Page 5

Introduction

The father of the bride or groom is told that the horoscopes Sanskrit: kundali; a birth chart used to determine destiny and compatibility match perfectly. However, those specific factors which ought to be examined in the couple's horoscopes are completely ignored by the local priests original: padha; often used here to refer to village priests who may lack deep scholarly training.

The father of the bride should have the groom's horoscope examined by a truly learned scholar for negative indications such as:

• Lifespan
• Leprosy and similar ailments
• Royal diseases original: rajaroga; typically referring to tuberculosis or other chronic, wasting diseases
• Renunciation original: pravrajya; an astrological combination suggesting the person will abandon worldly life to become a monk
• Excommunication from kin
• Outcast status original: mleccha; referring to those outside the traditional social or moral order
• And other various misfortunes.

Similarly, the father of the groom should examine the bride's horoscope for signs of widowhood, childlessness, wicked character, insanity, adultery, chronic illness, and other such ill-fated combinations before finalizing the union. If this is not done, the couple must suffer for a lifetime, and the sin of that suffering will fall upon those priests who failed to properly match the horoscopes before the wedding.

However, the horoscopes of the bride and groom must be calculated based on the correct "Ishta" the specific time elapsed since sunrise, used to calculate the ascendant. Inaccurate birth records are the very root of the mutual misery experienced by husbands and wives. When the time for a child's birth approaches, one should summon a skilled mathematician original: ganitagna; a specialist in astronomical and astrological calculations to be present beforehand, so that the exact moment of the rising sign original: lagna is not missed or corrupted.

Before marriage, one must have a truly wise scholar perform the "Melana" the formal process of matching eight specific categories of compatibility and the purification of the wedding time, so that this mental and ancestral suffering does not have to be endured for a lifetime.

Alas! Such darkness prevails in the world today. Whether the horoscope is accurate or not, whether the bride suffers or the groom, the patrons original: yajaman; the person who commissions a religious ritual simply call upon those ignorant "Star-Gazers" original: nakshatrasuchi; a derogatory term for priests who pretend to know astrology but lack true depth to settle everything.

Grief! Grief! Grief!! Grief!!! Regarding the birth of a child or the marriage of a son or daughter, even the poorest of men will wastefully spend hundreds of rupees on prostitutes, performers, and fireworks. Yet, no one thinks to give ten or twenty rupees to an intelligent astrologer to ensure an accurate birth record or a proper matching of horoscopes for the wedding.