Gestation (was re: mathematics etc.)

[Dr. Jai Maharaj]

Dear members:

Just a short note from the practical Jyotish perspective --
Almost always, the given birth time of a person is used only
to prepare a preliminary set of charts and tables.  The birth
time is then rectified to arrive at a starting epoch usually
not too distant from a date 273 days prior to birth for most
normal births.  Computational fine-tuning based on certain 
events that have already taken place in the native's life
further approximates the moment of the descent of the eggs
in the mother's Fallopian tubes.  The idea is to get as close
to one of the first events in a person's life -- especially
those which have a correspondence with the lunar cycle.
The charts are then recalculated accrding to this time and date.

Jai Maharaj
Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
http://www.flex.com/~jai
Om Shanti

At 6:41 p.m. BST on 5/29/97, Srinivasan Pichumani wrote:
>>>the length of gestation as `ten or nine months' more or less
>
>This was always confusing to me... particularly last year when 
>we had our (first) baby girl.  One of the pregnancy magazines
>had a highlighted box, where the length of gestation was said
>to be approximately 10 lunar months or 9 calendar months (for 
>a total of approx 40 weeks or 280 days).
>_________
>
>During an upannyAsam (religious discourse) on the occasion of
>VinAyaka Caturthi by the harikathA exponent Balakrishna Sastrigal,  
>I heard him mention that if humans are to have children, "life"
>has to develop within the father for a month and next within
>the mother for ~9 months and then an individual is born.  He
>was contrasting it against the legendary instant birth of 
>VinAyaka by the mere endearing look of Goddess Parvati, as 
>she and Lord Shiva gazed at a painting or scene or two 
>intertwined elephants.
>
>My question is - is there anything in the literatures and legends 
>on this bit about the "life" developing within the father for a 
>month ? 
>
>I have wondered if this refers in anyway to sperm cell cytology 
>but a quick look at Encycl Brittanica ruled it out... EB says
>that it takes 74 days for a germ cell to mature to the point
>where it can fertilize an egg.
>
>-Srini.