Introduction to Jyotish

A person, howsoever well-placed and in affluence is always anxious to know his future, for the human mind is always desirous for what is beyond the reach of senses. Events In human life are embedded in the womb of future. it Is, therefore, natural for a man to be anxious to know his future. After having experienced strange and unexpected results in his own life and in the lives of others - results giving rise and fall - one is naturally prone to a desire to know the future. With that end in view, man undertakes various measures.

As a result of the desire for knowledge, man has found out many systems of divining the future - the chief amongst which are the systems of Palmistry-Astrology - Horary astrology (Tajik) and Ramal etc. Palmistry and Astrology are such scientific achievements of man which he had attained with the very start of civilization. Thirst for knowledge has been as the root of every scientific achevement It is as a result of this earnest desire for knowledge that man has arisen from barbarity and uncivilised conditions and has walked on the path of civilization for the present age of the atom; in which age he has spread out his hands not merely to the farthest shores of the earth but also to those of the sky.

Civilization rose in India, China, and Egypt etc. This is recognized by every one. Astrology is but a small part of the indestructible treasures of knowledge discovered in these countries from pre historic times. Ever since those times there has been improvement in the field of astrology. But this improvement has always been based on verified principles. The Aryan culture had embraced in its arms a vast portion of the earth even in those times. The major portion of this planet was illumined by the rays emanating from that culture. Astrology and palmistry are fundamentally Indian sciences which reached China, Persia etc. through cultural exchanges. But with passage of time when contacts of these countries with India became less frequented, these sciences developed in all these countries independently.

Considered from a psychological point of view it appears man has engaged himself to unravel the mysteries of the science of astrology as a result of his thirst for knowledge. Having seen the stars, planets, asterisms, Sun and Moon, man was led to know the secret underlying them. Man has solved many a knotty problems by now but he has also created an equal number of problems still to be solved in which he is involved.

According to the etymological derivation of the term jyotish it includes all the luminous objects of heaven along with the Sun and planets etc. as also the science concerning them. This science is meant primarily to assess the move revolutions etc. of planets and stars and to determine the good and bad effects of those movements etc.

There is no doubt that the discoverers of this science of astrology were Indians. The science of yoga has been the highest achievement of the Indian Rishis Through yoga they were able to see within their own body the whole solar system which they co related to the heavenly solar system. In this manner the Rishis took a step towards the solution of a supreme secret. The science of astrology went to Greecefrom India. It then spread therefrom in the whole world. W.W.Hunter, Arun, Prof. Maxmuller, Franquis, Burnler, Kants, Armstarzon, Biriron Robertson. Prof. Colebrooke and other Western scholars, with one voice, recognizing its antiquity, declared it as a gift from India to the World.