The Maya 2012 - Is it Relevant?

On 21 January 2012 Aeon Centre of Cosmology put forth its first in a series of Youtube videos. In the first, 'The Maya 2012 - Is it Relevant', Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea) discusses the Mayan calendar, Carlos Casteneda and the significance of 2012 in terms of evolution of consciousness and the birth of the new world. LINK TO VIDEO

A Reply to T.V. Sivaraman Regarding the Reformed Sanatan Calendar

Aeon Centre of Cosmology
Skambha, 1.4.2011

Dear Sivaraman-ji,
I have gone through your paper in response to my comments on the calendar you and Darshaney-ji have prepared for the Hindu community of the South. I am afraid my reply will again be lengthy because the points you make are stimulating. But I must say that what you write only drives home the point that we view the function of a calendar quite differently, be this for Hindus, Christians or whosoever.
From your presentation it is clear that the Hindu calendar is for ritualistic purposes almost exclusively – I believe Sayana’s commentaries are along these lines. In my view that is only one of its functions, perhaps even a minor one, all told. I agree that there is a pinpointing of power, as you so rightly describe; but how many Pujaris are truly capable of carrying out such a delicate procedure? Reciting the Slokas and Mantras is not enough: yogic realisation has to support the recitation. Unity of energies – even unbeknown to the faithful – within the true Harmony is the aim when the right cosmic keys are applied.
You refer to the ‘Gregorian Calendar’, but as you know, this was the ancient Julian calendar of the Roman Empire, similar to the one used throughout the then known world, including Vedic India. Emperor and later Pope simply brought in certain necessary reforms. This system pre-dated Christianity by many centuries. Therefore, I prefer to call it the universal calendar because it does serve best the universal cause of oneness. Being as we are in the astrological Age of Aquarius, the thrust of the Time-Spirit, Mahakala, is to cut through obstacles, to bring down barriers wherever they may exist which tend to obstruct the experience of wholeness and unity. Your SMKTP calendar sets in place certain perceived Vedic fundaments which do not encourage universalism. And this is done by harking back to the system that served the ancients well but must be updated to serve not just the Hindu Samaj but the whole world. This is not my personal preference: it is the destiny of Bharat. After studying your calendar and reading your reply to my paper, I do not see how India’s place as centre and soul of the Earth can come about as a living, vibrant truth of our times – of this Age, given that we have moved through several ages after the Vedic. Your calendar would attempt to blot out of the Earth’s memory those intervening years, as if they never existed. I do not see any updating in your effort but rather an attempt to reinstate the old as it may have been.
There are certain fundaments that never change and that eliminate subjective interpretations. These are the four pillars of the annual circle that our planet traces around the Sun – that is, the Equinoxes and Solstices. These pillars are what render the Dharma eternal because indeed they are eternal. There is no question of MY interpretation or calculations being different from yours or anyone’s in this regard and therefore subject to human error. These pillars are astronomical facts. Mesha Sankranti is what it is and occurs when it does occur; its timing cannot be left to the fancies of interpreters and illusory calculations such as we find in the Nirayana system with its 20 or so ayanamshas. The pillars of the Tropical Zodiac are eternal; but in practice we have lost the key to this essential truth. In your calendar I am not sure that this is made clear. You write of the pair of twins as the horns of the Ram and Mesha Sankranti being in the middle. I am not sure what you imply by this, because the start of the year in yours seems to vary each year (‘…accordingly, Mesha Sankranti falls on the last day of Madhu this year’.) In what way then does this differ from the Nirayana system which also advocates a SHIFTING new year? But if those pillars are firmly in place, there would not be any shifting. This seems to arise because you have determined that Madhu/Madhava must stand as the start of the year and the Aries 0 point has to be accommodated accordingly. This means that it will shift each year. The result is a replacement of the Nirayana method with another from the same school of relativism.
Your calendar, apparently having a mixture of Sayana and Nirayana, or solar tropical and sidereal in my view does not restore that essential eternal truth. It is not by adopting Vedic names that the Dharma is given its eternal character. Truly, the only way is to grasp the Soul of Knowledge again – but as it must be found today. I know that AKK staunchly opposes using ‘foreign’ names for the months, for example. Given your admiration for his views, I am not surprised to find that, like him, you seek to reinstate a certain Vedic terminology. There is nothing to fault in this approach except that it may complicate an already complex issue.
On the other hand, what ‘western’ names are you replacing? Interestingly, those western names are more astronomical than the ones you are suggesting. Apart from July and August which were established to honour Roman Emperors, the rest are for the most part zodiacal/ planetary. March is in honour of Mars, since the month of Aries ruled by Mars begins in that month; April derives from Aphrodite (Venus) because her sign Taurus begins during this period, and so on. Or else we have the very important last months of the year which denote the months starting from the Aries beginning: September, because the 7th sign begins then; October the 8th, November and the beginning of the 9th month, and so on; they are, you will agree, Sanskrit derivatives. It is not that I advocate employing these names; I am simply driving home the point that they are more closely aligned to that eternal script, unchanging across the ages.
Regarding these ‘foreign’ names for the months, there is something to note of greater importance. Consider this: they are given pride of place in the Veda by personifying them as Gods and Goddesses together with their respective vahanas – i.e., Aries (Agni) and the Ram, Indra as the Bull (Taurus). Even Varun’s attributes most accurately characterise the sign Makar, and indeed his carrier is the Crocodile. Do the names you have given capture this Vedic essence in a greater measure? Do they more fully display the nature of the cosmic energies the Gods and Goddesses embody for the faithful? Can they be as easily worshipped? I think not.
You note that Hindu rituals are season-based and that this is important. I need to point out that the Four Pillars are also descriptive of the four seasons. But their beginning is always in a sign of rajas energy like the four Cardinal signs of traditional astrology. The triad Rajas, Sattva and Tamas (in astrology these are termed Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable qualities) is repeated four times throughout the year; and the seasons Rajas sets in motion fully honour the impulsive, energetic character of Rajas to institute change forcefully. Similarly with the remaining two. Tamas brings the triad to an end with a break down of energy, typical of Tamas. As you will note from the book I sent you, Time and Imperishability (pages 87 and 192), these same divisions must be applied to the physical body of Bharat Mata as she stands today; and when so applied they describe accurately the characteristics of the contemporary nations that embody the triadic Energy Modes. Certainly we have to agree that Pakistan, as per the map of India with the gunas superimposed, is fully rajasic and lacks the attenuating influences of the other modes. This is factual proof of the new cosmology, an update of the old.
Thus, when you write of seasons, I would like to see the same universal applicability involved in the Vedic prescriptions according to your interpretation. But I do not. Certainly the pairs of twins would appear to refer to the positive (masculine) and negative (feminine) properties of the signs. Does Madhu/Madhava and so on convey this in an applicable manner?

