Issue 1

It's all in the Timing! - Part 1 Whether it's in the telling of a joke or striking a business deal, there's nothing more important than timing. What you do is important but when you do it is just as important. We all know the importance of timing in the material world. Even little kids understand the importance of timing. When they want their next cool toy, they catch their dads in a good mood and butter them up! Thus we have known the importance of timing right from our childhood. The Siddhas say that what we need to learn now is that timing is just as important in the world of spirituality. Just as timing is important in the material world, it's important in the world of spirituality too. The efficacy of one's spiritual practices can be increased greatly by timing it according to Siddha injunctions. The Siddhas say that he who wants to transcend time must know the connection between timing and karma completely. We have pointed out the importance of karma neutralization in the Agasthiar Primer. To effectively neutralize karma, everything we do must be done in a spiritual way in accordance with the rules of the spiritual world. It's the Sathguru who knows all the rules of the spiritual world and it's he who instructs on how we can perform all activities in a spiritual way. The Sathguru not only teaches us how to do things but also when to do them for maximum effect. There are time periods which are particularly effective and there are those which are disadvantageous. We must learn both from the Sathguru so that we know which time periods to pick and which to avoid. The Siddhas teach us that each day has five attributes. These are known as pancha angam: pancha = five, angam = attribute. These are: vaaram or day of the week tithi nakshatram yogam karanam. All five attributes are important, but we'll concentrate on the first three in this article. We'll describe the latter two at a later date in this Website. The Siddhas tell us that upon waking up, one must recite the five attributes of each day. This is an easy way of reminding oneself of the spiritual specialities of each day. You can get these details from the Agasthiar Spiritual Calendar provided in this Website. Vaaram, Day of the Week As pointed out in the article on the spiritual hierarchy, the Nava Nayakaas (Nine Lords) have been given much authority over human life. Each day of the week is ruled by one of the first seven of the nine lords, viz., Sunday by Soorya, Monday by Chandra, Tuesday by Angaaraka, Wednesday by Budha, Thursday by Guru, Friday by Sukra and Saturday by Sani. The last two of the nine lords, Raahu and Kethu, are associated with Tuesday and Saturday respectively. The day of the week is known as vaaram. Baanuvaaram is Sunday, Somavaaram is Monday and so on. Each day of the week reflects the characteristics of the Lord who rules the day. Thus each day has its own spiritual specialities. For example, Budha rules buddhi (intellect) and thus Wednesday is particularly suited for activities that involve the intellect, e.g., writing, speaking. This is because Budha is in charge of vaak chaathuryam, the gift of articulate speech. Likewise Chandra rules the mind and Guru rules all spiritual activities. Spiritual aspirants need to know these specialities so that they can structure their schedule appropriately for maximum spiritual effect. Within any given day, there are certain time periods which are particularly spiritually potent. To start with, we will mention three such time periods in every day: Brahma Muhoortham: the three hour time period culminating at dawn; assuming a 6 a.m. sunrise, this would be between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. everyday. Abhijit Muhoortham: high noon when the sun is at its zenith; assuming a 6 a.m. sunrise, this would be at 12 noon. Nitya Pradosha Kaalam: one and a half hours before dusk and half an hour thereafter; assuming a 6 p.m. sunset, this would be between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. everyday. These times are also known as sandhi kaalam, junction times within a day. The first is when the night meets the day, the second is when morning meets afternoon and the third is when day meets night. The Siddhas say that spiritual activities conducted during these time periods are particularly effective. Spiritual aspirants should make use of these potent time periods for rapid spiritual advancement. Within any given day, there are also certain time periods which are inauspicious. Two of these are Raahu Kaalam and Yama Gandam. The Siddhas say that it's ideal if we can use these times totally for worship. If these time periods are used for worship and not for material activities, they yield manifold spiritual benefits. Click here to use our convenient Rahu Kalam calculator. To start with, we will describe how to calculate the Raahu Kaalam time period for any given day. Divide the time period between sunrise and sunset into eight equal parts, which we will refer to as time octants. Arrange the days of the week in the order M,Sa,F,W,Th,Tu,Su and assign the second through the eighth time octants to these days in this order. These time octants then are the Raahu Kaalam times on each of the days of the week. So how do you calculate the Raahu Kaalam time period for your location on any given day? First find out the sunrise and sunset times for your location (this information is generally available in your local newspaper). Find out the length of the time octant by dividing the period from sunrise to sunset by eight. Pick the time octant that's appropriate for the day in question by following the order mentioned above. This is the Raahu Kaalam time period for the day in question for your location. Here are two examples of this calculation:

Raahu Kaalam Calculation
Day of the Week	Example 1: Sunrise 6:00 a.m. Sunset 6:00 p.m. Time Octant = 90 minutes	Example 2: Sunrise 5:58 a.m. Sunset 8:14 p.m. Time Octant = 107 minutes	Example 3: Sunrise 6:36 a.m. Sunset 6:10 p.m. Time Octant = 87 minutes
Sunday	4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.	6:27 p.m. to 8:14 p.m.	4:43 p.m. to 6:10 p.m.
