The Ascendant or Lagna

                                             …………the nucleus of Astrology

 Overview

With the penetration of the Electronic Media, almost all TV channels in India are agog with innumerable predictions of all sorts based on the Moon sign in Astrology. Perhaps it is time now to introspect the impact of this callous attitude, lest millions of viewers who watch TV get bogged down psychologically, and develop phobia of a possible danger and get themselves drowned in fear and demoralize themselves.

Astrology is an integral but independent chapter in the path of spirituality. Astrology is supposed to imbibe hope and confidence in our daily life and not destroy it. Human beings may/can survive without Oxygen for a few minutes, whereas, ‘without hope’ to survive for a minute is next to impossible. Therefore, may we say that the daily and weekly predictions televised is amounting to Astrological terrorism, while, a negligible percentage of viewers might get excited with highly favourable prediction one week and the week next to that they are bound to hear the near total destruction of the previous week’s hype! Is our life going on as per the TV programmes on Astrology?  Are there any Social objectives in such Telecast? Does it serve any purpose? Who are the beneficiaries, if any?

What is Ascendant or Lagna?

Ascendant or Lagna is the most critical point in Astrology. Whole of Astrology revolves around this. Ascendant is an ‘Imaginary Point’ ever rising in the East. As the clock ticks, every second there is an imaginary point rising at any given location. Thus, it is different for each spot on the earth. The geographical location of the spot in terms of the Longitude and Latitude of the spot thus gains importance.

When a child is born, the moment it inhales the first puff of atmospheric Oxygen is the actual birth time and the imaginary point then, is the Ascendant. All other planets including Moon, Astronomical location at that point in time are then considered with respect to the Ascendant. Therefore, the Ascendant becomes ‘Unique’ for each child and thus the child gets a discrete, independent identity so far as Astrology is considered. Let us recognize here the Astrologically vulnerable point that, the Ascendant is not a physical object like any planet while it is an imaginary point holding the key to Astrological prediction.

To draw a bottom line message encompassing the factors above means Moon’s position is with respect to the Ascendant whilst all Telecasts on Astrology is in total isolation and disrespect to the Ascendant. Moon sign or ‘Rashi’ is subordinate to the Ascendant. Thus, the most sensitive and critical Astrological point which determines the life of people is given a good bye, and the TV programmes rally around the Moon sign only because it has to address a very large number of viewers in total defiance of the basic tenets of Astrology.

Now, a little insight on the outer periphery of the subject of Astrology vis-à-vis the mathematical approach clears many points that might arise in our mind. Firstly, the Ascendant takes approximately two hours to cover one Zodiac sign. Secondly, Moon takes approximately about 60 hours to cover one Zodiac sign. Don’t we find how the equation of 2 hours versus 60 hours sound, to blabber all sorts of imaginary predictions based exclusively on the Moon sign? Is it not absurd, misleading and irrelevant? Is it a service to the Society? Don’t we think that many deadly utterances made, impact the viewers’ negatively and create a fear psychosis? Therefore, the TV programmes on weekly predictions based on the Moon sign is nothing short of Astrological terrorism.

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