BPHS Ch.1 (Restart) — Three Branches of Jyotisha, Maitreya-Parashara Dialogue & Student Qualifications

BPHS Chapter 1 — Srishti Krama Kathana (The Process of Creation)

Opening Dialogue

• Parashara is the great sage who knows the three times — past, present and future. Maitreya approaches him, bows with joined hands, and speaks.
• Maitreya calls Jyotisha a great, auspicious and secret Vedāṅga — a limb of the Veda.
• PVNR: Veda is the knowledge of the self, ātma-jñāna, the absolute knowledge. The Vedāṅgas are subsidiary knowledges to that self-knowledge.
• Maitreya says Jyotisha has three skandhas (see below), that he has heard Hora is the best of them, and that he wants to hear Hora from Parashara. He asks:
  1. How did this creation come about, and how does it end?
  2. What is the link between the bodies in the sky and the bodies roaming the earth?

Parashara's reply:

• "You have asked a very good question, for the benefit of the whole world."
• He first bows to Parama Brahma, to his shakti Bharati (Saraswati — "nothing but Brahma's energy"), and to Surya, lord of the grahas, the cause of the birth of the whole creation.
• Then he will speak of veda-nayanam, the eye of the Veda. Maitreya said "limb of the Veda"; Parashara says which limb — the eye.
• He teaches it as he heard it from the mouth of Brahma himself.

Three Branches of Jyotisha

Skandha = shoulder; Jyotisha has three shoulders, or parts.

It is Maitreya who says that of the three Hora is the best and most important — "thus I have heard".

Who Should Receive This Knowledge

Give it to one who is:

• Śānta — very peaceful and relaxed
• Guru-bhakta — devoted to the teacher
• Sarvadā satyavādin — always wants to speak the truth
• Āstika — believes in God

Then good comes to both the giver and the receiver of the knowledge.

Do not give it to a student who is nāstika and śaṭha — who does not believe in God, does not want to believe, and is stubborn and arrogant about it.

"If you give this knowledge to such a person, you will get unhappiness every day because of it."

PVNR on "every day": unhappiness during one year or one dasha is one thing; unhappiness every day is another. Parashara is saying the karma of teaching an unworthy student is huge. "Even if you don't take it literally, it means it's a big bad karma."

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