MUHURTHA

[Guest guest]

Dear Asvini,

 

First, i sent the email muhurta according to my records on 18 Nov at 21:47. But

i remember that i sent them that day but either at around 15:00 or around noon.

 

The GJLIST displayed it on 23 Nov at 22:30. That is a delay of more than 5 days.

 

I do not know what is happening with communications. Letters from USA used to

take 3-4 days to arrive here in England. Few days ago, i got a letter from USA

after 1 month.

 

Also, USA shot down the email servers of Somalia under the suspicion of having

links with terrorism. Somalian people and government do not have the ways to

communicate now or transfer money from and to that country due to the so called

sanctions.

 

Anyway, regarding your question about muhurta.

 

I am not used to Hindu Calendars. Years ago i used to calculate Vaisnava

Calendars which are very similar.

 

The key to Muhurtas-Calendars is to see the sunrise time.

 

As far as i remember, there are two calendars, the civil and the religious

(names given to divide the difference).

 

There are 15 moon light days from new moon (or amavasya) to full moon (or

purnima) and 15 dark moon days, from purnima to the next amavasya.

 

Amavasya is when the sun and moon are at the same between 348° and 360° of

longitude. Purnima is when the sun and moon are separated at between 178° and

180° in longitude.

 

The beginning of purnima is when the moon is separated from the sun at 178°.

And the end of Purnima is when they are separated at exactly 180° or

opposition.

 

The civil calendar in a panchanga gives either the beginning time for those moon

days or the ending time for those moon days.

 

The civil calendar are very important because it gives the age of the moon or

its angles with respect from the sun.

 

For ejample, the GJ gives your horoscope and gives the tithi or the civilian

moon day when you where born.

 

This may seem complicated because we are dealing with a moon calendar, rather

than a solar calendar which is more easy and more in use by Christian or

western countries.

 

In my Vaisnava school, one of our teachers at the beginning of the XX century,

Bhaktivinode Thakure although born in India, used to follow the solar calendar

for practical results.

 

However, his son Bhaktisidhanta Sarasvati and next in line of a sucession of

spiritual masters, introduced in our schools a moon calendar.

 

My guru or spiritual master ( i have to say that there are also gurus or

teachers of mundane knowledge but a guru or spiritual master is the one that

helps his/her disciple to advance spiritually rather than materially), told us

to follow the moon calendar according to the one published for Indian times,

but he said that if we had the opportunity to calculate the religious calendar

according to our local time, was better.

 

The local calendars can change according to the local sunrise time.

 

Thanks to you and Ravinder i learned that Deepavali puja muhurta is celebrated

on Amavasya day of the month of Asvini.

 

It is a complicated thing to do calendars, they are not as easy as they seem.

 

To answer to your question i went first to the Feature button in the GJ to find

PANCHANG LIST.

 

Calculating from Suva, Fiji i see that Chartudasi (14th) started on 13 Nov at 10:56

Amavasya (New Moon) st on 14 Nov at 08:38

Pratipat (1st) started on 15 Nov at 06:40

 

Those are the civilian moon days.

 

The religious days are indicated by whichever moon day the sunrise "see".

 

The sunrise times for Suva are:

 

07:41.03 for the 14 Nov

07:43.00 for the 15 Nov

 

As you can see, the sunrise "sees" chaturdasi krishna or the 14th dark moon day

on 14 Nov and Pratipat sukla or the first "light" moon day, on 15 Nov.

 

This means that in Suva, the religious moon day for the 14th day ruled all day

on 14 Nov and pratipat ruled on 15 Nov.

 

Krishna in Sanskrit means dark when in reference to calendars and sukla means

bright or when the light of the moon is increasing from new moon to full moon.

 

As you can see, the sunrise does not see the amavasya at all. BUT there are

some astronomical rules which when applied to this case, makes the Amavasya day

rule on the 15 Nov

 

I do not remember those rules at the moment but i think that when the moon day

is invisible but it starts within a certain time after sunrise, then that

invisible moon day rules the day.

 

So to celebrate Deepavali puja muhurta on the 15 Nov in Fiji is valid. When in

doubt consult the Hindu pujari.

 

I think that from sunrise to sunset times, the day is divided by 14 segments and

if the moon day starts in the 1st or first 2 segments, rules the day. Something

like that but i am not sure at the moment.

 

I think that if the moon day starts between the beginning of brahma muhurta (an

auspicious time just before sunrise) and sunrise time another rule is applied.

 

I found these rules when dealing with ekadasi days which are important to know

when fasting from grains.

 

Another point regarding rules. Every 3 or 4 years there is an adjustment to the

moon calendar. There are 12 moon months and when we have 2 new moon happening

within a certain period of time, we add a moon month called adhik. If you see

the Hindu calendar you can see that we had Adhik Asini month (when no religious

rituals are performed and a Nij Asvini month which ended on amavasya day on the

15 Nov.

 

>From this amavasya on the 15 Nov 2001, we started the month of Kartika sukla and

after the full moon we will have Kartika Paksa or Kartika Krishna.

 

I hope that this description helps to understand the Vedic calendar.

 

Best wishes

Natabara Das