I must discuss the important question of predictive astrology which you raise. This, as you state, is one of the aspects of today’s culture that AKK most objects to, but certainly not the only one, as you seem to believe; he has a number of other dislikes which need not detain us here. Regarding predictive astrology the problem is that the astrology we find in India today is exclusively predictive (and in my view based on the wrong system). When I first began the in-depth study astrology I refused to entertain the idea of looking into the future. I was solely interested in knowledge, deep knowledge of self and circumstance. I eschewed any idea of prediction as beneath the high standard I set for the Art. However, before long I realised that this approach was not faithful to the comprehensive character of astrology. It was as if I decided that Time existed only for the past and present, and not the future. It was a ridiculous position to hold! And so, I did begin to integrate the future through the Vedic method of ‘one day for a year’, the system of ‘progressing the horoscope’ still in use in the West but not in India, though it is a thoroughly Vedic concept. It falls in the category of correspondences and equivalences, which is to this day the only valid method for understanding time and destiny, for both individual and collectivity. What I realised along the way was that this integration of the future encouraged a yogic realisation of equanimity – wholly necessary when reading a horoscope that contains both good and bad. The problem we face in India is not that the stress is on prediction but that the Soul of Knowledge has been lost. However, this is not the fault of leaning on predictive astrology only: the entire treatment of Time is without that soul.
My point has been from the very beginning, and more so with your new calendar: why cannot ALL measuring be done in the same One Circle of 360 degrees? Naturally this implies a proper unchanging Zero Point. If you start shifting that about, you fall into the same trap as the Nirayanis. But if you do not, if that ayanamsha remains the same always, then all measuring can be done within that one circle as the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda prescribe. Naturally you will run into difficulties if you seek to accommodate the Nakshatras by measuring their true dimensions as in the constellations. But if you understand them to be the Mansions of the Moon based on the mean measure of 13 degrees 20 each, they fit neatly into that One Circle and you do not have to switch to the sidereal sphere at all. Everything else you mention can be accommodated in the One Circle – which is the Solar Tropical Zodiac – along with all the other divisions Hindu Astrology is famous for.

However, a distinction should be made regarding the Manvantaras, Kalpas, and Yugas because these measures of Time involve the Precession of the Equinoxes. They are measured in that same One Circle but which is projected onto the heavenly vault by the movement of the equatorial plane in a slow motion of 25,920 years to complete one round, marking off what I have often called the Ascendant (lagna) of the Earth. I have not referred to this Measure at all because none of you would agree that the key to this cosmic harmony is given in the Rig Veda verses to Vishnu. This is another of my discoveries which has been ridiculed by AKK and all those who believe that the signs of the zodiac are not to be found in the Veda. Regardless, the fact is that the key is given therein, AND, what is best is that it is thoroughly applicable today and it makes sense of the Epics just as they have been handed down to us from antiquity. That is the proof we seek, empirical in its own way. But even in this Act of Measuring, the basic key is always the tropical zodiac with its pictographs and hieroglyphics. With these in hand and the appropriate Zero Point, measuring can begin and the eternal rounds extend before us in an unending display of the majesty of Time. (See my Map of the 12 Manifestations, The Gnostic Circle, et al.)
As for a model I can provide so that you have a sample of the method I prefer, this is very simple. Take any one of the months as per the universal calendar, which is also the official calendar of India, and you have the answer. Nothing needs to be changed. You simply fit your festival dates, etc. into that universal month – solar, lunar, Nakshatras and all. You could take the month of September, for example, because I believe the Durga Puja is established by the new Moon in a corresponding Nakshatra. In this case the Nakshatra would not be shifting, though the lunation shifts and the Navaratri is measured accordingly with the last day almost always falling in the tenth sign Makar, just as it was extolled in the Veda – the tenth is the month of victory of the Aryan Warrior undertaking the initiatic Journey. This was a Journey of ancient times; it is the very same Journey the Warrior undertakes today, along with the whole of society.

