स्वागतम्

तत्त्द् गतिवशन्नित्यं यथा दृक्-तुल्यतां ग्रहाः।
प्रयान्ति तत्प्रवक्ष्यामि स्फ़ुटिकरणमादरात्॥
सुर्य सिद्धान्त ॥

यस्मिन् पक्षे यत्र काले येन दृग्गणितैक्यम्।
दृश्यते तेन पक्षेण कुर्यात्तिथ्यादिनिर्णयम्॥
वशिष्ठ॥

यात्राविवाहोत्सवजातकादौ खेटैः स्फुटैरेवफलस्फुटत्वम्।
स्यात्प्रोच्यते तेन नभश्चराणां स्फुटक्रिया दृग्गणितैक्यकृद्या॥
भास्कराचार्य॥

तिथिर्विष्णुस्तथा वारो नक्षत्रं विष्णुरेव च।
योगश्च करणं चैव सर्वं विष्णु मयं जगत्॥


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Monday, December 15, 2008

When is Lohri?

Reference and the main website: http://www.mypanchang.com/

Origin of Lohri

The origin of the Lohri can be traced back to the tale of Dulla Bhatti. By the end of the first week of January, small groups of boys ring the doorbell of houses and start chanting the Lohri songs related to Dulla Bhatti. In turn, the people give them popcorn, peanuts, crystal sugar, sesame seeds (til) or gur as well as money. Turning them back empty-handed is regarded inauspicious.

Lohri marks the end of winter on the last day of Paush, and beginning of Magha (around January 12 and 13), when the sun changes its course. It is associated with the worship of the sun and fire and is observed by all communities with different names, as Lohri is an exclusively Punjabi festival. The questions like when it began and why is lost in the midst of antiquity.

The origin of Lohri is related to Dulla Bhatti, the central character of most Lohri songs, A Muslim highway robber who lived in Punjab during the reign of Emperor Akbar. Besides robbing the rich, he rescued Hindu girls being forcibly taken to be sold to the slave markets in the Middle East. He arranged their marriages to Hindu boys with Hindu rituals and provided them with dowries. Understandably, though a bandit, he became a hero of all Punjabis. So every other Lohri song has words to express gratitude to Dulla Bhatti.

Some believe that Lohri has derived its name from Loi, the wife of Sant Kabir, for in rural Punjab Lohri is pronounced as Lohi. Others believe that Lohri comes from the word 'loh', a thick iron sheet tawa used for baking chapattis for community feasts. Another legend says that Holika and Lohri were sisters. While the former perished in the Holi fire, the latter survived. Eating of til (sesame seeds) and rorhi (jaggery) is considered to be essential on this day. Perhaps the words til and rorhi merged to become tilorhi, which eventually got shortened to Lohri.

Ceremonies that go with the festival of Lohri usually comprises of making a small image of the Lohri goddess with gobar (cattle dung), decorating it, kindling a fire beneath it and chanting its praises. The final ceremony is to light a large bonfire at sunset, toss sesame seeds, gur, sugar-candy and rewaries in it, sit round it, sing, dance till the fire dies out. People take dying embers of the fire to their homes. In Punjabi village homes, fire is kept going round the clock by use of cow-dung cakes.

Myth of Fix date January 13th as the date of Lohri
The Gregorian Calendar (The current english calendar) wasn't in use during Akbar's regime, and hence the question of using Jan 13th fix date wasn't practice then. Hence, it's clear that English date is used just for mere convenience as samkranti happens on January 14th nearly 99% times. This makes Lohri to come on January 13th in India. This gives a rise to the misbelief that Lohri always come on January 13th.

If we believe that we always celebrate Lohri on a fix date of January 13th and Baisakhi on April 13th then how did we celebrate those festival before britishers came to India? India uses english dates from only 200 years, before that how did we celebrate Lohri and Baishakhi? Or we didn't celebrate at all because we weren't aware of the english date? We did. How did they determined Lohri date in olden and golden times? Please remember none of the Indian festivals are observed on a fix english date -- Not even Lohri or Baisakhi. Indian festival's date is calculated in the most scientific way. Do you want to know how our sages calculated Lohri date when the english calendar wasn't available to them? Read further.

How to determine Lohri Date?
Let's answer how did they find out the correct day for Lohri. They knew how to calculate the position of the earth and the sun and sun's entering into zodiacs. They first calculate the time for the sun's entry into makara rashi. Lohri is celebrated the day before makara samkranti -- previous night of makara samkranti. The earth, farthest from the sun at this point of time, starts its journey towards the sun, thus ending the coldest month of the year and announcing the start of the summer season. Sun is ready to move to uttarayana, and marking end of winter season. Usually sun enters into nirayana makara (capricorn) rashi usually on January 14th (99%). However, There are times when sun could enter makara rashi on a day before January 14th or a day after January 14th and the date for Lohri could be either 12th, 13th or 14th January depending on the time of sun's entry into makara rashi. This is also because next day of lohri is solar magha masa in punjab. Makara samkranti marks begining of the solar magha masa, and hence lohri has to be celebrated on the last day of the solar month Poh (Which maps to dhanur rashi of sun). For example if sun enters makara rashi on Jan 13th around 4 PM then makara samkranti is on January 13th and Lohri will be on Janary 12th but if sun enters into makara rashi on Jan 15th then lohri will be on Jan 14th. To celebrate lohri on a correct day please find the sun's entry into makara rashi in your area and the day before that transit is Lohri.

The thing is 99.95% samkranti will come on Jan 14th in India. Sometime it will come before or after January 14th. If you live outside India one must apply timezone to sun's entry into Makara rashi. This will give you the date of makara samkranti in your country / area.

Indians use sidereal zodiac than tropic zodiac. In the sidereal or nirayana zodiac sun's entry into every rashi related to relatively fixed position of the star Spica (Chitra nakshatra). Due to various factors like earth's orbit, earth's movement around sun the phenomena of sun entering into zodiac is never fixed on a given date or time but most of times it will be fixed but not always.
Please read following article http://www.mypanchang.com/Why-there-is-a-one-day-difference-in-hindu-festival-dates-in-India-and-America.php to understand why there is a difference between dates between India and other places.

Based on these calculations in the year 2008 Lohri in India was on 13th January, In seattle it was on 13th January and in Australia, Newzealand and Fiji it was on Janary 14th as makara samkranti was on Jan 15th in these countries.

How Punjab decides the beginning day of their Solar months?
The punjab school for determining the first day of the month: When the samkranti occurs on the same day of the samkranti. The same day means from one midnight to another midnight. For example if sunrise is at 7:00 AM and sunset is at 6:30 PM but the day will be considered 00:00 AM midnight to 23:59 PM and the sun enters the new rashi during that time that will be considered as the first day of the month.

Lohri in 2009 Calculation example (for Seattle, WA and Pacific time zone).

A) Now let's open Indian panchang: Samkranti occurs at 6:22 AM on January 14th.
B) The standard time difference between India and USA(PST) is 13 hours 30 minutes.
C) Let's subtract B from A means 13 hours 30 minutes from January 14th's 6:22 AM. The result of the subtraction is January 13th 16:52.
D) This means in the Seattle Samkranti occurs at 4:52 PM (16:52) on January 13th 2009, and in India Lohri in India on January 13th as samkranti occurs there on January 14th 6:22 AM. Hence Lohri in seattle or rather entire Unites States is on January 12th and the Maghi is on January 13th. If you celebrate Lohri in the United States on January 13th then you'll be celebrating on a wrong day as it's a Maghi day -- day of new solar Magh month. Lohari is the last day of solar Poh (paush).

Our dharmashastra clearly mandates that we should take the date of the festival based on celestial events respect to the place we live. This clearly means where we are living and we have to calculate timings as per that location. We can't follow Indian timings outside India. Let me give you a real life example:

When you have a child born in your family in India on a given date say January 14th at 6:22 AM and time and you get a call right away it will be January 13th and 16:52 PM in Seattle. You don't wait till January 14th 6:22 AM in Seattle to congratulate your family members. You congratulate them right away. Likewise all celestial event occur at the same time and same instance all over the world.

The celebration of a festival on a right day creates right positive environment and positive energy is generated to help reach our prayers to god fast, and quickly. It's like gate to god is open for that window and after that it's closed. I'll plead everyone to use that open window and celebrate on the right date.

Lohri dates for 2009
USA / Canada / West Indies: January 12th 2009
Europe: January 13th 2009
Arabian Gulf Countries: January 13th 2009
Africa: January 13th 2009
India / Pakistan: January 13th 2009
China: January 13th 2009
Singapore / Malaysia: January 13th 2009
Japan: January 13th 2009
Australia, New Zeland, Fiji: January 13th 2009

Makara Samkranti dates for 2009
USA / Canada / West Indies: January 13th 2009
Europe: January 14th 2009
Arabian Gulf Countries: January 14th 2009
Africa: January 14th 2009
India / Pakistan: January 14th 2009
China: January 14th 2009
Singapore / Malaysia: January 14th 2009
Japan: January 14th 2009
Australia, New Zeland, Fiji: January 14th 2009

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Dates for Devauthi Ekadashi / Uthana Ekadashi / Tulasi vivaha / Tulasi Kalyanam / Kartiki Poornima 2008

AreaEkadashiTulasi VivahaKarthiki Poornima

Hawai, Alaska

Nov 8th 2008

Nov 9th 2008

Nov 12th 2008

PST

Nov 9th 200

Nov 9th 2008

Nov 12th 2008

MST

Nov 9th 2008

Nov 10th 2008Nov 12th 2008
CSTNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 12th 2008
ESTNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 12th 2008
West IndiesNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 12th 2008
EuropeNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 12th 2008
AfricaNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
Gulf CountriesNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
IndiaNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
PakistanNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
SrilankaNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
Shangai/ChinaNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
Tokyo/JapanNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
AustraliaNov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
NewZeland(Smarta)Nov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
NewZeland(Vaishnava)Nov 10th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
Fiji(Smarta)Nov 9th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008
Fiji(Vaishnava)Nov 10th 2008Nov 10th 2008Nov 13th 2008

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Ahoi Asthami 2008

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com/
Also read: http://www.mypanchang.com/karwachauth.php
Also read:http://www.mypanchang.com/Why-there-is-a-one-day-difference-in-hindu-festival-dates-in-India-and-America.php
Also read:http://www.mypanchang.com/when-to-break-fast-on-sankashta-chaturthi.php

When is Ahoi Asthami in 2008?

