BPHS Ch.23 — 12th House (Vyaya Bhava): Moon as 12L (Luxuries), Good/Bad Gati (Naraka vs Moksha), Wandering vs Stable Foreign Settlement & Sinful Earnings

BPHS Chapter 23 — Vyaya Bhāva Phalādhyāya (12th House)

Vyaya does not have to mean loss. It means expenditure — money leaving you. If you knew of it and were in control, it is an expense; if it is unexpected, it is a loss. Some expenses are good, some foolish.

Running example: a student's chart, read out in class. Sagittarius lagna at 24°22'. Moon in the 12th (Scorpio). The 12th lord Mars is in the 10th (Virgo) with exalted Mercury.

Opening Verse — Expenses on Auspicious Matters

Combination: the 12th lord is with a functional benefic, or in own sign, or exalted — any one of the three — and the 12th house holds a functional benefic.

Result: expenses will be on auspicious matters.

• Śubha is normally used for functional benefics; saumya for natural benefics.
• Both the house and its lord are supported by good planets → good expenses.

Moon as 12th Lord — Luxurious Living

Combination (Leo lagna only): Moon is the 12th lord and is in the 9th, 11th or 5th (dharma, lābha, mantra) in rāśi or navāṁśa, or in own sign in rāśi or navāṁśa, or exalted.

Result: divyāgāra — divine houses, fine beds, divine perfumes; fine clothes and ornaments, living like a king. He spends for a divine experience on the material plane. (The translator in use gave "beautiful horses"; the word is āgāra, residence. The metre of the last line is broken — two extra letters — but it only states the result.)

The principle behind it:

"Planets associated with the 12th house, especially the 12th lord, they show expenses."

• Moon: houses, perfumes, luxuries. Mars: something high-tech. Jupiter: religious causes.
• "If the planet is strong, the expense will be big, and if the planet is auspicious, the expense will be auspicious."

In the student's chart:

• Moon in the 12th: for Sagittarius lagna Moon is functionally neutral and naturally benefic. The 12th is not hammered by a malefic.
• The 12th lord shows the intelligence applied to spending. Mars is in a kendra, in Mercury's sign, with his dispositor exalted beside him → strong. Many expenses, good ones, on Martian things. The student confirms: he buys electrical and electronic gadgets without thinking twice.

Spouse and Luxuries From the 12th Lord

Negative: the 12th lord in the 6th or 8th house, or in an enemy's navāṁśa, or in a debilitation navāṁśa →

• kāntā-sukha-vivarjita: no happiness from the spouse;
• vyayādhikya: troubled by too many expenses;
• rejected by divya bhoga: great luxuries do not come.

Positive: the 12th lord in a kendra or koṇa → sva-strī-alaṅkṛta, adorned by — accompanied by — his own spouse.

• So the 12th house shows marital happiness as well as expenses. The happiness is mutual: of the spouse, from the spouse.
• The verse does not say rāśi or navāṁśa. In the student's chart the 12th lord is in a kendra in both.

Any Bhāva as Lagna

Yathā lagnāt phalaṁ… — just as the results are told from lagna for the self, examine the same from the houses of the brother and the rest.

• Brother's expenses: take the 3rd house as lagna. His 12th is the 2nd house — judge the 2nd lord by the same rules.
• Father's expenses: take the 9th as lagna. The 8th house shows them.
• This verse and the next are general guidelines for all the houses covered so far, not only the 12th.

Visible and Invisible Half of the Zodiac

Dṛśya-chakrārdha-gatāḥ kheṭāḥ pratyakṣa-phala-dāyakāḥ — planets in the visible half give results that are plain to see. Planets in the invisible half give parokṣa results — subtle, not obvious.

Which half is visible? A student guesses lagna to the 7th. It is the reverse: from the 7th house to lagna.

• Say lagna is 10° Scorpio. That point is exactly on the eastern horizon. Points after it have not risen yet.
• All the points from lagna forward to the 7th cusp, 180°, are under the horizon.
• The point 180° from lagna is exactly on the western horizon. From there on to the lagna, the points are above the horizon. That is the visible half.