I hope you will consider carefully this concluding point, most important of all. Something most essential of the Vedic Way has been missed because of the imposition of Science when astrology and astronomy parted ways. An attempt was made to be ‘scientific’, thereby ridding the Sacred of the label ‘superstition’ by a demand for confirmation based on observation. This call for physical observation was repeated throughout the Tirumala Conference, to which I took serious objection. Since the figures of the zodiac in the solar tropical ecliptic circle are invisible to the naked eye, science simply projected them fancifully onto the constellations of fixed stars – and called them by the same name, regardless of the fact that even as so projected they could in no way be related to the tropical zodiac of equal measure. For astronomers this served to satisfy their desire to impose a physical and provable character onto the subtle and invisible that had been confirmed only by the inner vision of the Seers. Those figures of the ancient zodiac describe the innermost attributes of the Year. Hence the Year was and remains the central figure of the Sacrifice because it embraces the sacred measure of 12 which is translated into our calendar that harmoniously blends the sacred and the profane. In this manner society is carried along with the Sage on the same path – the latter knowingly, the former unknowing but participatory.
Astronomers are not satisfied with the Vedic vision because it is inaccessible to them – consequently, they consider that it simply does not exist! It is too elusive and even elitist in their view. To bridge the gap they introduced the imaginative zodiac of the constellations which bears no relevance to the Earth Year of the Vedic Sacrifice. Serious yogic sadhana is demanded if we wish to see along with the Seers, and therefore to know exactly what mistake scientists made to derail the Act of Measuring. No scientist is capable of or willing to undertake these strenuous practices requiring many years of concentrated dedication, far more than are required to obtain a university degree. Those who encourage the scientific way over the Vedic are not Initiates; they have not acquired the inner sight resulting in a consciousness of unity. On this basis the time-tested Vedic method of Correspondences and Equivalencies can be applied. Therefore, when you stated that I advocate a reliance on the physical observation of astronomers to lead the way, I was forced to object since I hold the opposite view: the true Measure, the Vedic Divine Maya is only discovered by Yoga, without any need at all of physical observation; provided that the grace of the Guru and the Gods and Goddesses has bestowed those eternal ‘keys’ on us that can ‘open the doors to the month and the years’ – in the Vedic Age as well as today.
This has been a most stimulating exchange which I hope will continue into the future to the benefit of all concerned. The Atharva Veda verses you end you letter with are sublime. I thank you. Truly there is no place on Earth like India, preserver of the Dharma eternal.
With the very best wishes,

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

T.V. Sivaraman on the Reformed Sanatan Calendar

[The following is a response from T.V. Sivaraman, regarding Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet's comments on 'THE REFORMED SANATAN CALENDAR compiled and edited by Acharya Darshaney Lokesh'.]

Dear Dr. Patrizia Madam:

I thank you for your treatment on the Reformed Sanatan Calendar and for all your points of agreement.

First of all I would like to make it clear that I am not a follower of any school like that of AKK as you presume on page 4. I do believe that the original knowledge has emanated from the ancient Rishis of an extended land known as “Bharata Varsha”. You will note from page 15 of the original Hindi Patrak , “the calendrical dream”, which is copy of my message sent to the Hindu calendar forum , wherein I have made it clear that I do not support the theory of import of this knowledge from elsewhere. At the same time I am an admirer of the profound knowledge and relentless fighting spirit of AKK in correcting the Hindu calendar. I do assert that there is no other champion like him, to my ken. I sincerely feel that he is allergic only to predictive astrology.

Since Darshaney Lokeshji has now actually produced a truly Vedic (Luni-Solar) Calendar in black and white, and as I was eager to bring the benefit of this before a larger Hindu public , I only translated and rendered it into a calendar format for the use in South where people are not comfortable with Hindi. I have neither gone into the nitty- gritty of his calculations, whether he used the elliptical longitudes or constellation ones for measuring the peregrinations of the moon over the stars, nor have I really the deeper knowledge about such calculations. He has not claimed it as a Universal calendar perhaps because he knew that a universal calendar which is definitely possible can only be either purely Solar or purely Lunar. The Vedic calendar which is Hindu culture-oriented can only be luni-solar.

You seem to feel that the new calendar is rather cluttered because of the use of Sanskrit nomenclature like Madhu, Madhava. “The six pairs of twins seeking to unite with the one at the centre” (RV) is the very core of the cosmology of Rig Veda just like the “Brahmanaspathi “ stanza ( or many other Brahmanaspathi lines in RV ) you quote. And the pairs represent Madhu and Madhava, Sukra and Suchi, etc. Many Puranas like Vishnudharmottara and Sindhantas also talk about them and when they begin.

All the Hindu festivals are based on the seasons (Ritus) and the months. (In the Athirathra Yajna which is being held in Panjal Village in Kerala from April 4, 2011 for 12 days, you will note that there is specific Ritu Yajnas.) So this is an essential component of a truly Vedic religious calendar. We have also mentioned the corresponding month names in Tamil, English and Sanskrit/Malayalam like Mesha, Rishaba (take the last as zodiac names if you insist). But Mesha samkramam is in the middle of Madhu - Madhava and therefore how can the pair be pared off? It is the middle of the “dwai sheersha” of Agni ( or the two horns of the ram of Aries). or the Purusha suktha’s “vasantho asyasid ajyam, greeshma idhma Sharad havi” -- the ‘Y” axis of Yajna ( the first two ritus forming the top hands and shard of the bottom.

The number of days for each month suggested by the Calendar Reforms Committee has been followed in the SMKATP and accordingly, Mesha sankranti falls on the last day of Madhu this year.

You will appreciate that for every Hindu religious function a sankalpa is most important and the panchanga or calendar has a key role in giving the inputs. From the infinity , Maha Kala’s power is distilled to the very moment of the ritual, just like a magnifying glass focusing the power of the Sun god and concentrating it into a dot and producing a fire ‘Yajnasya devam rityujam – The fire god of yajna born out of the ritus (if I can quote the meaning in a different way ) . In this process the kalpa, manvantara, yuga, and its components, the year, the ayana, the ritu, the month, the paksha, the thithi, vara and nakshatra, and the very place of action on the earth deduced from macrocosm are uttered elaborately. So a Calendar should give out all these details and it should not be considered as cluttering.

Universal calendars like the Georgian perhaps need only the year, month, day and date. Moreover, in a multi-tongue, pluralistic society like India, should not a calendar for the use of the common people be understandable to the maximum sections of them? I agree that Madhu, Madhava are not familiar terms even among most religious priests. But then they are also ignorant today about the real starting of Makara Sankranti on 22nd December. To the majority of them their profession is only a means to existence and making the best possible for their pockets.

