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When: March 23, 2006 - May 4th, 2006
Where: ISKCON Sri Dham Mayapura
Instructor: Sriman Shyamasundara Dasa
Maximum number of students accepted: 20
Tuition: no tuition. We follow Lord Krsna's Vedic cultural tradition of accepting only dakshine.
Object: This intense course is designed to cover a segment of the curriculum for the Jyotish Vidvan degree. The amount of information covered will depend on the ability of the students to assimilate what is taught. But the main focus of the first intensive will be important Foundational Topics in Vedic Astrology as well as an Analytic Study of the Elements of Vedic Astrology. The later is intended to be an introduction to the irreducible building blocks of Vedic Astrology. The emphasis throughout the course will be on learning the basic definitions that make up the language of astrology. With knowledge of first principles the intelligent student will then understand why the signs have the meanings that they have, etc. It will all make sense to you if you grasp the foundation.
The course is designed to introduce the student incrementally to different levels of the components of this celestial language. It is these elements that are holistically combined to do an astrological reading. As the course progresses the student will be given more building blocks that are all linked together. The student should regularly review previous lessons to retain his newly acquired knowledge.
By completing this one course the student will not be able to read a horoscope or make predictions. However, they will have an excellent foundation for further study in astrology.
No prior knowledge of astrology or any other system of divination is assumed. We do however make assumptions about the student's knowledge of and commitment to the mission of our Founder Acarya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. In other words this course is intended for dedicated Vaisnava preachers who want to use Jyotish as part of their cultural repertoire. A good understanding of Sankhya philosophy as taught in Srimad Bhagavatam 2nd and 3rd cantos will be very helpful to the student.
Class schedule: tentatively every 2nd day for 3-6 hours on that day. No recording will be allowed (we will make our own recordings). Intervening days will be for homework and also include lectures on various related Krsna conscious topics. Attendance of these lectures is mandatory as well as attending the full morning and evening program, chanting 16 rounds/day, following the regulated principles and other standard sadhana.