Summer 2019 - bringing on a new generation

I admit, our days are long over. No more contesting that. It was over a while back, when the next two generations stopped listening, then after the two eclipses in June 19, our belief in the 'graha' movement finally witnesses a death-knell.  No respite. When I attempt to drive home the point on how ancient civilizations in South Asia, Jerusalem, South Africa are losing to the next generation machine-age phenomena, I make little connection. Perhaps that’s the direction of this new genetic evolution – lose the threads until someone catches them 200 years from now. That leaves me with little choice, but to agree to the consequences. With the transits, Jupiter becomes direct and showers his blessings. That is an immense start. More to come.

Abuse! Abuse! and Abuse!

That is all that is - abuse. Abuse nature till it becomes intolerable. How can humans callously abuse the creatures that are not so capable as humans at abusive ways. Destroy other species to win an extra year of living.

When I read about the way goats, chickens and cows are treated before they are subject to slaughter-house treatment, it was terrifying. Yet, what it meant for crabs and other oceanic animals being subject to torture, it did not come close. If you read the National Geographic article on how other creatures are subject to trauma and pain just to satisfy the medical profession as in https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a26038/the-blood-of-the-crab/?utm_source=pocket-newtab, then you realize the cruelty we as humans inflict on nature.

Old Stuff held in draft

July 2nd/3rd 2019 brings an interesting Solar Eclipse. With Saturn, Pluto and Ketu in opposition to Sun, Moon, Rahu with Venus creeping into their midst, these combinations will mark a different Summer. I have learned one thing about eclipses - they reveal secrets and generate fear. If you have read the ancient Ramayana epic, it has chapters on Hanuman attempting to destroy the ill aspects of Rahu and Sani. The anecdotes clearly state if you bring upon strength, then fighting the fear that Rahu instills or the negation Sani brings, are easily manageable. Its been a two-year battle with me, none of it was easy, but there is an opportunity on July 2nd, extending to Jul 3rd, to make the best of it.

Unique Dasa combinations

A Dasa is an Asterism based progression, quite unique to Vedic Astrology. Every graha or planetary body gets a weighted period on which it acts on a native. Those set periods can be recursively divided in similar weighted manner into sub periods and their sub periods, bringing an event’s occurrence to within a few days. Of course, one can recursively traverse the function to get to sub units of time, but for ease of understanding most ancient texts like this blog, limited it to three grahas only.

Understanding a Dasa period is not easy as many factors influence the period it represents. It’s sub divisions make the challenge exponential and further sub divisions further increase the complexity.

Any Dasa combination of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn overwhelms one half of the natal zodiac. These grahas are the lords of 8th, 9th, 10th sign; lords of 11th, 12th and 1st sign. From Scorpio to Aries is completely under the influence of the three Grahas, in their Dasa rulership. Of course, depending on how the houses are distributed from the ascendant (lagna), the combination of the three Grahas can exert lopsided pressures on one half of the native’s chart. I have witnessed some incredible results during the Dasa-Antara-Pratyantara of the three. If the period lasts 6 months, each month gets a unique (3 x 2) influence. Gain in wealth in one month with extra losses in another month, or loss of wealth followed by a gain; loss of health followed by an incredible recovery and similar yin-yang combinations occur within that short span of time.

A similar combination to the one described comes from Sun, Moon and Mercury dasa period. They involve a third of the native’s chart starting from the 3rd to the 6th sign. If such a region lies between 1st to 4th or 2nd to 5th house, the results could be really good.

Naksya - star based astrology spanning 30,000 years is now in beta

Just added more features to Naksya.com. It can also be associated with Jotiz.com. One of the key features of Naksya is its ability to span 30,000 years of astronomical data. Thanks to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory data and Astrodient, I was able to port their C++ libraries into Node JS and thus run a site that I believe will be of immense help to researchers. The Node JS libraries have been given back to the open source community.

Naksya is all about Nakshatra only. In this application, there are no standard 12 divisional zodiacs. Everything is Aster based or Fixed Star based. As an astrologer, you can compute a person’s birth chart and see it on a 27 divisional chart. Just to help folks navigate, a reference to the 12 signs is also in the chart. The chart tells you where your grahas were in Nakshatra(s) at time of birth and at a time of transit. It also gives you calculations which are forgotten – strength from birth position to transiting (bala’s acquired during transits), besides strength from the two luminaries Moon and Sun.

There is no concept of Ascendant in Naksya.

Also added the rising transits of Fixed Stars – such as Sirius, Andromeda, Orion (stars) etc. With Naksya, one can literally traverse down forgotten history to the Kuruskhetra war which happened in 3020 BCE. To enter such a year, you key in the year as -3020 and month and day as usual. We all understand that month and day were differently computed 5000 years back, (perhaps didn’t even exist and that’s another story). Naksya gives you a relative scale to think. To go into a period that is 10,000 years back, enter the year as -10000. Or, fast forward 10,000 years, enter the year as 10000.

