Happy Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Nevreh, Vishu, Cheti Chand, Bohag Bihu, Vaishaki  and greetings on the day of Chaitra Shukla Pratipada.  Best wishes to all the readers of Sojourn with San. Yesterday was the auspicious day of Ugadi and many parts of India and overseas, celebrated this New Year.

To my readers who are not familiar with the Indian, Vedic or the luni-solar form of the calendar, Ugadi begins on the first new moon after the Spring Equinox. Ugadi or Yugadi is an amalgamation of the words, ‘Yug’ means ‘age’ and ‘adi’ means ‘new beginnings. My friend Sapna Dube writes in detail about Ugadi here, http://sapnadube.com/happy-ugadi-2022/.

On this day, the New Moon is in Pisces and so is the Sun in the last degrees. Pisces, as we know, is the last amongst the signs in the zodiac belt, and the sun starts its new journey into Aries on Mesha Sankaranti or the solar new year in a few days. The day is also known as ‘Samvatsaradi’, as the term “Samvatsara” is a Sanskrit word for ‘year’ in the Vedic literature.

• It is believed that this was the period when Lord Brahma created the world. Some schools of thought define it as the period of time in which Brihaspati (planet Jupiter) with its average speed crosses the journey of one zodiac sign and moves on to the next.

• Lord Prajapati or Brahma is known to be the embodiment of Samvatsara that is widely used to explore a different segment of time like day, seasons (ritus), the period of 6 solar months that determine the northward/southward movement of sun (Ayana), and Month (masa).
• According to this definition, when Jupiter completes the entire circle of traversing all 12 zodiac signs, it comprises 12 Samvatsaras. During the entire journey, Jupiter is either close by or far from planet Earth, and accordingly it creates positive or negative influences for society, the world or an individual.
• Hence, one complete orbit of Jupiter through all the twelve signs of the zodiac will approximately equal twelve solar years. Five such orbits of Jupiter (i.e. 12 x 5 = 60 samvatsara) are referred to as a samvatsara chakra. Each samvatsara within this cycle has been given a name. Once all 60 samvatsara are over, the cycle starts over again. Hence, in an individual’s personal chart, the planets come back to the same position as it was when he/she was born. This is regarded as a ‘rebirth’ and in Sanatana Dharma it is called “Shashti Abda Poorti” and this milestone marks celebration and gratitude for life given by the Almighty.  The Vedas say “Janmaabde, Janmamaasecha Swajanmadivase tathaa, Janmarshe chaiva kartavyaa santi rugrarathaahvayaa, Devaalaye nadeeteere swagruhe vaa subhasthale”. This mantra says that Sashti Abda Poorthi could be conducted in the year, month and the day a person completes 60 years of age. 

• The yugas of periods (creation) began when both Jupiter and Saturn were at 0-degree of Aries. So, if we take the lowest common multiple between the motion of Jupiter and Saturn (approximately 12 years and 30 years), we get the count of 60. The sixty Samvatsaras are divided into 3 groups of 20 Samvatsaras each. The first 20 from Prabhava to Vyaya are assigned to Brahma. The next 20 from Sarvajit to Parabhava to Vishnu and the last 20 to Shiva. The name of this year is Shubhakrit Samvatsara. Each Samvatsara carries a particular essence that is correlated with its Sanskrit name along with its group ruler.

This is indeed the scientific way to calculate the new year instead of the Gregorian calendar. For more details you could go back to my very first article under the section Astrology. Annually the Pratipada Thithi is studied for each country and it sets the tone for the year to come. This is indeed the New Year which is known as Yugadi or Ugadi and is celebrated as the New Year in many states of India such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra to name a few. This is the day to start afresh.

Planetary Transits of April 2022

However, let us look at the unusual planetary transits of April 2022. All major planets are changing signs in this month.

