In the Introduction of his book Holy Science, Sri Yukteswar uses sidereal zodiac to explain the yugas. For example, he says that at the time of writing The Vernal Equinox is about 21 degrees distant from the first point of aries and that implies that 1394 years had passed since the Vernal Equinox became to recede from aries. He even equates the Revati star with the first point of aries. Why do you think sidereal is used for yugas, why not just use nakshatras? But it makes some sense when he says the Sun is in libra in kali yuga, where he is debilitated. Is this a needles overlapping of zodiac with nakshatras or is there a solid reason behind it? And if the latter, should we not try using his ayanamsa?
https://ashevillevedicastrology.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/257/
I don't know how much is known about Yukteswar's conclusions on the rashi zodiac though.
S.
@mitryendra80 Thank you for the link. I was wondering what Mean Motions of the Precession might be, but then I concluded that, unlike astronomers today who believe the precessional cycle lasts about 25.800 years, Sri Yukteswar assumed the Earth circles a round its twin star and that could make the rotation rate dependent on its proximity, hence changing. Maybe there is another explanation I am not aware of. But still I don't know why he would say Revati is Aries, unless maybe he felt he had to speak in the language of astrologers around him who were all sidereal, while he himself used tropical zodiac. ???? Anyway, nice food fro thought.
I really do not think that Sri Yuktesvar was writing for astrologers in that book. He was trying to tell people about correct yuga calculations in language familiar with them which was tropical/sidereal signs. Also he gave everyting in mean motions as given in Manu samhita, meaning a 24,000 year cycle, but that cycle is somewhat different every time as far as modern astronomy can determine with the current cycle bing 25,600. That number was also given by the mayans.
So I think we have to take the spirit of what Sri Yuktesvar used, not the exact words.
He did write one astrology book, it was never published, there may be more in that but at this time it is not being made available by the person who lasted had it. This person did not like sri yuktesvar or Yogananda, he was a Lahira Mayasaya fan, who is the guru of Sri Yuktesvar. he likely did not want anyone to see the book and he died a few years ago and since then, who knows where that book may have landed, if its still in existence. It was handwritten in bengali.
Did you meet this man who had this astro book of Yukteswar? How did you hear about this? Just curious..
@ernst I think Yuktesvaras Yuga theory is just really wrong. He quotes Manu Samhita and it says there 24000 years, but what he failed to consider or deliberately did not considered is that it says these 24000 years are years of the Gods. Please notice, YEARS OF GODS. It says shortly before the text that Yuktesvara quoted that Daksinayana is one night and Uttarayana is one day of the Gods. So one years for us is one day (day and night) for the Gods. Considering that his whole theory falls apart. That 24000 years are years of Gods can be found in Surya Siddhanta as well as many other texts which cleary shows that Yuktesvara did not follow these texts. This is wrong because the only source for Yugas are the Vedas and the Vedas are the proof for that too. If we change the Yuga system than we change also the whole Vedic culture with all their Avataras and the rest of it. Does that mean that Yuktesvaras theory is wrong and has no value, I dont know but I think the answer is no. But his theory does not replace the Yuga system or in other words whatever he discovered should be called something else then Yuga system, maybe Yuktesvaras system called "...". One person saying something which cant be backed up with Vedic authority, rather the contrary, goes agains Vedic authority seems very wrong to me and this is not something that I would want to follow. If the 24000 years mentioned then in Manu Samhita can be explained with the precession time span is then questionable for me too.
Update: I have to correct what I wrote in this message above. I mentioned that the text from Manu Samhita quoted by Yuktesvara says 24000 years which is wrong. I wrote that from memory and because 24000 years was mentioned in some messages earlier I confused the number 24000 years with what is actually written in Manu Samhita which is 12000 years. My mistake. Sorry.
@narottama hariom everybody: Maybe what Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath writes in His wonderful book: "Babaji-the lightning standing still" is helpful. around p 350 he writes about yugas and he accepts the 4.320.000 year cycle as cycle of gods and the sri yukteswar cycle as cycle of humans. the chapter is about 20 pages and gives lot of wise insight by a great yogi and kriyayogamaster. Yogiraj anyhow is like a younger Sri Yukteshwar imho.
I was told by two people that he had this book. He was a svami that got Lahiri Mahasaya's entire library handed down to him. Yuktesvar had supposedly given one book to Lahiri, his guru. A hand written manuscript. I contacted him, he never replied. Another person contacted him and was told, no such book exists. Another friend of mine went to his house and got shooed away with no response other than, GO AWAY, leave him alone. This svami has a reputation of being very grumpy and he is very critical in much of his writings. His website is
The Sanskrit Classics, Publisher
last time i tried to contact them from the website after the svami passed, I received no response at all.
Yeah, there is no contact info that I see on the website.
Man, imagine a Sri Yukteswar astro book!!
I don't know why I'm on this page, I had just paused an audio lecture and I mean to press play but it clicked on some thing here. But I note that you are talking about Sidereal zodiac. May I paste some info I have from some one I know of. Just to clarify: I don't understand it much. And I don't know who Sri Yukteshwar is either.
I am sharing this knowledge, which I was freely given. I request it is received with respect to the author. And used with the same intent it has been passed on with.
IIOm TejasvinawadhitamastuII
Copy and paste:
Every calendar on this planet ,including the Mayan calendar has been lifted from the Hindu calendar.
The Malayalam calendar is a sidereal solar calendar.
Western astrology takes the tropical approach, whereas Hindu astrology takes the ACCURATE sidereal one.
This results in the originally unified zodiacal coordinate system drifting apart gradually, with a clockwise(westward) precession of 1.4 degrees per century.