As I write, Naksya is the only web application that can handle years -14,9999 to 14,9999 – that’s 30,000 years. I will be adding ‘eclipses’ to the Application shortly. As you can understand, it has been very rough getting such a site out with such phenomenal ranges and complex software.

Right now, the software requires an unlock key to run. If your interest is in star based or nakshatra based astronomy (or astrology), please let me know. I will be happy to give you a key. The intent is to make the software open to public in future – of course through some login credentials. In return, please send your opinion. There is always room for improvement. Since this is a computational engine, there will be some rough edges.

All mobile lovers will love the responsive page – https://www.naksya.com

Web Responsive, SSL driven Jotiz 4.5

Presenting Jotiz 4.5 (https://www.jotiz.com) - a completely revamped astrology software that is Web Responsive. It works on all devices – laptops, tablets, small-footprint smart phones, iPad, iPhone, Samsung… Lots of changes, device friendly and fully secure. Yes – Jotiz uses SSL SHA-2 certificates and the protocol is https – which means your communication with the website is completely secure. It has remained free from the beginning; it will remain free for all users without any advertisements as long as possible.

In an unrented garage in a small town suburban home, Jotiz had a small beginning. It was 1986 and the rains were incessant. Built on C-Language using the most versatile compiler – Borland’s Turbo C, the first application ran in DOS. It had no name I can remember; it was a mere astrology software. A gentleman who by profession was a trader had coerced me into writing a software of which I had very little knowledge. In a book-fair, I found several books by B.V. Raman which became my gospel for many years. With the popularity of Intel 386 processors and the advent of Windows 3.1, the astrology software – Mystic was rebuilt with Borland C++ compiler. I remember the excitement of buttons, windows, scrollbars that appeared in a first ever Windows GUI Vedic Astrology system. In 1994 before the announcement of Windows 95, Borland aggressively announced Delphi and a new breed of Mystic was announced in 1995 overlapping Microsoft Windows 95 announcement. It was revolutionary – menus, dialogs, 256 bit images, panels, Paradox data engine took over the interface of Mystic. For a few years it remained dormant until Internet became mainstream and GoMystic appeared in 1998 as a Java applet with fancy calculations. The GoMystic Prediction Engine was registered with the US Copyright Office in early 2000. From an applet to a PHP server based system in 2003 to a complete web responsive system is what it has become – almost 27 years in the making.

It must be perfect then.

Far from it. I still find holes, panaceas, faulty logic – which tells you how complex the system is. Or is it? Why should nature make such a complex system to describe our Karma, our fate? Here’s my answer – every book, manuscript that I have read is concealed in riddles. Most have been authored mindlessly without any divine knowledge or thought. The last few years have been the true revelation for me – I believe I have finally cracked the code. Here is Jotiz (grown from its “nascent-no-named” humble beginning to later day “Mystic”) and finally AquaPisces (https://www.aquapisces.com).

AquaPisces is yet another story. The teachings and doctrines of Parasara, Charaka, Patanjali, William Lilly, Raphael, Varaha Mihira converge into AquaPisces. 

This is first ever attempt in bringing the concepts of astrology, ayurveda, TCM and American native herbal medicine under one roof. Algorithmically it was a challenge, making it web responsive and device friendly was yet another.

Here’s hoping you enjoy Jotiz and AquaPisces as much I enjoyed and struggled in making it.

Today with 15,000 native data, 13,000 + known users, and approximately 25,000 anonymous users Jotiz has come a long way. The new site contains all the previous versions and the new web responsive site built with Bootstrap, JQuery, PHP, MySQL and a bunch of new algorithms. 

DIY - Jotiz CardioMachine with Arduino Due and TI MSP 432 and MSP 430

DIY - Jotiz CardioMachine with Arduino Due and TI MSP 432 and MSP 430

I present here a series of blogs that are intended to enable the use of ‘things’ in the Internet of Things IoT complementing Jotiz.

The idea of a Microcontroller based Cardiogram Reading machine was something I had planned on for quite a while. There is little to doubt that Panchanga and Kaala have a definite influence on a person’s mind, spirit and heart. Based on that key-note, I went about assembling a small machine that could fit into your palm, read EKG through electrodes on your body and correlate heart readings to the Panchanga and Kaala of time.

There were several architectural alternatives, which I went through and I present them all to you.