• Mars transits in Aquarius from Capricorn- April 7^th 2022
• Mercury transits in Aries from Pisces – April 8^th, 2022
• Rahu transits (retrograde motion) from Taurus to Aries – April 12^th, 2022
• Ketu enters Libra
• Jupiter transits in Pisces from Aquarius- April 13^th, 2022
• Sun transits in Aries – April 14^th, 2022 (Solar New Year)
• Mercury transits in Taurus from Aries – April 25^th, 2022
• Venus transits in Pisces from Aquarius- April 27^th, 2022
• Saturn transits in Aquarius from Capricorn- April 29^th, 2022
• (Even Neptune shifts sign into Pisces 18^th April 2022)

This is a rare occurrence when so many planets change signs, which is indicative of major changes in the world. In a short span of 22 days there are 7 planets that are changing signs.

On 5^th April, Mars and Saturn will be conjunct at 28 degrees in the sign of Capricorn. This is expected to result in a major event in the world. This is because Capricorn deals with the masses, the government, with hierarchies and power structures. Mars and Saturn are opposing energies. Just like Mars pushes the accelerator, Saturn will put a break. The period is like a stuttering car. Both Saturn and Mars are very strong in the sign of Capricorn as Saturn is in its own sign of rulership while Mars in its sign of exaltation. Mars is all about energy, a good warrior and a fight.  For India, it may not be the best thing as Capricorn is the 9th house which indicates gurus, philosophy and religion. So a communal event could take place in the next few days. Luckily, Mars transitions into Aquarius on April 7^th. Since, we have this knowledge, what we can do is – not to flame the negative flames of passion.

You would have read in my first article that whenever Rahu is in Gemini and Ketu in Sagittarius (every 18.5 years), there has always been a crisis. They were in these signs since 2019 -2020, when the world was most affected by the pandemic. 2021 saw them transition to Rahu in Taurus and Ketu in Scorpio, when there was a greater understanding of the disease and vaccines came out to start the healing. On April 12^th when Rahu and Ketu move into Aries and Libra respectively, it is expected that the world will learn to live the virus and/or the virulence of the virus will go down. The attention of the world will be elsewhere. Most of the world will be obsessed by their bodies and themselves. Rahu (an airy planet) in Aries rashi (fire sign) is going to make leaders aggressive and be obsessed with grabbing land area and we already see it happening with Russia and Ukraine. The opposite happens when Ketu (fiery planet) goes into Libra (an air sign). Ketu is a mokshakaraka (makes one detached) and is in Libra, which will make people assess if they are giving too much of oneself to others and may encourage detachment. This means that the eclipses will happen in the Aries/Libra axis, which could be moderate to extremely transformation for many people who have these grahas in this axis.

On 8^th – 12^th April, there are 3 planets (Rahu, Sun and Mercury) entering into Aries, which is the first sign of the zodiac belt and indicates a new era and new events. This combination could increase cyber frauds, banking sector, stock market scams could come out. Uranus (indicating airplanes) is also already sitting in Aries. Mercury (intellect) is afflicted and Rahu amplifies events. So, heads of governments will oppose each other. Hence, the common man has to take care that they tide over inflation. 

However, on April 13^th the benefic Jupiter moves into Pisces and becomes strong in his own house. Neptune also moves into the sign on 18^th, hence the good part is that people are expected to work in groups to help each other.  The Jupiter and Neptune conjunction is the turning point in the great awakening of this month. Neptune also governs oil and gas and its presence with the Jupiter, will see oil prices hitting the roof. Needless to say, these are manipulated. This month also sees Jupiter and Venus together in Pisces, which means the two gurus are in the same house.

As we usher in the New Year, that marks the beginning of the Vasanta (spring) Navaratris and ‘Sri Rama Navami’ marks the climax, it is a good time to introspect that we are but a part of the cosmos and all we can do is to go by its rules and adjust to the flow. Let’s be the vessels of positivity, love and light. And the best way to do it is to connect with nature. And that’s how I spent my Ugadi day- in the lap of nature.