Count by degrees, not signs. In the student's chart lagna is 24°22' Sagittarius, so the visible half runs from 24°22' Gemini to 24°22' Sagittarius.

For a relative: for the younger brother take the 3rd house, 24°22' Aquarius. His visible half is about 24° Leo to 24° Aquarius. Planets there give him the more visible results.

• Visible does not mean positive. It means obvious, easily seen.
• "It is actually good to have good Raj yogas in the visible half." In the student's chart the 10th lord and 5th lord (Mercury and Mars) together in the 10th are in the visible half.

The Hell Verse — Bad Gati

Vyayasthāna-gato Rāhuḥ…

Combination: Rāhu in the 12th with Mars, Saturn or the Sun, and the 12th lord also with the Sun.

Result: narake patanam — the person falls into hell.

• The Sun counts as a malefic here. The verse names only the Sun with the 12th lord; it is logical to allow Saturn or Mars as well. Example: Saturn with Rāhu in the 12th and the 12th lord with Mars is probably enough for a bad gati.
• More than the 12th lord, the 12th house matters, and Rāhu in it is the key.
• Reverse it: natural benefics in the 12th and the 12th lord with benefics → good gati, a higher loka.

What the verse adds to the house: the 12th is where you go after death — the final gati.

• 4th house: the basic direction of your spiritual pursuit while alive. The beginning.
• 8th house: the sādhana you do.
• 12th house: the culmination — Tapoloka, Satyaloka, Svarloka, or some naraka.

"He uses one verse either in a positive way or negative way to throw one more topic into the discussion on this house."

First expenses, then happiness from the spouse, now gati. Each verse can also be reversed to deduce the opposite result.

Applied to a relative (student's chart): the 10th house is the 5th from the 6th = the maternal uncle's children. Take Virgo as lagna: its 12th (Leo) has Rāhu with the Sun, and the 12th lord is with Rāhu. A bad gati is possible for some child of the maternal uncle. This is only the general guideline; Rāhu's strength and much else must be weighed.

• From the rāśi chart the 3rd gives one reading for the younger brothers together. For one particular brother go to D-3 and take the lagna for that brother by the usual counting.
• And it is not a thing to say to anyone. Whether he goes to hell or not, the one who says it will.

The Moksha Verse

Combination: a saumya — a natural benefic (the word can also mean Mercury; natural benefic is the likely sense) — in the 12th; the 12th lord exalted, and conjoined or aspected by a functional benefic.

Result: moksha, "no doubt".

• The teacher finds this a stretch, since Parāśara earlier gave moksha from the navāṁśa. What it does show: spiritual progress and a higher loka than the one you came from.
• Student's chart: natural benefic Moon in the 12th; the 12th lord is not exalted but is in a kendra with an exalted benefic. Partly fulfilled.

"If you are looking at Moksha, Rasi is not that important, Navamsa is more important. And the Lagna is not that important, Atmakaraka is more important. So if you ask me, apply whatever Parashara said here to the Navamsa."

From the Ātmakāraka in navāṁśa (student's chart): the Sun is AK, in Sagittarius in D-9.

• The 12th from him, Scorpio, is empty.
• Its lord Mars is in Leo — a trine from the AK, a friendly sign — with the natural benefic Mercury and aspected by Jupiter. Good.
• The 12th lord from the AK is the key to moksha, and he is in the 9th from the AK, the house of dharma. The planet showing the Iṣṭa is in the dharmasthāna.
• Dharma, artha, kāma and moksha are four different things, and moksha comes from detachment, not from doing things. For most people following dharma is only the beginning. With this link, by simply doing his natural dharma the native comes closer to moksha.

Wandering From Country to Country

Combination: the 12th lord with a functional malefic; the 12th joined or aspected by a functional malefic.

Result: deśād deśāntaraṁ — he goes from one country to another with no stable place to live. India to the US, the US to the UK, the UK to Saudi Arabia. The 12th is the house of displacement.

