Swami Sri Yukteswar’s explanation of the precession
The Ancient Truth Behind Celestial Motion (PDF)
In 1894, a great Indian sage, Swami Sri Yukteswar, offered a different explanation for the precessional motion of the stars and the rise and fall of the ages. He stated that it is the motion of the sun, revolving around a companion star or “dual,” which causes the precession of the equinox:
We know from Oriental Astronomy that moons revolve around their planets, and planets revolving on their axis with their moons revolve around the sun, and the sun takes some star for its dual and revolves around it in a period of about 24,000 years causing the backward movement of the equinox.
Interestingly, Sri Yukteswar’s statement was made at a time when there was very little knowledge of companion star systems. According to the latest NASA figures, however, up to 80% of all stars may be part of a binary or multiple star system. When we consider also that a huge number of stars (such as Brown Dwarfs) are difficult to see, it begins to seem possible that the sun might be part of a binary or multiple star system yet to be discovered.
Most astronomers would say that if our sun were part of a binary system we would know it by now. However, if the companion star’s orbit period were long enough, or if the star itself were faint enough, it is quite possible we would not presently know whether our sun has a companion star.
Recent scientific research suggests that if the binary orbit were slightly elliptical, as all orbits are, then precession would average about 24,000 years, as proposed by Sri Yukteswar. This figure agrees well with the ancient Indian interpretation of the Yugas and strongly suggests that a binary system may be the most plausible explanation of the phenomenon of precession, even though astronomers have yet to discover a companion star to the sun.
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