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15B Gangaram Hospital Road, New Delhi, India 110060
+91-11-42430122, +91-9810449850
Sarbani.Rath@srijagannath.org
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Born on the Thirtieth day of June 1962 in Calcutta, India at seventeen minutes past midnight, to very pious parents Ashoke Kumar Sarkar and Aloka, who were the third generation in the Sarkar family directly associating with the Ramakrishna order. Sarbani had the good fortune of associating with the saṅnyāsins of the Śrī Sāradā Math from birth. When only four years old she learnt how to make the Śiva Liñga with mud from the banks of the Gaṅgā and worship with sixteen offerings (ṣoḍaśa upacāra), mantra and mudra. The grace of Holy Mother Śrī Sāradā Ma flowed as she learnt Sanskrit and vedic literature including purāṇa and various spiritual practises directly from the Math.

Education

Formal education at Loreto House School ensured a healthy balance between traditional vedic learning and modern English public school. She graduated in Political Science from Presidency College in 1985. She completed her Masters degree from University of Calcutta in 1987.

Work

In 1987 she moved to Delhi to work as a social scientist specialising in environmental law and policy, history of conservation, the concept of the nation state and human rights.

Based at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) and later at the World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India), Delhi she worked closely with grassroots organisations, academics, lawyers and judges particularly in the area of national parks and sanctuaries and the conflict area between wildlife and the livelihood rights of forest dwellers.

She has taught as a guest lecturer at the M.Sc. programme in Environmental Biology, University of Delhi and at the graduation programme at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad.

Jyotiṣa Background

Her childhood passion for vedic astrology and other occult sciences like I-Ching and the Tarot led her to gradually move fulltime into this field of work. She was a professional Tarot Reader for 12 years in the 1990’s with a large collection of Tarot Decks, although she primarily used the Crowley and the Rider-Waite decks for her readings. The turning point was in 1998 when Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra became the principal book on her table. She has been exclusively studying and practicing Jyotiṣa under the able guidance of Pt. Sanjay Rath. After receiving the Bṛhaspati Gāyatrī in 2002 she has been practising jyotiṣa professionally and teaching as a Jyotiṣa Guru of Śrī Jagannāth Center (SJC). She went on to be the President of SJC in 2008. She continues her passion of reading Vedic literature and after finishing a thorough study of the Garuḍa Purāṇa, is currently working on Sāradātilaka Tantra and Skanda Purāṇa.

Jaimini Scholar

In 2011 she successfully completed the 5-year long Jaimini Scholar Programme (2007-11) and is a certified Jaimini Scholar of the First Himalaya Batch of Devaguru Bṛhaspati Center (DBC). On the directions of the DBC-Institute she is currently a teacher and Course Co-ordinator of the 2^nd Himalaya Batch of the Jaimini Scholar Programme. In addition, she is also the mentor of the PJC Batch-2.

Jyotiṣa Community Work

As the Managing Editor of Sagittarius Publications, she oversees the publication of the quarterly jyotiṣa journal The Jyotish Digest and other astrology books. She has presented papers at various Jyotish conferences in India, USA, London and Serbia. She is a member of the British Association of Vedic Astrology (BAVA).