1. Arduino Mega (8 Bit) MCU with Olimex EKG/EMG front-end shield.
2. Arduino Due (32 Bit SAMX) MCU with Olimex EKG/EMG front end shield
3. TI MSP 430 (16 Bit) Launchpad with SparkFun EKG front end board
4. TI MSP 423 (32 Bit) Launchpad with SparkFun EKG front end board

The TI Launchpads were connected headless to the EKG front ends. The data was collected over the serial port through a program written in Java, which would plot and render the data on the cloud. To the Arduino boards, I added shields I had created which had LCD and OLEDs mounted additional to the EKG front ends.

Links and Bill of Material: 

1. Energia - http://energia.nu/
2. Arduino - http://www.arduino.cc/
3. Arduino Mega - http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/arduinoBoardMega
4. Arduino Due - http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/arduinoBoardDue
5. Sainsmart Due - http://www.sainsmart.com/sainsmart-due-atmel-sam3x8e-arm-cortex-m3-board.html
6. Sintron Mega 2560 R3 ATmega2560 with USB Cable
7. Olimex EKG Frontend - https://www.olimex.com/Products/Duino/Shields/SHIELD-EKG-EMG/
8. SparkFun AD8232 EKG - https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/ad8232-heart-rate-monitor-hookup-guide
9. Hammond Manufacturing 1553BRDBKBAT Enclosure
10. Gikfun Prototype Shield DIY KIT for Arduino
11. Diymall 0.96" Inch I2c IIC Serial 128x64 OLED
12. SainSmart 1.8" TFT Color LCD Display Module with SPI Interface & MicroSD
13. Radioshack Enclosure Project Skeleton Kit (Two-Tray)
14. TI MSP 430 G2 series - http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/microcontrollers_16-bit_32-bit/msp/ultra-low_power/msp430g2x_i2x/overview.page
15. Texas Instruments MSP432 Launchpad - http://www.ti.com/tool/MSP-EXP432P401R

Three layered Jotiz-Cardio machine on Arduino (Sintron) Mega

with Olimex EKG/EMG Shield and 0.96 inch OLED

Three layered Jotiz-Cardio machine on Arduino (Sainsmart) Due

with Olimex EKG/EMG shield and 0.96 inch OLED on top shield

MSP 432 Launchpad (32 Bit) with Sparkfun AD8232 EKG Board

MSP 430 Launchpad (16 Bit) with Sparkfun AD8232 EKG Board

MSP 430 Launchpad with Sparkfun EKG inside Hammond Enclosure

with three electrodes attached

How the program works:

Arduino 32 Bit (Single channel) with Olimex EKG Shield

  screen.firstPage();

  do {

    draw();

    screen.setColorIndex(1);

  } while ( screen.nextPage() );

  starttime = millis();

  Serial.begin(57600);

  Serial.setTimeout(2000);

  Serial.println("Vedic Heart Machine");

  Serial.println(">> Please input Time : Example \"21,53,0,25,4,2015,-4\"");

  if (!pTime) {

    processTime();

    pTime = true;

  }

  if (!pDone) {

    doPanchanga();

    pDone = true;

  }

}

void doPanchanga() {

  Serial.print("PCH, Date ");

  Serial.print(nYY);

  Serial.print("-");

  Serial.print(nMM);

  Serial.print("-");

  Serial.print(nDD);

  Serial.print(" Hour ");

  Serial.print(nHour);

  Serial.print(":");

  Serial.print(nMin);

  Serial.print(" TimeZone ");

  Serial.println(nTZ);

  pch.initialize_panchanga(nDD, nMM, nYY, nHour, nMin, nTZ);

  delay(200);

  pDone = true;

  // Set the timer for EKG Reading

  // TC1 : timer counter. Can be TC0, TC1 or TC2

  // 0   : channel. Can be 0, 1 or 2

  // TC3_IRQn: irq number.

  // 250 : frequency (in Hz)

  // The interrupt service routine is TC3_Handler.

  startTimer(TC1, 0, TC3_IRQn, 250);

}

void processTime() {

  nHour = Serial.parseInt();

  nMin = Serial.parseInt();

  nSec = Serial.parseInt();

  nDD = Serial.parseInt();

  nMM = Serial.parseInt();

  nYY = Serial.parseInt();

  nTZ = Serial.parseInt();

  if (nYY == 0) nYY = 2015;

  if (nDD == 0) nDD = 25;

  if (nMM == 0) nMM = 4;

  if (nHour == 0) nHour = 23;

  if (nMin == 0) nMin = 36;

  if (nTZ == 0) nTZ = -4;

  setTime(nHour, nMin, 0, nDD, nMM, nYY);

}

…

…

  activetime = millis() - starttime;

  if (timerInitiated) {

    inADC = analogRead(0);

    Serial.print("ADC,");

    Serial.print(inADC);

    Serial.print(",");

    Serial.println(activetime);