USA/Canada/Carrebian: October 20th 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka: October 21th 2008
Thailand, Singapore, Malayasia, Vietnam, Indonesia: October 21th 2008
Shangai (China), Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji: October 21 2008

Friday, October 17, 2008

Diwali Muhurtha / Lakshami Puja muhurta released (for 2008)

Diwali puja muhurtha for year 2008 is released. They can be found here. http://www.mypanchang.com/diwali2008.php

They are available for Africa, America, Canada, Asia, Middle East, India, Pakistan, Srilanka, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and other places in South East Asia, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Fiji.

Please visit above site for your diwali lakshmi puja muhurta along with the simple lakshmi puja vidhi.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

When is Labh Pancham, Labh Panchami in 2008?

Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com daily for your hindu panchangam / hindu calendar and other festival updates.

USA/Canada/Carrebian: November 2nd 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries: November 3rd 2008
Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka: November 3rd 2008
Bangladesh, Thailand, Singapore, Malayasia, Vietnam, Indonesia: November 3rd 2008
Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji: November 3rd 2008

When is Yama Dwitiya, Bhai Bij, Bhau Bij in 2008?

Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com daily for your hindu panchangam / hindu calendar and other festival updates.

USA/Canada/Carrebian: October 30 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries: October 30 2008
Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka: October 31 2008
Bangladesh, Thailand, Singapore, Malayasia, Vietnam, Indonesia: October 31 2008
Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji: October 31 2008

When is Bali Pratipada / Gujarati Besatu Varas?

Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com daily for your hindu panchangam / hindu calendar and other festival updates.

USA/Canada/Carrebian: October 29th 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries, India: October 29th 2008
Bangladesh, Thailand, Singapore, Malayasia, Vietnam, Indonesia: October 30th 2008
Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji: October 30th 2008

When is Diwali in 2008? Dipawali / Deepawali

Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com daily for your hindu panchangam / hindu calendar and other festival updates.

USA/Canada/Carrebian: October 28th 2008 (Diwali & lakshmi puja)
Europe, Gulf Countries, India: October 28th 2008 (Diwali & lakshmi puja)
Thailand, Singapore, Malayasia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Shangai (China): October 28th 2008 (Diwali & lakshmi puja)
Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji: Lakshmi Puja-- October 28th, Diwali- October 29th 2008

When is Narak Chaturdashi in 2008?

Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com daily for your hindu panchangam / hindu calendar and other festival updates.

USA/Canada/Carrebian: October 27th 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries, India: October 27th 2008
Thailand, Malayasia, Vietnam:October 27th 2008
Singapore, Hongkong, Indonesia, Shangai (China): October 28th 2008
Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji: October 28 2008

When is Kaali Chaudash in 2008?

Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com daily for your hindu panchangam / hindu calendar and other festival updates.

USA/Canada/Carrebian: October 26th 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries, India: October 27th 2008
Thailand, Singapore, Malayasia, Vietnam, Indonesia: October 27th 2008
Shangai (China), Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji: October 27 2008

When is Dhan Teras in 2008?

Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com daily for your hindu panchangam / hindu calendar and other festival updates.

USA/Canada/Carrebian: October 25th 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries, India: October 26th 2008
Thailand, Singapore, Malayasia, Vietnam, Indonesia: October 26th 2008
Shangai (China), Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji: October 26 2008

Thursday, October 2, 2008

When to break sankashti sankathara chaturthi fast?

नारायणं पद्मभुवं वसिष्ठं शक्तिं च तत्पुत्र पराशरं च
व्यासं शुकं गौडपादं महान्तं गोविन्द योगिन्द्रमथास्य शिष्यं
श्री शङ्कराचार्यमथास्य पद्मपादं च हस्तामलकं च शिष्यं
तं तोटकं वार्त्तिककारमन्यानस्मद्गुरुन् सन्ततमानतोस्मि
सदाशिव समारम्भां शङ्कराचार्य मध्यमां।
अस्मदाचार्य पर्यन्तां वन्दे गुरुपरम्पराम्॥

I first bow down to my guru and take their aajna (permission).

1. Sankathara chaturthi vrata

According to smriti kaustubha, the sankanthara vrata has to be done without eating food. The common vrata paribhasha says, "Drinking too much fluid (often, even water), eating tobacco, or betel nuts, or betel leaves, or any other activity prohibited by vrata" will break the fast. Now smriti kaustubha grantha says that the vratha has to be broken at the moonrise time after doing puja to ganesha and argya to ganesha. One needs to celibate during vrata period. One can drink water but not too often. One cannot smoke or consume alchohol or eat meat of anykind during vrata or after breaking the fast, and the fast cannot be broken with meat products.

2. Now question comes what happens when you are in your monthly menstrual period?
The Nirnaysindhukar clearly addresses this issue by saying, whenever sutaka (ashoucha) appears one can continue doing vrata by following sharirika dharma. It means you can keep fast. Do manasika (in your mind) puja but actual puja can be performed on your behalf by a brahmin or your family member. They can take sankalpa on your behalf. If your vrata involves giving alms or other thing that can be done after the ashucha period is over.

3. When to break fast?

At the time of moonrise, one can perform ganesha puja and give arghya water to moon. Now comes the trick what if moon is not visible due to clouds? Similar situation arises during surya/chandra grahana. Tithinirnay and other grantha says, "Grahana Punyahkala exists if grahana is visible". This has to be understood properly. It means if it's visible in your area then do all punyakala. It adds further.... "if grahana is not visible due to megha (rain), clouds or other things, refer to the shatrokta ganita and find out sparsha and moksha timings and then do punyahkala things needs to be done". This clearly mentions that we are unable to see the eclipse due to clouds, but one can verify and one has to verify that eclipse or that celestial body has risen by making sure it's a grahana or celestial body's rising time. This is because any other celstial body may appear and look like moon. The similar story is said in karwa chauth vrata katha where "brothers light artificial fire and tells their sister that moon has risen and she breaks fast without verifing with shastra thus incurring wrath". It's very difficult for a normal person to calculate moon rise times and sparsha, moksha time for eclipse. The daily newspaper will give sunrise, sunset, moonrise and eclipse timings (if it's happening). One can note down and then wait for moon to appear. If it doesn't appear within an hour one can do ganesh puja and then make a picture of moon or with the help of rice make moon and give arghya. This is completely shastroka as per sankathara chaturthi vrata katha. Sometimes one can call friends in neighbouring city to check if they have seen moon but after verifying shastroka moonrise time from the ephemeries. Now many online ephemeries are available to find out actual moonrise time. It will take roughly half an hour for moon to appear as the moonrise timing mentioned in the ephemeries are usually the upper limb visible on the horizon. Now you cannot take moonrise time of India and break your fast. This is completely illegal. That's because i've already explained that the moonrise time mentioned is the upper limb visiblity on the horizon. This horizon differs from place to place, city to city. The best way is to visit http://www.mypanchang.com/ and click on "panchangam/calendar" then scroll down to your city and click on either amavasyant or poornimant calendar. Then click on the month on top and go down to the date. You will see moonrise: and the time.
Following mantra is from Pandit Kashinath Upadhyay's Dharmasindhu and similar verses is found in Nirnay sindhu, smriti kaustubha, and Tithi Nirnay about what to do when the eclipse is not visible due to clouds. So we can take same for other celestial bodies as visibility is the principle behind both this situations.






Here it's clearly mentioned that when the grahana is not visible due to clouds one can get "sparsha" / "moksha" kala from ephemeries and observe grahana and do punya. Likewise The same rule can be applied to all vratas which requires 'observance' or seeing the particular celestial body.

4. When to start this vratam.
Sharvan krishna paksha chaturthi or angaraki (when sankathara chaturthi appears on tuesday). This vrat can be observed for 21 sankathara chaturthi or life time.

5. Sankathara chaturthi vrata katha?
Marathi: http://www.indif.com/nri/marathi_prayers/kathas/Angaraki_chaturthi/angaraki_chaturthi_viddhi.asp

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Why there is a one day difference in hindu festival dates in India and America?

Also found at: http://www.mypanchang.com/Why-there-is-a-one-day-difference-in-hindu-festival-dates-in-India-and-America.php

The above statement is usually made by many devotees of the Hindu temple of Seattle (http://www.htccwa.org). I am sure this question must have arisen in everyone's mind. The above statement is not entirely accurate. We buy indian calendar and because we use english date for our day to day work we try to align the festivals with the English date. There is a basic difference between these two dates. The English date and the day (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc..) changes at the midnight where as the hindu date or tithi (the festival falls in to) doesn't change at the midnight, and hindu day also doesn't change at the midnight. Hindu day changes at the sunrise. So we have a day from one sunrise to another sunrise. That's called the hindu day (Sunday, Monday etc...). The hindu date (tithi -- depends on the positions of sun and the moon at any given time) changes at anytime as celestial bodies keep moving. They can change anytime between one sunrise to another sunrise, between one midnight to another midnight. This means if prathama tithi ends today at 23:02 it doesn't mean that dwitiya tithi will end tomorrow at the same time. It can end at 18:00, 18:09 or 28:27 (anytime after 24 means time after midnight but before next day sunrise), or whatever.


