What Is The Hobby of Sky Watching?

What is the hobby of Sky Watching?

The hobby of looking at the clear night sky with open eyes observing thousands of twinkling stars is nothing but Sky Watching. It is also called as Stargazing.

A look at a little bit of history, in ancient times, reveals that our ancestors befriended celestial things. Constant observation helped them to understand the movements of the planets. They had drawn many practical conclusions from the observations done year on year. They had also given names to the groups of stars seen on the Sun-Moon path – the ecliptic, those are called Nakshatras and Zodiac signs. They used to perform their daily routine, farming activities and festivals’ celebrations based on what Nakshatra the planets are in, what position the Nakshatra is appearing in the sky because that provided them the understanding of directions, time and seasons. Not only this, in earlier times ships navigation, land travel, was completely based on the night sky. Our ancestors also knew that birds and animals use the sky as a map for migration.

However, nowadays our neck is always tilted towards the mobile not only during the day but also at night, never turning towards the sky. Even when we are sleeping on the open terrace or in the courtyard, we turn on one or the other side holding the mobile learning the science that eventually increases eye disorders. Because of that, even by mistake, if we look at the sky filled with stars looks very new to us and we ignore it thinking that the night sky is a completely incomprehensible and difficult thing to understand. Today we are equipped with many options for entertainment, infotainment and passing time and we are overwhelmed with those options.

Then why should we have hobbies like Sky Watching when all modern material comforts are handy for us?

We will surely talk about the answer to the above question but let us ask ourselves another question – Are we satisfied, at peace, happy and stress-free despite of having modern material comforts and a lot of money at our own disposal? Those having answer as ‘NO’ to this question must read on…

In his book, ‘छंद आकाशदर्शनाचा’, Dr. Prakash Tupe has very aptly underlined the importance of sky watching in the preface itself.

If you spend a night in an unfamiliar village or in a forest, you feel lonely. But if you look at the sky and know the planets and stars, the feeling of loneliness disappears. The planets and stars seen from your home in the past make you realize that you have again met those friends at that unfamiliar place. Looking at them, observing their movements, colors, shapes, one becomes aware of the vastness of the universe and our loneliness disappears in an instant. Our ego, individualism vanishes, and we literally come to the ‘ground’. If you want to bring humbleness in a person, then ‘Aakashdarshan’ (Sky Watching) is next to ‘Devdarshan’.

Because of Sky Watching, mutual enmities, fights, quarrels and petty thoughts go away from us. The mind gets to peace. Attitudes like ‘वसुधैव कुंटुबकम्’ (The whole world is a family) and ‘जीवो जीवस्य जीवनम्’ begin to be felt. Happiness, peace, and contentment come easily to us as the stress on our mind disappears.

People who go trekking might have experienced that in the mountains and valleys, in the unknown places, in the forests, lot of confusion happens in determining directions at night. The signs seen/marked during the day may look different or disappear in the dark. At such times the objects in the sky can be really useful to identify the directions and also the understanding of their place in the sky tells us what time it is. This skill is very useful at such times.

After all, at the heart of all Indian philosophy is to calm the mind, to stabilize it, to concentrate. Reason being, only this state can give eternal, unending happiness. The hobby of Sky Watching is one of the best ways to reach to this state!

Photo Credit: Atul Nimbalkar