  }

…

…

Arduino 8-Bit Mega with Olimex EKG and OLED

#define SAMPFREQ 256                      // ADC sampling rate 256

#define TIMER2VAL (1024/(SAMPFREQ))       // Set 256Hz sampling frequency                   

volatile unsigned char CurrentCh = 0;     //Current channel being sampled.

volatile unsigned int ADC_Value = 0;             //ADC current value

#define OLED_RESET 4

Adafruit_SSD1306 display(OLED_RESET);

#define LOGO16_GLCD_HEIGHT 16

#define LOGO16_GLCD_WIDTH  16

…

…

// Needed by Panchanga

uint8_t nDay = 6;

uint8_t nDD = 11;

uint8_t nMM = 4;

unsigned int nYY = 2015;

uint8_t nHour = 23;

uint8_t nMin = 18;

int nTZ = -4;

char buf[2];

char sbuf[15];

Panchanga pch;

…

…

  noInterrupts(); 

  FlexiTimer2::set(TIMER2VAL, Timer2_Overflow_ISR);

  FlexiTimer2::start();

  interrupts(); 

  doPanchanga();

…

…

  ADC_Value = analogRead(CurrentCh);

  // Spit out the values

  Serial.print("ADC, ");   

  Serial.println(ADC_Value);

…

…

MSP 432 with Sparkfun AD8232 EKG

int starttime;

int activetime;

int previoustime = 0;

int cnt = 0;

volatile unsigned int inADC = 0;

…

…

  pinMode(2, INPUT); // Setup for leads off detection LO +

  pinMode(3, INPUT); // Setup for leads off detection LO -

…

…

  if ((digitalRead(2) == 1) || (digitalRead(3) == 1)) {

    // Leads not connected

    // Serial.println('!');

  } else{

    // send the value of analog input 0:

    inADC = analogRead(A0);  // PIN_06

    // inADC = map(inADC, -4096, 4096, 1024, 1024);

    Serial.print("ADC,");

    Serial.print(inADC);

    Serial.print(",");

    Serial.println(activetime);

    ++cnt;

  }

  //Wait for a bit to keep serial data from saturating

  delay(1);

…

…

Based on the quality of time as determined by the Panchanga many health problems can be determined. Jotiz is being expanded to included uncharted medical astrology.

Read more about this in the upcoming book “Vedic Machine”

TI CC3200 LaunchPad IoT using Jotiz RESTful Services

TI CC3200 LaunchPad IoT with Sharp LCD using Jotiz RESTful Services

I present here a series of blogs that are intended to enable the use of ‘things’ in the Internet of Things IoT complementing Jotiz.

The CC3200 Launchpad from Texas Instruments is new generation 32 bit MCU with SoC and WiFi built it. In this article, I present the CC3200 micro-controller and its ability to read the Jotiz web service which gives the Panchanga. The development board is the size of a credit card and comes as an attractive red PCB. I also attached a Sharp 96x96 LCD booster pack on the MCU board to display the results. All this, I put into an acrylic enclosure with spacers and screws.

The Simplelink WiFi CC3200 Launchpad was connected to a Windows 7 laptop through the USB port. Remember to download the drivers for CC3200 from TI website. To develop the program, the Open Source Energia based on the Arduino IDE was used.

Links:

1.      Energia - http://energia.nu/

2.      Arduino - http://www.arduino.cc/

3.      Texas Instruments CC3200 Launchpad - http://www.ti.com/tool/cc3200-launchxl

How the program works:

It uses the WiFi library, JSON and the Sharp booster pack libraries. It fetches the Panchanga data from the Jotiz REST service, extracts the relevant information from the encoded JSON and displays on the LCD.

Based on the quality of time as determined by the Panchanga many common day to day decisions like attending an interview, choosing the right moment to discuss an idea or a raise, travelling, buying property, investing can be done with less negative consequences.

Excerpts from the code

  // Initializing the LCD and WiFi

  LCD_SharpBoosterPack_SPI myScreen;

  uint8_t k = 0;

  WiFiClient client;

  char server[] = "jotiz.com";

  boolean offline = false;

  

  #elif defined(__CC3200R1M1RGC__)

  SPI.begin();

  SPI.setClockDivider(SPI_CLOCK_DIV2); 

// for __CC3200R1M1RGC__ DIV2 = 4 MHz !

