The Philosophy and Practice of Vedic Astrology

An Introduction by Abhigya Anand

What is a Horoscope?

A Horoscope is a diagrammatic representation of the celestial sphere at any given time which includes stars, planets, luminaries, constellations, comets, asteroids and entire Star systems amongst the many explored and unexplored wonders of Nature.

Even special astronomical and astro-mathematical points with reference to the above bodies are calculated. These calculations are in close association with astronomy and research of the ancient sages - they are precise to the arc of a minute.

Basically, the horoscope is a diagram of what you can observe or perceive in the Great Celestial Sphere - 360 degrees packed with objects, moving and non-moving to witness, analyze and be amazed of!

Depending on an observer's perspective, the view of these variegated objects - moving, stationary, bright, dull, close and far - the view of these objects can be very different just depending on a simple change of perspective.

What is happening all around us is a Great Play of Influence that is part of the Laws of Material Nature.

Even our mental perspective can change the way we look at this Great Play.

The Horoscope is one way of looking at this beautiful Leela of the divine. It is just a different way of looking at the skies, instead of the dull, unimaginative and plainly vain, endless search of modern astronomy. This way of looking at the sky can give us many answers - many that are totally unknown to man at this stage.

The Great sages have divined the importance of reading and analyzing the stars for Humanity.

A Horoscope is an astrologer's way of looking at the skies. A more imaginative, deep, reflective and sometimes introspective way, it is a more helpful iteration of bland astronomical rumbling.

Using Cause-Effect Logic, the researcher seeks to interpret his World in relation to worlds around him. He understands, from Vedic Wisdom, that he and others are microcosmic reprises of that One Whole - the Bramhaanda.

Using Mathematical precision to create a diagrammatic vision of the celestial sphere - the astrologer's perspective is as wide as the skies. In other words, the sky is the only limit to the imaginative and intuition-stimulating opportunities when trying to understand the Future.

Every event has a beginning and an end. The only constant in the Universe is Change. But every event and object influences the other in the course of existence.

This is true for every single thing. Even an ant influences the Earth under it. But the influence the ant exerts on the earth is comparatively insignificant compared to the influence the Earth exerts on the ant.

Relevance and Significance are the most important aspects when considering the impact of Influence in our Analytical perspective of things.

The present modern method of investigating the nature of the different kinds of influence that objects and events have on others is very narrow and seeks to look at everything from a very narrow and materialistic, gross form.

That is the reason why they cannot understand that there are things in the Universe which we cannot understand no matter how hard we try. But these unknown influences do exert themselves upon us in our day-to-day lives.

The wise astrologer embraces the concept of the unknown and surrenders his intellectual abilities to God, and His Nature. That is from where the true ability to analyze the Future comes from.

In Modern times, surrendering is very difficult. We are too egocentric in our approach to Knowledge. We must broaden our perspective.

Some people do not quite understand the power of a horoscope. The ancient sages, however, while meditating on the Origins of the Universe and the Self, occasionally were given access to tremendous streams of Material Knowledge for the benefit of us mortals. They documented some of these, and the rest they passed on to the best of their students - who in turn gave that undocumented knowledge to their students in a disciplic succession, where only the best suited received the Wealth of Jnana.

We ordinary mortals today have access to only a fraction of this knowledge. But standing on the shoulders of the Giants, as they say, we can broaden our scope of the way we look at the Past, Present and Future and equip ourselves with a better sense of what is going to happen next.

Analytical Knowledge is always inferior in terms of depth and relevance to Knowledge acquired through meditation and spiritual contemplation. The present form of astrology we have today is analytical. Forgetting the sources and the philosophy of this Science, several modern 'astrologers' misuse it's potential and many end up making a mockery of it - using it to predict outcomes of sports events, petty political matters instead of analyzing the most important situations the World might face next.

We are losing track of the original purpose of Astrological Knowledge - that is to help the World, help people come out of their individual and collective crisis and use the Science to guide others - towards Greater Good. Ultimately - Jyotisha is one of the Sciences to guide us towards Self Realization.