Fixing a muhurta- An outline of the steps involved

[Guest guest]

Aum Namah Shivaya

 

 

FIXING A MUHURTA- AN OUTLINE OF THE STEPS INVOLVED

 

 

Sometime back, immediately after an OZCVA monthly meeting, a student

who seemed to have been learning the subject for a few years came to

me with a doubt, just to see if her method of fixing a muhurta needed

any finishing touches. I looked into her notes and was shocked to say

the least. She had done a mix of one `system' and another

`paddhathi' on which she had a miserly sprinkling of few

other jyotish principles! That was her way of fixing a muhurta. There

was no systematic and consistent method there. It betrayed her

ignorance of the fundamentals of jyotish in its pure form. It is

perhaps for reasons like this, that genuine lovers of traditional

jyotish are allergic to such methodologies. No man's methodology,

whatever its advantages, can replace or stand up to the ocean of

Jyotish. A wave just cannot replace the ocean. While I had always

been open to testing any methodology outside conventional jyotish, I

was always aware that the authors of such paddhathis/systems claimed

unreasonable things at times. I never took their criticism about

traditional astrology seriously. But a beginner takes them too

seriously and misses out on a large and substantial part of the

learning process. Such rebel or non-traditional methodologies may

perhaps be fine for discussion with a well-grounded astrologer. But

it is a very good idea for a beginner to stick to traditional, so as

to avoid the common pitfalls. The average learner tries various

methods with partial knowledge, hops from one author to the other,

manages to catch pieces of information from each place and person,

and eventually tries to make sense of those fragments. The result?

His knowledge of astrology is quite often a mass of ideas-undigested,

unassimilated and unharmonised - running riot in his mind!

 

 

The process of selecting an auspicious moment to start any activity,

is quite complex and needs a very good knowledge of Jyotish. Perhaps

it is here that a vedic astrologer's actual acid test is. A large

proportion of the self-styled vedic astrologers are ignorant of even

the basics of fixing a muhurta. If one wants to learn pure jyotish

first without any corruptions by the many so called researches,

paddhathis and systems, if one wants to see how much one knows or has

understood jyotish truly, before attempting to practice jyotish, one

should really try his or her hand at muhurta. Jataka and Prasna have

both been through certain influences of other schools of thought over

the years. But Muhurta is perhaps the only area which has maintained

its vedic origins and form intact over the thousands of years.

Moreover the original purpose for which the vedic seers used a

knowledge of astronomy, the main purpose for which vedanga jyotisa

was evolved, is to time the various rituals in tune with the cosmic

influences, in order to go with the flow of the cosmic currents.

Since a good muhurta will ensure optimum outcome for the desired

activity, the principles behind muhurta, are largely useful in

deciding the outcome of any moment, based on an analysis of the

quality of the moment or quality of the time. Since a natal chart is

also a moment in time, the same principles are actually at work in

Jataka too. It is for this reason that I would urge every sincere

student of jyotish to learn muhurta well and then decide how much he

really knows jyotish. But many underestimate the value of Muhurta as

a subject in their eagerness to start predicting.

 

 

There are many books on this subject in the market. But no book

addresses the subject FULLY (even Sri Joshi's book which is the

best that I have seen in English, leaves out some important concepts.

Moreover it could have been organized better, with more clarity. Yet

in my opinion, it is a good book that needs more additions and better

editing). Generally in most books, the common topics are dealt with

and then the steps in evaluating a muhurta are given. Since muhurta

deals with hundreds of principles, one comes to cross-roads many

times in fixing an auspicious moment. The most common questions that

students ask are: Which component of the panchanga (pancha + anga =

five limbs/components) is more important? What is the order of

priority? Which one should be given preference? Is there a

QUANTITATIVE way of justifying the choice of one muhurta over the

other? And what of the quality? It is here that an astrologer's

grasp of the subject comes across unmistakably.