I think perhaps what you desire is the symbols of the Zodiac against each of Brahmanaspathi’s gateways. But how many people again will read these glyphs? And remember here we are just giving the calendar with inputs for choosing appropriate time or muhurta for the auspicious functions and not any astrological advice. We do not have any quarrel with astrology nor object to their using the new calendar if it serves their purpose. But surely you will agree there is no predictive business in the Vedas.

SMKATP’s purpose is to see that Hindus celebrate all their festivals on the correct dates as per shastras and a true (driktulya) sankranti based panchang (to suit this sense, it is named as ‘tithi patrak’) is followed throughout the country.

I am sure the Editor will keep in mind the points raised by you in your treatment while preparing his oncoming editions. Since he has a practical experience of Panchanga computing he can highlight the points I have not touched here.

However I would welcome if you could give us an “model Vedic calendar” of your concept for just one month. You may use any month in the SMKTP for your corrections and concepts and that will help us to formulate future editions.

I thank you for your “Time & Imperishability “book and I will go through it thoroughly.

“Above time is set a brimful vessel.

Simultaneously we see Time here, there, everywhere.

Set face to face with all existence,

Time is throned, men say, in the loftiest realm.” (AV 19.53.3)

“Time created the creatures. Time

Created in the beginning the Lord of creatures.

From time comes the Self-Existent

Energy likewise from Time derives.” ( AV.19.53.10)

Best Regards – T.V.Sivaraman

THE REFORMED SANATAN CALENDAR compiled and edited by Acharya Darshaney Lokesh

THE REFORMED SANATAN CALENDAR
compiled and edited by Acharya Darshaney Lokesh
[Pictured in part above, Link to Source]

A cosmological treatment prepared by
Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
March 2011
© Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet 2011

While I truly appreciate all efforts to have the tropical zodiac reinstated at the heart of time computations for Hindus, replacing the currently-used Nirayana method with its 23-day late ayanamsha, which we all know has no real contemporary or ancient Vedic sanction, I do have reservations about your Sanatan Calendar. However, for me the very most important item for calendar reform is that Mahavishuva and Makar Sankranti are reconnected to the March Equinox and December Solstice – where they definitely belong. This reformed calendar having achieved that, it can serve the Hindu Samaj better than others.
Having stated that, I do wish to put certain facts on record for any future deliberations that may prove necessary in fine-tuning calendar reform efforts. In pointing these out let me make it clear at the outset that I realise the compulsions which may have made your effort too ‘cluttered’, in my view. The intent may be to make the calendar acceptable to as many peoples/sects/factions as possible. But I do find that there has been an unnecessary stress on what is found – or thought to be found – in the Rig Veda, the inclusion of which has complicated the results more than necessary. Nonetheless, this is the type of debate I had expected to take place at the 24-26 December 2010 Conference on Calendar Reform in Tirumala, but which was stifled, if you recall.

The foundation for my treatment
To begin, I need to explain my work to a certain extent and, above all, how I attained knowledge of things Vedic – or for that matter of other ancient schools of higher knowledge like that of ancient Egypt and Greece, and elsewhere across the globe. But bear in mind the fact that in these places the thread of higher knowledge has been broken. We find only fragments left in old texts; or, in the case of Egypt, in the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid at Giza. These fragments help us understand that this body of higher knowledge was widespread. I believe that in very ancient times, perhaps during the earliest Sangam era, Bharat was the centre of this Knowledge. Eventually it left the subcontinent, only to return at a much later time. Of course this cannot be proven conclusively, only inferred from what we find in India today. Hints along these lines are found in the Veda; but lamentably, as Sri Aurobindo stated, ‘the soul of knowledge has fled from its coverings’. Given this situation, efforts to use the Veda as basis for calendar reform become complicated. After all, who is in a position to state that they are in possession of that ‘soul of knowledge’?
My position has been clear regarding the above from the beginning of my yogic life in the late 1960s. I was not at all interested in the past, only in the present. Astrology is a practical art which makes focus on the present one of its foremost demands. If at all I have found important elements of higher knowledge in ancient cultures, it has always been by positioning myself at the heart of the Knowledge through yogic practices. I have never done the reverse as scholars do: to study minutely those extant remains of the past (and this includes above all else the Rig Veda) in order to establish or discover that Knowledge in the present. This is important to bear in mind for the right understanding of my assessment of your Sanatan Calendar. More than any of you, I assure you that I have dedicated my entire life to ‘resetting Bharat’s cosmic clock to its original vedic moorings’, as stated in the subtitle of your Sanatan Calendar. The result is over a dozen volumes published and many articles on this very theme. However, it must be stated again that I have not followed the scholar’s approach. I do not know Sanskrit enough to delve into the original texts – its study alone, as you know, would occupy a lifetime. I had other work to do which is clearly seen in my own horoscope for reference. Nor was it necessary to do so. I had the realisations of the secret doctrine we find in the Veda before even taking up residence in India. I can present evidence of this in the form of a text I wrote in Rome in March of 1970. Before this, as a practicing astrologer, I had written Astrology and the Question of Unity (unpublished). Both these texts were entirely Vedic, though I had no knowledge of the Veda at the time nor any contact with astrologers in India. My work even then was different from both East and West. The difference lay in the vision of unity I saw in the zodiac – the very same path we know to be the pathway of the planets around the Sun. This understanding arose from a method of inner development – not scholarship but yoga. I ‘saw’ in the zodiac the various planes of existence just as we find detailed in the Veda in that pathway; and this was essential for the proper reading of a horoscope.
When I came to India I discovered the same approach when reading Sri Aurobindo’s text, The Secret of the Veda. In his case as in mine, the point is that the Knowledge through realisation came first; then I could recognise it in those remnants from ancient schools including the Rig Veda. I need to state that it was when I read Sri Aurobindo’s treatment of the latter that I began to understand exactly what he meant when he wrote, ‘the soul of knowledge had fled from its coverings’.
Bharat is of course unique in that the thread has not been broken as it was in Egypt and Greece and elsewhere. This is the only civilisation to maintain a connection with the ancient way. But this by no means makes matters easier; quite the contrary when we observe that totally un-Vedic methods are passed off as Vedic Astrology. Troubles then arise when we seek to clear away the cobwebs that have accrued over the centuries around the ‘soul of knowledge’. By far the most serious deviation of all was the adoption of the Nirayana system of time reckoning for rituals and horoscope. I have written time and again that if the intent is to weaken the Hindu Samaj, there is no better method than to distort the core of Hinduism which is its relation with the Great God of Time.

