Charakarakas — The Three Classes of Karakas

Three Classes of Karakas

The Trinity Framework

Naisargika (nisarga = creation, the inherent nature): Sun = self/soul, Moon = mind, Mars = bravery and siblings, Jupiter = children, Venus = marriage/spouse — the same in every chart.

Chara (changeable, variable): they change from chart to chart. They are found from how far each planet has advanced in its sign. The further a planet is into its sign, the more light it takes from the Aditya of that sign.

Sthira (fixed): used to time the death of relatives. PVNR does not define them in this class and says they will not be taken up for a long time. Naisargika and Chara Karakas are the important ones.

• Do not use the three classes in a mixed-up way. Each has its own purpose.
• Naisargika Karakas are the ones for phalita Jyotish — the analysis of general results.
• Chara Karakas show the people who matter in one's sustenance and achievements: mother, father, wife, advisors. Ketu stands for moksha, not for any such person, so he is left out.
• Sthira Karakas are only the 7 planets, because only they have physical bodies; Shiva presides over death, and they show the destruction of the body.

Physical Relatives vs. Souls

• Physical brothers — born to the same mother and father — exist because of Brahma's creation. Judge them from the Naisargika Karaka, Mars.
• Chara Karakas work at the level of souls. The Matrukaraka can show your mother, but also any soul that gives you a mother's affection. The Pitrukaraka shows elders and authorities who guide you. The Putrakaraka shows subordinates and followers, not only children.
• Vishnu guides the journey of a soul, so the Chara Karakas are his.

"When you come to Charakarakas, you are basically in the domain of atmas, domain of souls — not just physical bodies that were created by Brahma."

Shiva Is Not a Ruiner

• Shiva makes everything sthira: he steadies a vacillating mind, and makes the soul sthira by merging it in the Paramatma.
• He destroys at every level: the body, so that the soul can move on; later the mind, which can outlast the body (hence occult phenomena); finally the qualities of the soul itself, when a great sadhaka is ready for moksha.
• Because he destroys ignorance and attachment, Shiva is the Parama Guru.
• So anything to do with destruction — a relative dying, a soul leaving your journey — is timed with Sthira Karakas, not Chara Karakas.

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Philosophy: Jivatma and Paramatma

Soul's Identity Crisis

• Sun is the Naisargika Atmakaraka: the Vishwatma, the soul of the universe, the Paramatma. In any chart he is still the Paramatma within that chart.
• Jivatma: the individual soul takes a little of that light. The Chara Atmakaraka is this jivatma.
• The Paramatma has no qualities, good or bad. The moment a jivatma separates, it has an identity and qualities of its own — compassion, attachment, illusion.
• The jivatma gets its light from the Adityas but does not recognize it; it thinks the light is its own → identity crisis.
• Moksha = realizing that our existence is not separate, that we are part of the same Paramatma. All the qualities of the soul have to be destroyed for that.
• Until then the soul has to sustain itself. That sustenance, and the soul's effort towards moksha, is what the Chara Karakas show.

"As long as that identity crisis is there and the atma does not merge back with the Paramatma, it has to engage in certain activities. It has to sustain itself."

AK as a Reference Point

• Take Moon as lagna in the Rashi chart → what is happening physically from the point of view of the mind.
• Take the Atmakaraka as the reference, in Rashi or Navamsa → how the soul perceives what is happening to it, at the physical level or at the dharmic level.

Why Ketu is Not a Karaka

A student observed that Rahu and Ketu are always at the same degree and asked whether Ketu has a place. Ketu is not one of the 8 Chara Karakas and can never be one. Rahu becomes the karaka.

"Ketu wants people to get moksha. He wants people to give up this identity. Each soul is basically an identity. … Ketu hates all this separation of souls. He does not want individual souls to exist. He wants all the souls to merge back with the Paramatma. So he refuses to become a soul, a separate soul."

• The Chara Karakas are taken from Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Rahu.
• The rule that one planet replaces another when two are at the same degree applies only among these 8, not to Ketu.

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The Eight Charakarakas

• Jaimini teaches seeing the guru from the Bhratrikaraka. The guru is not an authority figure here; guru, students and co-pursuers of the path are all brothers.
• The Darakaraka is usually the wife or husband. For someone unmarried it can be the partner who plays that part in the soul's pursuit.

Atmakaraka — King of All

"He is the king of your whole existence. Your body, your mind, they all have a role to play. Even your intelligence has a role to play. But the ultimate king is your atma. As long as the king is not happy, you are not happy."

"As long as the atma does not identify with the direction that you are taking, you will have that restlessness from within that you can't understand, that you can't express in words."

• The atma sits in a small shell surrounded by the sponge of manas. The mind insulates the senses and the buddhi from the atma, so you take what the mind thinks to be you.
• With sadhana the mind becomes calm, the sponge becomes soft and transparent, and the soul can be experienced.
• With or without sadhana, if the atma is unhappy you will feel it as a restlessness you can experience but cannot express.

AK shows the hidden agenda of your existence. It is not only about spirituality:

• One atma may be aiming at moksha.
• Another may want you to be king of the world, and is troubled if you are not.
• Another may want to kill a hundred people and feel satisfied when it is done — that atma has a long way to travel before moksha.

Each Karaka Against Its House (Rashi Chart)

Compare each karaka with its own house in the Rashi chart, the chart of physical existence:

• AK and the lagna
• DK and the 7H
• PuK and the 5H (the recording says "4th house"; the book notes for this lesson give the 5th)
• GK and the 6H

The relative placement shows whether the karaka helps that house or is dissatisfied with what is happening there.

• AK in the 6H, 8H or 12H from lagna is not a good sign: the relationship between the soul and the self is troubled.
• Wherever the AK sits, the energy of the soul goes to that house. AK in the 8H can mean trouble — or the atma directly guiding a spiritual sadhana. See which one stands out in the chart.

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