Now what's the hindu date?
It's simple tithi is a lunar day, or the time it takes for the longitudinal angle between the moon and the sun to increase by 12°. Tithis begin at varying times of day and vary in duration from approximately 19 to approximately 26 hours. So maximum distance between the sun and moon can be 360 degrees. If you divide them by 12 that gives you 30. Means we have 30 dates in hindu calendar. Now there is a bright half (Shukla Paksha, Waxing moon) and the darker half (Krishna Paksha, and the waning moon). Now because this is based on the actual movement of the sun (earth + 180 degrees) and the moon they don't necessarily change at the midnight or the sunrise. The planets don't wait for sunrise or sunset at the particular place. They just keep moving, like earth is moving around the Sun. Hence the distance we call it tithi (quotient or the result of the division = (sun - moon)/12.0) can change at any given time. The reminder is called the remaining time it will take to enter new thithi. So new thithi can change at 6:00 AM, 6:32 AM, or 11:57 PM or any time during the day. There is no fix time like english date. Now these planetary position of the sun and the moon is computed based on the local time (longitude, latitude) and then converted to GMT time and then Universal Time. The tithi end time is also calculated in the Universal time which is then converted to the local time of the place. That's because planets are calculated from the center of the earth -- Geocentric. Hence, their position at the given time will be same all over the world (After subtracting the time difference). The same way to observe any celestial event occurs we need to convert it to our local time, and also the same way this thithi, nakshatra, yoga and karna positions are same at any given time in the world. So panchang makers convert this to Indian time. The very same say we need to covert it to our time zone for America (PST/PDT, CST/CDT, MST/MDT, EST/EDT). After adding the time difference they'll assign to the resulting english date.Hence, when the calendar is made of india the date they mention is when that tithi will end as per the english date in india. If you take the same date and time use it anywhere in the world as it is then we have a wrong result because of the time difference. The time difference between the india and the London is 5 hours 30 minutes, Time difference between Seattle, WA and India is 13 hours 30 minutes. The planets don't remain static during that time. They keep on moving and hence at the same time and date in different parts of the world we will have a new tithi. But if you add and subtract the time difference from the indian calendar you'll arrive at the time when that tithi will change in your locality too. Too complex? Let me give you one example.

For example:
October 17th 2008 the Ashwayuja (Ashwin) krishna Paksha / Poornimant Kartik Krishna paksha tithi Tritiya ends at 16:39:21 Indian Standard Time, and chturthi starts. That means at 16:00 hours there is tritiya still prevailing in India. Now on October 17th 2008 in Seattle, WA at the 16:00 hours we won't have tritiya at that time. We already have chaturthi started why? a) Planets keep on moving.... 13 hours have passed and the position of sun and moon have changed. So what time Tritiya will end in seattle? The time difference is 13 hours 30 minutes (with one our day light saving time it gives the difference of 12 hours 30 minutes from IST). So, let's subtract 12 hours 30 minutes from the 16:39:21. That gives us 04:09:21 AM on October 17th. So on October 17th after that time we'll have chaturthi tithi and before we have tritiya. The same way if tithi ends at 8:39 AM on Sept 12 in India it will end at 20:09 PM on Sept 11th in Seattle.

How festivals are determined?
The usual rule to observe festival is whenever that tithi prevails at the sunrise time. But for certain festivals rules change, for example: Ganesh Chaturthi. Sankathara (Sankshathi chauth) chaturthi, Janmashtami, Mahashivaratri, Karwa Chauth, etc... For example Ganesha chaturthi has to be oserved when the chaturthi tithi is observed during the 8th/15 part of the dinmana or the 3/5th part of the dinmana. The dinmana is the difference of local sunset and the sunrise on the same day. If chaturthi is not prevailing during that period then take the second day. Likewise for the karwa chauth and the sankathara chaturthi the chaturthi tithi must be prevailing during the moonrise time, if it doesn't prevail then take the day where it prevails during the sunrise. So for example if one thithi is observed at the moonrise time in india it may or may not be observed during the moonrise time on the same day in the different part of the world. It may be very well observed on the previous day if you are in America or the next day if you are in Japan, Fiji, Australia and other countries, depending on the local events like sunrise, moonrise, and time difference. So sometime it may very well could be observed on the same day as the date mentioned in india.

Now if panchang makers in india tries to keep each and every place in mind then they will be creating panchanga for every city, town in the world. Who'll buy it? Printing costs etc... So they just make panchang for the one of their city in india. Now given that example even the IST remains same for kashmir to kanyakumari and from kutch to west bengal the festival dates could be very well different in certain city. For example for sankathara chaturthi moon rise time is important, same thing for karwa chauth. Now let's take an example: Moonrise in new delhi on a given date is at 19:36 and in west bengal, Kolkatta is at 19:25 PM. Now tritiya ends at 19:32 PM IST. So Kolkatta will celebrate karwa chauth/sankathara chaturthi on the next day where as people in New Delhi will celebrate on the same day.

Pandit Mahesh Shastri & Dr. Ramachandra Joisa
Drik Panchang Karta and Panchang Siddhanti
http://www.mypanchang.com/

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Karwa Chauth / Karawa Chauth Oct 17th 2008 or Oct 18 2008?

Also read: http://www.mypanchang.com/karwachauth.php

Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com/ daily for your hindu panchangam / hindu calendar and other festival updates.

Observing festivals is an old tradition. We have to observe that on correct day and follow traditions correctly. Hindu dharmashastras clearly mendates when to observe which festival. Each festival has a specific month, tithi, nakshatra or combination of tithi and nakshatra or sometimes day. Along with it that combination needs to be observed at the specific time on that day. General rule is when that specific time is not specified the tithi prevailing at the sunrise time should be taken, otherwise the day when that month/tithi/nakshatra combination appearing at the specified time / kala should be taken.

Karawa Chauth Rule as per dharmashastra.






Explantion:

"Karwa Chauth to be observed at moonrise (chandrodaya vyapini) and poorvaviddha, best if its tritiya viddha. If visible during both days take the first one, if not visible on both days then take the second one". The specific time for karwa chauth is moonrise time. This means the chaturthi tithi needs to be visible at the moonrise time. Chaturthi tithi appearing at the sunrise time cannot be taken if it appears on moonrise time on either days.




Wrong belief on calculation of Karwa Chauth:
Some websites mentions Karwa Chauth is on October 18th. Well this can't be on 18th. This is because without proper knowledge of dharmashastras they take general rule for observing festival that is tithi visible at the sunrise. This is completely wrong. The tithi needs to be "visibile" at appropriate times to observe any festival. For karwa chauth this time happens to be moonrise time as explained in above dharmashastra vakya.


Details and Contention as per Drika Siddhanta:
We'll try to explain this with detailed examples based on India and America.
Panchang for New Delhi India: October 17, 18th.

October 17, 2008
Sunrise:06:26
Sunset:17:47
Moonrise:19:32
Aashvayuja (Amavasyant Ashwin / Poornimant Kartika)
Krishna Paksha
T:Tritiiya 16:39:21
N:Krittika 22:24:02
Y:Siddhi 11:09:30
K:Vishti 16:39:21
K:Bava 27:08:00+
SN: Tula 5:17
MN: Vrishabha 6:09
RK:10:41-12:07
YM:14:56-16:22
GK:07:51-09:17
AJ:11:43-12:30
DM:08:42-09:28,12:29-13:15
V: 11:34- 13:01
AK: 20:14- 21:41

October 18 2008
Sunrise:06:27
Sunset:17:46
Moonrise:20:30
Aashvayuja (Amavasyant Ashwin / Poornimant Kartika)
Krishna Paksha
T:Chaturthi 13:38:55
N:Rohini 20:12:00
Y:Vyatipata 07:30:16
Y:Variyan27:59:39+
K:Balava 13:38:55
K:Kaulava 24:13:02+
SN: Tula
MN: Vrishabha
RK:09:16-10:42
YM:13:31-14:56
GK:06:27-07:52
AJ:11:43-12:29
DM:06:27-07:13,07:12-07:58
V: 12:57- 14:24
V:25:21-26:49
AK: 17:18- 18:45

Please notice that in India Tritiya finishes at 16:39:21 PM on October 17th and Chaturthi tithi starts. The Moonrise is at 19:32 PM on october 17th. and Chaturthi tithi exists / already started at that time. Now on October 18th in india Moonrise is at 20:30 PM and chaturthi tithi finishes at 13:38:55 PM. Chaturhi tithi visible at the sunrise on October 18th but not visible at the time of moonrise on October 18th. At the time of moonrise in india on October 18th the Panchami tithi is visible, and hence karwa chauth cannot be celebrated on October 18th in India. Based on above facts karwa chauth is on October 17th in India. I am not sure where people are getting karawa chauth on October 18th even in india.

Now let me explain Seattle, USA's Case.
October 17, 2008
Sunrise:07:34
Sunset:18:13
Moonrise:19:39
Aashvayuja (Amavasyant Ashwin / Poornimant Kartika)
Krishna Paksha
T:Chaturthi 25:08:55+
N:Krittika 09:54:02
Y:Vyatipata 19:00:16
K:Bava 14:38:00
K:Balava 25:08:55+
SN: Tula
MN: Vrishabha
RK:11:33-12:54
YM:15:32-16:53
GK:08:54-10:15
AJ:12:32-13:15
DM:09:42-10:25,13:14-13:58
V:24:27-25:54
AK: 7:44- 9:11
AK:28:48-30:15

October 18th 2008

Sunrise:07:36
Sunset:18:11
Moonrise:20:38
Aashvayuja (Amavasyant Ashwin / Poornimant Kartika)
Krishna Paksha
T:Panchami 22:21:12
N:Rohini 07:42:00
N:Mrigashirsha 29:44:47+
Y:Variyan 15:29:39
K:Kaulava 11:43:02
K:Taitila 22:21:12
SN: Tula
MN: Mithuna 18:42
RK:10:14-11:35
YM:14:12-15:32
GK:07:36-08:56
AJ:12:32-13:15
DM:07:36-08:19,08:18-09:01
V: 12:51- 14:19
AK: 21:40- 23:08

Chaturthi tithi ends at 25:08:55 PM means it finishes at 1:08:55 AM after midnight of october 18th and Moonrise in seattle is at 19:39 PM and hence chaturthi tithi is visible from sunrise to moonrise and visible at moonrise and hence "CLEAR KARAWA CHAUTH" on october 17th in seattle. Where at the sunrise time in seattle Panchami tithi is visible on October 18th. October 18th CANNOT BE KARAWA CHAUTH even in seattle and in india. The same rule applies everywhere and based on that we have calculated dates for karwa chauth as follows:

Conclusion:
Karawa Chauth is on October 17th not on October 18th in both India and USA.
Shastras Refered: Tithi Nirnay, Nirnay Sindhu.
USA/Canada, UK, Gulf countries, Srilanka, Pakistan, India: October 17th 2008
Hongkong, singapore, Australia except Brisbane: October 17th 2008
Jaakarta, Mayalsia: October 17th 2008
Bali, Brisbane, Shangai, Fiji, New Zealand: October 18th 2008
Japan, Bangkok, Hanoi, Vietnam: October 18th 2008

Pandit Mahesh Shastri & Dr. Ramachandra Joisa
Drik Panchang Karta and Panchang Siddhanti
http://www.mypanchang.com/

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

When is Anantha Chaturdashi (Anant Chaturdashi) in 2008

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com/

USA/Canada/Carrebian: September 13th 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries, India: September 14th 2008
Bangladesh, Singapore, Malayasia,Australia: September 14th 2008

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

When is Karava Chauth in 2008

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com/

Also read: http://www.mypanchang.com/karwachauth.php
Also read:http://www.mypanchang.com/Why-there-is-a-one-day-difference-in-hindu-festival-dates-in-India-and-America.php
Also read:http://www.mypanchang.com/when-to-break-fast-on-sankashta-chaturthi.php

USA/Canada, UK, Gulf countries, Srilanka, Pakistan, India:October 17th 2008
Hongkong, singapore, Australia except Brisbane:October 17th 2008
Jaakarta, Mayalsia: October 17th 2008
Bali, Brisbane, Shangai, Fiji, New Zealand:October 18th 2008
Japan, Bangkok, Hanoi, Vietnam:October 18th 2008

When is Sharad poornima / Purnima in 2008?

