The world has witnessed a ‘Lunar Eclipse’ on 7 July 2009, though not seen in India; we are going to see a complete ‘Solar Eclipse’ on 22 July 2009 and again another Lunar Eclipse on 6 August 2009.

Such a rare celestial event of three eclipses within 30 days is called a ‘Triple Eclipse’.

The earliest recorded triple eclipses happened during the time of Mahabharata, once in 3067 BCE just before the Kurukshetra War and the other in 3031 BCE just before the Yadavas fought with one another and perished and Dwaraka got submerged under the engulfing sea. Does it mean that a celestial event portend a calamity on earth?

While Astronomy is an ancient science studying the celestial objects, their evolution and formation and development of the universe, Astrology is a traditional science, or rather a belief system, which provides details and information about individuals, countries and other terrestrial matters based on the relative positions of celestial bodies.

In fact, before the modern era both the sciences were indistinguishable and people used to relate every happening on earth with the movements and related positions of the celestial bodies like sun, moon, stars and planets. Even the formations of different types of comets, meteors and other things including the eclipses were believed to be bad omens or signifying some calamitous event.   

So, it would be certainly interesting to study the effect of such celestial events and their impact on earth. Chennai based ‘Bharath Gyan’, which has been in the intellectual arena for almost a decade collating specific scientific knowledge using ancient knowledge sources and modern scientific tools and methods, has extended its tentacles to the ‘Galaxy’ for studying the celestial movements vis-à-vis happenings on the earth.

When an eclipse by itself occurs occasionally, it is even more special for a triple eclipse to occur back to back within a month! Considering the fact that triple eclipses have mostly occurred just before major events such as floods, tsunami, earthquakes, wars, mass-migrations, death of world famous individuals, etc., the authors have placed their perspectives in five parts.

In the first part named ‘A Celestial Drama in July 2009’, they discuss about the general phenomenon of an eclipse and the specialty of triple eclipses and whether such events occurred before. In this context, they introduce a concept called ‘Planetarium Software’, which helps to map the ancient history (and historical events) with the present day modern calendar.

As a result, the convergence of the sky chart as shown by the planetarium software and the record in the ancient texts, including the sequence of celestial events and the time gap between them, which ratifies not only this software but also the events in the texts, as they come from two independent unconnected sources. Using the new field of science called ‘Archaeo-Astronomy’, the authors have gone back in time, to date some of the events to ratify and substantiate history and literature with the same.

The authors also talk about the missing link, that is, the disappearance of Saraswati river. They also analyse the anthropological impacts and pan global similarities. At the end of the part, the authors give a clarion call for a complete study on India’s vast reservoir of specific and scientific literature ranging from the Vedas and the other ancient native literatures and traditional texts, which could provide a concrete foundation and pointers, which could also be augmented.

The fourth part, ‘The last 100 years’ takes us through the dark side of the 20th century. We find eighteen triple eclipses (back to back) between August 1913 to June 1946 and occurrences of events like World War I, Hitler assuming power, Holocaust, World War II, etc. At the same time the authors do not fail to point out the ‘other’ side, which has seen the unprecedented advancements in various fields of science and technology ranging from applications for defence to entertainment.

While analysing the present triple eclipse in the fifth and final part ‘2009-CE and beyond’, the authors discuss about our present stand, the geological stage (earthquake prone zones, etc), and a comparison of political scenario, religions and leaderships then and now. The book also analyses the geopolitical stage from the times of Mahabharata to the present day India, taking Kurukshetra war and Battle of Plassey as examples.

The authors talk about alliances, alignments and strategies delving deep into the NATO and Warsaw Pact and attempting to project a picture on future alliances. The relationship between India and Pakistan is also studied beginning from the early arrival of Islam in India to putting the blame on Maharaja Hari Singh instead of Jawaharlal Nehru for the Kashmir imbroglio to Kargil war to Mumbai terror attack. At the end of part five, the authors indicate the five triple eclipses, which are likely to occur from 2011 to 2020.

In the concluding part, the authors summarise all the five parts and provide us with a list of man induced catastrophes and natural catastrophes, which are staring at our face. They also appeal to us to use the triple eclipse as a reason to assess ourselves by retrospecting the past.

 

The authors give us a positive perspective that during/after every calamitous event the world got some universal message, by citing the examples of Bhagavad Gita during Kurukshetra War, spread of Buddhism after Kalinga war, The League of Nations after World War I, the Dumbarton Oaks Meet leading to the birth of Charter of UN after World War II, etc. As 2020 is going to herald a ‘Knowledge Era’, the authors feel that the triple eclipses between 2009 and 2020 would prepare the world for the same.

The 115 page book with beautiful pictures and flawless printing is published by Sri Sri Publications Trust, Art of Living International Centre, Bangalore and priced at Rs.200/-. The book has a benedictory note from Sri Sri Ravishankar and the foreword is by Zeyno Baran, director, Centre for Eurasian Policy, Hudson Institute, Washington DC.