Constellations versus Zodiac
As we are aware, the main distinction between the true Vedic Way and the post-Vedic is that in the latter the circle wherein computations are made is entirely sidereal. Nirayana astrology disregards the tropical zodiac for providing the correct ayanamsha. Its proponents believe that this point needs to be located in the ‘fixed stars’ (hence Nirayana) – i.e. the constellations. The fact that astronomical science has given the same name to both the zodiac and the twelve constellations, though they are completely separate, further compounds the confusion. This is the origin of the problem we face in convincing the layperson.
Thus, when we argue that Makar Sankranti should be celebrated at the December Solstice, their claim is that – Yes, it is the shortest day of the year but Makar ‘has shifted’ over the centuries and millennia. It is ‘no longer attached to that Solstice since the zodiac has moved.’ This can easily be disproved by informing the public that the Nirayana system is based on the constellations and not that zodiac of the Veda and all ancient civilisations; in the text and diagrams accompanying the calendar, you have illustrated the point quite well. The ecliptic zodiac, pathway of all the planets in our solar system never shifts, contrary to what astronomers claim: 0 degree Mesha/Aries is always the same, years after year, century after century. And passage over that Zero Point (ayanamsha) is always the March 21-22 Equinox. You have indicated this synchronism in your calendar.
We would be largely in agreement on all the above, but now our differences begin. This is because the focus of my cosmological work is APPLICATION, as it should be for any astrologer. This application would be today in the context of a new India – that is, India in the midst of the 21st century global civilsiation. Therefore my new cosmology is entirely Indo-Centric and is unique in the world of applied cosmology which has been Euro-centric, especially with the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church and then colonialism. It is a cosmology that can ‘put its money where its mouth is’, to use the American phrase. Slogans such as ‘India is the Guru of the world’ are easy to mouth; but I am interested in confirmation via objective knowledge, not slogans. The new Indo-Centric Cosmology proves the point. It also provides the direct link to the Veda in an unbroken line.
But Nirayanis claim that their astrology is ‘vedic’. Who then is to be believed? We can only provide the correct link when we establish the true Vedic Astrology. In doing so, we prove that the Nirayana system should indeed be termed Post-Vedic to be correct; and even history will confirm this assessment. More importantly, it can also be proven to be un-Vedic. Consequently, as you have rightly quoted in your 2011 Calendar, it leads the Hindu Samaj to adharma, if the dharmic basis of Hinduism is indeed vedic – because the Nirayana method certainly has nothing in it that can be linked to the Veda given that the essential premise (the circle used for measuring) is un-Vedic.

Parochialism versus universalism
To truly serve a new India, not just Hindus, the Dharma has to be all-inclusive not only of Indian contemporary society but of the whole world. We mouth the Slokas and chant the scriptures but may not really believe that there can be an objective means to establish this universalism. The calendar you have devised as it stands cannot serve a global purpose because you seek to incorporate in the present what you believe is or should be the eternal components of a Veda-based calendar – the names of the months, for example; more on that anon. In my view, this approach encourages a situation where ‘the forest is lost for the trees’.
The new India has to take her place at the centre of the entire world. She must serve universally not simply one community or sect or belief system, even one as wide as Hinduism. But we constantly place limitations on the service that Hinduism can render. Therefore I state that the ultimate calendar to replace the Nirayana Chaos of Ayanamshas has to be all-inclusive and not exclusive as your calendar becomes by focussing on what you consider to be the element that makes the calendar Vedic. I do not believe that your calendar can bridge the gap to universalism; it is precisely the new cosmology that can prove the point.
And yet this ‘new’ cosmology is far more Vedic than all the rest. For what is carried over is the foundation of the cosmic harmony just as we find in the Rig Veda. That would be the Journey, as the Rishis called it. They have made it perfectly clear that this Journey begins in Mesha/Aries and the March Equinox; more than that, they have explicitly established that there is a unified progression in this Journey with one ‘world’ moving into another ‘effortlessly’:

Certain eternal worlds are these which have come into being,
Their doors are shut to you (or opened) by the months and the years;
Without effort one (world) moves into the other
And it is these that Brahmanaspati,
Has made manifest to knowledge. (RV. II. 24-5)

