Sacred Learning

The daily card on the homepage is a minute’s reading. These are the full teachings behind it — what a tithi actually is, how a priest chooses a muhūrtham, what Pradosham is and why it is kept at dusk. Each page states where it comes from and whether Sri Kumar Gurukkal has reviewed it.

Panchāṅgam

PanchāṅgamWhat a Panchāṅgam actually isPañcāṅga means “five limbs”. A Panchāṅgam is not a horoscope and not a list of predictions — it is an almanac that states five measurable things about… PanchāṅgamWhat a tithi is, and why it is not a dayA tithi is the time the Moon takes to gain twelve degrees on the Sun. Thirty of them make a lunar month. Because the Moon does not move at a constant … PanchāṅgamWhat a nakṣatra isThe path the Moon takes through the sky is divided into twenty-seven equal parts, each named for the star or group of stars that marks it. The one the… PanchāṅgamWhy two Panchāṅgams can disagreeAlmost always because they are using different conventions, not because one is wrong. The two that matter most are the ayanāṃśa — the offset between t… PanchāṅgamRāhu Kālam, Yamagaṇḍam, Guḷika and DurmuhūrtamThese are the parts of the day that tradition sets aside for beginning something new. Rāhu Kālam, Yamagaṇḍam and Guḷika Kālam are each one eighth of t…

Muhūrtham

MuhūrthamHow a priest chooses a muhūrthamA muhūrtham is the span of time chosen for a ceremony to begin. It is not picked off a list. A priest establishes the Panchāṅgam for the day and the p… MuhūrthamWhy a muhūrtham changes between India and CaliforniaBecause the almanac is anchored to sunrise, and sunrise is a local event. The tithi and the nakṣatra are the same for the whole world at any given ins… MuhūrthamTārā Bala and Chandra Bala — and why this site does not compute themTwo traditional tests that compare the day with the person, rather than judging the day on its own. Tārā Bala counts from a person’s birth nakṣatra to…

Observance

ObservancePradosham — the hour and a half at duskPradosham is the Trayodaśī — the thirteenth lunar day — kept for Śiva, and it is observed not at sunrise but in the pradoṣa kāla: roughly the hour and… ObservanceEkādaśī — the eleventh, and the day afterEkādaśī is the eleventh lunar day, which falls twice in every lunar month — once in the waxing fortnight and once in the waning. It is traditionally k… ObservanceAmāvāsyā and Pūrṇimā — the two ends of the monthAmāvāsyā is the new moon, the moment the Moon catches up with the Sun and the lunar month ends. Pūrṇimā is the full moon, when the two are opposite. T…

Ceremony

CeremonyWhy Gaṇapati is worshipped firstAlmost every Hindu ceremony opens with Gaṇapati. Before the wedding, before the housewarming, before the homam — the first offering is to him, as the …

How these are prepared

Pages marked as methodological explain how this site computes something and are sourced to the methodology page. Pages describing traditional observance say so on the page, name their sources, and do not present themselves as Sri Kumar Gurukkal’s personal ruling unless he has reviewed them. Nothing here invents a verse, a citation or a procedure — where a practice varies by region or sampradāya, the page says so instead of choosing one. See the editorial and ritual standards.