 

 

The various components have a degree of preference/priority. There

are quantitative as well as qualitative methods that are part and

parcel of electing an auspicious moment. Since the subject is vast, I

will outline the process in a very very skeletal manner in this post

first. Later as time permits, I will expand upon various areas for

the students. In fact when I outlined the whole subject with

headings, side headings, key words, tables etc and left gaps for

explanations to be inserted later, the file came to four hundred

pages. This post may not teach you muhurta really, especially the

beginner. But the student who has been around for sometime, can

check his knowledge and see how much of what is given below, is

already part of his practice.

 

 

I will simplify and outline the steps in fixing a muhurta now. I can

expand them in later posts whenever possible. Other learned members

may also expand on the topics if they wish to. I am dividing the

process into various steps for convenience and clarity.

 

 

STEPS IN FIXING A MUHURTA:

 

 

A. PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS:

 

1. General for any purpose on any chart

 

There are many doshas that an astrologer seeks to avoid in the

muhurta chart, irrespective of the specific activity and individual

chart, for which he is doing the job. After eliminating maximum

number of doshas stated in the list, one should check for the malefic

combinations that prevail due to the combinations of various

components of the Panchanga. Malefic combinations are avoided while

the presence of benefic combinations is preferred. A list of these is

given later at the end.

 

 

2. Specific to the individual chart

 

** Chandra bala (natal moon check)

** Tara bala (strength of star)

 

After eliminating all malefic days in a particular period, we get

some days free from those effects. With those days in hand we move on

from the preliminary analysis to the main step of fixing the muhurta

now.

 

B. MAIN ANALYSIS

 

Till now we have only avoided or eliminated certain days etc.

Hereafter we will actually evaluate and consider certain days and

ascendants for the muhurta. This involves the following steps:

 

 

1. Finding the days having the suitable combination of the five

components (pancha + anga= five limbs/components).

2. Finding a suitable ascendant depending upon the activity.

3. Ensuring the Strength and Appropriateness of Dasa,antardasa,

and Significator of the activity

4. Finding the most auspicious moments within the ascendant

chosen/ Amsha charts etc

5. Miscellaneous/Special considerations for various activities

like marriage etc

 

 

Now I will outline and enumerate these steps below.

 

1. Finding the days having the suitable combination of the five

components:

 

The first and the foremost requirement to fix a muhurta is the

availability of the suitable five components. Depending upon the

activity we first check whether the five components of panchanga,

prevailing on the days free from malefic effects, suit the activity

for which the muhurta is desired. The process of evaluating those

energies is part of the initial evaluation. It is a process of

choosing a good lunar day, weekday, Constellation, yoga and Karana.

 

 

The marks allotted are as follows:

 

Lunar day = 1,

Weekday = 8,

Constellation = 4

Yoga = 32,

Karana = 16

Chandrabala = 100

Tarabala = 60

 

Now we move to the second step.

 

2. Fixing a suitable ascendant depending upon the activity:

 

Depending upon the nature of the activity, one should choose fixed,

dual or movable signs as ascendants. After fixing a particular

ascendant we should make sure of its strength and check whether it is

free from certain malefic effects. This process can further be

divided into three stages.

 

a.) Avoiding malefic combinations of the ascendent

 

The five major malefic effects that we should try to avoid with

respect to an ascendant are given below.

 

** Udayastha shuddhi (Ensuring Benefic Asc and 7th houses)

** Kartari (Malefics Scissoring)

** Bhrigu Shatka (Venus in 6th in fixed sign etc)

** Moon in 6,8,12

** Sagraha Chandra (Conjunctions with Moon)

 

b.) Quantitative Evaluation of the Ascendant

 

This is a process of checking the placement of planets with respect

to that ascendant to make sure they add strength. For that we have

two main methods that are quantitative (marks can be allotted). They

are:

 

** Panchestika evaluation-----

 

In this step, we check whether the five important planets in the

muhurta chart are well placed. The five important planets that should

be happy are: the lord of time (kaladhipa), ascendant lord, Jupiter,

Moon and Sun. These planets are, in other words, like five

bricks (panchestika) that support a wall and make it strong.

