Shravana

Shravana (śravaṇa) is the twenty-second nakshatra; its name means "listening". It is lunar mansion No. 22, ruled by the Moon. Shravana is about the ability to listen, to learn, and to bind people together through word and knowledge.

Place in the system

Shravana occupies 280°00′–293°20′, in Capricorn, and divides into four padas of 3°20′ each, fitting entirely within the sign and touching neither of its borders. In the Vimshottari system it is ruled by the Moon, and together with Rohini and Hasta it belongs to the trio of "Moon" nakshatras.

Disciplined Capricorn and the responsive Moon as ruler give this nakshatra a combination of attentiveness and composure: Shravana not only hears but knows how to put what it hears to use.

Practical meaning

Shravana's symbol is an ear and three footprints: the ear points to listening, the three footprints to a measured path. The Brihat Samhita (XV.20) assigns to this mansion jugglers, active, efficient, energetic, righteous, truthful people, and devotees of its deity. This is a recurring theme of the mansion, not a portrait of any one person: classical lists describe tendencies, not fate.

This is a nakshatra of apprenticeship and connection: knowledge passes through hearing, and through knowledge people and generations are joined. Its strength lies in attentiveness and the capacity to learn from others, but the same sensitivity to words leaves Shravana exposed to gossip and to the opinions of others. The best in it comes out when attentive hearing serves study and mutual understanding, rather than turning into dependence on rumor.

In daily practice

When the Moon moves through Shravana, the day is good for study, listening, negotiations, counsel, and everything bound up with word and knowledge. It is a favorable time to listen, to work something out, and to draw scattered information together.

How favorable such a day is for you personally is refined by Tara Bala, counted from your birth nakshatra. Shravana in the day inclines one to hear first and act afterward: to put records in order and bring scattered information together. It is worth only not taking everything heard on faith, and steering clear of empty rumor.