The months and the years are of course the zodiacal signs/worlds – however you wish to name them. Months refer to the 12-month annual rotation around the Sun; years refers to the Precession of the Equinoxes which is calculated in years: an astrological age is 2160 years. But the important reference is to the knowledge Brahmanaspati confers once ‘access’ is allowed. This is the secret of the Veda. The terms you are using in order to give your calendar a more Indian and exclusive character do not contain that higher knowledge. The zodiac as we know it throughout the world today, originating somewhere, sometime in pre-history unknown to scholars, does contain Brahmanaspati’s knowledge.
I realise that what I am stating is blasphemy to the followers of Avtar Kishen Kaul (AKK), or to N. S. Rajaram, or to David Frawly and others of the same school. This is because none of these gentlemen have undertaken the Journey as prescribed in the Rig Veda. If they had they would understand why the zodiacal tradition, which they claim only reached India with the Greeks, is enshrined in every Hindu myth and temple across the land. It is clear that at the end of the Vedic Age the purpose was to preserve the core of the Knowledge in writing and then in stone so that in the dark age that was to follow it would be available to future generations to rediscover, since the actual realisation of the Journey/Initiation would be lost. And so it did come to pass. This would also explain why so many of those stone structures were destroyed. Unlike today, in the first half of the Age of Pisces there were still practitioners, scholars and travellers who were aware of the connections I am making; hence they knew how to undermine the culture.
None of those who deny the presence of the zodiac symbols in the Veda know the Vedic content of the zodiac itself, on which is founded the Vedic Journey; therefore they cannot recognise it when it stares them in the face. Often their misplaced nationalism and consequent biases blind them to their own tradition.
And yet it is so clear, beginning with Agni, ‘leader of the hosts’. Of course he is the first month Aries the Ram, the cosmic energy of which is experienced as Agni who leads the rest. Lo and behold, his vahana is nothing other than the Ram! Or there is Indra of the Moon, often referred to as the Bull because the Moon is exalted in Vrishabha the Bull. And what of Aditi’s 12 sons, the 8th of whom is Martanda, progenitor of the human mortal race; the 8th zodiacal sign is indeed the sign/stage of Death in the sequence of her 12 ‘sons’. I could go on and on illustrating the manner in which zodiacal tradition formed the basis of the Vedic higher knowledge that was preserved in temples and myths during the Puranic period for future generations. It is still there, right before our eyes, if we would but remove the veils that keep us blinded to this tradition. This is easier said than done.
We note that the Indian psychic touch is given by the personification of those cosmic components into Gods and Goddesses; and these in turn can be experienced by the devotee in the form of the Godhead according to the destiny and temperament of each individual. This indeed is the great gift that India has given to the world, entirely in consonance with her own pulse of destiny: the Third Power, the Individual Divine, the Daughter Principle. Throughout her history – more especially her contemporary history – Indian civilisation has proven itself to be faithful to this cosmic essence of 3 (1947=3). The rulerships, exaltations, and so forth of traditional astrology all provide clues to the secret doctrine. The zodiac is the magical eternal script over which no nation can claim ownership and which is now in the domain of universal knowledge, thanks to the wisdom of the Rishis who knew how to preserve it for future generations to rediscover. That time is upon us; your calendar efforts have this noble purpose to help fulfil for India and the world.

Therefore my complaint is why anyone would wish to disassociate that sacred script from the Rig Veda and deny its presence, though obvious, just to be Indian and not be ‘influenced’ by foreign cultures as these gentlemen seek to do. Ironically, it is the other way around: It is Bharat that has influenced everyone else! You see, in doing so, in discarding the hieroglyphs and pictographs for the more familiar Sanskrit Madhu/Madhava and so forth which have a different function, that of ‘six pairs of twins seeking to unite with the one at the centre’ (RV), you are doing exactly what the scientists and Nirayanis have done. They have made the calendar un-Vedic simply by disconnecting the zodiac from the Equinoxes and Solstices. You are doing something similar by stressing a Sanskrit nomenclature that has no universal appeal, a nomenclature in which Brahmanaspati’s higher knowledge may be lacking. If you do so intentionally with the idea that the real thing must be camouflaged, kept secret and thus hidden from the profane, that is one thing. But I doubt that any of these gentlemen know enough of the Tradition to be in a position to make these subtle choices. And in any case, we are in the Aquarian Age, Vishnu Trivikrama’s ‘highest step’, the sign/age of the Friend Mitra. To hide, to seek to obfuscate and keep secrets is simply not in harmony with the Time-Spirit. Rather it is often a means to camouflage our own ignorance and thus to continue duping the public.

Number and Zodiac, the new tools of the Divine Maya
This brings me to the sacred language for the entire world today. It has principally two components by means of which it can be applied: the zodiacal tradition, exactly as it has reached us today, and our Number system. Both, in my view, originated in India. In order to make the Knowledge applicable today we need these two measures for application along with the proper universal calendar – if India is to fulfil her sacred destiny which is indeed universal in character. To carry out this exercise we need a calendar that starts with Mesha/Aries as the first sign/month (in the measure of 12), Taurus the second and so forth. The reason for this is that the service Number renders in the new Indo-Centric Cosmology would be obliterated if that order is disarranged (this is why I asked you how yesterday’s date would be written). I note that your calendar starts with Pisces (Meena), though you do provide the date and time for Mesha Sankranti, the vernal equinox and correctly state that it is the Tamil New Year. Perhaps I am reading the calendar incorrectly. I do not see Number used in the way we are accustomed to worldwide as far as registering dates are concerned. In the sample you provided, you stated that 8.3.2011 would be 17th Madhu 1933. Obviously if Number is the issue (and I can prove it is) then this date would not tally with anything of a universal order. You would object to January being the number 1 as is demanded, claiming that it has no Vedic sanction. But the point is the significance of the Makar Sankranti itself and its role in the Harmony. That universal 1st month is the December Solstice plus 9 – or the Time Year (0-9 number measure) together with the Space Year (1-12 zodiacal measure). The two together are the helical structure of the new Indo-Centric Cosmology, applicable today because of these universal measures.
As I understand your statement, 1933 is the official Saka year computation. But you do not indicate why the year starts with the first day of Madhu, or why that ‘month’ would be Pisces:

‘The Primary dates mentioned in the Calendar are Vedic month days. So today's date is (i.e. for 8th March 2011).17th Madhu 1933. This is for the first time such a calendar is made using primary vedic/local solar month dates. If English dates are to be given primarily then the calendar should begin with 20th February for Madhu 1st of Saka 1933. I thought that since we are using the vedic month names which were long forgotten in India, the dates should also be as per the solar month dates. Every panchanga begins with 1st day of say Panguni (Madhu and gives corresponding other dates. Saka era is India's national era and that comes in every religious sankalpa along with use of the Julian based 60 year names. It is now Vikruti in Tamil Nadu but Viswavasu in North (a difference of 13 years between north and south due to the initial fixing differences). All these have been brought to discussion in the Calendar Reforms Committee report of 1952.’