  SPI.setBitOrder(MSBFIRST);

  SPI.setDataMode(SPI_MODE0);

  #endif

  if (WiFi.status() == WL_NO_SHIELD) {

    myScreen.text(10, 25, "FAIL");

    while(true);

  }

  while (wifiStatus != WL_CONNECTED) {

    wifiStatus = WiFi.begin(WIFI_SSID, WPA_PASSWORD);

    if (wifiStatus == WL_CONNECTED) {

      myScreen.text(10, 25, "Wifi: OK");

    } 

    delay(300);

  }

  if (!offline) {

    while (WiFi.localIP() == INADDR_NONE) {

      delay(300);

    }

    IPAddress ip = WiFi.localIP();

    if (client.connect(server, 80)) {

      client.println("GET /rest/resource.php?method=panch&format=json HTTP/1.1");

      client.println("Host: jotiz.com");

      client.println("Content-Type: application/json");

      client.println("Connection: close");

      client.println();

    } 

  if (!offline) {

    for (int i=0; i < 47; i++) {

      String jsonstr = "";

      while (client.available()) {

        char c = client.read();

        jsonstr += String(c);

      }

      String js = jsonstr.substring(jsonstr.indexOf("{"));

      char* jstr = strcpy((char*)malloc(js.length()+1), js.c_str());

      aJsonObject* root = aJson.parse((char *)jstr);

      aJsonObject* dd = aJson.getObjectItem(root, "dd");

      aJsonObject* mm = aJson.getObjectItem(root, "mm");

      aJsonObject* yy = aJson.getObjectItem(root, "yy");

      aJsonObject* hh = aJson.getObjectItem(root, "hh");

      aJsonObject* mt = aJson.getObjectItem(root, "mt");

      aJsonObject* dw = aJson.getObjectItem(root, "dw");

      aJsonObject* ui = aJson.getObjectItem(root, "unodeInausp");

      aJsonObject* si = aJson.getObjectItem(root, "saturnInausp");

      aJsonObject* di = aJson.getObjectItem(root, "deathBearing");

      aJsonObject* da = aJson.getObjectItem(root, "directionInausp");

      char buf1[10] = "";

      strcat(buf1, yy->valuestring);

      strcat(buf1, "-");

      strcat(buf1, mm->valuestring);

      strcat(buf1,  "-");

      strcat(buf1, dd->valuestring);

      myScreen.text(10, 25, buf1);

      char buf2[5] = "";

      strcat(buf2, hh->valuestring);

      strcat(buf2,  ":");

      strcat(buf2, mt->valuestring);

      myScreen.text(10, 35, buf2);

      myScreen.text(10, 45, "Rahu");

      myScreen.text(70, 45, ui->valuestring);

      blinkLed(LED1);

      myScreen.text(10, 55, "Saturn");

      myScreen.text(70, 55, si->valuestring);

      blinkLed(LED2);

      myScreen.text(10, 65, "Death");

      myScreen.text(70, 65, di->valuestring);

      blinkLed(LED3);

      myScreen.text(10, 75, "Direction");

      myScreen.text(70, 75, da->valuestring);

      myScreen.flush();

      free(dw);

      ..

      ..

      free (jstr);

      delay (500);

      free(mm);

      .. 

      ..

    }

MyScreen is the LCD screen - SHARP 96x96 pixels. The board on startup initializes the WiFi client, sends the SSID and Password to authenticate as an user and obtains an IP address. After getting the IP address, it uses the internet to connect to Jotiz and make a RESTful request. The JSON string received is broken up into its elements and displayed. 

Read more about this in the upcoming book “Vedic Machine”

DIY - MSP430 Launchpad with BMP180 (A farmer's Almanac) complementing Jotiz

Do it Yourself - MSP430 Launchpad with BMP180 complementing Jotiz

I present here a series of blogs that are intended to enable the use of ‘things’ in the Internet of Things IoT complementing Jotiz.

To start with, I have used a MSP430FR5969(c) Launchpad(c)(r) from Texas Instruments. The development board is the size of a credit card and comes as an attractive red PCB. I also attached a Sharp 96x96 LCD booster pack on the MCU board to display the results and a Bosch BMP180 pressure and temperature sensor from Adafruit. All this, I put into an acrylic enclosure with hex spacers and M3 screws.

Links: 

1. Energia - http://energia.nu/

2. Guide to MSP430FR5969 - http://energia.nu/pin-maps/guide_msp430fr5969launchpad/

3. Arduino - http://www.arduino.cc/

4. Adafruit - https://www.adafruit.com/

How the program works:

It uses the wire library, the bmp085 and the Sharp booster pack libraries. It computes the Rahu Kaala, Gullika Kaala, Yamaghantaka and Shoola directions along with the sensors collecting pressure and temperature data from the ambient surroundings.

Based on the quality of time as determined by the Kaala and the pressure and temperature readings, house plants, green house plants and outdoor plants can be watered or checked for damages.