Monday	7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.	7:45 a.m. to 9:32 a.m.	8:02 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Tuesday	3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.	4:40 to 6:27 p.m.	3:16 p.m. to 4:44 p.m.
Wednesday	12 noon to 1:30 p.m.	1:06 p.m. to 2:53 p.m.	12:23 p.m. to 1:50 p.m.
Thursday	1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.	2:53 p.m. to 4:40 p.m.	1:49 p.m. to 3:17 p.m.
Friday	10:30 a.m. to 12 noon	11:19 a.m. to 1:06 p.m.	10:56 p.m. to 12:23 p.m.
Saturday	9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.	9:32 a.m. to 11:19 a.m.	9:29 a.m. to 10:57 a.m.

Since the Raahu Kaalam time period is dependent on the sunrise and sunset times for your particular location, you must calculate it for each day using the above method. Or you can click here to use our convenient Rahu Kalam calculator. Horai Just like a day has its own specialities, each hour of the day also has its own specialities. Originally each 24 hour day was split into 60 naazhigais. Thus two and a half naazhigais constitute one modern hour which was known as horai in ancient times. The Siddhas say that each horai of each day is ruled by one of the first seven of the nine lords. Just like each day reflects the characteristics of the lord who rules the day, each horai also reflects the characteristics of the lord who rules the horai. Thus we have Soorya horai, Chandra horai, Angaaraka horai, Budha horai, Guru horai, Sukra horai and Sani horai times during each day. Now here's a question for you. At what time or times of the week are the characteristics of each of the seven lords most prevalent? Think about it... The answer should be pretty obvious. Here it is: The characteristics of each of the seven lords are most prevalent during his horai times on the day ruled by him. For example, Budha's characteristics are most prevalent during the Budha horai times on Wednesday. and hence these are the best time periods for conducting activities governed by Budha. The Siddhas have specified further refinements and we'll explore these in a future article. When do the various horai periods occur during the day? Horai periods start with Soorya horai at sunrise on Sunday and continue in the following cyclic order: Soorya, Sukra, Budha, Chandra, Sani, Guru, Angaaraka. For example, assuming a 6 a.m. sunrise, 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on a Sunday would be Chandra horai and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. would be Guru horai. We encourage the reader to tabulate the horai schedule for each day. Or you can click here to use our convenient Horai calculator. If you do the tabulation, you'll find that each day starts with the horai of its governing lord at sunrise. That is, Monday starts with Chandra horai at sunrise, Thursday starts with Guru horai and so on. How can we make sure that we get the maximum spiritual benefit during every hour of the day. Sathguru Venkataraman has communicated to us a simple horai based nava naayaka worship program devised by the Siddhas. All a spiritual aspirant has to do is to meditate on the governing horai lord 108 times during each horai. For example, during Soorya horai times meditate thus: Om Sooryaaya Namaha or Salutations to Soorya. Likewise Om Chandraaya Namaha, Om Angaarakaaya Namaha, Om Budhaaya Namaha, Om Guruve Namaha, Om Sukraaya Namaha, Om Saneesvaraaya Namaha during their respective horai periods. Observe that this is a very simple worship procedure; it takes only about two minutes and so it's very easy to do even when you are at your place of work. This is yet another way in which the Siddhas help us conform to the Will of the Universal Lord Arunachala for maximum spiritual benefit. There are some subtleties in horai computations. We'll explore these at a later date. Tithi A lunation is the interval between new moons, roughly 29.5 days. Each lunation is divided into 30 tithis or lunar days with each tithi defined as the time required for the longitude of the moon to increase by 12 degrees over the longitude of the sun. Thus there are 14 tithis between every new moon and full moon and vice versa. The zeroth and the fifteenth tithis are of course the new moon and the full moon respectively. Here are the names of the