BPHS Ch.9 — 14 Balarishta (Infant Death) Yogas, Sandhya Definition & Mahamrityunjaya Remedy

BPHS Chapter 9 — Arishtadhyayam (Early Death / Balarishta)

General Principle

• The chapter opens: first of all, see from lagna the auspicious and inauspicious things.
• An arishta can act until the 24th year of age. While one is active, do not work out longevity (ayurdaya): the three-pairs rule and the other longevity methods may not apply.
• Balarishta = death in infancy. All the combinations below give death within a few years, in any case before 24.
• The verses do not say where to look. These are basic combinations: read them in the Rashi chart (one verse names the Hora chart).

"This is something that can actually override the longevity calculations that you may make based on the natal chart."

Which aspect? Parashara does not specify. Up to this chapter he has taught only sign aspects, so the teacher's guess is that rashi drishti is meant: "That is what we can guess."

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The Combinations (verses 3–16, in the order read in class)

1 — Moon in a dusthana, aspected by malefics

• Moon in the 6th, 8th or 12th from lagna, aspected by malefics → death very quickly, at one or two years of age.
• If a benefic also aspects the Moon, life can be prolonged up to 8 years.

2 — Retrograde benefics in place of the Moon

• Saumyah is plural here, so it means benefics, not Mercury.
• A retrograde benefic in the 6th, 8th or 12th, aspected by malefics, gives the same result as the Moon above, provided no benefic is in lagna. The verse speaks of occupation only; the teacher extends it to aspect: no benefic occupying or aspecting lagna.

3 — Sun, Saturn, Moon and Mars in the 5th: mother or brother

• Dhi-sthana = house of intelligence = 5th. The verse names Sun, Saturn (Arki), Moon (Indu) and Mars there.
• Result: death of the mother or of a brother. This verse is not about the native's own life.
• Moon is the karaka of mother; Mars of brothers. Moon afflicted by the others harms the mother; Mars afflicted by Sun and Saturn harms the brother.
• Santhanam translates "Saturn, Mars and Sun jointly" and leaves the Moon out. Parashara mentions the Moon and does not say "jointly".
• The teacher's reading: all of them together is too much to ask, and any one of them (Moon with Sun alone, say) cannot be enough. Probably two of Sun, Mars and Saturn afflicting the Moon in the 5th give "some problem to mother. Probably not death, but some problem."
• A student asked whether the 5th lord can be used instead. That is an extension; the verse names only the 5th house.
• Why the 5th: it is the house of purva punya. A malefic combination there shows the bank account of karma is weak. With strong purva punya the mother can be fine even if Moon and the 4th lord are afflicted.

4 — Mars in lagna with only malefic influence

• Mars in lagna, joined or aspected by malefics, with no benefic aspect → gives death.

5 — Mars in the 8th with Sun or Saturn

• The last phrase of the same verse (saurena arkena va yutah) could be read as a third clause: Mars joined by Saturn or Sun in any house. "To say that Mars with Sun or Saturn gives death in any house is ridiculous."
• The teacher's final reading, differing from Santhanam: either Mars in lagna with malefic aspect or conjunction and no benefic; or Mars in the 8th joined by Sun or Saturn. The "no benefic" condition belongs only to the lagna case. Whether a benefic aspect relieves the 8th-house case, Parashara does not say.
• This is death of the native, not of mother or brother.

6 — Eclipse, with Saturn and Mars aspecting lagna: a fortnight

• Chandra-surya-grahe = birth in a lunar or solar eclipse; or, with no eclipse, Rahu joined with Moon or Sun.
• And Saturn (Sauri) and Mars both aspect lagna → the child lives one paksha.
• Santhanam speaks only of the luminaries joining Rahu.
• No house is named for the Sun/Moon–Rahu conjunction. That conjunction is common and such babies do not all die in a fortnight: the Saturn–Mars aspect on lagna is the key condition.
• The verse proves that a chart can be read as soon as the baby is born. The custom of waiting a year or more is common sense (the time may be wrong, there are no events to rectify it, and vak-bala is misused), not a technical bar.

7 — Moon in 6th, Mars in 7th, Saturn in 10th: mother and child

• Kalanidhi (treasure of kalas) = Moon, in the shatru-sthana = 6th.
• Saha matra vipadyate: with the mother he gets into trouble. Vipadyate need not mean death.
• Why it is bad:
  • Mars and Saturn aspect each other by graha drishti: Mars's 4th aspect on Saturn, Saturn's 10th aspect on Mars.
  • From the Moon, the 2nd (sustenance) and the 5th (purva punya) are afflicted.
  • From lagna, Saturn aspects the 4th house, and he sits in the 7th from the 4th, the mother's house.
  • Mars, the karaka of a violent or premature end, is in the 7th house of death, aspected by Saturn.
• Rare: each placement is about a one-in-twelve chance, so roughly 1 in 12³ charts.

8 — Saturn in lagna, Moon in 8th, Jupiter in 3rd

• Bhaskara-putra = Saturn; nidhana = 8th.
• Three planets, each in its Marana Karaka Sthana → "he goes to the palace of Yama".

