Editor’s Note It is that time of the year when Indians ready themselves to take the blessings of Mother Goddess. Navaratri followed by Vijayadasami is a very sacred part of the year. During this time, the feminine energies change their nature to become aggressive and outward. Why does this happen? In India, almost everyone understand the meaning of a Muhurtha. Muhurtha is an identified time period during which energies of a particular type activate certain dimensions in the living beings. These Muhurthas can be as short as a Kshana (the time taken to blink) to as long as a Yuga (thousands of years). And the Muhurthas come in various ranges and styles. The time period when Sun is in the second Drekanna of Virgo or Kanya, is celebrated as Navaratri, and this Muhurtha extends for approximately 10 days. The Zodiac sign Virgo denotes a virgin lady who is fertile ie ready to procrate and in prime youth. When the Sun enters this Zodiac, he heats up the zodiac and the femine energies in the living beings considerably. These energies will be at the peak when the Sun transits the middle drekanna of the sign, and naturally those dimensions in humans gets activated. During this time the 9 feminine forms of Devi’s grace can be sought without much difficulty. There are very advanced Kriyas that will be followed during the Navaratri by Saints, Aghoris and Tapasvis. However, the simplest way to get the blessings of the Devi is to chant the respective Devi Mantras 108 times during the twilights ie either during Sunrise and Sunset. The below table summarizes the various forms of the Devi, the respective thithis, planets and mantra that needs to chanted to invoke the devi and take her blessings. We encourage all our readers to do this, and share your spiritual experience with us. In this issue, the editorial is by our beloved Editor-in-Chief Bangalore Niranjan Babu. He was invited to present the keynote address at the Global Conference - Vāstu Shāstra: The Vaidic Perspective, organized with the blessing of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji, by the The Art of Living Foundation. Our beloved Editor-in-Chief shared his thoughts on Vastu Shastra with reference to temples, spirituality and sanctity and the Vastu relevance to them. A once in a life-time opportunity just concluded recently in the ancient city of India, Kanchipuram. Commonly known as the Athi Varadhar festival or cermony, this is one of the most auspicious ceremony that takes place once in every 40 years. Millions of devotees from around the world thronged this temple to get the blessings of Lord Varadharaja or a divine form of Lord Vishnu. The deity, at 9 feet tall, is made of Athi wood or Fig tree wood. Awakening and rising the depths of ‘Ananthasaras’ or the temple tank, Athi-Varadhar emerges to give darshan to mankind for only 48 days. Our senior contributor, Prof R S Maniam, shares the Astrological Significance of this Athi Varadhar Ceremony. On the special occasion of Dasara, we’d like to also present a analysis of one of the powerful women leaders in this country. Smt Sushma Swaraj was one of the greatest leaders that India produced. She achieved greatness through her actions, she had courage in defining moments, and she was driven to change the India for good. She was the country's youngest-ever Cabinet Minister, the first woman Chief Minister of Delhi and the first woman spokesperson for any national political party. Her last stint was as the Ministry of External Affairs in Modi 1.0 government, where she did a commendable job in implementing India’s foreign policy. There are several notable features in her horoscope – from the famous Hamsa Yoga, one of the pancha mahapurusha yoga, to several yogas that defined her as a leaders par excellence. Sri S Ramakrishnan analyzed Smt Sushma Swaraj’s horoscope, and shares his interpretation. Jyotisha is unique among contemporary astrological traditions in that, apart from the technical differences between Hindu and other forms of astrology, there is extensive literature that exists on remedies in Vedic Astrology. It is contained in the most ancient texts of Jyotisha; there are references to remedies that exist in natal charts, and there has always been a market for Hindu Astrology remedies. Some of these remedies have been practiced in India for perhaps thousands of years; others have developed and emanated from different parts of the world. Dr. Gary Gomes has gone great lengths to go through all the classical works of Vedic Astrology and Hindu Scriptures, and also travelled to remote corners of the world to discover the secrets to Astrological remedies. We present an article from him on the use of Gemstones for remedies from evil planets. A speech disorder or Vaani Dosha is an impairment characterized by improper articulation, omissions while speaking, fluency issues or vocal issues. Any person having a speech disorder will invariably undergo social and emotional challenges. Of course, the magnitude of the challenge varies depending on the environment in which a human lives, ability for the human to cope up with it and more. In this article, Sri Subhash Sharma discusses the various astrological combinations that indicate speech disorders, and also recommends remedies to overcome the same. We hope you enjoy reading this issue. If you would like to share your views with us, feel free to reach out to me at info@astrologicalmagazine.com