BPHS Ch.93 — Abhukta Mula Shanti: Jyeshtha-Mula as Most Dangerous Gandanta, Full Procedure & Nirriti Idol

BPHS Chapter 93 — Abhukta Moola Shanti

The class has finished the three gandantas (tithi, nakshatra, lagna). Their remedies included donating an ox (tithi gandanta) and a cow (nakshatra gandanta). The teacher: you can still donate real cows and oxen — people in rural India depend on them — but take care the receiver will not eat them.

The most dangerous joint: Jyeshtha–Moola.

• Jyeshtha's lord is Indra. Moola's lord is the Rakshasa (Nirriti).
• Because of the great enmity between the two, the joint between these nakshatras is mahadosha-prada.
• Of all the joints given earlier — between tithis, between nakshatras, between lagnas — this nakshatra gandanta is the most dangerous, according to Parashara.

"Due to the great enmity between the demon and Indra, the joint between those two nakshatras is considered to be mahadosha-prada. It causes a particularly great problem."

Abhukta Moola = the first part of Moola. The chapter does not say which pada or how much; the extent in ghatis is defined in the previous chapter. "It's a considerable part of Moola." Before advising anybody, check how many ghatis into Moola the birth was and whether the dosha applies.

What the verse prescribes (for a boy or a girl — putram putrim va):

• Parityajet — give up the child. Or (athava):
• For eight years the father should not see the child's face (tan-mukham na vilokayet).

The teacher calls this very drastic and adds that one may wonder whether Parashara said it or somebody put the words in his mouth later.

How "give up" is practised:

• It does not mean abandoning the child. It can mean giving the child in adoption.
• In some parts of India there is a ritual: the baby is donated to a capable brahmin, who gives the baby back for some money (108 or 1000 rupees).
• Giving a child in adoption is no sin. Selling a child is bad karma. The brahmin who sells the baby back takes that bad karma, and some of the baby's karma is relieved — a transfer of karma. Only a person who knows this and is willing to take it on should take part.

Not seeing the face for eight years: followed strictly in old days; impractical now. "Your relationship with the child will be gone."

Do the Shanti instead. If the Shanti is done, the earlier prescriptions are void: the father can see the child at once and need not give the child up.

Timing of the Shanti (janmato dvadashahe va tad-rkshe va shubhe dine, jatasya vashtame varshe):

• The 12th day from birth. The first eleven days are a period when auspicious acts are not done, so not before the 12th day.
• Or tad-rkshe — the usual reading is when the Moon returns to the birth nakshatra, about a month after birth.
• Or any auspicious day. The teacher prefers this: do not wait long, but find a good day and a good muhurta between the 12th and the 20th–25th day.
• Or in the 8th year — seven years completed, the eighth running.
• Why the 8th year: the teacher is not sure. Perhaps it is the last year of the dangerous period. In the ninth year, if nothing happened to the father or the child, the bad period is probably over.

Shanti Procedure — Abhukta Moola

Mandapam:

• On level, auspicious ground, smeared with cow dung (gomaya).
• To the east or to the north of the house, outside it.
• A pandal with four doors, decorated with toranas. There must be an opening on each of the four sides so that wind enters from every direction.
• A pitha (a table) inside for the kalashas.
• The homa kunda is made outside the pandal — "for grahadi yajna", the homa for the grahas and the rest.

Idol of the nakshatra devata (the Rakshasa, Nirriti) — in gold, as much as one can afford:

• Shyama-varna: black or dark grey
• Mahogra: very angry-looking
• Two-headed
• Vrkanana: wolf-faced — or simply a grave, terrible face
• Holding a sword (khadga) and wrapped in skin (charma)
• Seated on a dead body (kunapa-vahana)

If no idol is made: place gold (a coin, or a heap of gold) and invoke the devata in it. The teacher notes that Parashara says this explicitly only here — probably because nobody wants to keep such an idol in the puja room afterwards.

"Gold is capable of carrying various deities, just like fire is capable of carrying various deities. So you can just put gold and invoke devatas in that."

Choosing the acharya: the text has him chosen during the svasti-vachana. In Kali yuga, the teacher says, book the acharya two or three months ahead.

Kalasha: establish it by your own procedure. Put in panchagavya, good water and a hundred kinds of herbs (shataushadhi) — whatever herbs you can get. Also place a vamsha patra, a bamboo or clay pot.