Your explanation proves the point that the systems currently in use cannot unify what now stands hopelessly divided. Regarding your reformed calendar, in my assessment this would be borrowing from the Nirayana system by implementing a ‘shifting’ ayanamsha, though you do enter the Mesha (Aries) Sankranti correctly at the vernal equinox; but it would seem to fall on the 30th day of the month Meenam/Madhu. Clarify if I have misunderstood.
As for the Nakshatras, again I see a mixture of sayana/nirayana. You do make the point that as they are understood today – i.e. another division on the backdrop of the constellations rather than the tropical solar zodiac – it does not tally with the reality of the cosmic structure. Clearly there has been some interpolations and misinterpretations in this area across the centuries. One thing remains clear: when higher knowledge of the zodiacal tradition was lost and its zero point disengaged from the vernal equinox, a different aspect of the Vedic calendar took precedence, one that in predictive astrology of today could ignore the zodiac to a large degree. The emphasis of science on fixity was imposed on the Nakshatras as well. They were also projected into the amorphous, pillar-less (no equinoxes or solstices) sidereal sphere where, as we know, neither zodiac nor Nakshatras fit. Constellations (though called zodiac) do not consist of a neat 30 degrees each as the months/signs of the tropical zodiac do; nor do the Nakshatras fit into the constellations neatly, as you have rightly pointed out.
My complaint with your presentation is that you are again accommodating your calendar to the prevailing custom which has been obliged to replace the zodiacal signs with the fixed stars of the constellations and name them according to those ‘stars’, though you do indicate when the Sun is seen to inhabit any of the Nakshatras which do not contain a neat 13.20 degrees of celestial longitude. This is, again, the forest missed for the trees.
If we are discussing the division of one ecliptic circle by sections of 13.20 degrees – the mean daily motion of the Moon – what results is an interesting aspect of astrology. In the West each of those 27 points/degrees themselves (28 if you double up at the zero point) are known as ‘critical degrees’. They are called the Mansions of the Moon. A planet or lagna or luminary situated on or very near these degrees would play a most important role in a person’s life. This system was brought to Europe by Al Biruni in the 12th Century, via Arabia from India. It is still attributed to him and is used in astrological readings by sensitive, intuitive astrologers. India has excelled in expounding a number of such divisions – dwadshamshas, navamshas, and so forth. Everything would be fine if this all pertained to the one circle (RV) of the tropical zodiac. But of course this is not the case.
Regarding your inclusion of Nakshatras, simply by giving their actual measurement in the heavens does not do enough to reveal the problem at the root of the usage. You fall in line by carrying out the equations in the very constellations the Nirayana system uses and which should be discarded. Of course then you would run into trouble. You would have to deal with the 13.20-degree Nakshatras, which no doubt you consider a western interpolation.
My point is that all measurements must be done vedically, in One Circle (RV, AV). Forget the constellations in this context entirely. That, of course, requires courage. My sense is that you seek to make your calendar appealing to all sections by incorporating their methods as best you can. The result is to make confusion worse confounded. I hope that this document will elucidate the point.¹

Documentary evidence
I am sending you herewith a small book of mine, Time and Imperishability, essays on the Capricorn hieroglyph (Aeon Books, 1997). I have marked certain pages where Number is used to reveal the destiny of the New India, largely via the Capricorn hieroglyph. Elsewhere in my published works I have used the same hieroglyph as the Measure of Bharat (The New Way, Vols. 1 & 2, Aeon Books, 1981 et al.) The exactitude of the new cosmology based on these Vedic keys is astonishing. It all comes alive today, within the context of the global society we live in. In the midst of those circumscribing conditions, if India is indeed the centre/soul of the Earth, as we do believe, then the new cosmology must effectively, factually prove the point.
Indeed it does. Therefore my plea is let us not discard what the world has to offer today, mesmerised by a past that can never return. The new cosmology is the Vedas and the Puranas updated, but not for that any less Vedic.
Does this reformed Sanatan Calendar help me to understand the world today, as it is and not as I would like or suppose it to be? The answer has to be a qualified negative. For instance, what use is the Saka computation (2011=1933)? What does it tell me about India today? Actually nothing at all; whereas 2011 does and can be proven to do so. Therefore, is it more worthwhile to transpose the harmonies of the Vedic Age according to certain interpretations into our contemporary society? Has that in any way revealed the lost ‘soul of knowledge’ Sri Aurobindo knew to have ‘fled its coverings’? Will Madhu/Madhava, Sukra/Suchi, and so forth bring that soul of knowledge to the devotee today and make sense of the world we live in now, in this 21st century?
The answer has to be a resounding NO. And yet you have put so much energy into devising a calendar that may help one understand a certain terminology in the Veda, but brings us no closer to that soul of knowledge which, by its very eternal nature must and can be found in today’s play of circumstances. If not, these are just words, slogans, and with them more barriers are erected to de-universalise India’s destiny.
In the small book I am sending you to provide factual proof of what I state, the relevant pages have been marked for easy reference. In the chapter ‘The Implicit Individual’, on page 92-98 I have presented a list of births stretching across the most significant portion of contemporary India’s destiny, beginning in the 19th century and moving into the 20th. The four births mentioned on page 95 form what I call the Lunar Line; similarly, on pages 93-4 there are the birth numbers of the Solar Line. The reasons for these designations are explained in the book and need not detain us. But the point is that they are not unfamiliar terms for Hindus, given that the 7th Vishnu Avatar is of the Solar Dynasty and the 8th Lunar. And in my view the Dasavataras form the backbone of Hinduism.
However, these terms, using the universal calendar just as it functions for the whole world without corrections, adjustments, and so forth, allows me to carry that Puranic Principle into today’s world, to make sense today of the destiny of the New India. In other words, that India can demonstrate the vibrant indisputable power of Mahakala which works through the nation with an astonishing control such as we find no where else. This is a confirmation of Sri Aurobindo’s declaration about the new power manifesting in this Age as Supermind creating the conditions for its own manifestation. (I am aware that N. S. Rajaram of the Nirayana School holds himself up to be an authority on Sri Aurobindo, yet incongruously he upholds a system that would deny everything Sri Aurobindo came to transform.)
The formula is 9/6/3/0-1 as described in my cosmology. It is a sequence about which the scientist-inventor Nikola Tesla is reported to have stated, ‘If you knew the 9,6,3 you would have a key to the universe.’ The number harmony I have discovered can stand up under any scrutiny, involving as it does a series of at least twelve births across time and space of individuals who played the roles the new cosmology foretold with no contriving or manipulation of circumstances to fit the Formula. No human being (astrologers and numerologists included) could devise such a phenomenal control over destiny or pretend to do so for a client; hence the futility of a predictive astrology. That is not the way of the future. Can this be explained by any of the sciences we know today? Certainly not. For this reason I emphatically state that Science cannot lead the way, contrary to what you have quoted me as saying. Further, is this cosmology any less ‘scientific’ because contemporary science is blind to Mahakala and his Supramental Shakti? The new Indo-Centric Cosmology is its own science; I challenge any astronomer to prove me wrong.
The Dasavataras form the basis of the new Indo-Centric Cosmology. The tool used to prove the point is simply the universal calendar just as it exists today, bearing in mind that its appearance did not depend on an Egyptian savant, a Roman Emperor, or a Christian Pope. Its emergence was entirely due to the impeccable control of Mahakala and the executing power of his Supramental Shakti. Their labour would be lost if your calendar with its interpretation of Vedic computation had been used to seek to reveal that control, that destiny. The pages I have highlighted prove the point amply. (See page 206, ibid, for evidence.)

