Page 76 - SBV (English)

16 Çré Bhaktisiddhänta Vaibhava

transgressing his qualification and jurisdiction. Whatever
*
the case may be, I present this translation with adequate
examples for the benefit of those muddled egoists and for
general beginners in astronomy.

Çré Siddhänta Sarasvaté’s edition of Sürya-siddhänta was in response to an
1860 Bengali translation by Çré Bäpudeva Çästré, which recast the Vedic science
as being in line with and in need of improvement by Western astronomy.
†
Çré Siddhänta Sarasvaté’s edition also provided the necessary béja-saàskäras
(fundamental re-calibrations) to its equations, to accurately reset the astronomical
constants in Sürya-siddhänta. This was required because those “constants”
actually fluctuate due to perturbations in planetary motion; thus to remain
meaningful, the equations describing them must be revised approximately every
one hundred years. Yet about eight centuries had passed without any updation,
before Çré Siddhänta Sarasvaté undertook to do so. For generations the priggish
orthodoxy of the science had misunderstood the astrological siddhäntas to be
like the sacredly inadjustable truths of çästra rather than practical guidebooks,
and insisted on adhering to ancient figures and tables that inevitably caused the
calculations based thereon to be incorrect, resulting in a disservice rather than
contribution to humanity. All the same, Çré Siddhänta Sarasvaté’s pragmatic
reform was controversial, for his revealing the obvious truth of the matter and
accordingly restoring Sürya-siddhänta as a useful astronomical tool was considered
heretical by the ossified philistine elders of the astrological establishment. ‡
Not only in jyotiña was Çré Siddhänta Sarasvaté a stickler for truth; from
youth he staunchly opposed the fallacies of Mäyäväda. Once he went with others
to the place of the renowned Paëòita Éçvara-candra Vidyäsägara, an elderly
polymath and esteemed Sanskrit scholar who had taught Sanskrit grammar to
many persons, including Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura. When the conversation
turned to the nature of Godhead the pandit remarked, “You see, my friends,
when I have no actual experience of Godhead or His real self, then even taking
it for granted that He exists, if I give any account of Him but He proves to be
unlike what I say in all sincerity, then certainly I risk being taken to task by Him

* In this context, Ärya is understood to mean “Hindu.”

† This is further discussed in vol. 1, p. 36.
‡ It appears that without compromising the principles of traditional jyotiña, to a certain extent
Çré Siddhänta Sarasvaté incorporated Western methodology into it, particularly by employing
modern (instead of Vedic) mathematics (See: Danavir Goswami, Vedic Cosmology [Kansas
City, Mo., U.S.A: Rupanuga Vedic College, 2003]).