Excerpts from the code

  // Setting the pin modes of the pins connected to the BMP Sensor

  pinMode(P1_6, OUTPUT);

  pinMode(P1_7, OUTPUT);

  digitalWrite(P1_7, LOW);

  // Barometer Sensor

  digitalWrite(P1_7, HIGH);

  …

  …

  // After initializing the sensor, show the pressure and temperature

  showPressureTemp();

  …

  // display the results on the LCD

  myScreen.begin();

  myScreen.setFont(1);

  myScreen.text(10, 5, "Vedic");

  myScreen.setFont(0);

  myScreen.text(10, 30, "Jotiz Clock");

  myScreen.text(10, 40, "(c)devb inc");

  myScreen.flush();  

  delay(2000);

  myScreen.clearBuffer();

  // check for quality of time 

  doTime();

  …

  …

  // compute time

void doTime() {

  float h1;

  nMin++;

  if (nMin > 59) {

      nHour++;

      nMin = 0;

  }

  if (nHour > 23) {

      nDay++;

      nHour = 0;

  }

  if (nDay > 6) nDay = 0;

  h1 = nHour + (nMin / 60);

  switch (nDay) {

  case 0:

    if ((h1 >= 16.5) && (h1 <= 18)) showTime("Rahu  ","W","Sun");

    else if (h1 >= 15 && h1 < 16.5) showTime("Gulika","W","Sun");

    else if ((h1 >= 12 && h1 <= 13.5) || (h1 >= 18 && h1 <= 19.5)) 

showTime("Yama  ","W","Sun");

    else showTimeOnly("Sun");

    break;

  case 1:

    if (h1 >= 7.5 && h1 <= 9) showTime("Rahu  ","E","Mon");

    else if (h1 >= 13.5 && h1 < 15) showTime("Gulika","E","Mon");

    else if ((h1 >= 10.5 && h1 <= 12) || (h1 >= 3 && h1 <= 4.5)) 

showTime("Yama  ","E","Mon");

    else showTimeOnly("Mon");

    break;

  case 2:

    if (h1 >= 15 && h1 <= 16.5) showTime("Rahu  ","N","Tue");

    else if (h1 >= 12 && h1 < 13.5) showTime("Gulika","N","Tue");

    else if ((h1 >= 9 && h1 <= 10.5) || (h1 >= 1.5 && h1 <= 3)) 

showTime("Yama  ","N","Tue");

    else showTimeOnly("Tue");

    break;

  case 3:

    if (h1 >= 12 && h1 <= 13.5) showTime("Rahu  ","N","Wed");

    else if (h1 >= 10.5 && h1 < 12) showTime("Gulika","N","Wed");

    else if (h1 >= 7.5 && h1 <= 9) showTime("Yama  ","N","Wed");

    else showTimeOnly("Wed");

    break;

  case 4:

    if (h1 >= 13.5 && h1 <= 15) showTime("Rahu  ","S","Thu");

    else if (h1 >= 9 && h1 < 10.5) showTime("Gulika","S","Thu");

    else if ((h1 >= 6 && h1 <= 7.5) || (h1 >= 22 && h1 <= 24)) 

showTime("Yama  ","S","Thu");

    else showTimeOnly("Thu");

    break;

  case 5:

    if (h1 >= 10.5 && h1 <= 12) showTime("Rahu  ","W","Fri");

    else if (h1 >= 7.5 && h1 < 9) showTime("Gulika","W","Fri");

    else if ((h1 >= 15 && h1 <= 16.5) || (h1 >= 19.5 && h1 <= 21)) 

showTime("Yama  ","W","Fri");

    else showTimeOnly("Fri");

    break;

  case 6:

    if (h1 >= 9 && h1 <= 10.5) showTime("Rahu  ","E","Sat");

    else if (h1 >= 6 && h1 < 7.5) showTime("Gulika","E","Sat");

    else if ((h1 >= 13.5 && h1 <= 15) || (h1 >= 19.5 && h1 <= 21)) 

showTime("Yama  ","E","Sat");

    else showTimeOnly("Sat");

    break;

  default: 

    break;

  }

}

ShowTime has three parameters - the Kaala event, direction to avoid and the weekday.

Read more about this in the upcoming book “Vedic Machine”

My book 'Ballad Divine - Bhagavad-Gita' is now available at Amazon. It took a few painstaking years to get there, but every moment was worth it. 

The printed book and Kindle editions are available at Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Divine-Bhagavad-Gita-Dev-Bhattacharyya/dp/1495969835/
You may also review the book. Would love to hear about your reactions to the book. 

