BPHS Ch.35 Nabhasa Yogas (32 Sky-Pattern Yogas): Asraya=Raju(All Chara)+Musala(All Sthira)+Nala(All Dvisva); Dala=Mala(Benefics in 3 Kendras)+Sarpa(Malefics in 3 Kendras); Akriti=20 Shape Yogas (Gada/Sakata/Vihanga/Sringataka/Hala/Vajra/Yava/Kamala/Vapi Defined+11 Named); Sankhya=7 Number Yogas (Vallaki to Gola, Named Only); Results Read From the Name

Nabhasa Yogas — Overview (BPHS Ch.35)

Link to Ch.34: after saying which planets are good and bad for each lagna, Parāśara closed by saying that auspiciousness is decided from the houses owned, and that results are given after looking at yogas such as the Nābhasa yogas. So these yogas can override what lordship alone says.

"Nabhas" = sky. Nābhasa = in the sky.

• Every combination happens in the sky. What is meant here: combinations based on plain placement in the zodiac — who owns the sign, friendship, exaltation and so on do not enter.
• 32 yogas, in four groups:
  1. Āśraya (3) — āśraya = residence, the kind of sign the planets live in
  2. Dala (2) — dala = group
  3. Ākṛti (20) — ākṛti = shape formed by the planets
  4. Saṅkhya (7) — saṅkhya = number: how many signs the planets occupy (all in one sign, in two signs, in three signs…)
• 3 + 2 + 20 + 7 = 32. Counting which signs and which planets form each yoga, Parāśara gives 1,800 variations ("eighteen times a hundred").
• Only the seven planets count. Rāhu and Ketu are not included.

The names (verses 3–6):

• Āśraya: Rajju, Musala, Nala
• Dala: Mālā, Sarpa
• Ākṛti: Gadā, Śakaṭa, Śṛṅgāṭaka, Vihaṅga, Hala, Vajra, Yava, Kamala, Vāpī, Yūpa, Śara, Śakti, Daṇḍa, Naukā, Kūṭa, Chatra, Dhanus, Ardhacandra, Chakra, Samudra
• Saṅkhya: Vallakī, Dāma, Pāśa, Kedāra, Śūla, Yuga, Gola

"The good thing is you don't have to do all these calculations. This will be shown by the Jagannatha Hora software, all these yogas."

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Āśraya Yogas (3) — The Kind of Sign

All seven planets in signs of one kind, no other sign occupied.

Parāśara gives no results here. He only defines the yoga. The result is to be worked out from the name.

Rajju Yoga

• Rajju = rope, thread — and also noose.
• Inauspicious side: the noose that hangs you; getting into trouble. Movable signs give the tendency to keep changing and not stay with one thing.
• Auspicious side: a rope ties something down. If the planets forming the yoga are strong and well placed, they work like a rope and make the person stick to something. If they are weak, he keeps moving away.
• Every one of these yogas has an auspicious side and an inauspicious side.

Musala Yoga

• The teacher first took musala to be the plough (the weapon of Balarāma) and read the yoga from that: ploughing is long-term work — you prepare the ground now and harvest months later. Planets in fixed signs make it a productive, fruitful combination that needs perseverance: the person puts in a lot of effort and the effort bears fruit slowly, not at once.
• Later in the class he corrects himself: the plough is hala, not musala. What a musala is he leaves to be checked. The perseverance reading stands on the fixed signs; the plough image belongs to Hala yoga.

Nala Yoga

• He is not sure what "nala" means and gives no result. Deferred to the next class.

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Dala Yogas (2) — Mālā and Sarpa

Verse: kendra-traya-gataiḥ saumyaiḥ pāpair vā dala-saṁjñakau.

Condition: out of the four kendras, at least three are occupied by planets of one kind — natural benefics, or natural malefics.

• Natural benefics in three kendras → Mālā yoga (mālā = garland). Auspicious.
• Natural malefics in three kendras → Sarpa yoga, also called Bhujaṅga (snake). Inauspicious.

The image: the kendras surround the lagna. When three of them hold planets of one kind, the lagna is garlanded by them — a garland of flowers, or a garland of snakes, which is poisonous.

A doubt about the text: the verse says saumya for the benefics and pāpa for the malefics. Everywhere else Parāśara keeps natural malefics (krūra) and functional malefics (pāpa) apart. A good yoga from natural benefics and a bad one from functional malefics is possible but unlikely. More likely krūraiḥ was corrupted into pāpaiḥ over time. Read both as natural.

• This is a common yoga. Many people have it.

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Ākṛti Yogas — Shapes (verses 7–12)

Ākṛti = shape. All seven planets must be in the houses named. Counted from lagna. The class defines nine of the twenty and stops at verse 12.

Gadā Yoga

• All planets in two consecutive kendras: 1st and 4th, 4th and 7th, 7th and 10th, or 10th and 1st.
• Gadā = mace, Hanumān's weapon — a heavy object with which you hammer the enemy.
• Why the mace: bow and arrow is skill and focus at a distance. The sword needs skill and bravery — a miss and you are cut. The mace is too big to miss; whoever has more strength overpowers the other. The mace is power.
• Result: strength and vitality.
• Why two consecutive kendras do this: the kendras are the Viṣṇu sthānas, the houses of the effort you put in. 1st = who you are and what you are capable of. 4th = the direction you have, the path you take. 7th = the desires you pursue. 10th = the work you get done. The 4th from any house is the direction of that house. When a kendra and the 4th from it hold all the planets, that kendra is full of planets and has sukha argalā from the planets in the 4th from it. That house flourishes.
• Which kendra flourishes changes the detail: 10th = the work you do; 4th = the direction you take in life; 7th = the desires you pursue and your dealings with the world.