 

** Vimshopaka evaluation-----

 

This is *DIFFERENT from the Vimshopaka bala of varga charts. This is

more like RASI BALA in that it allots points based on the positions

of various planets in houses/rasis in the rasi chart. Each planet is

decided to give positive, negative or neutral results depending upon

its placement from the lagna. This varies from activity to activity,

as each activity needs a different kind of energy.

 

3. Ensuring the Strength and Appropriateness of Dasa, antardasa, and

Significator of the activity:

 

After evaluating the ascendant in the above two ways we then check

whether the signification house and the planet pertaining to the

activity are happy; if possible, the dasa and the antara dasa lords

should also be well placed in the chart.

 

4. Finding the most auspicious moments within the ascendant chosen/

Amsha charts etc:

 

 

After making sure that we have an auspicious lagna in hand we proceed

to other subtle factors, which play an important role in the

auspiciousness of a muhurta. For this, we use varga or divisional

charts. Main points checked in this stage are:

 

** Papa shadvarga

** Pushkaramsa

** Kunavamsa

** Shodasa or Shadvargas (whichever is feasible)

 

Now I will enumerate the most important doshas to be avoided in the

preliminary analysis. Hope you remember that I skipped this

enumeration there to do list them here. This is actually part of the

preliminary analysis.

 

Preliminary Doshas and malefic considerations

 

1. Combustion

2. Jupiter in Leo

3. Jupiter in Capricorn

4. Solar ingress

5. Adhika masa

6. Kshaya masa

7. Eclipse

8. Kakracha yoga

9. Samvartaka yoga

10. Dagdha yoga

11. Madhusarpisha yoga

12. Hatashana yoga

13. Dagdha yoga

14. Yamghantha yoga

15. Kaal danda yoga

16. Dhumra yoga

17. Dhwansha yoga

18. Vajra yoga

19. Mudgara yoga

20. Padma yoga

21. Lumba yoga

22. Utpaata yoga

23. Mrityu yoga

24. Kaana yoga

25. Musala yoga

26. Gada yoga

27. Maatanga yoga

28. Raksha yoga

29. Gandantas

30. Masa-shoonya tithis

31. Masa shoonya Nakshatras

32. Masa shoonya rashis

33. Tithi shoonya rashis

34. Tithi shoonya Nakshatras

35. Tithi shoonya lagna

36. Tripushkara yoga

37. Dwipushkara yoga

38. Panchaka

39. Baana

40. Adal yoga

41. Vidal yoga

42. Afflicted constellations

43. Parva tithis

44. Galgraha tithis

45. Dagdha tithis

46. Chidra tithis

 

As already stated earlier, in expanding the above outlined steps,

points and considerations, one may end up with a four hundred page

file. Instead of doing that, we could expand upon selected topics as

required. Learned members on this list could also take up various

topics. I will end this post by reiterating that knowledge of muhurta

is a must to be a complete astrologer. A thorough understanding of

the principles of Muhurta can actually help an astrologer appreciate

the principles of traditional predictive astrology (Jataka) better

and thereby make a better astrologer. In one of my next posts I might

introduce the five limbs/components of the panchanga/calendar, as

also other variables like ayana, masa, etc for the benefit of a

beginner.

 

 

 

Satya

[Guest guest]

JAI GURUDEV.

 

Dear Doctor Choudhary,

 

Your write up on Muhurtha is very much educative.

 

We are looking forward for the continued part.

 

Would you feel, I am asking for too much, if I request you to illustrate few

examples on choosing most effective Muhurtha.

 

Thanks,

 

Mohan Hegde.

-

Dr Satya Prakash Choudhary

vedic astrology

Friday, September 27, 2002 11:33 AM

[vedic astrology] Fixing a muhurta- An outline of the steps involved

Aum Namah ShivayaFIXING A MUHURTA- AN OUTLINE OF THE STEPS INVOLVEDSometime

back, immediately after an OZCVA monthly meeting, a student who seemed to have

been learning the subject for a few years came to me with a doubt, just to see

if her method of fixing a muhurta needed any finishing touches. I looked into

her notes and was shocked to say the least. She had done a mix of one `system'

and another`paddhathi' on which she had a miserly sprinkling of fewother

jyotish principles! That was her way of fixing a muhurta. There was no

systematic and consistent method there. It betrayed her ignorance of the

fundamentals of jyotish in its pure form. It is perhaps for reasons like this,

that genuine lovers of traditional jyotish are allergic to such methodologies.