For the tropical zodiac used in Western astronomy and astrology, this means that the tropical sign of Aries currently lies somewhere within the constellation Pisces ("Age of Pisces").
Most perceptive modern Western astrologers, have advocated abandoning the tropical system in favour of a sidereal one. This is what happens when you steal without understanding the concepts.
Vedic Hindu astronomy uses sidereal time which takes into account the precession of the equinoxes—though the white man tries to ridicule us for NOT knowing this— and that too after immorally after copying from us.
The earth revolves around the sun in a ELLIPTICAL orbit -- and at the same time the earth wobbles on its own axis -- like a slowed down top, where it takes 25765 years for a full round wobble ..
A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the apparent position of the sun moving on the celestial sphere.
The Hindu solar calendar starts on April 14–15 ( Kerala Vishu festival ) each year. This signifies the sun's "entry" into Mesha ( medham ) rashi .
The Indian national Saka calendar is used, alongside the Gregorian calendar, by the Government of India. The Saka calendar is also used in Bali with Hinduism religion . Here the medham starts on March 21st ( aries ).
This is for uniformity to unite the country where there are different methods. The usage officially started at medam (Chaitra) 1, 1879 Saka Era, or March 22, 1957.
This system is totally based on revolving of the earth around the sun. It is independent of revolving of the moon around the earth. . This date March 22nd is chosen , as on this date, the day and night are of equal length in “both hemispheres of the earth”- basically at the equator.
Sidereal and tropical are astrological terms used to describe two different definitions of a "year".
Thus Aries of the tropical zodiac is from 21st March to 20th April—while it is from 15th April to 15th May as per the siderial zodiac.
Both divide the ecliptic into a number of "signs" named after constellations, but while the sidereal system defines the signs based on the fixed stars, the tropical system defines it based on the position of vernal equinox (i.e., the intersection of the ecliptic with the celestial equator).
Because of the precession of the equinoxes, the two systems do not remain fixed relative to each other but drift apart by about 1.4 arc degrees per century..
In astronomy this is a difference between the length of a sun - tropical year (365.2422 rotations of the earth) and a star -sidereal year (365.2563 rotations).
The tropical system was adopted during the Hellenistic period and remains prevalent in Western astrology—basically lifted without commonsense from ancient Hindu astrology ..
The Tropical Zodiac is the position of the sun referenced against the earth’s horizon at a particular locale which gives you the seasons as a measure of the flow of time. The framework for the 4 seasons are the 2 solstices and the 2 equinoxes. This is the one most western astrologers use.
The Sidereal Zodiac is the position of the sun referenced against the star background, as a measure of the flow of time. The framework for the star background is the constellations the sun passes in front of. This is the one perceptive astronomers use.
We can measure time by the seasons (tropical time) or by the stars (sidereal time). The sun, as the time hour hand, is common to both.
Tropical Zodiac:--Most people know what their birth sign is. They may be a Libra or a Taurus or one of 10 other signs of the Tropical Zodiac.
What does it mean?
It means that at the time of their birth, from an earth perspective, the sun was in 1 of 12 zones around the earth. Each of the 12 has an angular length of 300. 12 X 300 =3600. The frame of reference for these zones is the sun’s positions relative to the earth’s horizon.
As the sun moves through the seasons its altitude changes and so do the compass bearings of its rising and setting positions.
None of these signs can be directly related to a group of stars that can be seen in the skies with one's physical eyes.
Sanskrit term Ayanamsa is the angle by which the sidereal ecliptic longitude of a celestial body is less than its tropical ecliptic longitude. Ayanamsa is around 24° today. The ayanamsha describes the increasing gap between the tropical and sidereal zodiacs.
The ayanamsa, changes continually through the Precession of the Equinoxes at the rate of approximately 50" a year. Suryasiddhaanta states that ayanamsha was zero in 499 AD (Mesha Samkranti).
Tropical (sayana) zodiac is analogous to measuring the positions of trees and buildings sitting in a slowly moving bus. Sidereal (nirayana) zodiac, on the other hand, considers a fixed zodiac.
Astrologers when they use modern astronomical calculations to determine the position of celestial bodies, they need to take into account the difference caused by the different reference point used in specifying the longitude, and this they call the ayanamsa.
As earth’s precession changes every year, the difference between the tropical zodiac and the sidereal zodiac changes. This difference is called “ayanamsa” (sidereal difference
The Islamic calendar is still lunar, with no correction for the extra days in a solar year. As a result, the Islamic months move forward by about 11 days every solar year. So, for instance, the month of Ramzan (or Ramadan) keeps shifting. It was in November in the year 2005.
@astrorada Namaste bro ya sis! you deserve an answer and thx for posting. please forgive shortness of answer! some of what your source said is common knowledge and goes without saying, some is utter rubbish which can only be said by a person abolute ignorant of the topic and some is sociopolitical propaganda against "white supremacy" by someone who is obviously a racist of the indian kind. most though is a mix of my points. imho forget that fool!
@astrorada The ancient hindus measured all this with tropical measurements so the mesha sanskranti was tropical. ALl the old astronomy books and even the puranas are very clear on this. THe Hindus lost the knoweldge of precession. They currently follow that the sun moves north on jan 14 and have a huge celebration for it, its called the Makara Sankranti, the capricorn ingress, whcih according to ALL hindu texts happens when the sun moves north. The problem is, the sun moves north on December 21st. In 1951 the Indian govt gathered together some astronomers to make a agreed upon calendar in India as different regions were making some different calculations and make it hard to keep unity in govt affairs. The astronomers agreed that sankranti's are correct with tropical and not sidereal and its written into indian law. However, erroneous traditaion still prevailes and they are using sidereal ingresses and so the average Indian still thinks the sun moves north on Jan 14th.