This is admittedly a very different kind of article. I present this as food for deep thought. It strikes at the heart of astrology when attempts are made to find a chart for the image of a god that also describes his life.  I don’t seek to draw any absolute conclusions, but it raises intriguing questions that are well worth contemplating

I will not rehearse what has already been written in such detail by Dr. Padmakar Vishnu Vartak, M.B.B.S., F.U.W.A.I., Ph.D. (Lit) [Washington DC]  in his article,  Birthdate_of_Krishna > His method is sophisticated and complex. It also requires a very strong understanding of  Jyotish and Hindu scripture.

Over the last two decades in particular,there has been a wide variety of archaeological discoveries which have demanded we treat ancient myth as possible historical accounts. This isn’t the place to enumerate them, but I will mention what the Hindu texts refered to as the City of Krishna.

It had been assumed it was a mythic city. However, it was found and explored underwater in the Arabian Sea The lost city of Dwaraka was submerged off the northwestern coast of India near the Gulf of Cambay or Khambat.  The city was estimated to be 9,000 years old . More recently, some archaeologists have suggested a date closer to 12,000 years ago. The former would seem to approximate Dr. Padmakar’s date of Krishna’s birth:

“On 16th October 5561 BC it was Margashirsha Amavasya on Uttara Ashadha. It was not on Jeshtha, as is assumed. I need not go in details of this discussion, readers may refer to my book ‘The Scientific Dating of the Mahabharata War’. From this, we find that on Shravana Krishna 8th it was 23rd May during 5626 BC.”

The same Dr. Padmaker claims that the outer planets were all known among the sages of India circa 6,000 B.C.  I have no access to tables for that time period and Padmakar doesn’t offer us a chart in the article. However, he does give us the planetary positions.

“Krishna was born at midnight on Shravan Vadya 8th so that the Lagna was Vrushabha, where the Moon resided. Ascendant was Taurus.”

So we have May 23 5626 B.C. Midnight,  near Cambay as birth data and Padmarka claims that this describes the life of Krisha precisely. I should think there are very few people in a position to contest his findings.

However, there is another chart for Krishna which I ought to mention. It’s 19 July 3228 B.C. Midnight. The chart is sidereal (Lahiri) and I’m using Cambay as the location. The first thing to note is the focus on the Taurus Ascendant. This is obviously of great importance in both charts. The Sun is in the Royal Sign of Leo and the Moon is right on the Ascendant disposed by Venus in Cancer.

B.V. Raman writes of this chart :

“It is impossible for ordinary mortals to evaluate the personality of Sri Krishna — the Lord incarnate, statesman, counsellor, diplomat, philosopher, Yogeeswara, the expounder of the immortal Bhagavadgita, the destroyer of the wicked and the protector of the pious. All the three important factors in His horoscope, viz., the Lagna, the Sun and the Moon have been rendered strong. ”

The Fixed Stars are also auspicious, with Aldebaran and Rigel conjunct the Ascendant. Aldebaran has the significance of the eye of God and Rigel  is a powerful star of the nature of Jupiter and Saturn. The Sun is parallel with Regulus. However the Moon is conjunct Algol. I’m guessing this is seen as a great power, but that’s quite a stretch. Perseus is holding the severed head of the ghoul.  However, one of Krishna’s attributes is immunity to venom. Presumably, Krishna would hold the power of Algol rather than have it turned against him.

In the story of Kaliya the Serpent, “Krishna overcomes Kaliya the dreaded, multi-hooded snake in the River Yamuna and begins to dance on its several hoods. When the heels of Krishna strike the hoods, some break off and then get replaced by new ones. All the while Krishna keeps playing his sweet flute”

This might well be the explanation for choosing this position of the Moon.

The festival of Krishna Janmashtami is celebrated on 28 August this year (2013) Hindu children dress up and identify with Krishna.

Krishna was granted perfect invulnerability except for the souls of his feet, in much the same manner as Achilles’s heel. A hunter mistook him for a   deer because of the colour of silk that Krishna was wearing. The bowman shot Krishna on the sole of one of his feet.

The Lord of the Eighth House of Death is Jupiter. The house is Sagittarian, presumably referring to the bowman and of course, feet are attributed to Pisces, also ruled by Jupiter  

It looks as if the astrologers have taken all this into account

There are many ways we can read this material. Firstly we can lend credence to both astrologers. Both of them are highly skilled and although the dates are different, key elements of the chart remain. It might be construed as a search for the perfect man, the greatest possible chart to suit a god who is also a man.

Perhaps it’s a more general enquiry into the nature of God. After all, the primary Hindu gods are ultimately states of consciousness. In that sense, Krishna is always in the present.  This is alien to modern Western thought because it took the path of duality. To be human is not divine, to be divine is not human, so discussion of the qualities of divinity as in the same kind of chart as we would use for a friend  Happily, this aberration is being seen for what it is. This particular aberration is not shared by most Hindus. One can worship a deity while also recognizing his or her essence within one’s soul and the souls of all sentient beings.

To quote Sri Swami Sivenand: “Existing as He does as the very Immortal Principle in all-beings, Lord Krishna proclaims with unimpeachable authority, the immortality of the Soul. Being manifest here in this world as the very life and soul of all beings, He reveals the immanence of God. Being the witness of the actions of Prakriti (Nature) and the interplay of the Gunas (qualities), and in the perfect knowledge of the nature of this play of the Gunas. He declares that the objects of the world are evanescent, that all that is born must die and that all that is created must perish. Being the One who is conscious of the one imperishable, indivisible Truth which is never affected by the illusory play of Prakriti in which the Jiva (individual) which is essentially one with that Supreme Being, dreams that he is dumb-driven and bound, the Lord asserts that liberation is possible here and now” (From Gospel of Lord Krishna).

My impression is that these astrologers are indeed interested in the birth time of Krishna to know him better and perhaps to reiterate the antiquity of Hinduism and the non mythic reality written of in the Mahabharata, the Vedas and the Upanishads.

As T.S. Eliot would have it in Burnt Norton :

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.

This is in agreement with both quantum physics and the Vedas. Many of us no longer see time as purely linear. What we mean by ‘the present’ is changing also. Most cultures have already known this, which is why the ancestors are always present. Truly linear thinking is a product of the Industrial Revolution. It’s an assembly line model of consciousness