Vedic jyotish, as the name suggests it has a connection with vedas or the vedic period, which is also called vedic jyotish, but what is the real connection of this branch of astrology with vedas? which part of this astrology system is connected with the vedas? is their any mention of some astrology principles in the vedas which we are using in this astrology system? in the vedas, they have talk about nakshatras(27 lunar mansions), specially in the atharva veda and the yajur vedas, and extensively in the taittiriya brahmana. they were used fundamentally for timing to do vedic rituals and to follow the rhythms of cosmos and time itself. other than that, there is no mention of using nakshatras for anything else in these ancient texts. so they consider moon’s cycle as it travels on these 27 nakshatras to see timing and could be used to calculate right muhurutas to do some special rituals. example: when the moon enters pushaya nakshatra, which is the 7th nakshatra, consider it a good time to do some vedic rituals. so the usage of nakshatras was very limited in vedas and later on, from various rishis, this subject gone through a lot of evolution and was also later used for predictions also. but like for every subject, there should be some essence and basic foundation from which various principles of astrology have been derived. that essence coming from sad-darshanas( six schools of vedic philosophy). these are samkhya, nyaya, vaisheshika, purva mimamsa, yoga sutras, brahm sutras. a lot of things coming from samkhya philosophy like purusha and prakriti(soul and energy), 25 tatvas(elements).building blocks of the individual human being and universe, gunas( mental tedencies) and karmas. all these factors are building blocks which have given direction to this branch of astrology.let's talk about each of these factors and see how they're connected with this subject:

Purusha and Prakriti: Purusha is our chitta, or we can say it's our super consciousness, which has lost its true nature, which is beyond any gunas.this purusha was shiva when it was in its pure form, but now it has descended due to impurities.shiva is vast ocean of consiousness, and purusha is a small droplet of this sea who forgets that ocean is his real essence. but purusha is connected with prakriti now and thinks one with this prakriti. this prakriti is consist of three gunas: satvic, rajasic, and tamasic gunas.so our atma(purusha) now acts as per gunas which are more predominant on purusha.satvic is pure which believe in doing good karmas, unconditional love and service to mankind, high moral values, followers of dharma, and always think about god and do lot of donations and service towards community.rajasic are full of desires, always have goals, ambitious, greedy, and believe in materialistic success .he worships god, but to achieve gains and wealth. this tendency of rajasic nature make us more materialstic and compell us to give more value to wealth, prosperity and relationships also. tamasic tedencies make one ignorant, in delusion, lazier and less intelligent. a person don’t believe in fulfilling their responsibilites can ignore their loved one’s sorrow and needs. and lack of compassion and love for others. purusha is bounded with these gunas act according to that. how does prakriti accumulate these gunas? by which prakriti bound our consciousness? from 25 tatvas(elements) : five grosser elements, akash(space), air(vayu), agni(fire), water(jaala), prithvi(earth). then come panch tanmatras(five subtle elements): gandha(smell), rasa(taste), rupa(form), sparsa(touch), sabda(sound). pancha karmendriyas(five organ of actions): upastha(creative), payu(excretion), pada(foot), pani(hand), vak(speech). panch gyanendriyas(five organs of cognition): ghrana(nose), rasana(tongue), caksu(eyes), tvak(skin), srotra(ear). three antahkaranas(three internal organs): manas (mind), buddhih(intellect), ahamkara(ego), and two are prakriti and purusha. prakriti is gunas and as gunas mind, intellect, and ego interact, and other elements behave and get impressions back from senses, organs of cognition, and purusha is witnessing all that and all these impressions stored in the form of tedencies in panchtanmatras(five subtle elements) which is our subconscious mind. and after our death, these subtle elements where all our mental tedencies are stored remain with our purusha and prakriti(gunas). gunas come from these tedencies. so as long as purusha remains connected with gunas, there would be rebirth. only when such purusha achieve the state of gunatita(beyond gunas), able to get moksha.


All these factors are the essence of vedic astrology. we use word graha for planets.graha means eclipse or grabbing or bounding.so something which is bounding or grahan on our prakriti, gunas and mind.what kind of gunas will be predominated, how will the mind intellect be developed for child and what his senses will perceive and bring back that knowledge through gyana indriyas(five organ of cognition) which will build up his manas and intellect and develop ego. and as per that he or she will use his karamindryas. so all is play of these 25 elements are going on, which develop and program our mind, intellect ego and we use them as per our programming.so where child will be born, who are his parents, who will raise him, what kind of samskaras(impressions), education he will get depends upon his prarabdh karmas(karmas which are going to fruitify in this life) prarabdha which is stored in tanmatras(five subtle elements) attract kala(time), desha(place), patras(our parents and people around us during our childhood) when and where we get born. as these factors define what would be a child’s resources which are needed for him to develop his intellect and mind, and ego. this is what is going to make his destiny and define his success or failures or challenges in life. so where a child get born, which time he born and what kind of parents he has, is a very big event which determines his whole life. so that time is so important. and how to evaluate that time and how to understand what prarabdha (karmas) are coming in this life. and who defines time? position of sun and moon? when the sun rises it’s the beginning of the day and when the sun sets, it's evening and the end of the day. so the position of the sun is very important and also the waxing and waning phase of the moon defines tithis(vedic days), which is also calculated with respect to the moon’s distance from the sun. so the sun and moon are ruling time, and other planets are revolving around the sun. so all these celestial phenomena have to do a lot with time, which was studied and understood by ancient rishis, and with the position of all these planets with respect to the sun and the moon, they find the way to study and evaluate that time to study the prarabdha of a child who is born on that particular time. but how? first study which gunas will be predominated due to his prarabdha or tanmatras elements, position of jupiter, moon, sun will show satva guna, mercury and venus will show rajas gunas, and saturn, mars, rahu will show tamasic. ketu is neutral. there is a system developed by our ancient rishis to consider the strength of these planets or grahas, which suggests us predominant gunas for that native. now what experiences that native will accumulate from his gyan indriya which will develop his mind, intellect and ego? that we studied from gyanindriyas. and each gyan indriya is connected with five planets. ghrana(organ of smelling) with mercury, rasana(organ of tasting) with venus. caksu(organ of seeing) with mars, tvak(organ of touching) with saturn, srotra (organ of hearing) with jupiter. moon is connected with mind(manas), sun with ego(ahamkara), and ascendant with intellect(viveka). these gyan indriyas and antahkaranas(three internal organs) are a subtler form of the five grosser elements: earth, fire, air, water, space. there is need of deep study to understand how these elements behave and effect our behaviour. but this is how our karmas, which we do from the five karmendryas and those pancha tanmatras, influence us to do our karmas. and when karmas are done they get perceived by organs of cognition in the form of knowledge and on this knowledge our mind, intellect, and ego get developed and with these three internal organs we choose our karmas. so it is a way process and this cycle keep on going in our life. and astrology gives us a way to understand this process of karmas and any boundation related to one of these twenty-five elements can be understood with the help of astrology. that is a real gem which is given by our ancient rishi, and that’s why they call this ancient science as jyotish. mean subject which gives light to understanding how to remove darkness.