tithis: 0 Amavasya, the new moon day 1 Prathamai 2 Dvithiyai 3 Thrithiyai 4 Chathurthi 5 Panchami 6 Sashti 7 Sapthami 8 Ashtami 9 Navami 10 Dasami 11 Ekaadasi 12 Dvaadasi 13 Thrayodasi 14 Chathurdasi 15 Pournami, the full moon day. After Pournami, the tithis once again go on from 1 to 14 and end in the next Amavasya thus completing one lunation. Each tithi has its own spiritual specialities. Here is a sampling: Amavasya Ideal for pithru worship Chathurthi Ideal for Ganapathi worship Panchami Ideal for worshipping the Universal Mother Sashti Ideal for Muruga worship Ashtami Ideal for Krishna worship Navami Ideal for Rama worship Ekaadasi Ideal for Narayana worship Dvaadasi Ideal for Narayana worship Thrayodasi Ideal for Siva worship Chathurdasi Ideal for Siva and Ganapathi worship Pournami Best tithi for all worship activities, particularly Arunachala and Sathguru. Paksham As we saw in the last section, a lunation is divided into 30 tithis. A lunation is also divided into two phases. The phase between Amavasya and Pournami is called Sukla Paksham, the bright phase or the waxing phase. The phase between Pournami and Amavasya is called Krishna Paksham, the dark phase or the waning phase. So for example, the third tithi in the waxing phase would be called Sukla Paksha Thrithiyai and the the fourteenth tithi in the waning phase would be called Krishna Paksha Chathurdasi. Each paksham has its own spiritual speciality. The Siddhas say that activities that you want to grow should be started in the waxing phase, e.g., starting a business. Likewise activities which you do not want to grow should be conducted in the waning phase, e.g., surgery. Maasam, Ruthu, Ayanam, Varusham A varusham is a solar year. A varusham starts roughly in the middle of April each year. The present varusham (1998-99) is known as Bagudhaanya varusham. The varushams repeat in a 60 year cycle. So the next Bagudhaanya varusham will occur in 2058-59 A.D. A varusham is made up of two ayanams. That half when the sun is on a northward path (generally from the middle of January to the middle of July) is called Uttara Ayanam or Uttaraayanam (uttara = north). The other half when the sun is on a southward path (generally from the middle of July to the middle of January) is called Dakshina Ayanam or Dakshinaayanam (dakshina = south). A maasam is a solar month. There are 12 maasams in a varusham. A ruthu is two solar months. There are six ruthus in a varusham. Nakshatram The moon revolves around the earth in roughly 27 days. During this period, the moon traces a path around the sky. The ancients split this path of the moon into 27 units and gave each unit the name of a star, star group or constellation. These 27 units are known as nakshatrams. They are also referred to as brides of Chandra. The 27 nakshatrams are as follows: 1 Asvini 2 Barani or Apa Barani 3 Krithigai or Krittika 4 Rohini 5 Mrigaseersham or Mrigasira 6 Thiruvaadhirai or Aarudra 7 Punarpoosam or Punarvasu 8 Poosam or Pushya 9 Aayilyam or Aslesha 10 Magam or Magha 11 Pooram or Poorva Palguni 12 Uttaram or Uttara Palguni 13 Hastham or Hastha 14 Chithirai or Chitra 15 Svaathi 16 Visaakam or Visaka 17 Anusham or Anuradha 18 Kettai or Jyesta 19 Moolam or Moola 20 Pooraadam or Poorvashada 21 Uttaraadam or Uttarashada 22 Thiruvonam or Sravana 23 Avittam or Sravishta or Dhanista 24 Sadhayam or Sathabishak 25 Poorataadhi or Poorva Broshtapadha 25 Uttarataadhi or Uttara Broshtapadha 27 Revathi Each nakshatram is goverened by the spiritual force of a nakshatra devi. Each nakshatra devi is a great servant of the Universal Mother and she attained her spiritual status by exceptional divine service. Each nakshatram has its own spiritual speciality and we'll elaborate on this in future AUMzine issues. The Siddhas have prescribed a worship procedure called nakshatra dhyaanam, meditation on the nakshatrams. We'll describe this procedure in future AUMzine issues. To be continued... You can now imagine the combination of horai, vaaram (day), tithi, nakshatram, paksham, maasam, ayanam and varusham. Consider the specialities of such a combination! The Siddhas say that these combinations have much significance and we will elaborate on these at a later date. Expect a lot more on this important topic in future AUMzine issues.