Gudi Padwa Puja, Palam Vihar, Gurgaon (India), 13 April 2002. (Hindi) [Translation from Hindi to English] The festival of Gudi Padwa that we are celebrating today,is also celebrated in other parts of India, even in the South. Everywhere this festival is celebrated. The ‘Samvat’ calendar year that was started (By King Vikramaditya) and the calendar year started by Shalivahanas, both start on the same day. That day is today. All over the country this day (New Year) is celebrated. All the important dates in the year are fixed on that basis especially the festivals. We people (Indians) follow the lunar calendar whereas the westerners follow the sun calendar. That’s why their festival dates do not change. Here (in India ) every festival is based on the position of the moon. And that’s why the dates keep changing and the same festival falls on different dates, in different years. The reason why we give importance to the moon and keep all our dates according to its position, is that the moon has an influence on human beings. The sun does not. Along with the moon, other planets also have influence on us. That is why we follow the lunar calendar and fix our festivals accordingly. There is one festival however, where the date is as per position of the sun. When the sun starts its movement from southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere, that date is celebrated as a festival (Sankranti).  In our country the science of astrology is also based Read More …