No man's methodology, whatever its advantages, can replace or stand up to the

ocean of Jyotish. A wave just cannot replace the ocean. While I had always been

open to testing any methodology outside conventional jyotish, I was always aware

that the authors of such paddhathis/systems claimed unreasonable things at

times. I never took their criticism about traditional astrology seriously. But

a beginner takes them too seriously and misses out on a large and substantial

part of the learning process. Such rebel or non-traditional methodologies may

perhaps be fine for discussion with a well-grounded astrologer. But it is a

very good idea for a beginner to stick to traditional, so as to avoid the

common pitfalls. The average learner tries various methods with partial

knowledge, hops from one author to the other, manages to catch pieces of

information from each place and person, and eventually tries to make sense of

those fragments. The result? His knowledge of astrology is quite often a mass

of ideas-undigested, unassimilated and unharmonised - running riot in his mind!

The process of selecting an auspicious moment to start any activity, is

quite complex and needs a very good knowledge of Jyotish. Perhaps it is here

that a vedic astrologer's actual acid test is. A large proportion of the

self-styled vedic astrologers are ignorant of even the basics of fixing a

muhurta. If one wants to learn pure jyotish first without any corruptions by

the many so called researches, paddhathis and systems, if one wants to see how

much one knows or has understood jyotish truly, before attempting to practice

jyotish, one should really try his or her hand at muhurta. Jataka and Prasna

have both been through certain influences of other schools of thought over the

years. But Muhurta is perhaps the only area which has maintained its vedic

origins and form intact over the thousands of years. Moreover the original

purpose for which the vedic seers used a knowledge of astronomy, the main

purpose for which vedanga jyotisa was evolved, is to time the various rituals

in tune with the cosmic influences, in order to go with the flow of the cosmic

currents. Since a good muhurta will ensure optimum outcome for the desired

activity, the principles behind muhurta, are largely useful in deciding the

outcome of any moment, based on an analysis of the quality of the moment or

quality of the time. Since a natal chart is also a moment in time, the same

principles are actually at work in Jataka too. It is for this reason that I

would urge every sincere student of jyotish to learn muhurta well and then

decide how much he really knows jyotish. But many underestimate the value of

Muhurta as a subject in their eagerness to start predicting. There are many

books on this subject in the market. But no book addresses the subject FULLY

(even Sri Joshi's book which is thebest that I have seen in English, leaves out

some important concepts. Moreover it could have been organized better, with more

clarity. Yet in my opinion, it is a good book that needs more additions and

better editing). Generally in most books, the common topics are dealt with and

then the steps in evaluating a muhurta are given. Since muhurta deals with

hundreds of principles, one comes to cross-roads many times in fixing an

auspicious moment. The most common questions that students ask are: Which

component of the panchanga (pancha + anga = five limbs/components) is more

important? What is the order of priority? Which one should be given preference?

Is there a QUANTITATIVE way of justifying the choice of one muhurta over the

other? And what of the quality? It is here that an astrologer'sgrasp of the

subject comes across unmistakably.The various components have a degree of

preference/priority. There are quantitative as well as qualitative methods that

are part and parcel of electing an auspicious moment. Since the subject is vast,

I will outline the process in a very very skeletal manner in this post first.

Later as time permits, I will expand upon various areas for the students. In

fact when I outlined the whole subject with headings, side headings, key words,

tables etc and left gaps for explanations to be inserted later, the file came to

four hundred pages. This post may not teach you muhurta really, especially the

beginner. But the student who has been around for sometime, can check his

knowledge and see how much of what is given below, is already part of his

practice. I will simplify and outline the steps in fixing a muhurta now. I can

expand them in later posts whenever possible. Other learned members may also

expand on the topics if they wish to. I am dividing the process into various

steps for convenience and clarity. STEPS IN FIXING A MUHURTA: A.

PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS: 1. General for any purpose on any chartThere are many

doshas that an astrologer seeks to avoid in the muhurta chart, irrespective of

the specific activity and individual chart, for which he is doing the job.

After eliminating maximum number of doshas stated in the list, one should check

for the malefic combinations that prevail due to the combinations of various

components of the Panchanga. Malefic combinations are avoided while the

presence of benefic combinations is preferred. A list of these is given later

at the end. 2. Specific to the individual chart** Chandra bala (natal

moon check)** Tara bala (strength of star)After eliminating all malefic

days in a particular period, we get some days free from those effects. With

those days in hand we move on from the preliminary analysis to the main step of

fixing the muhurta now.B. MAIN ANALYSISTill now we have only avoided or

eliminated certain days etc. Hereafter we will actually evaluate and consider

certain days and ascendants for the muhurta. This involves the following

steps:1. Finding the days having the suitable combination of the five

components (pancha + anga= five limbs/components). 2. Finding a suitable

ascendant depending upon the activity.3. Ensuring the Strength and

Appropriateness of Dasa,antardasa, and Significator of the activity4.

Finding the most auspicious moments within the ascendant chosen/ Amsha charts

etc5. Miscellaneous/Special considerations for various activities like

marriage etcNow I will outline and enumerate these steps below.1. Finding

the days having the suitable combination of the five components:The first and

the foremost requirement to fix a muhurta is the availability of the suitable

five components. Depending upon the activity we first check whether the five

components of panchanga, prevailing on the days free from malefic effects, suit

the activity for which the muhurta is desired. The process of evaluating those

energies is part of the initial evaluation. It is a process of choosing a good

lunar day, weekday, Constellation, yoga and Karana.The marks allotted are as

follows:Lunar day = 1, Weekday = 8, Constellation = 4Yoga = 32,

Karana = 16 Chandrabala = 100Tarabala = 60Now we move to the second step.

2. Fixing a suitable ascendant depending upon the activity:Depending upon the

nature of the activity, one should choose fixed, dual or movable signs as

ascendants. After fixing a particular ascendant we should make sure of its

strength and check whether it is free from certain malefic effects. This

process can further be divided into three stages.a.) Avoiding malefic

combinations of the ascendentThe five major malefic effects that we should try

to avoid with respect to an ascendant are given below. ** Udayastha

shuddhi (Ensuring Benefic Asc and 7th houses)** Kartari (Malefics

Scissoring)** Bhrigu Shatka (Venus in 6th in fixed sign etc)** Moon

in 6,8,12** Sagraha Chandra (Conjunctions with Moon)b.) Quantitative

Evaluation of the Ascendant This is a process of checking the placement of

planets with respect to that ascendant to make sure they add strength. For that

we have two main methods that are quantitative (marks can be allotted). They

are:** Panchestika evaluation--this step, we check whether the five

important planets in the muhurta chart are well placed. The five important

planets that should be happy are: the lord of time (kaladhipa), ascendant lord,

Jupiter, Moon and Sun. These planets are, in other words, like five bricks

(panchestika) that support a wall and make it strong.** Vimshopaka

evaluation----- This is *DIFFERENT from the Vimshopaka bala of varga charts.

This is more like RASI BALA in that it allots points based on the positions of

various planets in houses/rasis in the rasi chart. Each planet is decided to

give positive, negative or neutral results depending upon its placement from

the lagna. This varies from activity to activity, as each activity needs a

different kind of energy.3. Ensuring the Strength and Appropriateness of Dasa,

antardasa, and Significator of the activity:After evaluating the ascendant in

the above two ways we then check whether the signification house and the planet

pertaining to the activity are happy; if possible, the dasa and the antara dasa

lords should also be well placed in the chart.4. Finding the most auspicious

moments within the ascendant chosen/ Amsha charts etc:After making sure that we

have an auspicious lagna in hand we proceed to other subtle factors, which play

an important role in the auspiciousness of a muhurta. For this, we use varga or

divisional charts. Main points checked in this stage are: ** Papa

shadvarga** Pushkaramsa** Kunavamsa** Shodasa or Shadvargas

(whichever is feasible)Now I will enumerate the most important doshas to be

avoided in the preliminary analysis. Hope you remember that I skipped this

enumeration there to do list them here. This is actually part of the

preliminary analysis. Preliminary Doshas and malefic considerations 1.