9 — The Hora chart: one month

• Horayam: in the Hora chart, Sun in the 9th, Saturn in the 7th, Jupiter and Venus in the 11th → the child lives one month.
• Which Hora is not stated. The Cancer–Leo-only Hora cannot be meant: with every planet and the lagna in Cancer or Leo, planets can only fall in the 1st, 2nd or 12th. The verse needs a Hora chart where planets occupy all the signs, "something akin to Kashinath Hora". The teacher's guess is that it is not Kashinath Hora itself but a variation of Hora that is seen for longevity; he did not go into it.
• Jupiter and Venus in the 11th would not be a problem in the Rashi chart. So the houses of the Hora chart are read differently from the Rashi chart. The teacher is not sure exactly why this combination works.
• One verse naming the Hora chart does not make the following verses about it. They are most likely Rashi-chart combinations again.

10 — Planets in the 12th

• Santhanam: any planet in the 12th is a source of short life, especially the luminaries, Venus and Rahu; the aspect of one of these four on the 12th counteracts the evil.
• The teacher's reading: vyaye sarve graha neshtah — not "all planets in the 12th" but "every planet is na-ishta, not well-doing, in the 12th", from the arishta point of view. Sun, Venus, Moon and Rahu are particularly destructive.
• Drishtya va bhanga-karinah: even by aspect they cause bhanga, a break. This is not necessarily about longevity: health trouble or some big problem.
• Working rule: when Sun, Moon, Venus or Rahu occupy or aspect the 12th, expect loss, suffering or tension in their dashas. One planet alone gives a lower degree and can be ignored; two of the four connected with the 12th (both there, both aspecting, or one occupying and one aspecting) give a problem.
• Class example: a student with Sagittarius lagna, Moon in the 12th, aspected by Venus. Expect some loss when the two come together: Venus dasha–Moon antardasha, or Venus antardasha–Moon pratyantardasha, and so on.

11 — Moon in the 9th, 7th or lagna

• Moon in the 9th, 7th or 1st house, with no benefic joining or aspecting → can cause death.
• Santhanam prints "8th, 7th or ascendant" and "with a malefic". The verse says 9th, 7th and 1st.

"I can't explain it."

12 — Sandhya, Moon's hora, Gandanta, Moon and malefics in kendras

• Birth in Sandhya, in the Moon's hora, in Gandanta (not specified of what; probably lagna gandanta), and with the Moon and malefics in quadrants → death. All conditions together; a rare birth.

Sandhya defined (next verse)

• The teacher first said loosely "a couple of ghatis before and after sunrise". The next verse is precise and he withdrew that: "whatever I said about Sandhya, ignore it."
• Sayam Sandhya: 3 ghatikas (72 minutes) after the half-disc of the Sun sets. Pratah Sandhya: 3 ghatikas before the half-disc rises.
• It is the whole 72-minute window, and only before sunrise or after sunset. Once the Sun has risen there is light; it is no longer Sandhya. One may be stricter (48 or 24 minutes), but Parashara's figure is 3 ghatikas.
• Sunrise is reckoned from the middle of the Sun (mandala-ardha), not the upper limb. The teacher and Sanjay Rath disagree on this. It matters for the hora, Ghati Lagna and Hora Lagna. The first sight of the upper limb is fine for civil and ritual purposes.
• The teacher's own definition goes one step further: sunrise is when the Sun and lagna have the same longitude, to the second. Likewise the Moon or Jupiter rises when its longitude equals the lagna's.

13 — Scorpio lagna with malefics east and benefics west

• All malefics in the eastern half of the zodiac, all benefics in the western half, and lagna in Scorpio (kita-bhe lagnage: the verse does say lagna) → death; natra karya vicharana, no need to analyse further.
• Eastern half = 90° either side of the lagna degree. With 15° Scorpio rising it runs from 15° Leo to 15° Aquarius; with 2° Scorpio rising, 2° Leo to 2° Aquarius. The other 180°, centred on the 7th, is the western half.

14 — Papakartari on lagna with malefics in 6, 8, 12, 2

• Lagna hemmed between malefics, and malefics in the 12th, 6th, 8th and 2nd (dravya = money = 2nd) → early death of the baby.
• One such malefic is probably not enough: Papakartari on lagna plus malefics in a couple of those houses is cause for concern.

The class stopped here: 16 verses read, 45 in the chapter.

Remedy

A student asked what use the judgment is if nothing can be done. Parashara gives no remedy in this chapter, but he gives many later (already covered in the course); use those as the guideline.

• Suggest Mrityunjaya Homa when the baby's life looks short.
• If the combination says a fortnight, do not wait months: do it on the 11th day, or even before the sutaka is over.
• If it says a month or a year, do it after 11 days or after 21 days.

"If you see one of these combinations, you should very, very strongly recommend Mahamrityunjaya Homa for the baby."

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Same-Nakshatra Dosha — Clarification

A student's question from an earlier class: for the dosha of parent and child born in the same star, must it be the same nakshatra or only the same group?

• The same nakshatra. Father in Punarvasu and son in Purvabhadra: no dosha.
• A nakshatra can fall in two signs (Punarvasu in Gemini and Cancer). Parashara does not clarify this. The teacher's guess: if the rashi differs there is no dosha.
• So nakshatra and rashi must both be the same; probably not the navamsa.

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