Vedic astrology
Which period of your life you are in
Vedic astrology, or Jyotish, is the Indian tradition. It measures the zodiac from the stars rather than the seasons, so your signs usually differ from your Western ones, and it is built around timing — which period of life you are in.
Jyotish is built around timing more than personality. It divides a life into planetary periods — dashas — that run for years at a stretch, and the one you are in is worked out from exactly where the Moon sat when you were born. This shows you that period, when it turns, and the chart underneath it.
How this differs from your Western chart
Both are computed from the same sky. They part company on where the zodiac starts. Western astrology measures from the spring equinox; Jyotish measures from a fixed point against the stars. Those two references have drifted about 24 degrees apart, which is most of a sign — so your Sun is usually one sign back from the one you know.
Jyotish also reads you from the Moon rather than the Sun, and it puts more weight on your birth time. And it has a timing system that Western astrology has no direct equivalent for: the dasha sequence above.