|
Muhurta - Sanctified Time > Page1
After sometime he again looked back and saw Savitri following him. He demanded to know that what she wanted now. Savitri told Yama that she only wanted to be with her husband so that Yama' s boon to her could be fulfilled, as without Satyavan, she could not conceive.
Thus caught at his own game Yama had to concede defeat and he returned Satyavan to life. Savitri's devotion to her husband thus made even the Gods change what they had destined for Satyavan .
In memory of this mythological event, many Hindu women observe fast on Vata-Purnima day which falls in the first half of June. On this day women visit temples with offerings . A special prayer is performed before the Vata tree to propitiate the Gods for getting their worldly boons granted.
Muhurta - Sanctified Time
People, the world over believe in astrology. Many of us frequently consult soothsayers and fortune-tellers. Beliefs in good and bad omens, auspicious and inauspicious moments are also widespread. But an Indian is more familiar and habituated with such ideas.
During performance of any important function whether it is a naming ceremony (namakaran vidhi or barasa), thread ceremony (janeu sanskar or munja) marriage, etc., an essential part is to ask a pandit to work out the auspicious moment or 'muhurat' when the ceremony should be performed.
A Question that naturally comes to an inquisitive mind is, how could this practice of deriving muhurtas have come into being ? All of us know that derivation of a muhurta is nothing but the fixing of a particular time for an-event to be performed in the future. We understand that making a judgement about the future has to be based either on forecasting techniques or on astrology. In this case we know it is based on astrology. the birth of ideas of auspicious and inauspicious moments in the future, lies in our belief in the wider idea of astrology.
Astrology is a gift of its close sister discipline astronomy. There could be no astrology without astronomy, as astrology predicts the turn of events in the future with the real or imaginary changes in planetary and star positions. We know that the firmament i.e. the observable universe, has a mechanics of its own. The earth and sun being part of the firmament go about their own movement as per the mechanics. The rotation of the earth on its axis causes day and night and its revolution round the sun causes weather changes. This simultaneous occurrence of weather changes and changes in star patterns both of which recurred year after year in the same way stuck into the memory of ancient people.
|
