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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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/

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