The three main deities:

1. Nirriti — facing west; worshipped with white cloth and white akshatas (not yellow ones)
2. Indra — the adhi-devata
3. Jala (the water gods) — the pratyadhi-devata

Worship them with the mantras of your own Vedic shakha.

Homam:

• For Indra, "the lord of the gods": 108, or 1000, or 100 offerings of an Indra mantra. The text does not say which mantra; any Vedic mantra of Indra will do.
• Tryambakam yajamahe — "to give relief from death or death-like problems".
• The text names only Indra's mantra. The teacher's reading: Nirriti's mantra and a mantra of the water gods are also to be offered, and since the kunda is "for grahadi yajna", the nine planets are covered as well.
• The homa cools the deity down. Offering the Veda mantra of a deity, even a demon, brings no harm; it only makes him more favourable to you.

After the homam:

• The yajamana sits in bhadrasana (the teacher does not know the exact posture: "sit in a nice posture") with wife and child. The priest does abhisheka with the kalasha water, pritya — with affection, not in a hurry.
• Then a bath "with the kumbhas covered in cloth" (vastrantarita-kumbhabhyam). The verse is not clear and Santhanam does not translate it. The teacher's suggestion: nine kalashas for the navagrahas, each wrapped in its planet's colour (red for the Sun, white for the Moon, yellow for Jupiter), arranged around the main kalasha and used after it.
• Then wear white clothes and smear shveta-gandha — white vibhuti will do.

Dakshina and feeding:

• A milk-giving cow (payasvini dhenu) to the acharya, according to one's means
• Dakshina to all the rtviks who chanted
• Feed the brahmanas

Verse 19 — to be recited: "Yat papam yach cha me daushthyam sarva-gatreshv avasthitam, tat sarvam bhakshayajya tvam, Lakshmim pushtim cha vardhaya."

"Whatever sin and whatever bad state is in my body, remove it all, and increase my wealth and my pushti (energy)." Parashara always speaks in the third person; here the verse says tvam, "you", and the next line says "with this mantra". So the verse is itself a prayer to be recited. With no other mantra to hand, repeat this verse a few times.

Result: "Moola-gandodbhavasya evam sarva-papam pranashyati" — all the sins of one born in Moola gandanta are destroyed.

The common thread of all these doshas: the nakshatra devata is the key. Add the navagrahas, and always Tryambakam.

If the full procedure cannot be done: a Navagraha homam or a Mahamrityunjaya homam.

"There is more to it. But that is the crux. All other things are preparation for it. The main crux is just doing the Mrityunjaya mantra in the fire."

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Q&A — A Moon on the Jyeshtha–Moola Border

A student's chart has the Moon at 0°04' Sagittarius — a very deep gandanta.

Which nakshatra?

• Use Lahiri. An almanac that differs from Lahiri by a degree would give Jyeshtha; ignore those.
• The software shows the Moon changing sign 7 minutes 12 seconds earlier. A small ayanamsa error (one arc-minute out of those four) cuts that to about 5 minutes. A 10-minute error in a birth time is quite ordinary.
• So, if the time is not rectified, it could be Jyeshtha or Moola. "Either case, he is in trouble. Which trouble, Jyeshtha trouble or Moola trouble, you have to find out."

How to decide:

• Not from the person's nature: judging the nakshatra from behaviour is very difficult.
• Scorpio and Sagittarius are two different rasis. Look at the transits at important events — marriage, a big promotion, an accident — and see whether a Moon in Scorpio or in Sagittarius explains them.
• Or rectify the time through the divisional charts, without reference to the Moon. If the Navamsa, Dasamsa or Dwadasamsa fix the lagna within, say, half a degree, the time cannot be off by more than 2–3 minutes, and a Moon in Scorpio is ruled out. This student had already rectified the time with the marriage, so the Moon is taken in Sagittarius.

"In such border cases, you have to consider Moon in both the sides."

If the Moon turns out to be in Jyeshtha: do the Jyeshtha nakshatra shanti, not the Moola shanti.

Venus in the 12th of Navamsa — "No Marriage"?

A student quotes a rule heard elsewhere: Venus in the 12th from Navamsa lagna is in the 6th from the 7th, so marriage is not possible.

• The teacher: a very drastic statement. Venus in the 12th is not conducive to marriage, but it does not mean no marriage.
• In this chart Venus is also the Navamsa lagna lord, and the lagna lord in the 12th does not harm the 12th that much. He is debilitated but also retrograde, "so it is not that bad".

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