fire),vayu(wind) and parjanya(rain).They also worshipped Indra,the warrior of God and Varuna,the upholder of the physical and moral order.This simple religion became in course of time,highly philosophical.More important was the code of Morality given by the God Varuna.Violation of these laws would bring down terrible punishments like incurable diseases and banishment to hell.People therefore lived a pure and moral life.

The western Theosologist HABEL describes Hindu Religion as follows. “Hindu Religion is not a law to regulate man.It is a hypothesis enabling flexiblity to the many changes taking place in the course of the life of man and in the various stages of theological development.It does not enslave a man to its rules and regulations.And it is not an eccentric,arrogant religion.”

The fundamental theory of Hindu Religion is that there is one root basis for everything and the invisible root basis is seen as the Almighty , the GOD.Hindu Religion believes in the principles of “Dharma”(Natural Justice) which always prevail over the evils.Man has to atone for his actions and so undergoes difficulties for sins and reaps benefits for benevolence.Both are separate and cannot be reconciled together.It resembles Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion “For every action,there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

The Hindu Ideology

The Hindu ideology differentiates the body and the soul.The human body is perishable whereas the Soul has no death at all.It lives on.The God says in the teachings of Bagawad Gita,an Indian epic,”Just as a person removes worn out clothes and puts on new clothes,so also,the embodied Soul goes out of the human body and takes on a new one”It believes in Rebirth.