Several years back, I spoke to a child about Krishna. The child was so delighted even though she could not pronounce the name properly. I felt if just the lord's name could have such a profound effect, his ballad needed to be re-visited. I went through innumerable books spanning nearly 150 years from Annie Besant, Max Mueller, to Swami Vivekananda, Swami Parmananda, Swami Nikhilananda, S. Radhakrishnan, Srila Prabhupada and Swami Dayananda Saraswati to name a few. Of course, inspired by Chaitanya's Kirtans, I spent many-a-day on Sri Aurobindo's Essays on the Gita, Bankim Chandra's - Krishna Charitra -- and Ballad Divine is the final rendition.

Ballad Divine brings back the Bhagavad-Gita in a very easy to read composition; minus the rhetoric. It is an accurate reference of the original and observed facts and uses the same systemic method to divinity. 

Ballad-Divine is organized around the mainstays of Krishna's doctrines, those of philosophy, action, discipline, concentration, knowledge, meditation, devotion and surrender. These pillars are in turn expounded from smaller building blocks. The theme in the sentences are repeated throughout reinforcing the subject. It is styled mostly as a ballad expressing eighteen different chapters by short stanzas; of which some are metrical.

Excerpt from Chapter 4, Lines 7 and 8

When there is fading of dharma 

And increase in infamy and sloth

Then into birth, 

I loose myself going forth. 

For deliverance of good

For destruction of terror

For enthroning of rights 

I am born from one age to another.

Chapter 18, Lines 69 and 70

No mortal performs 

Service that I value more

No other on earth

Is dear to me than the one I adore.

Judge I will 

Those who study

This sacred discourse of ours

Who offer me sacrifice

By knowledge of course. 

Mithra - forgotten phenomenon

Rev. Martin Luther King wrote a paper on Mithraism in 1949. He also received an A grade on the essay on his presentation skills on an otherwise difficult concept.

The details of MLK's papers are in Stanford's website - http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/volume_i_13_september_to_23_november_1949/.

I witnessed Mithraism (worship of Mitra) when I was in Rome, Italy. Mithra (AKA Mitra) is Vedic and Zoroaster's view of the powerful phenomenon that guided Sun to spring.

Yes, from winter to spring - a resurrection, a rebirth of the Sun - the procreator, the God of the yesteryears.  

The Vatican Museums and Basilica of San Clemente offered me direct insights into Mithra worship - a likely predecessor to Christianity - a long forgotten history of reconciliation of a prevailing system to the great spiritual movement that was gaining sturdy influence with its purer conception of God.

You can witness the mercy, the power of the Sol-God only in darkness of the labyrinths in the dungeons at San Clemente.

Mithra is the phenomenon that symbolizes the movement of the Sun away from a Taurus culmination of summer solstice. The slaying of the bull - "taurobolium", is so evident in the sculptures in the dungeons in Saint Clemente's basilica. The presence of Ashvins in the rock sculpture; could also be Gemini twins; Saturn giving out the weapon to destroy the bull; Sol and Luna blessing the act; Sirius the dog, the Lunar nodes shown as a serpent and Scorpion (scorpio) all active participants marked the new epoch - the birth of a new era. 

Venus, Jupiter and Saturn

A new look at Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.

Sukracharya (related to Venus), son of Brighu was vengeful of Vishnu – Vishnu having destroyed their haven and having killed his mother and the ashuras who she had given shelter to. Besides, Brihaspati was the favored one both from his earlier teacher and Brihaspati's father Angiras and the Devas who eventually elected Brihaspati as their own Guru.

Sukracharya, therefore, chose the ashuras (the dark side, if the name permits) as his disciples and being stronger and more powerfully learned than Brihaspati quickly led Ashuras to victory over the Devas.

That was quite a mouthful!

Sukracharya’s progeny became the clan of Purus – Pauravas, the family that fought in the Mahabharata and also Yadus – the dynasty that Lord Krishna belonged to.

Those of us endowed with Venus like features that Sukracharya relates to are – Highly informed and knowledgeable; much better than the competitor but are not always recognized by our managers and tribal leaders, easily capable of winning (victory),  egotist and plagued with vanity and vengeance. The Sukra endowed persons give rise to progenitors that become strong clans. 

Those that fall in line with Jupiter (Brihaspati) get recognition much beyond their worth. Status, favors and recognition come easy compared to other folks who actually deserve it. However, the shortcuts to success only create holes in security; and eventually the downtrend begins to re-instate folks aligned to Sukra (Venus) (who are more hardworking and zealous in their efforts) to take over or rule.

Some victories won by the Venus-driven may also get counteracted by Saturn who is Venus’ friend. It is not unusual to see a strong Venus-Saturn combination leading to Financial and Health problems in a person’s life. It’s a clear indication for those born with strong Venus and Saturn to witness a complete reversal of their fortunes and health two to three times in their lifetime. But, having Sukra as their Guru, these reversals are short-lived and eventually bring forth the victory they deserve.