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com/

Entire World: October 14th 2008

When is Dussera (Dashera) in 2008?

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com

Note: This is good day for any auspicious occasion.
Entire World: October 9th 2008

When does Sharad Navaratri starts in 2008?

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com

USA/Canada/Carrebian: September 29th 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries, India: September 30th 2008
Bangladesh, Singapore, Malayasia,Australia: September 30th 2008

When is Mahalaya Maha-Amavasya in 2008?

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com/

USA/Canada/Carrebian: September 28th 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries, India: September 29th 2008
Bangladesh, Singapore, Malayasia,Australia: September 29th 2008

When does Mahalayaparva / Shraddha Paksha(parapaksha) Starts in 2008

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com

USA/Canada/Carrebian: September 15th 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries, India: September 15th 2008
Eastern India, Bangladesh, Singapore, Malayasia,Australia: September 16th 2008

When is Parivartini Ekadasi in 2008?

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com

USA/Canada/Carrebian: September 10th 2008
Europe, Gulf Countries, India, Australia: September 11th 2008

Thursday, August 14, 2008

When is Raksha Bandhan in 2008?

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com/

USA/Canada/Europe: August 16th 2008
Gulf Countries/India/China/SingaPore: August 16th 2008
Mayalasia/Indonasia: August 16th 2008
Adelaide, Perth: August 16th 2008
Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne, Sydney: August 17th 2008
Japan, Fiji, Newzeland: August 17th 2008
(Note: Eclipse or Samkranti DOES NOT contaminate Raksha Bandhan. It contaminates upakarma only)
How to find auspicious time to tie Rakhi:
Please visit panchang and Looks for your city and click on it. Select Amavasyant or poornimant panchang. Look for Auspicious AJ: Abhijit muhurtha time to tie rakhi. Now remove inauspicious RK:, DM:, YM: timings from AJ: time's overlap. Also If you are in india tie rakhi after K:Vishti time. After 2:35PM in india. For other countries one can look into our panchangam for your city and tie after Visthi karana (K:Visthi). This is not required. One can tie raksha anytime. This method is given for those who wants to tie rakhi in auspicious time.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

When is Shri Krishna Janmasthami in 2008?

Entire World except New Zealand, Fiji: August 23rd 2008
New Zealand, Fiji: August 24th 2008

When is Naag Panchami in 2008?

USA / Canada: August 5th 2008
West Indies: August 5th 2008
Europe: August 6th 2008
Gulf Countries: August 6th 2008
India: August 6th 2008
Bangla Desh / Burma/ Singapore: August 6th 2008
Malayasia, China, Australia, Japan: August 6th 2008
Fiji: August 6th 2008

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Vastushastra and homes in america

Today May 7th is Akshaya Tritiya. I performed puja at the famous Michael and Robin Mastro's new home. It's designed keeping vastu principles in mind and it is 100% as per vastu. Most homes we see in america are either on T Junctions, or facing south or on irregular lots, with lots of corner cuts in the house. It's amazing to see the efforts put by Michael and Robin Mastro on their new home. I wish American builders build something as per vastu, this will create positive energy and people will have less troubles in their daily life.

Monday, May 5, 2008

What is Narasimha / Nrisimha Jayanthi?

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com/nrisimhajayanthi.php

Narasimha, the fourth incarnation of God Vishnu, is half-human half-lion and provides a very fascinating study of the Lord's incarnation in order to alleviate the sufferings of his devotees. Sage Kashyap had four wives, Diti, Aditi, Vinita and Kudroo. Diti gave birth to demons and from Aditi were born gods, while from Vinita was born Garud, the carrier of Vishnu and the last one Kudroo created the hydras. Dithi gave birth to Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu. Vishnu killed Hiranyaksha as he oppressed the devas. At the death of Hiranyaksha, Hiranyakashipu was overpowered with grief. His mother Dithi was heart-broken. Hiranyakashipu also was filled with sorrow and it burnt his own heart like fire. He hated Vishnu and Vishnu's very name was like poison to him. His blood was boiling with the hatred of Vishnu.

Hiranyakashipu, King of the Rakshasas, retired to the mountain Mandara and began tapas - the severe order of penance. Brahma was pleased with his devotion. He appeared to Hiranyakashipu and said, 'Hiranyakashipu, arise. I am pleased with your devotion. I have never seen such a severe meditation before. Ask for whatever you desire.' Hiranyakashipu replied, "Great Lord, if you will grant my prayer, this is what I seek: Let not death come to me from any creature created by you; let me not meet with death either in the house or outside it; let not my death occur either during the day or at night; no weapon should cause my death; I should not die either on land or in the sky."

After this blessing the demon crossed all bounds in oppression and dethroned Indra, the king of heavens. The very gods were filled with fear. Indra, along with the other gods, appeared before Brahma and prayed for deliverance. Brahma was very much worried and replied that the demon had become powerful due to the blessings bestowed by him and he could not destroy him. He also advised Indra to go to Vishnu, which they did. The gods went to Vishnu and retold their story of sufferings and said that due to boons given by Brahma the demon had been indulging in all sorts of oppression. Vishnu promised to destroy him in due course of time.

Hiranyakashipu had a son named Prahalad. Right from his very childhood Prahalad was attracted towards Vishnu and the other gods. Prahalad had not obeyed the orders of his father not to worship Vishnu. His father tried to destroy his son in a fit of anger; tying a stone to Prahalad's body, he was thrown into the river but Vishnu himself stopped him from drowning. Hiranyakashipu later tried to get Prahalad trampled under the feet of an elephant but the elephant lifted Prahalad lovingly by the help of his trunk and put him on its back. He then built a house and put Prahalad into it and set the same to fire; even this could not harm Prahalad. The father even tried to poison the son, but to no avail.

At last the king thundered at the boy, "You, curse of the family! Have you not yet given up your evil thoughts? The three worlds tremble at my glance. But you, my son, how do you dare to disobey me? You are very young; some one must have misled you and encouraged you. Otherwise you would not have had such evil ideas and such courage. Tell me who has shown you such an evil path." The earth shook as the king roared at the boy. But Prahalad calmly replied, "Dear father, it was Hari who gave me this courage. He is stronger than anyone else. You and I, the universe, even Brahma are nothing before his strength. He is the real Lord of the Universe."

All the gods were under the thumb of the mighty Hiranyakashipu; and here was a mere boy of five giving him advice. The king of the Rakshasas was mad with anger. He shouted in rage: "Unlucky fool, your death is near. I am the Lord of all the worlds, the only master. Is there another? Where is he? Show him to me." "He is everywhere," young Prahlad's answer came without a moment's delay. The king could no longer control himself through anger. He hit a pillar with his mace. "Wicked fellow, is he everywhere? You mad boy, why should he not appear to me in this pillar? I am going to kill you this very moment. You have been praising Hari as the Lord of the Universe. Let him come to your help if he can." So saying he drew out his sword and pounced upon the little boy. There was a terrible deafening noise as if the universe itself split into two. Even the very brave Hiranyakashipu stared from his place at the terrible noise. The courtiers shook with fear and stood like statues of stone. As the stunned men watched, the pillar split into two.

There was Sri Hari, in the form of Narasimha. He had the head of a lion and the body of a man. (Nara = Man : Simham = Lion). The eyes of this terrible figure were dazzling and they looked like molten gold. The hair on the head and the moustache and the beard stood straight and erect. The sharp and pointed jaws chattered harshly; the tongue quivered like a sword and was sharp as a dagger. His eyebrows were close knit. The ears were raised and stood erect. The mouth gaped like a mountain cave. The two nostrils looked like wells turned upside down. The body was huge and mountain-like. It seemed to touch the skies and to stop the very clouds. It had countless arms. The body was covered with a white substance like silver. The very sight of the sharp claws made one tremble.

This terrible form split the pillar and came out. Hiranyakashipu's courtiers had crowded the hall; but not one dared to look at him, not to speak of ever approaching him. Narasimha caught Hiranyakashipu with a loud roar and carried him to the threshold of the hall. He sat on the threshold with the Rakshasa in his lap. Then he dug his nails deep into his body and tore it open. He took out the entrails and wore them round his neck. Thus the wicked asura was finally killed at the hands of the man-lion, Vishnu. All the asura bodyguards who fell on Narasimha in fierce rage were crushed into a lump of flesh in the winking of an eye. After the enemies were destroyed, Narahari (Vishnu) sat on the throne of the Rakshasa King, glaring at those around him. The gods showered flowers from heaven. The Gandharva sang divine music and the Apsaras, the dancers of heaven, danced in joy. The entire earth rejoiced.

The gods praised Vishnu's ways. "Hiranyakashipu got boons from Lord Brahma; and Narasimha has respected all the promises. For it is now twilight, which is neither day nor night; the place is neither outside the house nor inside it, it is the threshold. Again he was killed neither on land nor in the sky, but on the lap of the god; he was killed neither by weapons nor by missiles but torn by nails; no one created by Brahma has killed him nor was he born in the wombs by ordinary course; it is Vishnu, in the form of Narasimha, who slew him. O wonder of wonders!" so they sang the praise of the Lord. The little boy Prahalad touched the feet of Narasimha with his head in deep devotion. At the tender touch of Prahalad the Lord was pleased. He grew calm and anger gave way to kindness. Vishnu gave his blessings to Prahalad - the true devotee.