"The bottom line is something will really flourish, something involving effort."

Śakaṭa Yoga

• All planets in the 1st and 7th.
• Śakaṭa = vehicle, cart, chariot.
• A student offers "exceptional communication ability". The teacher accepts it — a good communicator — and adds the main point: 1st is who you are, 7th is what you desire. The whole chart is focused on the person and his desires. He has strong desires and fulfils them.
• A vehicle = someone on the move, with a lot going on. A dynamic go-getter.

Vihaṅga Yoga

• All planets in the 4th and 10th.
• The verse names the houses as kha and ambu. Kha = sky, space, śūnya → the 10th house. Ambu = water, the ocean → the house below, pātāla → the 4th.
• Vihaṅga = bird.
• Why the 10th is the sky (a student asks why the 4th is not heaven): lagna is udaya, the rising point in the east; the 7th is asta, the setting point in the west. At sunrise the Sun is in the 1st. At noon he is in the 10th, in the middle of the sky — the midheaven, svarga, and Indra is the ruler of the 10th. At sunset he is in the 7th. At midnight he is in the 4th, below the horizon, in pātāla.
• Result: the 10th is the work you do; the 4th is the 7th from it — the desire of the 10th. The person has a strong desire to get work done. Work-oriented, a workaholic, flexible and very hard-working.

"What does a bird do? It gets up at sunrise. It doesn't stay still. It's going around collecting food, feeding children… when it becomes too cold, it may move a few thousand miles and settle down there. A bird never complains."

Śṛṅgāṭaka Yoga

• All planets in the trines: lagna, ātmaja (5th) and tapas (9th).
• The meaning of the word is left for the next class.
• All planets in trines: obviously a very auspicious yoga.

Hala Yoga

• All planets in the trikoṇas from the 11th (lābha trikoṇa): 11th, 3rd, 7th.
• Hala = plough.
• A student: new beginnings. The teacher: and getting things done. You can sow without ploughing, but the plough maximises the fruit the land gives.
• Result: profit-oriented. The person maximises the fruits of his efforts, and does not hesitate to put in extra effort to do it.

Vajra Yoga

• All natural benefics in the 1st and 7th, all natural malefics in the 4th and 10th. (The verse again says pāpa; read natural malefics.)
• Vajra = diamond, and Indra's weapon, the weapon that cannot be destroyed.
• 1st and 7th = the person and his desires. Benefics there: a gentle person with gentle, sāttvic desires.
• 4th and 10th = the direction he takes and the work he gets done. Malefics there: ruthless in his work.
• Result: he does not work for selfish ends and his desires are not bad, but once he decides what is to be done he is ruthless about it. Indra is the leader of the gods and works for divine causes, yet he destroys the demons without pity. Strength of character; good causes; ruthless work.

Yava Yoga

• The reverse: malefics in the 1st and 7th, benefics in the 4th and 10th.
• Yava = a grain (the teacher will confirm which); it stands for grains and agriculture.
• Malefics in the 1st and 7th: many strong, aggressive desires. Benefics in the 4th and 10th: gentle in his work, unable to be a ruthless achiever.
• Benefics in the 4th and 10th can make a saint, but with malefics in the 1st and 7th he is not one. He does gentle work while entertaining a lot of desires — a combination of some unhappiness.
• Result: not a great combination, unlike Vajra. An ordinary person without a great career but with many desires. Could be an agriculturist or someone in a routine career.

Kamala Yoga

• All planets in the four kendras, mixed — some benefics and some malefics in the 1st and 7th, some of each in the 4th and 10th, without the neat pattern of Vajra or Yava.
• Kamala = lotus. No result is given in this class.

Vāpī Yoga

• All planets outside the kendras — in paṇapharas and āpoklimas, no planet in a kendra.
• The meaning of "vāpī" and the result are deferred to the next class.

Not reached in this class

Yūpa, Śara, Śakti, Daṇḍa, Naukā, Kūṭa, Chatra, Dhanus, Ardhacandra, Chakra and Samudra are only named. The class ends the chapter at verse 12.

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Saṅkhya Yogas (7) — Named Only

• Seven yogas based on number: how many signs hold the seven planets — all in one sign, all in two signs, all in three signs, and so on.
• Names as listed: Vallakī, Dāma, Pāśa, Kedāra, Śūla, Yuga, Gola.
• The individual definitions and results are not reached in this class.

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How These Yogas Are Read — What the Class Settled and Left Open

The result comes from the name

• Parāśara defines the yoga and moves on. He gives no result at this point.
• So the name is the key: ask what the object does and why those houses or signs would produce it. The teacher is explicit that these readings are reasoned guesses — "because he hasn't explained, we don't know for sure, but we can try to guess."

Rāśi chart only, or divisional charts too?

• The teacher asks. A student answers: only the rāśi chart, because these are combinations one observes in the sky.
• The teacher does not accept the argument as stated. Parāśara did not say "observed in the sky". He said combinations based on positioning alone, without lordship, exaltation and the rest. A daśāṁśa or a navāṁśa is also based on the zodiac.
• What supports the student's side: the planets of the rāśi chart are physical; the planets of a divisional chart are abstract points.

"It is debatable whether these are applicable in the divisional charts or not, but it cannot be ruled out just based on what you have said."

Left for the next class

• The meanings of Nala, Musala, Śṛṅgāṭaka, Yava and Vāpī.
• The interpretation of Kamala and Vāpī, and the remaining eleven Ākṛti and seven Saṅkhya yogas.

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