Argala Clarifications (Rahu/Ketu Reversed Sthanas, Debilitated Badha) & Functional Benefic/Malefic Rules

Argala Clarifications and Q&A (Continuing from Lesson 83)

"Mada" in the Lagna / Pada / Mada Verse

A student had read the Argala chapter in a published BPHS translation and found one word read differently from the class.

• The shloka: strong Argalas on lagna, pada and mada → someone like a king, someone very fortunate, is born.
• Lagna = ascendant. Pada = Arudha of the ascendant. Both obvious.
• Mada literally means infatuation, and also great achievement. PVNR took it as the 10th house (achievements). The translation takes it as the 7th house (desire).
• PVNR: that reading is also tenable. He is not 100% sure his is accurate, and not convinced his is wrong and only the other is right. He mentions both.
• He had not read the translations — he opened the verses and interpreted them himself, so another point of view came out. Had he seen someone's interpretation first, he would simply have followed it.

"When it comes to Parashara's teachings, there are places where there is scope for multiple interpretations. You just have to think deeply and also experiment, then only you can find out what is correct."

A student also asked for a recording of just the shlokas, read one after another. PVNR will think about it, but these are shlokas that give knowledge, not shlokas that are auspicious merely to hear; without the meaning, listening is of little use to most people.

Rahu/Ketu Argala — Where They Operate

Student's question: a planet is causing Argala from the 2nd or 4th, and Rahu is in the 12th or 10th. Does Rahu obstruct?

Answer: No. He joins them. For Rahu and Ketu, Argala and its obstruction work in reverse.

• Normal planets cause Argala from the 2nd, 4th and 11th (and the 5th). Their Argala is obstructed from the 12th, 10th and 3rd (and the 9th).
• Rahu and Ketu cause Argala from the 12th, 10th and 3rd (and the 9th in place of the 5th). They join the planets in the 2nd, 4th and 11th in causing Argala.
• Rahu in the 12th causes the same Argala a normal planet causes from the 2nd — the 2nd-house Argala (dhanargala).
• Jupiter in the 2nd + Rahu in the 12th: both cause 2nd-house Argala. They add.
• What obstructs that combined Argala: any planet other than Rahu (or Ketu) in the 12th house.
• Rahu in the 2nd with Jupiter: for Rahu the 2nd is the obstruction place (virodhargala sthana). Jupiter causes Argala; Rahu, sitting with him, obstructs it.
• With the 4th and 10th the nodes can obstruct each other: if Rahu is in the 4th, Ketu is in the 10th.

"Any planet causing Argala in the 2nd house, Rahu causes the same kind of Argala in the 12th house. And any planet will be obstructing that 2nd house Argala from the 12th house, but Rahu opposes it from the 2nd house. It's just different houses for Rahu. Simple."

Parashara lays down these objective factors clearly. The degree of the Argala and of its results needs subjective judgment on top, which PVNR leaves to the students to experiment with.

Tamograha — The Sanskrit Grammar Proof

In the last class PVNR read tamograha as Rahu and Ketu, but allowed that it could be read as all the tamasic grahas. He now withdraws that allowance.

• In the Argala verse the word is tamograha-bhava — "caused by tamograha(s)". Inside a compound (samasa) the case ending drops, so the number — one, two, or three and more — cannot be seen.
• Elsewhere in BPHS Parashara uses the word outside a compound, in the nominative, and there it is in the dual (dvivacanam).
• Sanskrit has three numbers: ramah (one Rama), ramau (two), ramah (three or more).
• Since the word is dual in many other places in the text, here too it means "caused by the two tamograhas". Two dark planets, two planets with no light = Rahu and Ketu.

On Jaimini's "viparitam ketoh":

• Some read this sutra to say the reversal applies only to Ketu.
• The tradition's own reading was: if Ketu is in a house, Argalas on that house are reckoned in reverse, whichever planet causes them.
• PVNR: Jaimini is so terse and ambiguous that neither reading is obvious from the sutra. You may use it to infer something, but you must confirm it by practical study, intuition, or another text. Using Jaimini alone to settle the matter is ridiculous.
• Parashara is clear: both Rahu and Ketu, and Argala caused by them — there is no reference to the house containing them.