What to do on Nrisimha / Narasimha Jayanthi?
Please eat once on the previous day (Trayodashi) and on the Narasimha Jayanthi day keep fast from morning till chaturdashi tithi ends. After sunset, perform Pooja to Lord Narasimha. Please keep night vigil. Perform visarjan pooja next day morning. If chaturdasi prevails more than 3 prahara break fast before noon next day. If possible do 'teel patra dana' to brahmin.

After taking a bath do Lord Narasimha pooja with abhishekam, and perform homam to Lord Narasimha. Perform Punchasukta homam, Narasimha moola mantra homam, Sri Lakshmi-Narasimha mantra homam. Additionaly one can add Sri Sudarshan homam as well. Please visit the hindu temple in your area where these ceremonies are performed and take blessings of Lord Narasimha. Most temples perform Lakshi-Narasimha Sudarshan homam on this day. Certain temples celebrate this festivals for nine days starting from shasthi till chaturdashi.

When is Narasimha Jayanthi in 2008?
USA / Canada: May 17th 2008.
Europe: May 18th 2008
Gulf Countries: May 18th 2008
India: May 18th 2008.
Bangla Desh / Burma/ Singapore: May 18th 2008
Malayasia, Fiji, China, Australia, Fiji, Japan: May 18th 2008

Note: To find Rahukalam, Yamagandam, Durmuhurtham, and Gulikai Please click on the panchangam link on your left, and then scroll down to your city and click on your city. If you are from South India, Gujarat or Maharastra please click on Amavayant panchangam, and if your are from North India please click on poornimant panchangam. You will find Rahukalam, Yamagandam, Durmuhurtham, and Gulikai, Varjyam timings along with Abhijit Muhurtha and Amrit kala timings. We also provide information like local sunrise, sunset, Tithi, nakshatra, yoga, karana, sun's rasi, moon's rashi, moodyami of guru and shukra. We also have everyday chogadia and lagna table. To learn how to read panchanga please visit this link.

Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com/ for more details.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

How to avoid system freezes, and slower shutdown times on Lenovo T61.

I had Lots of system freezes, slower shutdown times with my Lenovo T61, and i was getting used to it. The system became of no use to me with above problems. Like everyone, I searched internet for solution but no luck. I searched online, and I found out that vista was running fine on other laptops except lenovo. The problem must not be in Windows Vista then, it must be with some third party software. I wanted to spend some time to fix but never had much. The time had come.

It was friday night and my computer was about to goto it's final resting place for the night, and i decided to check my emails before going to bed, and i launched IE and system suddenly froze. I ran simple chkdsk (without /F) and it reported disk error. I issued chkdsk /f and no luck, it never ran next time when my system was booted. I was going like frenzy. I had many system freeze in the past. This is standard with lenovo. I searched internet for solution. I found out vista is not causing problem. The problem must be with the third party drivers. I did clean install and ran lenovo's system update. The problem was about to resurface and i found out "Windows Hybrid power management mode" implemented by intel in it's sata driver. So After clean install i disabled that option on my hard drives. Now the same old problem, taking ages to shutdown my system. I started uninstalling all lenovo's software, and reboot after every uninstall to see any change in shutdown times, but no luck. Now I am finally left with "Rescue and Recovery" software by Lenovo. I decided to say good bye to that software, and i uninstalled it. Wow! now my system shutdowns in 17 seconds. I can run chkdsk /f and next time it runs. I guess Rescue and Recovery problem was preventing chkdsk to run, it never did disk check or disk repair. If i ever need backup I'll use window's backup. I think lenovo should read this blog and fix their software. Their system is really built nice and I love it. The construction of their machine is very good, just quality on their software is going down.

  1. Update the latest Turbo memory driver from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ (DON'T reboot).
  2. Update the latest Intel Matrix Storage driver from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ (REBOOT)
  3. Goto Control panel, Power options, Change Power settings, select advanced, and click on Harddisk, disable "Windows Hybrid Harddisk power saving mode" for both AC and Power. Do this for all power plans. (Balanced, Maximum life, High Performance ...). Reboot now.
  4. Uninstall Rescue and recovery. It prevents running of chkdsk and doesn't even does repair bad sectors. This application prolongs shutdown time sometimes upto hour so disable it. At times I had to plan my shutdown two hours in advance, and it won't shutdown, i had to press power button to shutdown. After uninstalling this, It shutdowns with in 17 to 20 seconds. These are the main important steps, optionally you may want to disable lenovo's services, but you can safely jump to item #7 from this point.
  5. Load msconfig and goto services and uncheck all services that stats "Lenovo" except client security.
  6. Load msconfig and click on startup, once again, just leave microsoft started services and uncheck whatever is in lenovo folder, you won't need it.
  7. Follow steps outlined in the blog at http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532
  8. Reboot now, your machine's startup and shutdown time will be fast, your harddisk light won't be winking at you continuously. You can do chkdsk /f and it will run next time system startup, otherwise it is prevented by Lenovo's rescue and recovery software, if possible do clean vista install, and follow the steps outlined here.

Note: As of today (April 25th, 2008) my computer still functions better without lenovo's rescue and recovery software. It has become faster after disabling certain background services from lenovo. I have also done some changes related to performance from control panel. The life is much better now. I asked people around some people don't have problem with rescue and recovery on X61 tablet, but just uninstall Lenovo's Rescue and Recovery. Life will be much better. Good luck.

When is Shri Hanuman Jayanti in 2008

  • USA, Canada, Carrebians: April 19th 2008.
  • Europe, Gulf Countries, Africa, Mauritius: April 20th 2008.
  • India: April 20th 2008
  • Bangladesh, China, Singapore, Malaysia, South East Asia: April 20th 2008
  • Australia, Fiji, Japan, New Zealand: April 20th 2008.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

When is Oriya New Year in 2008?

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com

USA / Canada: April 13th.
Europe: April 13th.
Gulf Countries: April 13th.
India: April 13th.
Bangla Desh / Burma/ Singapore: April 13th.
Malayasia, Fiji, China, Australia, Fiji, Japan: April 13th.

When is Bohag Bihu (Assam New Year) in 2008?

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com

USA / Canada: April 14th.
Europe: April 14th.
Gulf Countries: April 14th.
India: April 14th.
Bangla Desh / Burma/ Singapore: April 14th.
Malayasia, China, Australia, Japan: April 14th.
New Zealand, Fiji: April 15th.

When is Pôhela Boishakh (Bengali New Year) in 2008?

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com

USA / Canada: April 14th.
Europe: April 14th.
Gulf Countries: April 14th.
India: April 14th.
Bangla Desh / Burma/ Singapore: April 14th.
Malayasia, China, Australia, Japan: April 14th.
New Zealand, Fiji: April 15th.

When is Baisakhi (Punjab / Haryana New year) in 2008

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com

USA / Canada: April 13th.
Europe: April 13th.
Gulf Countries: April 13th.
India: April 13th.
Bangla Desh / Burma/ Singapore: April 13th.
Malayasia, Fiji, China, Australia, Fiji, Japan: April 13th.

When is vishu kani 2008 (Malayali New year)

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com

USA / Canada: April 14th.
Europe: April 14th.
Gulf Countries: April 14th.
India: April 14th.
Bangla Desh / Burma/ Singapore: April 14th.
Malayasia, Fiji, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan: April 14th.

Tamil New Year in 2008

Source: http://www.mypanchang.com

Samvatsara: Sarvadhari

USA / Canada: April 13th.
Europe: April 13th.
Gulf Countries: April 13th.
India: April 13th.
Bangla Desh / Burma/ Singapore: April 14th.
Malayasia, Fiji, China, Australia, Fiji, Japan: April 14th.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Search of new web hosting company

While searching for new hosting company, I did search, "Reliable, secure webhosting company", and i got many. My criteria were simple.
  1. Secure access to the control panel via HTTPS / SSL. [Some of the hosting company’s customer support feels http is secure, and I shouldn’t worry about someone hacking my website if they have access to my control panel’s user id and password. They think they need access to your local computer to get your control panel’s id and password but without SSL or HTTPs your user-id and passwords travels in clear text over wire and all a hacker needs is a sniffer or network tracing software to get your user id and password to control panel, always go for secure access to control panel. Ask for the demo login and if it starts with https:// you are secure but if starts with http:// it's not secure. You can also check with them if there is a way to access your control panel securely sometimes it can be just http://www.yourdomain.com/securecontrolpanel (where http://www.yourdomain.com/ is your domain. You need to ask.)].
  2. Network Reliability.
  3. 99.99% uptime.
  4. Fast network.
  5. Regular backups.
  6. Support for scripts (ASP.NET or PHP support).
  7. SQL Server or similar database support.
  8. Polite and knowledgeable 24 x 7 customer support.
  9. Good user and critics review (Always do search on hostcompany’s name followed by user reviews, you’ll be surprise to know user’s experiences. Sometimes critics do reviews but they never have to deal with them, they trust marketing things told by hosting companies).
  10. Email sending through feedback forms was fast and not queued up. (some web host providers uses smarthost which queueups emails, and I was been told it can take 5 hours for msn / gmail accounts, and forever for yahoo accounts to reach your emails, as they queue up and their smarthost technology resends them, I was more on using sendmail directly to send email faster. You can also search for webhosting company's name and email troubles. Always do background research. Always ask them if they use smarthost to queue up emails from webforms? or they send it right away? if you hear the word queue then hangup the phone.)
  11. Selection of free software on host and support for installing them.
  12. 200 GB of storage / 2000 GB of bandwidth.
  13. Proactive about upgrading the hardware and software, and done during weenends.
  14. Reasonably priced.
  15. Free 30 days trial (Inmotion.com has free 90 days money back policy, bluehost has 30 days).

