BPHS Ch.33 Karkamsa Completion: Sun+Rahu in D30 = Danger from Snakes OR Modern Doctor (Auspicious Vargas); Mars Aspect = Fire Accident; Venus Aspect = No Fire (Jala Tattva Quenches); Jupiter + Malefic Sign = Still Burns; Karkamsa = Internal Vasanas NOT Profession; AK in Divisional Lagna = Very Fortunate in That Area

BPHS Ch.33 — Planets in Karkamsa (Verses 12 Onward)

The earlier class gave the results of Karkamsa falling in each sign. From verse 12 Parashara gives the results of planets in Karkamsa.

Which divisional chart? Parashara does not say. Karkamsa (he also calls it Swamsa, "own amsa" — he uses the two words interchangeably) is the sign the Atmakaraka occupies in a divisional chart, any divisional chart. Pick the chart by the matter: work — Dasamsa; marriage and dharma — Navamsa; knowledge — Siddhamsa (D24); evils — Trimshamsa (D30).

Verse 12 — Atmakaraka in a varga of Moon, Mars or Venus

• If the Atmakaraka is in a varga owned by Moon, Mars or Venus (Cancer, Taurus, Libra, Aries, Scorpio), the person is pāradārika — interested in other people's spouses. In other vargas, it cannot be said.
• Why these three: Moon and Venus are the two watery, romantic planets — Moon cultured and sophisticated, Venus the planet of love. Mars is aggression. Licentiousness comes sometimes from soft feelings and sometimes from aggressive ones.
• The varga meant is probably D9, the chart of marriage and dharma.
• This is a vague guideline. 5 signs out of 12 qualify, so 5 people in every 12 have it.

"It is not logical to just go by this. You have to look for other indications also."

Planet by planet

Venus — long-lived, desirous, political

• Śatendriya, "of a hundred senses", is taken as long-lived. The teacher is not sure why Venus gives it. His reading: the sense organs stop working in old age, so one whose senses are well blessed lives long — and stays alert, healthy and still pursuing desires in old age.
• Kāmī: lustful. A quality of Venus.
• Rājakīya: political, but not like the Sun's government work. Shukracharya took the morally weak, mortal demons and made them fight the immortal gods and scare them several times. Venus makes mighty fighters out of ordinary people. So this is someone working with rebels, with people outside the mainstream, masterminding a breakthrough for them. (A student suggested Venus as the planet of micromanagement; the teacher allowed it "kind of".)

Saturn — follows the lineage

• Kula is lineage, family — not caste; "caste" is a bad translation.
• Saturn shows continuity: respect for tradition and for elders, wanting to do what the elders did.
• He may or may not have the family's profession. Karkamsa does not give the profession; it gives the instinct to follow tradition.
• A student pointed out that this was common fifty years ago and is not now. The teacher: it varies with desha-kala-patra. In a time when hardly anyone follows the elders, one with Saturn in Karkamsa follows to some extent and one without it not at all. A hundred years ago such a person would have kept strictly to his father's own Vedic shakha and nothing else.

Rahu — thief, hunter, metalsmith, poison-doctor

• Viṣa-vaidya can mean one who cures poisoning, or one who makes potent medicines out of poisonous substances such as snake or scorpion venom. These are rajasic and tamasic medicines, not sattvic. In today's terms all allopathic medicine falls here.
• A student asked whether Rahu in Karkamsa makes the person cruel-minded. The teacher: it can — the vasanas may run toward cruelty, without compassion — but the verse does not say so. A bow-wielding thief can of course be cruel.

Ketu — dangerous animals, intuition, explosive situations

• The words can mean one who sells elephants or one who handles them, like a mahout.
• A student proposed Gajanana (Ganesha) as the link to elephants. The teacher: "good thinking, but a little far-fetched."
• The point is not the elephant. Ketu shows people who are intuitive, not logical; unpredictable, a little eccentric. Taming wild animals needs that intuition. Analytical people are shown by Mercury and Mars, not Ketu.
• Ketu is also the planet of explosive situations, of danger: a whale handler, a tiger handler, and — going beyond Parashara — a bomb-disposal squad. It takes some headless boldness, putting logic aside and going with the gut.
• Rahu and Ketu are practically one and tried to steal the amrita. Neither has perfect morals; both can be cruel.

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Karkamsa Shows Instinct, Not Profession

Said while reading the Mars verse, and repeated for Saturn.

"You can't really give profession based on Karkamsa. Profession is from Lagna. Profession is that which you do using your body, using your material existence. Atmakaraka, what he shows is your sense of 'this is I'."

• Karkamsa is deeper than what you do. It is your instincts, your flair, your vasanas.
• A man may be a taxi driver, not a scholar, and still have the vasana to read books and judge art and literature well.
• The planet's nature decides the nature of the person: Mars — bold, fiery, aggressive, ready for a fight, working with fire.

Atmakaraka in the Lagna of a divisional chart

A student asked: what if the karaka is in Lagna itself?

• Then the inner spirit also shows outwardly. There is a combination, to come later in the text, that the Atmakaraka in Lagna of a divisional chart makes the person like a king in that area of life. Take it with a pinch of salt.
• In whichever chart it happens — Navamsa, Dasamsa, Chaturvimsamsa — the person is well endowed and fortunate in that area. Things come easily.
• The teacher's own case: Gemini lagna in Siddhamsa (D24), with Moon there, and Moon is his Atmakaraka. He passed the Sanskrit B.A. examinations at ten without studying much; he would browse the pages and it made sense, "almost as though I already know it."
• With the Atmakaraka in Dasamsa lagna, the career arranges itself in the same way.

"The person will be very well-endowed and very fortunate in that area of life, where the inner spirit and the external have a synergy between them."

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Sun and Rahu in Karkamsa — Snakes, the Doctor, Fire

Danger from snakes

• Sun and Rahu together in Karkamsa: fear of snakes.
• If functional benefics aspect, no fear. If malefics aspect, death.
• Aspects tone the result up or down: full, or negligible.

Which chart? Trimshamsa (D30), the chart for this kind of trouble.

Why Sun? Sun is the naisargika Atmakaraka and shows physical vitality. With Rahu on the Sun in Karkamsa, the natural Atmakaraka and the chara Atmakaraka are both afflicted by Rahu.

The doctor

• If Sun and Rahu are in benefic amsas in all the shadvargas, the person becomes a viṣa-vaidya — a doctor.
• Sun-Rahu shows a doctor of modern medicine, of the risky, cutting-edge kind.

Fire

• Rahu shows big problems and Sun is a planet of fight, so Sun-Rahu can also give loss in a fight. Sun and Mars are the planets of fire; Mars' aspect adds aggression.
• Jupiter is an akasha-tattva planet. He lets the fire happen or not according to the sign: in an auspicious sign he can save, in an evil sign he may not.
• Mars with Rahu is also bad for fire accidents, though the verse does not mention it. Where the combination exists, see who aspects it.
• This too is read in D30.

"If they are in an evil sign, even Jupiter may not be able to save, but Venus can always save because he is a watery planet."

The class stopped at the 22nd shloka of the chapter on the effects of Karkamsa.

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