On the other hand, without a notion of a down trend, Jupiter (Brihaspati) driven persons eventually lose out – either overconfident or too lazy to fight the battles. Jupiter gains in the beginning, the end may be okay with a good Moon combination; but not anywhere close to how it began. Obesity and laziness are Jupiterial trends that can destroy the otherwise spiritually inclined. 

Super-Moon and Summer Solstice

What a day! What a night! 

The Sun fiercely crossed the Summer Solstice or was it this planet. Never mind the relative motions; the sun was certainly fierce today. 

The moon on the seventh house rose immediately after a deep sunset - was it the moon? It was the Supermoon!

The celestial gods blessed us with quite a sight - the day and the night.

The Sun and the Moon have so many differences - so many conflicts and yet many areas of agreement. This was not their best moments; it was a mere feast for mortal eyes only.

The moon and sun are in constant tensions when they are a quadrant away. The moon in positions 1, 4,7,10 from the sun are never without tensions. Though Varaha Mihira states Full Moon (180 degrees between the sun and moon are good), I tend to differ. 

The Kendrasthans are not good between sun and moon. Neither is the 5th position. Only 3rd, 6th, 8th, 9th and 11th are good combinations between the two fast moving celestial planets. If the moon is blessed by aspects from Jupiter and Venus; the yoga combinations above and the aspects are extremely important indications for happiness and wealth.

Solar Eclipse

What an irony,
The god that illuminated the day,
Died
The mortals are alive


Wish god remained a little longer
The darkness of the night
Lesser
Evil while god was being reborn


Do gods die?
Was he not at nether-worlds?
Traveling
Perhaps to a neighboring planet


Now comes the worst,
The maiden casts her dark shadows
Sunday Eclipse
Will there be another reprise

Enjoy the Solar Eclipse. Remember - Never look at the sun-god directly; wear appropriate eye glasses and eye protection.

Why Jotiz? 

Astrology intrigued me from early 1990’s for several reasons. I was looking for a career path then. The soothsayers I came across were only interested in selling gem stones, especially precious stones on account of the huge profits they made. The astrologers would sell you anything like Ruby with Sapphire, Diamond and Emerald, Pearls that knew no upper limits – if you had most of these; then a Yantra or an encasement in 22 carat gold that you would be obliged to pay through your nose.
Incidentally, none of these popular and acclaimed astrologers had a clue around astronomy; where the stars and the celestial bodies were around at anytime around the year. They believed and swore around their misinterpreted charts, in their tantric dogmas and beliefs; none of which agreed with my thinking and rationale.
They had no clue or any idea of where astrology was headed except what they had been subjected to believe without any room for innovation. Had I not ventured to come to the US, my thoughts would have possibly been influenced negatively.
Jotiz is a modern way of looking at classical astrology whether it is Vedic or Christian. Vedic expands into Indian, Indonesian, Cambodian, Sri-Lankan, Celtic, Chinese systems as they are practiced today – I do not confine myself to any single text like Brihat Hora Sastra; but use Phaladeepika, Brihat Jataka, Saravali, Jaiminee, Jataka Tattwa and other texts that make sense into the mix. Christian Astrology owes the scriptures to Lilly and Raphael, to many Arabic and Egyptian narratives. The references to Horary in Jotiz are clearly inclined towards Christian astrology than Vedic.

Therefore Jotiz.

May 5th, 2012

Full Moon conjunct with Saturn! Saturn Retrograde in Cusp in exaltation. Opposition aspect (7th house) from both Sun and Jupiter.  Sun in deep exaltation with powerful spring blaze - it’s the time for the new generation. The old will falter for the next few days – perhaps a fortnight. Is Facebook the winner? From the young and old perspectives – it seems so easy – yes it is.

March 29th

March 29th should be an interesting day. Moon and Saturn exalted, though Saturn is still retrograde. Venus moves from detriment to own house. Sun closer to exaltation; just that Mercury has fallen.

An interesting day nevertheless; with a fallen Mercury anything and everything is possible.

Thank god Mars is not affected.

Metaphors in the night-sky

The last two weeks I am sure many of you have witnessed the South-Western sky with the two bright orbs lighting your path as you would drive back west. Fortunately, the drive back for me from work is west and very evening there appeared the bejeweled sky with Venus and Jupiter really close to one another.

I watched it every day; and back home shared it with family and neighbors. Even my grand daughter was so delighted to see a portion of the sky so intense and bright.

I just realized it was trying to tell us all something - something more than just a spectacle.

"A glowing Venus in close conjunction with Jupiter" - our seers and forefathers were so right - a person is truly wealthy in the presence of real knowledge. Wealth becomes a shining orb in the presence of knowledge and spirituality - a metaphor so profound; so subtle being played out in the vast sky stage right before us.