Vedic New Year, 16th March 2010
Yugādi – Chaitra Shukla Pratipāda

Blessed Soul and Adorable Self,

Tuesday, 16th March is the auspicious beginning of the New Year (Yugādi) as per the ancient Vedic soli-lunar calendar. You might know that the soli-lunar calendar is actually a continuous mapping of the relative positions of heavenly bodies within our solar system and with reference to the lunar mansions farther into space from earth.

This Vedic New Year calculation and ethos is based on a cycle of 60 as per the sexagesimal system. Our resting heartbeat of one beat per second is considered to be the rhythm at the root of this system. Even though the soli-lunar years are meant to be a continuous series of adjustable time partitions based on the shifts of the heavenly bodies with respect to earth, their Sanskrit names are repeated every 60 years.

The number 60 has 12 factors (number of zodiacs the Sun traverses in a year!) and is the smallest number divisible by every number from 1 to 6. Whereas an average of 6 breaths span 24 seconds, 360 breaths usually take 24 minutes or 1/60th of a day; and 21,600 human breaths take 24 hours or a full day. 360° of sky-arc pass over the horizon in one day. 1/60 of 360° = 6° = 360 minutes of arc. Thus 360 breaths cover 360 minutes of arc in space. Therefore, during one breath, the heavenly bodies move in space by one minute of arc. Thus our breathing rhythms and heart beat are mapped through the process of evolution with macrocosmic manifestations.

The ancient tradition of Jyotisha (the Vedic science of light and heavenly bodies) uses exhaustive mathematical calculations utilizing both the Sun and Moon as reference points. Therefore, solar zodiacs mapping the movement of the Sun are used alongside the 27+1 lunar asterisms (also called mansions) that the Moon traverses.

Sanskrit literature calls the heavenly bodies as graha or that which seizes us (loosely translated as a planet). And Jyotisha also uses the effects of moons of Saturn and Jupiter. Herein the masses of Saturn and Jupiter, along with their moons, are considered important because of how they balance the rest of the solar system.

The Moon covers the same 360° of the sky in one synodic lunar month (the time it takes the moon to go from one new moon to the next) that the Sun covers during one sidereal year (the time it takes the sun to pass through all 12 constellations of the zodiac). The Sun’s 360° cycle is divided into 12 months of 30° each whereas the Moon’s cycle is divided into 30 days of 12° each. A lunar month is thus a mirror image of the solar year. And hence lunar energy (soma or negative ions) affects us more on a monthly basis while solar energy (agni or positive ions) impacts more on an annual time-scale. Note that an average soli-lunar year (based on a mean of 365.26 days of the sidereal solar year and 354.37 days of the synodic lunar year) is also about 360 days consisting of 40 nine-day/night periods, wherein one mandala is 40 days.

The current period until the end of April 2010 is hailed in the Sanskrit literature as an auspicious time to harness spiritual progress and depth, because Jupiter (Guru) is transiting the zodiac Aquarius (Kumbha-rāshi) and thus is strongly posited for bestowing mystical insight during contemplative inquiries.

The soli-lunar New Year is a momentous transition for making spiritually meaningful resolutions and for putting into practice affirmations for wellness, wellbeing, and ultimately a meditative routine towards fulfillment through light and love.

I wish you the best of abhyāsa or consistent practice of your affirmations right from the beginning of the soli-lunar New Year.

With my abounding holy blessings,

Swami Vidyadhishananda