Sometimes some webhosting companies might shutdown your site thinking you are spamming, but in reality you aren’t. You are just running a script on host that forwards email to your account or running a mailing list. I tried several companies with the help of my friend in several days, and cancelled their services within few days of registration and before 30 day trial period. Always prepare a website on your home computer first, make sure it works and port it and try to make sure all feature works. I have found bluehost.com (later I had bitter experience with bluehost.com -- Please read notes at bottom of this post), swirlweb.com, inmotionhosting.com were very good with very little or no complaints. I was surprised to read people’s horror stories with other providers (Billing issues, website shutdown without notice, very slow responsose time, slow emails, slow access to your website, sarcasm used by support staff etc....). Bluehost.com is so nice, I can’t explain. They have very good and polite staff. I wasted their two hours asking questions on phone before and after signup, their reply was simple and good. Swirlweb is also very friendly, offered me free 30 days trial without paying first, and i checked their webspeed, they are pretty fast. So always be careful on what you are looking for, and search internet for real user’s reviews. I found out best rated webhosting companies give poor services. Just read, read, and read before you buy. Ask for 30 days free trials. Inmotion.com has industry leading 90 days free trial. That’s very good. Always create a dummy domain first to try out your site and then host real site that’s way ask for at least 2 domains. However now a days most companies give unlimited domain hosting (don’t go for unlimited domain parking which is just all domains pointing to your primary site).

Some hosting companies sales guys were so rude they even told me why don't i go for dedicated hosting if I am so much anal about security? They could have written this in very polite way. So always talk to their sales people, support staff asking various questions before signup.

Some webhosting providers advertise to give you 8 IPs, 16 IPs, but their basic support is lacking, after all you are not going to make navaratna korma -- Mixed vegetables with these IP addresses. All you need is one ip which can be used with shared environment if basic support is available.

Note: Recently bluehost.com has changed their hosting policy. They do offer unlimited space but with the fine print one can have unlimited storage but not more than 50000 files. At the time of signup no one tells you about this limitation. But once you signup and once your site starts growing they'll try best to bring down your growing site or make extra money out of this situation. Bottom line don't fall for unlimited space. There is no such thing. I am quoting my recent experience with bluehost.com where hosted my site mypanchang.com. But then after the bitter experience I switched to another provider.

I've gotten a threatening email to reduce number files from 262000+ to just 50000 or else they will abruptly bring my site down by cancelling my account in just 14 days. I asked for extension but they won't give me. They were very rude and unhelpful. Just because someone has a large website and over 262000 pages doesn't mean he is abuser. He/she signed up because you offered unlimited space and bandwidth. If you don't want to honour your terms offered during the sale then just don't say you offer unlimited space. During signup this limitation wasn't there. So, before signing up for the webspace read fine print ask questions about bandwidth and storage. Ask specifically on total number of files one can have on the server. Go for 90 days free trial, and send email to their support staff before signup. After signup send email right away and if you find something not matching what they said during sales cancel contract right away and complain to Better Business Bureau and local consumer authorities.


Thursday, March 20, 2008

RigVeda Upakarma / Yajurveda Upakarma / Avani Avittham / Shravana Upakarma / Samaveda Upakarma 2008

Yajurveda Upakarma 2008:

The Indian day is from sunrise to sunrise. The tithi visible at the time of sunrise is the usually tithi for the festival. But There are rules when to observe a certain festival. In case of Upakarma the rule is checked for any contamination during upakarma ahoratra -- that is from one midnight to another midnight. If there is an eclipse and/or samkranti (Ravi samkramana) on the sharvani poornima (appearing after the previous midnight and before coming midnight) then Upakarma cannot be performed on the day of shravani poornima(Dharmasindhu, Nirnay sindhu) thithi visible at the sunrise. This is because it contaminates the entire poornima by that timeframe (midnight to midnight). Normally the Simha samkramana contaminates sixteen ghatikas (16*48 minutes= 12 hours and 48 minutes) before the samkramana time (Dharmasindhu, muhurtha chintamani). That time is known as a punyah kala and it needs to be avoided in shubha karma. But, tn the case of upakarma according to the Dharmasindhu and the Nirnaysindhu it contimates the entire timeframe of midnight to midnight, and hence upakarma cannot be performed on such day when this happens. There is a samkranti (Ravi samkramana) and eclispe on the day of yajur upakarma in 2008. Hence the yajur upakrama cannot be performed on that day (When poornima appears on the sunrise). Yajur upakarma's main kala is shravani poornima -- Poornima in the month of shravan. When poornima and samkranti (Ravi samkramana) or eclipse combine together that day shouldn't be taken for upakarma. If you follow yajurveda then please look for your sutra in the following table. You'll know your sutra from your abhivadaye. Most common sutras in Shree Krishna Yajurveda are: Apastama, Bodhayana. North indians follow Shukla Yajurveda (Their shakhas are kanva, madhyandina, and katyayana). People refer to the later day shastras and interpretations when eclispe or samkranti happens on the upakarma day. However, grihya sutras clearly say what to do. They say the upakarma cannot be performed during eclipse, and/or samkranti apeears in the upakarma ahoratra period. Additionaly they say that the first upakarma cannot be performed when there is a guru-sukra (jupiter, venus) are closer to sun (asta, moodyami, helical settings). They don't mention about grahana or samkranti in the first upakarma exception. However, certain people refer to later day shastras and make it exception.

Contention as per Drika Siddhanta: This year sharvani poornima falls on August 16th 2008 and the Lunar eclipse is from 18:22 to 23:58 as per GMT timings. In india (Aug 16) 23:52 to 5:28 AM (Aug 17). USA PDT 11:22 to 16:58. Now Simha ravi samkramana occurs at GMT 11:49 AM, India 17:19, USA PDT 4:49 AM, USA EDT 7:49 AM. Now all these time falls between the window of the timeframe that is midnight before August 16 (After the midnight of August 15th) and the midnight of August 16th (before August 17th). Now as per dharmashastra for all other festivals sunrise to sunrise is counted as a day. Only for upakarma's nirnay midnight to midnight is taken. Hence, both ravi samkramana and eclipse occurs during this timeframe upakarma cannot be performed on August 16th. However, for vakya sidhdhanta their samkramana occurs at 51:39 (ghati/nazhi : pala/vinadi). They take from Tanjor's sunrise timings. This converts to 20 hours and 39 minutes after their sunrise. Let's see August 16th sunrise is at 6:00 AM then their samkramana occurs after midnight of 16th and hence they argue it's okay to perform upakarma on August 16th. As far as eclipse is concerned their argument is it's not visible and if it's visible it's in the evening and hence, it's not applicable. This goes against dharmashastra. The vakyam's planetory position can't be observed in the sky using telescope. The planetory positions using drika siddhanta can be observed in the sky using telescope. Drika siddhanta is more accurate. Even our sages have said use precise calculations. Vakyam was written many centuries back. Planetory positions and movements keeps changing. Moon needs corrections after every 75 years. Moon as per brown's table takes pages of corrections, how can you define moon's speed in one sentense? Vakyam panchang makers silently copies eclipse information from western ephemeries. Now you decide when you want to perform upakarma? We have given following table for upakarma dates.

Note: Certain mutts interpret that this samkranti and grahana rule applies to first upakarma only. while other majority of mutts have decided that it's applied to all upakarmas. However Dharmasindu and Nirnaysindhu and many other shastras donot mention that this rule is applicable to first time upakarma only. They do mention that upakarama cannot be done when grahana, and samkranti appears on shravani (The time frame explained above from midnight to midnight). Most of us believe that first or subsequent upakarma cannot be done during eclipse or samkranti.

Taitariya shakha(Hiranyakeshi): Shravani Poornima if not available hasta nakshatra in shravana.

Bodhyana sutra: Shravani Poornima if not available Aashadha month's poornima.

Aapasthamba sutra: Shravani Poornima if not available Bhadrapada month's poornima. Different sutras in yaajush shakha have specified differnt kalas when the upakarma can't be performed during the mail kala.

Madhyandina, kanva, kaatyayana shakha: Shravani Poornima if not available panchami, or hastha nakshatra yukta panchami in the month of shravan. If these are still not available they can perform on bhadrapada poornima.

Rigveda Upakarma 2008: Rigveda Upakarma's main kala is Srvana masa and srvana nakshatra. When combined with eclipse or samkranti that day cannot be taken. When it happens take Hasta nakshatra or panchami. The samkranti contaminates shravana nakshatra in Europe, Gulf, India, China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and other eastern countries. Where as it remains untouched in USA/Canada as per dharmasindhu.

Samaveda Upakarma 2008: Samaveda upakarma date is not combined with samkranti or eclipse and hence Bhadrapada, Hasta nakshatra can be taken.

Question comes when these dates falls in 2008?

Please click on http://www.mypanchang.com/ and click on 2008's panchangam.
Please scroll down to find your city and click on city name. Click on the August on the top bar when panchangam comes. This is shravana month. For Bhadrapada month lick on september. For ashadha masa please click on July. Please try to apply the rules explained above.

Please refer to the following table of upakarma dates in year 2008. (PST, MST, CST, and EST are USA/ Canada's Time Zones). Due to samkranti and eclispe on shravani poornima Upakarma cannot be performed on shravani poornima.

Year 2008India

USA
PST

USA
MST

USA
CST

USA
EST

RigvedaAug 6 Aug 15 Aug 15 Aug 15 Aug 15
Taitariya
(Hiranyakeshi)
Aug 6 Aug 5 Aug 5 Aug 5 Aug 5
BodhayanaJuly 18 July 17 July 17 July 17 July 17
AapasthambaSep 15 Sep 14 Sep 14 Sep 14 Sep 14
Shukla YajurvedaAug 6 Aug 5 Aug 5 Aug 5 Aug 5
SamavedaSept 2 Sept 1 Sept 2 Sept 2 Sept 2

Year 2008

Europe
South Africa

Arabian Gulf
Mauritius

Australia
Singapore
Malaysia

RigvedaAug 6 Aug 6 Aug 6
Taitariya
(Hiranyakeshi)
Aug 6 Aug 6 Aug 6
BodhayanaJuly 18 July 18 July 18
AapasthambaSep 15 Sep 15 Sep 15
Shukla YajurvedaAug 6 Aug 6 Aug 6
SamavedaSept 2Sept 2Sept 2

To find out today's star or looking for a panchangam? visit http://www.mypanchang.com/ and click on panchanga and select the city you want.

Article: Pandit Mahesh Shastri, Dr. Ramachandra Joisa

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Ugadi 2008 and Auspicious muhurtha days

According to dharmasindu and other muhurtha shastras treatises there are four days very good in a year that doesn't require any muhurtha:
  1. Chaitra Ugadi / Gudi Padawa / Chaitri Shukla Padyami
  2. Akshaya Tritiya
  3. Vijaya Dasami
  4. Kartika Shukla Padyami / Bali Pratipada.