Leaving Home and Settling

Combination: the 12th lord in a benefic sign (ruled by Moon, Mercury, Jupiter or Venus); a benefic in the 12th; the 12th aspected by a benefic.

Result: svadeśāt sañchāraḥ — he leaves his own country and settles in a good place. Stable, but away from home.

• The translator gave "one will move in his own country". The teacher does not accept that: it is travel from the own country.
• The previous verse was all malefics; this one all benefics. Movement in both, stability only here.
• Student's chart: Moon in the 12th (naturally benefic, functionally neutral — he works as a benefic); 12th lord Mars in Virgo, a benefic sign, with exalted Mercury → settling abroad.

Earning Through Sinful Means

Combination: Manda and the like — Saturn, Rāhu or Ketu — with Mars in the 12th, and no benefic aspect. (The verse says "Saturn etc."; the teacher takes it as Saturn, Rāhu or Ketu, not the Sun.)

Result: pāpa-mūla dhanārjana — earning rooted in sin: gambling, smuggling, rackets.

Why the 12th controls how money comes:

• It is the 11th from the 2nd — what gives a push to the person's wealth.
• It is the 2nd from the 11th — the resources the gains come from, and the accumulation of the gains.
• Of all the houses with argalā on the 2nd and on the 11th, it is the one common to both.

"The planets there have a control on the means through which you earn. Good planets there means you will use good means. Bad planets means you will use bad means."

• And it is the house of final gati: malefic means, malefic gati; benefic means, benefic gati.

Lagna–12th Parivartana — Expenses on Dharma

Combination: lagna lord in the 12th, 12th lord in lagna, and the 12th lord joined by Venus (Bhṛgu-putra) in lagna.

Result: expenses for dharma and religious causes.

• A student asks whether Jupiter in place of Venus gives the same. The teacher: Venus is one guideline. If even Venus can give it, Jupiter obviously can.

This ends the chapters on the twelve houses. Next comes the chapter on the house lords in the various houses.

Muhūrta for Starting a Narasimha Mantra

Question: a student will begin a new Narasimha mantra at 4:30 AM on July 1, 2008 (New Hampshire, 4 hours west of GMT). Is the time good? Lagna: Gemini.

What to Look At

• For any mantra sādhana lagna, 5th and 9th matter; the 5th most.
• Jupiter is the kāraka of all mantras.
• For a material aim, the house of that aim must be strong (to destroy enemies, natural malefics in the 6th).
• For spiritual upliftment: the 8th shows the sādhana done with the mantra and any mystical experience; the 12th shows the detachment that results. The 12th is the goal of any mantra.

This Chart

• 5th lord Venus is in lagna. Only worry: he is with the Sun — but there is some distance between them, and Gemini is a friendly sign for Venus.
• Jupiter is strong in own sign (Sagittarius) and aspects Venus very closely.
• Mercury and Venus are in parivartana: it works as though Mercury were in lagna with the Sun and Venus in the 12th with exalted Moon.
• The 12th holds an exalted planet, and lagna lord and 12th lord are exchanged — the very combination of the last verse of the chapter, with Venus involved. Lagna and mokshasthāna in parivartana in a sādhana chart is very auspicious.
• The 8th holds Rāhu with Mandi and Gulika, and the 8th lord Saturn is in an inimical sign with Mars. Intense, even frightening, experiences.
• Weakness: it is still Monday (Tuesday begins at sunrise). The vāra lord, who governs longevity, is Moon — in the 12th of loss and very weak.

Verdict: go ahead. He will have some fierce experience with this mantra — and may then drop it sooner than he plans.

Advice for the Sādhana

• For however long it is done — 10 days or 100 — make it non-negotiable: same time, same place, facing the same direction.
• Do it even with a fever, a cold, an aching leg. Such things do come, above all with a fierce deity.
• Gentle deities test slowly and give slowly. Fierce deities like Durgā and Narasimha give results fast and test harshly — like a disciplinarian mother who wants you to succeed quickly.
• Learn to endure bodily pain. "The goal of all sadhana is to forget the body."