Uttarayana and Dakshinayana
Finally, it is gratifying to note that you have signalled Uttarayana correctly as the December Solstice. But its 21 December date is lost in the whirlpool of Vedic interpolations. It is simple: the shortest day of the year is 0 degree Capricorn/Makar. If that is highlighted, what does uttarayana tell us of our world today? It tells us that this is far more than just the northern highest position of the Sun vis-à-vis the Earth. It links the passage to its opposite Dakshinayana of course. But we immediately see the phenomenon as a key to evolution itself, as an evolutionary axis for the entire Earth. More than that, through the applied cosmology using the universal calendar and the tropical zodiac, we can delve deeper until the uttarayana/ dakshinayana axis tells us which nations actually embody the phenomenon. They are India (Capricorn/Makar) and the United States of America (Cancer/Kataka); or else, Spirit and Matter, or inspiration and execution; something on the order of Purush/Prakriti. Without the proper zodiacal signs of Capricorn and Cancer and their hieroglyphs this could not be done factually, applicably. Suchi/Tapas tell us nothing today; Cancer and Capricorn tell us everything; moreover, they delineate the physical bodies of the nations they rule. I refer you to the pages 82-89 cited above to confirm this for yourself. When applied to the universal calendar and the tropical zodiac, we note that the USA was indeed born under the sign/month Cancer (4 July 1776), provided we use the correct calendar and not the Nirayana system which shifts the zodiac by 23 days and would therefore place America in Gemini and the new India in Cancer! (The Capricorn factor is Bharat’s ancient astrological ruler, not to be confused with the 15 August date of Independence – Leo/Sri Aurobindo’s birthday – in the last century.)

Rahu and Ketu – the Lunar Nodes
In your calendar text you correctly explain the lunar nodes phenomenon as the points where orbits cross and not actual physical bodies. In my work they serve an important function and are not to be dismissed lightly. They bring the number count to 9, which is essential for understanding the destiny of the new India and her cosmology. Also, the Navagrahas at the entrance to each temple further consolidate the 9 factor, so essential to the fulfilment of India’s role in the world today.
I have also observed that Rahu/Ketu form an axis (like uttarayana/dakshinayana) in each individual’s horoscope. This configuration becomes the axis of a person’s destiny and is not to be dismissed disparagingly, regardless of the taunts from scientists who ignore these subtle functions entirely. Consequently, they have used both the Rahu/Ketu axis and the Navagrahas to demonstrate how ‘ignorant’ of astronomy astrologers are! In view of what I state, who is demonstrating ignorance?

In the Nirayana system the entire harmony recedes and is closed behind thick veils. Above all, we lose the sense and purpose that Mahakala instils in everything that surrounds us today. He does not need any Vedic nomenclature to further confuse the issue. He wants only to reinstate, to unveil that eternal Soul of Knowledge within today’s world. Surely you must agree that it is precisely this sense and purpose that is lacking today – and which something like the Nirayana System, or even your reformed Sanatan Calendar further obscures in spite of its improvements. Therefore I must state clearly that I consider it an improvement and nothing more. I eagerly await the next stage of your efforts.

***

¹ I doubt that the ‘stars’ mentioned in the Veda are really equal to the Nakshatras of today; much less were they given an even 13.20 degrees (the Mansions of the Moon); nor were those 13.20 measured in the constellations on the backdrop of a completely uneven and arbitrary ‘zodiac’. The Stars may well have had a different function – for example, pointers regarding the Precession of the Equinoxes. As it would seem, astrology in the West is clearer about these matters because it uses the Vedic System of One Circle resting on the seasonal Equinoxes and Solstices, which India has discarded.