The term Jyotish consists of two words namely "Jyoti" and "sha." "Jyoti" means "light" while "sha" means "the best, the most excellent, eternal."

Thus, Jyotish refers to the most excellent of all lights. Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad declares that when all visible lights have gone, the inner light of the Self still remains, guiding man in all his thoughts, speech and actions.

Thus, Jyotish refers to the light of all lights, the light of pure consciousness, the Self of all beings. Jyotish is therefore really a limb of the Veda, since the Veda is nothing but, if not the encyclopaedia of the structuring dynamics of consciousness, which are responsible for the creation and evolution of all that exists in the universe.