If you have attended south Indian Hindu marriages, or seen marriage photo albums, one particular scene would be common across. The groom and bride look towards the sky, pointing hands to a particular direction as directed by the priest who is besides them. This seems sort of funny on the out set. Here are two people, gazing towards day sky pointing at "something" which they obviously cannot see. An outsider may even shrug this as one more silly superstition.
As a kid, I always wondered why the priest was making the couple to do this particular act. When I promptly checked with my elders, I got to know the story of Arundhati and Sage Vashistha. Well, that's a nice story and wonderful to set an example for happy married life. So, the "ritual" has a highly meaningful reason and very romantic as well. :)
Photographer clicks few pics. relatives and friends around would tease the couple and everyone is happy. Most of us, would limit our understanding at this stage itself. Right? But, just take a moment of time, and think about this. Here is a "Binary star" located in a constellation "Ursa Major". Also, there is something very peculiar about this particular stars - Alcor and Mizar. Generally, in a binary star, one star revolves around the other. However, in this case, these revolve around each other. That's where the example for an ideal couple lies. To revolve around each other and not be a one side dominant relationship. Such deep meaning hidden in such simple gestures.
Even more astounding fact is that these practices have been followed here since time immemorial. For at least thousands of years! So, this is what it REALLY means - our astronomers, identified a particular binary star which is revolving around each other and named it after Arundhati and Sage Vashistha. They did this a LONG time back. We can only imagine how strong our ancestors astronomy knowledge and strengths would be.
There are so many such instances, that speak about the ancient sciences and poetic way of putting it to common men. Most of which, we still feel are superstitions.