However, entire chaitra months are treated as a zero month according to some rishies. A zero month means no muhurthas available. But Chaitra shukla paksha padyami / ugadi is exception if and only if not under influence of eclipse. If it's a not under eclipse you can find sthira lagna on Ugadi to perform any auspicious ocassion. Vrishabha, Simha, Vrischika and Kumbha lagna are sthira lagna. However somethimes Kanya, Tula and mina lagna are taken as well.

New year's ugadi panchangam are available at http://www.mypanchang.com/ along with lagna table and chogadia (kinda gauri panchang type) for your location. Please click on panchangam link and select your city. Please visit the http://www.mypanchang.com/ to find out Ugadi / Gudi padawa dates in your city.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Panchangam, Jatakam and Muhurtha

People plan wedding, grahapravesham and lots of other occasion. They depend on panchangam so much that the word 'Panchangam' has become synonym for Jatakam. Most of them send me request to make panchangam for the time they were born. We understand that they are looking for jaatakam not panchangam. That also makes them believe that the panchangam is jatakam. People search the net for "Telugu Panchangam for two different star match making". This really doesn't make any sense. The reason is match making isn't just comparing tables for stars and they are compitable or not. Marriage compatibilty is more complex subject. One should contact expert astrologer to find compatibility. Just mere "Guna milan" or "Gunak" isn't enough. The compatibility check is not required in case of love marriage as "Gandharva vivaha".

The reason why love marriage doesn't require horoscope matching is simple. Whoever proposes doesn't ask him or her "Honey! I like you and I love you, but before I propose you my parents wants to have our horoscope checked out first, and if and only if our stars match I'll propose you". Can you ever imagine anyone proposing like that? Does it really makes sense? Imagine happening this, and the result is there will not be any love marriages. That's why gandharva vivaha doesn't require match making.

The marraige compatibility check is beyond mangal (kuja) dosha, nakshatra count (Gunank / Gunamilan) and other things. Please contact an astrologer to find out compatibility. To find out muhurtha for wedding please advise your astrologer to use http://www.mypanchang.com/ and use panchang for your city from our website to find out an auspicious time for your ocassion.

Once again, any muhurtha has to be personalized. There can't be general purpose muhurtha for everyone except Vijaya Dashami, and Akshaya Tritiya. Whenever panchang gives general purpose marriage muhurtha they have a panchang shuddhi for the place they are calculated for. They aren't good for everyone. Tarabala, Rashibala, Suryabala, and Gurubala needs to be checked for both bride and groom to find auspicious muhurtha.

Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com/ and fill out muhurtha request form if you need muhurtha. We'll try to give you as per our bandwidth, otherwise find an astrologer who can prepare a very good muhurtha for you and always ask astrologer to use panchangam for the city you are going to get married or going to have grahapravesham or the ocassion. Please visit http://www.mypanchang.com/ and click on panchanga to find panchangam for your city. If your city is not listed let us know and we'll be glad to add it for you.

Note: If you live in suburban city of a major city then you can safely refer to the panchangam of major city. For example if you live in Redmond, WA or Bellevue,WA or Bothell, WA you can use panchangam made for Seattle, WA.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Hindu Festivals in Mauritius 2008

Someone was kind enough to send me the list of hindu festivals and their celebration dates in Mauritius as announced by the Sanatan Dharma society and Govt. of Mauritius. I do find errors in some festivals's celebration dates.

The list of 2008 festivals in Mauritius with errors in the celebration dates:

7 April Ougadi.
WRONG date …. ridiculous. This date should be April 6th, Chaitra padyami doesn’t prevail at the sunrise of mauritius on 7th (Some parts of india like bombay, and delhi will celebrate on 6th April, Where as Tamilnadu, orrisa, bengal, Bihar will celebrate on 7th Apr).

14 April Ram Navami
Ramanavami should be April 13th for smarthas (Non-vaishnavites). The April 14th for shri vaishanavas.

15 August Krishna Janmashtami
WRONG date …. ridiculous. This should be 23rd August 2008 (This falls on August 24th for India, August 23rd for Mauritius)

4 Sep Ganesh Chathurthi.
WRONG date..... ridiculous. This should be September 3rd in Mauritius (Even India doesn’t celebrate on 4th September)

It will be interesting to know their reasoning about adjusting their festivals. The good sign is they are not following the dates from indian calendar which they shouldn't but some dates just doesn't make any sense. Who determines their festivals? How do they determine? When they can celebrate Mahashivaratri on the right date -- March 5th 2008, why not other fesivals?

To find out your son's star or looking for a panchangam? visit http://www.mypanchang.com/ and click on panchanga and select the city you want.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

How to determine shraddha tithi or amavasya tarpanam tithi.

Shraddha is performed when tithi prevails during aprahana kala of the day. The Aprahana kala is the 4/5th part of the day. The Shraddha is performed during the Aprahana kala of the day, after completing the madhyahna sandhya.

  1. To calculate aprahana kala subtract sunrise from sunset (dinmana:=sunset-sunrise).
  2. The result is called dinmana.
  3. Divide it into five equal parts, to do this divide dinamana with 5. This gives us the duration for each kala. Now aprahana kala is the 4th kala of the day. It starts right after 3rd madhyana kala.
  4. Multiply kala duration obtained in step #3 with 3 to give us aprahana kala starting offset from sunrise.
  5. Add sunrise to aparahna kala starting offset. This is the begining time for aprahana kala.
  6. Add the duration of kala (Step #3) to the aprahana kala start time calculated above (Step #5). This is when aprahana kala ends.
  7. Now check the tithi if it prevails during the aprahana kala that is from the start of aparahana kala obtained from step 5 to time obtained in step 6. To find tithi ending times and local sunrise and sunset please visit http://www.mypanchang.com/ and click on panchanga, scroll down to your city and click on panchanga. There are two columns, one for Amavasyanta panchanga and another for poornimant. Please click panchangam under appropriate calendar you follow.
  8. If your tithi prevails during this period, It is your tithi. Repeat the same for the next day to check if tithi prevails during next day, If your tithi or amavasya prevails during both days then take one in which prevails more.

Now this entire calculation should be done on local sunrise and local sunset -- Where the shraddha or tarpanam is going to be performed. If you are in america and the priest from India gives you the date based on their sunrise sunset and their tithi timings it's invalid. You might be performing it on a wrong day. To find tithi end times and local sunrise and local sunset in your city -- location please visit http://www.mypanchang.com/ and click on panchanga, scroll down to your city and click on panchanga. There are two columns, one for Amavasyanta panchanga and another for poornimant. Please click panchangam under appropriate calendar you follow. If you are from gujarat, maharastra or south india please use amavasyant panchangam otherwise if you are from north india select poornimanth panchangam.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

When was karwa chauth in USA in year 2007?

(From email archives -- I have replied to various people on separate thread elsewhere)

There is a misconception that Indian tithis are connected to English dates as given in Indian panchanga. The Indian panchangam is computed keeping IST in mind. The tithis ends at the same instance all over the world. For example Tithi chaturthi ends on 20:01 on October 29th in India, subtracting time difference of 12 hours 30 minutes (Pacific Daylight Saving time) from IST time gives it 7:31 AM on October 29th 2007th morning for cities observing Pacific Standard Time (California, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia for example).

Now when to observe festivals is different ball game, as every festival has different set of rules. These rules are well written ages ago by our sages in various dharma shastras like DharmaSindhu, Nirnay Sindhu, Tithi Nirnay, and many others.

The rule for Karwa Chauth is, “Karwa Chauth to be observed at moonrise (chandrodaya vyapini) and poorvaviddha, best if its tritiya viddha. If visible during both days take the first one, if not visible on both days then take the second one”.

Caluclation Example and Explanation:
Now in India, chaturthi end timings are 20:01. Now, moonrise in New Delhi is at 20:31 (The average moonrise in India is around 20:31) on October 29th. It is not even visible on moonrise time on October 29th, but according to the rule, Karwa Chauth in India is on October 29th (as the second rule applies if not visible on both days take the second day). Moonrise time on October 28th is at 20:10. Tritiya ends on October 28th at 23:05 in India. Hence on 28th at the moonrise time Chaturthi is not visible.

Now, moonrise is different for all cities in the world, Tithi ending times are also different in different parts of the world, as we explained earlier. Now if you subtract Pacific Daylight Saving time difference from India’s Tritiya end time, that is 23:05 -12:30 gives 10:35 AM, Tritiya ending time for USA/Canada’s Pacific Time zone. it is very clear that during the moonrise time in Seattle Chaturthi thithi is visible on October 28th, hence karwa chauth in Seattle is on October 28th, not October 29th.

If you have a child birth at home, will you make his / her janampatri -- horoscope based on american time converted to indian standard time and then make horoscope or you will provide longitude latitude of the birth place? if you make your or your loved one's birth chart horoscope as per scientific methods then why not follow festivals as per that rule. Remember those days of past when only few handful astrologers knew how to make kundli -- janampatri of people born outside india, now with advancements of computer its easy to get janampatri of people born outside of india through software. Unfortunately, it took awhile to educate people about folllowing correct janmapatri.

The confusion about the whole thing is we always assume the day is 24 hours long, and it changes at midnight. Hindi calendar is Lunisolar calendar. Hindu day may not be 24 hours long. It can be 19 to 26 hours long, and starts from one sunrise to another sunrise with length of the day from sunrise to sunset and night from sunset to next day's sunrise.

Most festivals are observed based on given tithi visible at the sunrise (New year, navaratri for example), some are observed if given tithi visible during midday, some are observed if tithi visible during midnight (Shivaratri for example). In such case observance starts from the morning -- sunrise even though different tithi prevails during sunrise. According to vaishnavite tradition and smartha tradition ekadashi observance rules are be different, hence even in india sometimes vaishnava ekadasi will appear on a different day then smartha ekadashi.
Now, about the karwa chauth rule laid down by dharma shastra, they say forth tithi, not the forth day after fullmoon. Hence, You can't literally take the 4th day!. Tithi can be treated as a day but the length of the day varies like i mentioned before. Indian day (Tithi) could range from 19 hours to 26 hours. Sometimes in indian panchangam you will notice words like kshya tithi, means tithi is less than 60 gatikas -- 24 hours, and vriddhi tithi means the day / tithi is more than 60 ghatikas -- 24 hours.