Combustion 2. Jupiter in Leo3. Jupiter in Capricorn4. Solar

ingress5. Adhika masa6. Kshaya masa7. Eclipse8. Kakracha

yoga9. Samvartaka yoga10. Dagdha yoga11. Madhusarpisha yoga12.

Hatashana yoga13. Dagdha yoga14. Yamghantha yoga15. Kaal danda

yoga16. Dhumra yoga17. Dhwansha yoga18. Vajra yoga19.

Mudgara yoga20. Padma yoga 21. Lumba yoga22. Utpaata yoga23.

Mrityu yoga24. Kaana yoga25. Musala yoga26. Gada yoga27.

Maatanga yoga28. Raksha yoga29. Gandantas30. Masa-shoonya

tithis31. Masa shoonya Nakshatras32. Masa shoonya rashis33.

Tithi shoonya rashis34. Tithi shoonya Nakshatras35. Tithi shoonya

lagna36. Tripushkara yoga37. Dwipushkara yoga38. Panchaka39.

Baana40. Adal yoga41. Vidal yoga42. Afflicted constellations43.

Parva tithis44. Galgraha tithis45. Dagdha tithis46. Chidra

tithis As already stated earlier, in expanding the above outlined steps, points

and considerations, one may end up with a four hundred page file. Instead of

doing that, we could expand upon selected topics as required. Learned members

on this list could also take up various topics. I will end this post by

reiterating that knowledge of muhurta is a must to be a complete astrologer. A

thorough understanding of the principles of Muhurta can actually help an

astrologer appreciate the principles of traditional predictive astrology

(Jataka) better and thereby make a better astrologer. In one of my next posts I

might introduce the five limbs/components of the panchanga/calendar, as also

other variables like ayana, masa, etc for the benefit of a beginner.

SatyaArchives: vedic astrologyGroup info:

vedic astrology/info.htmlTo UNSUBSCRIBE: Blank

mail to vedic astrology-....... May Jupiter's light

shine on us .......

 

[Guest guest]

I agree with Mohan. Thank you for your thoughtfulness

and it would be nice to see how we can apply the

principles to some cases that you have already worked

out.

Jai Sri Ram,

Steve

--- ANMOHIEY <anmohiey wrote:

> JAI GURUDEV.

>

> Dear Doctor Choudhary,

>

> Your write up on Muhurtha is very much educative.

>

> We are looking forward for the continued part.

>

> Would you feel, I am asking for too much, if I

> request you to illustrate few examples on choosing

> most effective Muhurtha.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Mohan Hegde.

> -

> Dr Satya Prakash Choudhary

> vedic astrology

> Friday, September 27, 2002 11:33 AM

> [vedic astrology] Fixing a muhurta- An

> outline of the steps involved

>

>

> Aum Namah Shivaya

>

>

> FIXING A MUHURTA- AN OUTLINE OF THE STEPS INVOLVED

>

>

> Sometime back, immediately after an OZCVA monthly

> meeting, a student

> who seemed to have been learning the subject for a

> few years came to

> me with a doubt, just to see if her method of

> fixing a muhurta needed

> any finishing touches. I looked into her notes and

> was shocked to say

> the least. She had done a mix of one `system' and

> another

> `paddhathi' on which she had a miserly sprinkling

> of few

> other jyotish principles! That was her way of

> fixing a muhurta. There

> was no systematic and consistent method there. It

> betrayed her

> ignorance of the fundamentals of jyotish in its

> pure form. It is

> perhaps for reasons like this, that genuine lovers

> of traditional

> jyotish are allergic to such methodologies. No

> man's methodology,

> whatever its advantages, can replace or stand up

> to the ocean of

> Jyotish. A wave just cannot replace the ocean.