"The interpretation that we gave in the last class, that is the only tenable interpretation as far as Parashara's teachings are concerned."

Debilitated Planets Cannot Obstruct Argala

Applied later in the class, in the chart:

• A planet that is debilitated or weak is incapable of obstructing an Argala, according to Parashara.
• Example from the Navamsha of the chart below: Saturn has 4th-house Argala on Venus. Moon sits in the 10th from Venus, the obstruction place, but he is debilitated in Scorpio. He is not counted. Saturn's Argala stands.
• Contrast: Mars, exalted in the Navamsha lagna, does obstruct.
• In the Rashi chart Sun in Gemini — a friend's sign, "reasonably okay" — does obstruct.

Obstructions Are Respective

A planet in an obstruction place obstructs only the Argala it corresponds to:

• Planets in the 12th obstruct only the 2nd-house Argala. They do not touch the 4th-house or 11th-house Argala, however many of them there are.
• Example from the chart: Jupiter and Sun are 9th from the Navamsha 7th house, so they obstruct Moon's 5th-house Argala on it. They cannot split up and take on Ketu's Argala as well.

"Jupiter won't say, okay, Sun, you go and obstruct Moon, I will take on Ketu. It doesn't work that way."

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Functional Benefic/Malefic Determination — Consolidated Rules

Student's question: for the 4th, 7th and 10th, is it about a functional benefic? PVNR: no — it is about a natural benefic or malefic owning those houses. Owning, not occupying. The functional nature of a planet is based on the houses it owns.

Combining the two houses of a planet:

• Neutral + Benefic = Benefic
• Neutral + Malefic = Malefic
• Benefic + Malefic = Neutral

This formula is for beginners. Advanced students must know by heart, for every lagna, who is benefic, malefic and neutral.

Homework: build and circulate a table — one row per lagna (Aries to Pisces), with columns for functional benefics, functional neutrals and functional malefics (4 columns, 13 rows with the header). Each student fills in one or two signs. Then everybody memorises it.

Kendradhipati Dosha

A student had read that the kendra-lordship dosha of Jupiter gets cancelled. PVNR: whether cancelled or not, it becomes less.

PVNR's own chart, Kanya (Virgo) lagna:

• Mercury owns lagna and the 10th → functionally neutral.
• Jupiter owns the 4th and 7th — not one but two kendras (ubhaya kendradhipatya dosha) → a malefic for this lagna, wherever he is placed. "It doesn't mean he is bad. He may give some good results, but as far as the functional nature is concerned, he is a malefic for my lagna, period."
• If that Jupiter were in Sagittarius or Pisces giving Hamsa yoga, PVNR would probably not consider him a functional malefic. The cancellation applies there.
• These are subjective. By the rules he is a malefic; the degree of maleficence varies with other factors.

Raja yoga is untouched:

• A natural benefic that owns a quadrant and becomes a functional malefic still gives Raja yoga if he takes part in one.
• Kanya lagna with Jupiter and Saturn together: 4th and 5th lords together = Raja yoga. Nothing can be taken away from it.

Why Kendra Ownership Is Not So Good for Benefics

• The quadrants are Vishnu sthanas — houses of putting in effort, but not at gunpoint.
• Struggle and effort at gunpoint is 3, 6, 11 — the malefic houses.
• 4, 7, 10 = voluntary effort: you work because you want to do karma.
• Malefics have the energy to do material things. A malefic owning a house of effort makes you work harder.
• Benefics are relaxed planets. A benefic owning the 4th, 7th or 10th cannot make you work as hard as a malefic would.

Trine Lords — All Benefic, But Not Equally

• According to Parashara, owning a trine is good for all planets. 5th and 9th lords are always benefics.
• But Mars owning the 5th and Jupiter owning the 5th are not functional benefics to the same degree.
• Trines are the blessings from the past. Their owner hands those blessings over.
• A natural benefic gives easily, like Bhola Shiva. A natural malefic has to give some good results, but he is still a malefic.

"It's like asking for a donation. If you ask a sweet person, he may give a million dollars. If you ask a miserly guy, he may give you only $200,000. Still he is giving you money. He is a functional benefic, but there is a difference in the degree."

Parashara does not spell these out. They are subjective judgments, to be made from the nature of the planets.

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