English date is based on earth's rotation, where as indian date is difference between sun and moon the distance between sun and the moon. Calendar makers use dharma shastra granths (books) like Tithi Nirnay, Kaal nirnay, Dharma Sindhu, Nirnay Sindhu, Parva Nirnay, etc.. to apply rules to panchang data available to them.

Bassed on that let me give you another real example of karwa chauth celebrated in past in India. As per the indian panchang, Karwa chauth in year 2005 was after third night after full moon, that is October 20th 2005 (Purnima was on October 17th 2005), the reason is simple at the moonrise in india chaurthi was visible, so even india they do not follow the literal rule forth night after the full moon. It is forth tithi visible after full moon during moonrise time. Anyways, you will never observe fast overnight! Because the festival rule says you need to break the fast at the moonrise after doing chandra darshan. so you will be fasting from the morning even if tritiya prevails during the morning of the karwa chauth. People in india On October 20th 2005 started fasting in morning althought tritiya was prevailing during the morning and broken their fast at night after moonrise as chaturthi tithi was visible during moonrise. This forth day in india and third day in usa is mainly due to time difference, different sunrise sunset timings, different moonrise timings, etc.....

Maharishi Vashistha, Tithi Chinamani and various other treatise say the following:
tebhyaH syaad grahanaadi driksamamiyam prokta maya saa tithigraahya mangal dharma nirnayvidhaaveSha yato driksama

Which means in whichever paksha (desha), and kaala you see the drika ganita, tithi and festival nirnay should be done accordingly.The spirituality about vrata comes from believing of it. If we follow vratam then why not do it on the right day? The problem is which is the right day? When we follow eclipse, let's see Total lunar eclipse which is visible to the most part of the world at the same time, we always subtract or add the time difference from GMT timings to observe eclipse right? Because it is visible, same way tithi and nakshtra timings although not visible but still needs to be applied appropriate time difference and apply shastra sidhdhanta to determine when to do fast. I can assure you it will be never in the night. :)

To find out your son's star or looking for a panchangam? visit http://www.mypanchang.com and click on panchanga and select the city you want.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

When is Shri Ram Navami

Lord Ramachandra was born on Chaitra Shukla Navami, madhyanaha time, Purnavasu nakshatra and mesha surya and karka lagna.

Observance Rule: Chaitra Sukla Navami, prevailing during madhyahana time. If prevails on both days during the madhyahana kala (3/5th) of the dinmana then take the second one. If it doesn't prevails on second day during madhyahana kala but prevails on first day then take the first one otherwise take the second one.
Vaishnava rule variation: If it prevails on first day with ashtami viddha but prevails during madhyahana kala and doesn't prevail on second day during madhyanaha kala but it prevails for three muhurtha after sunrise (144 minutes) take the second day.

Explanation: The Madhyahana is the third / fifth part of the dinamana. The dinamana is the difference between sunset and sunrise on the same day. This is the total length of the day. The navami tithi should be prevailing during the 3rd fifth part of the dinamana based on local sunrise and local sunset.

According to this Smarthas can celebrate Shri Ramanavami (2008) as follows:
  • USA, Canada, Europe, Gulf Countries, Africa, Mauritius: April 13th 2008.
  • India (Bombay, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Hariyana, Kashmir, Portions of UP) April 13th 2008
  • India (Places east of Jharkhand, portions of Uttar pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, Assam, Orrisa, Tripura) April 14th 2008
  • Sri Lanka April 13th 2008
  • Bangladesh, China, Singapore, Malaysia, South East Asia, Australia, Fiji, Japan, New Zealand April 14th 2008.

According to Vaishnava siddhanta:

  • USA, Canada, Europe April 13th 2008.
  • Gulf Countries, Africa, Mauritius, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Singapore, Malaysia, South East Asia, Australia, Fiji, Japan, New Zealand. April 14th 2008.

To find out today's star or looking for a panchangam? visit http://www.mypanchang.com and click on panchanga and select the city you want.

Satyanarayana Vrat Katha

When to perform this vrata?

This vrata can be performed any day, in the evening. The Purnima / Pournami is very auspicious. The question comes when the Purnima prevails for two days:

for example let's take panchang for Seattle, WA (March 20th, 2008)
Source: http://www.mypanchang.com/panchang2008.html

If you open Seattle's panchang for March 20th 2008, you'll notice the entry called "T:Chaturdashi 10:55:09" and Panchang for March 21, 2008 "T:Purnima 11:39:57". Which means Purnima starts on March 20th in Seattle at 10:55:10 AM in the morning and lasts till March 21st 11:39:57 AM. Here purnima prevails during the sunrise of March 21st but not March 20th. Most people will now think Purnima is on March 21st, Let's do Sri Satyanarayan puja that day. "Bolo Sri Satyanarayana dev ki jai".

Now the Satayanarayan puja is observed in evening. The purnima should be prevailing during the apaharna kala. There are five kalas in a day and four praharas. Each kala duration is the 1/5th part of the dinmana (sunset-sunrise). The dinmana is the length of the day and obtained by subtracting the sunset minus sunrise of the day. The Fourth / Fifth (4/5th) portion of the dinmana is called the apaharna kala. The purnima should be prevailing during this time. If purnima prevails on both days take the one which prevails during apaharna kala. If it prevails on both days during apaharna kala, take the first one.

According to that rule, you can do the math yourself, you'll notice that ideal time to peform Sri Satyanarayana swami vratam in Seattle is March 20th 2008, Not march 21st 2008. However if you are in india then March 21st 2008 will be the ideal time to perform Sri satyanarayana vrata puja.

Please click here to download Sri Satyanarayana Puja story in english. Source http://www.seattlepandit.com/

To find out today's star or looking for a panchangam? visit http://www.mypanchang.com and click on panchanga and select the city you want.

Monday, March 3, 2008

When to observe Pradosh vrata?

Panchangam Source: http://www.mypanchang.com/

Pradosha vrata is usaully a fast observed when trayodashi tithi (both shukla and krishna trayodashi) is visible after sunset. This is related to fast not based on doing abhishekam when abhishekam is done in the evening in temples or at home. Temples do abhishekam in evening on pradosha day and common misconception is tithi needs to be visible when abhishekam is done. Well, the reality is it's connected to when to observe fast not when to do abhishekam. Remember after sunset bhojana (eating food), nindra (sleeping), maithuna (having sex), adhyayana (study) is prohibited during pradosha.

Abhishekam and Pradosha:

Pradosha vrat says to perform shivapuja in the afternoon. Now most temples perform shivapuja, and abhishekam on the day of pradosha in the evening. Pradosha day is decided for fasting. Now sunsets in india around 6:00 PM. This is average sunset. Now if you live outside India for example Australia or North America, Sun will rise at 4:00 AM and sun will set at 8:30 PM - 9:00 PM in summer. Most temples will do abhishekam during 7:00 PM. Now at that time trayodashi may not be prevailing. But we don't have sunset either. Actual time for pradosha as per Nirnaysindhu, and Dharmasindhu for the nakta vrata is 3 muhurtha after sunset. We don't have a sunset at 7:00 PM in summer. Hence, Actual pradosham puja can start 48 minutes (one muhurtha) before sunset, but depending on the puja it can start earlier. At that time visibility of trayodashi is not important. What is important is trayodashi must prevail after sunset for 3 muhurtha == 3 * 48 minutes. The detailed calculation is outlined below. This is no different than doing sankshatha chaturdashi abhishekam in the evening when actual chaturthi will appear doing moonrise time and during abhishekam time tritiya is visible.

Pradosha dates appear in panchanga is for fasting not when to do abhishekam. Usually abhishekam can be done 48 minutes before sunset till 144 minutes after sunset.

Just we want to do abhishekam when trayodashi prevails during 6 PM to 7 PM and even sunset has not occured we can't change pradosha date for fasting. (Applicable to countries in northen and southern latitudes where sunrise and sunset do not occur around average 6:00 PM ).

Original Sanskrit Verses from dharmasindhu:





Pradosha is basicaly 6 ghatikas after sunset (According to dharmsindhu). Trayodashi tithi should be prevailing during that time. That is from sunset to sunset+144 minutes ( where each ghatika is 24 minutes, 24 * 6 = 144 minutes). Take the one which prevails during the pradosha kala as explained above, in case if it prevails on both days or not than please use following rules to judge when to observe pradosha vrata (FAST) and do abhishekam:
  • If it prevails on both days, take the one where it prevails more.
  • If it prevails on both days in equal amount then take the second one.
  • If it doesn't prevail on both days but not during pradosha kala on previous or second day then take the one which prevails during the sunrise.
Panchanga give end time of the tithi. So check when dwadashi ends, right after that trayodashi starts till where it says Trayodashi and it's end time. For example:
March 4
Sunrise:06:40
Sunset:17:59
Moonrise:04:59
Magha
Krishna Paksha
T:Dvadashi 15:27:26
N:U.shada 06:49:04
Y:Parigha 29:00:16+
K:Taitila 15:27:26
K:Garaja 27:19:30+
SN: Kumbha
MN: Makara
RK:15:09-16:34
YM:09:29-10:55
GK:12:19-13:45
AJ:12:16-13:05
DM:09:04-09:53,23:28-24:17
V: 10:54- 12:32
AK: 20:40- 22:18
March 5
Sunrise:06:38
Sunset:18:00
Moonrise:05:30
Magha
Krishna Paksha
T:Trayodashi 15:01:06
N:Shravana 07:14:40
Y:Shiva 27:11:22+
K:Vanija 15:01:06
K:Vishti 26:32:41+
SN: Kumbha
MN: Kumbha 19:13
RK:12:19-13:45
YM:08:03-09:29
GK:10:54-12:20
DM:12:14-13:03
V: 11:13- 12:48
AK: 20:43- 22:18

(Panchang data source: www.mypanchang.com)
Here on March 4th Dwadashi completes at "T:Dvadashi 15:27:26" (Look above in March 4th section). Right after that Trayodashi starts which is visible (prevailing) during the sunset of 4th and 144 minutes after sunset. Which is not the case on 5th. Where it prevails only till 15:01:06 PM (Look above in March 5th section) after that chaturdashi starts. Which means Trayodashi tithi prevails during sunrise of March 5th but not during the pradosha kala of March 5th. Hence pradosha kala is on March 4th.
Hope this helps.
To find out today's star or looking for a panchangam? visit http://www.mypanchang.com/ and click on panchanga and select the city you want.
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