Choghadiya today in New York

What choghadiya is

Choghadiya is a simple Vedic way of choosing a good time to start something. The daytime, from your sunrise to your sunset, is divided into eight equal parts, and the night, from sunset to the next sunrise, into another eight. Each part is called a choghadiya (from "chau", four, and "ghadi", a unit of 24 minutes, because each part is roughly four ghadis long) and carries one of seven names.

The names are Amrit, Shubh and Labh (good), Chal (neutral, good for travel) and Udveg, Kaal and Rog (best avoided for new work). The order repeats in a fixed sequence that starts from a different name each weekday, which is why the table changes every day. It is widely used in Gujarat, Rajasthan and by families abroad to pick a time for a purchase, a journey, a puja or the start of a new job.

Why it must be worked out for your own city

Because each choghadiya is one eighth of your own day or night, the clock times depend on when the sun rises and sets where you are. A choghadiya table printed for India, or for another city, is wrong for you; even within one country the times shift with latitude and longitude, and they shift again when daylight saving starts or ends. The times on this page are calculated in your browser for the city's coordinates and time zone, including daylight saving.

How to use it

Pick an Amrit, Shubh or Labh period for something important, and avoid starting new work in Rahu Kaal even when it overlaps a good choghadiya, as many families do. For a major event such as a wedding or griha pravesh, a full muhurat from a priest, which also looks at tithi, nakshatra and lagna, is better than choghadiya alone.