History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.618

v6.c82.618

When an astrologer says that a planet (say Venus) is in its *svagṛha* (own house) i. e. Vṛṣabha (Bull) with the Moon let us understand what it means. The *rāśi* Vṛṣabha is constituted by many stars, the most brilliant of which is Rohiṇī (Aldebaran). Light travels at 186000 miles a second and modern astronomy finds that light takes 57 years to reach the earth from Aldebaran. The position then is this that the observer on the earth sees the Moon, Venus and Aldebaran very near each other. According to modern astronomy the Moon is only about two hundred and forty thousands miles from the earth, Venus a few crores of miles from it and Aldebaran billions of billions of miles away. They appear to be near only on account of the effect of perspective. This creates difficulties which the astrologers altogether ignore. When an observer sees Aldebaran to-day the rays he sees today started some 57 years ago, while the rays of Mars are seen within a few minutes of their start and of the Moon almost immediately.