> While I had always

> been open to testing any methodology outside

> conventional jyotish, I

> was always aware that the authors of such

> paddhathis/systems claimed

> unreasonable things at times. I never took their

> criticism about

> traditional astrology seriously. But a beginner

> takes them too

> seriously and misses out on a large and

> substantial part of the

> learning process. Such rebel or non-traditional

> methodologies may

> perhaps be fine for discussion with a

> well-grounded astrologer. But

> it is a very good idea for a beginner to stick to

> traditional, so as

> to avoid the common pitfalls. The average learner

> tries various

> methods with partial knowledge, hops from one

> author to the other,

> manages to catch pieces of information from each

> place and person,

> and eventually tries to make sense of those

> fragments. The result?

> His knowledge of astrology is quite often a mass

> of ideas-undigested,

> unassimilated and unharmonised - running riot in

> his mind!

>

>

> The process of selecting an auspicious moment to

> start any activity,

> is quite complex and needs a very good knowledge

> of Jyotish. Perhaps

> it is here that a vedic astrologer's actual acid

> test is. A large

> proportion of the self-styled vedic astrologers

> are ignorant of even

> the basics of fixing a muhurta. If one wants to

> learn pure jyotish

> first without any corruptions by the many so

> called researches,

> paddhathis and systems, if one wants to see how

> much one knows or has

> understood jyotish truly, before attempting to

> practice jyotish, one

> should really try his or her hand at muhurta.

> Jataka and Prasna have

> both been through certain influences of other

> schools of thought over

> the years. But Muhurta is perhaps the only area

> which has maintained

> its vedic origins and form intact over the

> thousands of years.

> Moreover the original purpose for which the vedic

> seers used a

> knowledge of astronomy, the main purpose for which

> vedanga jyotisa

> was evolved, is to time the various rituals in

> tune with the cosmic

> influences, in order to go with the flow of the

> cosmic currents.

> Since a good muhurta will ensure optimum outcome

> for the desired

> activity, the principles behind muhurta, are

> largely useful in

> deciding the outcome of any moment, based on an

> analysis of the

> quality of the moment or quality of the time.

> Since a natal chart is

> also a moment in time, the same principles are

> actually at work in

> Jataka too. It is for this reason that I would

> urge every sincere

> student of jyotish to learn muhurta well and then

> decide how much he

> really knows jyotish. But many underestimate the

> value of Muhurta as

> a subject in their eagerness to start predicting.

>

>

> There are many books on this subject in the

> market. But no book

> addresses the subject FULLY (even Sri Joshi's book

> which is the

> best that I have seen in English, leaves out some

> important concepts.

> Moreover it could have been organized better, with

> more clarity. Yet

> in my opinion, it is a good book that needs more

> additions and better

> editing). Generally in most books, the common

> topics are dealt with

> and then the steps in evaluating a muhurta are

> given. Since muhurta

> deals with hundreds of principles, one comes to

> cross-roads many

> times in fixing an auspicious moment. The most

> common questions that

> students ask are: Which component of the panchanga

> (pancha + anga =

> five limbs/components) is more important? What is

> the order of

> priority? Which one should be given preference? Is

> there a

> QUANTITATIVE way of justifying the choice of one

> muhurta over the

> other? And what of the quality? It is here that an

> astrologer's

> grasp of the subject comes across unmistakably.

>

>

> The various components have a degree of

> preference/priority. There

> are quantitative as well as qualitative methods

> that are part and

> parcel of electing an auspicious moment. Since the

> subject is vast, I

> will outline the process in a very very skeletal

> manner in this post

> first. Later as time permits, I will expand upon

> various areas for

> the students. In fact when I outlined the whole

> subject with

> headings, side headings, key words, tables etc and

> left gaps for

> explanations to be inserted later, the file came

> to four hundred

> pages. This post may not teach you muhurta really,

> especially the

> beginner. But the student who has been around for

> sometime, can

> check his knowledge and see how much of what is

> given below, is

> already part of his practice.

>

>

> I will simplify and outline the steps in fixing a

> muhurta now. I can

> expand them in later posts whenever possible.

> Other learned members

> may also expand on the topics if they wish to. I

> am dividing the

> process into various steps for convenience and

> clarity.

>

>

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