Example Chart — D10 Sagittarius: Mercury(7L in Lagna)=Dvisaptati Sama Dasha; Mars(5L in 5H+Prushthodaya)=Results at End; Mercury MD=10L in Lagna=Career Peak; D24 Taurus: Venus-Mercury=Bachelor's(1L+5L); Sun MD=Master's+Diploma(A2 in Leo); D20: Mars(8L in 8H)+Saturn(6L in 6H)=Karma Yoga+Mystical Awakening. Pitta Diet: No Chili+Buttermilk+Cumin+Shatavari+Bhringraj

The Example Chart and Its Birth Time

Born 21 October 1968, evening, in India (5h30m east of GMT). The native is a student of the class.

• Seven years earlier the class had cast the chart for 6:31 PM. That was the native's guess; his mother had only said "sometime in the evening".
• He has since found old birth papers that record 7:15 PM. The same time was used for his marriage matching.
• PVNR starts at 7:15 PM and looks in its vicinity: "That may need some rectification, but hopefully not by 45 minutes."

Lagna: Aries, not Taurus

• At 6:31 and at 7:15 the lagna is Aries. At 7:15 it is at the very end; 4 minutes 18 seconds later it becomes Taurus.
• The native is stout, neither thin nor fat, bald, with a large head, and his behaviour is fiery. "Looking at you, people can tell that you are a pitta person."
• Taurus would be aspected here by its own lord Venus and by Jupiter. That gives kapha: fat or stout, big eyes, lustrous skin, thick hair. He has none of these. Pisces is ruled out as well.
• So the birth is before 7:19:18 PM.
• Between 6:31 and 7:15 the Moon moves from Virgo to the first degree of Libra. The nakṣatra stays Chitrā; the daśā dates shift by a few months. At 6:31 four planets were in Virgo.

The windows, event by event

• Rectified time: 7:08 PM. It cannot be before 7:05:15 PM.
• Why the late end of the window: "It is already rectified backwards by 7 minutes. We don't want to change it too much from the given time." It could be 7:06 or 7:07; there is no logic to disprove those.
• At 7:08 the D-10 and D-20 lagnas are 2 seconds short of changing sign.

What the site's chart shows differently

• The chart on this page is cast 10 seconds before 7:08 PM, so that the D-10 lagna (Sagittarius) and D-20 lagna (Virgo) fall as in class. At 7:08:00 exactly this engine is already past that border.
• PVNR uses true nodes. This engine's Rāhu is at 14°59′ Pisces, just short of 15°, where he has it just past. So the site shows Rāhu in Gemini in D-4 (class: Virgo, with Jupiter), Rāhu in Pisces and Ketu in Virgo in D-10 (class: Rāhu in Aries with Mars, Ketu in Libra with the Moon), the nodes in Taurus in D-20 (class: in the 10th, Gemini), and the nodes in Gemini in D-24 (the class does not have them there). The notes below follow the class.

Career — D-10

The native graduated as a civil engineer and became a programmer. He develops enterprise and application software and manages a development group. He has been employed without a break since 1990.

D-10 lagna: Sagittarius, not Capricorn

• With the time then in hand the D-10 lagna is Capricorn. Its 10th house is Libra with the Moon and Ketu.
• The Moon shows caring for people, nursing, schools — not programming, not management. Ketu may show programming.
• A student points to Mars and Rāhu aspecting the 10th. That shows hardware, electronics, chips. His work is application software, a Mercury matter; and Venus can show management.
• So the lagna should be Sagittarius. That needs the time moved back 5 minutes 28 seconds: 7:08 PM.
• Sagittarius lagna with the 10th lord Mercury in the lagna: an analytical, intelligent, easygoing person who is on decent terms with everybody, neither strongly liking nor hating anyone. Sagittarius rising adds fire: initiative and energy at work. Mercury as 10th lord shows software.

September 2005, a gain in career — testing the daśās

Rāśi Viṁśottarī: Jupiter–Rāhu (read in D-10)

• Jupiter is the D-10 lagna lord in the 6th house: service, not business, and a good planet for him. The career runs smoothly.
• Rāhu is in the 5th with Mars in Mars's sign and behaves like Mars (Part 5).

D-10 Viṁśottarī: Saturn, begun in 2005

• Saturn is the 2nd and 3rd lord, a clear malefic, in the 9th house (Leo). A planet that is bad for the chart, placed in the house of fortune, breaks fortune.
• But the career has gone well ever since. "That doesn't really add up with Saturn." He will not force it: "Let's not justify somehow."

D-10 Dvisaptati Sama daśā

• A student had earlier said: the 7th lord is in the lagna, so the conditional daśā should be used. That was while looking at D-1, where it does not hold. In D-10 it does: the 7th lord Mercury is in the lagna.
• The daśā at the time is Mars: Mars–Rāhu around June 2005, then Mars–Sun from September 2005 for about a year.
• Mars and Rāhu are both in the 5th house, the house of pūrva puṇya and recognition.
• Mars is the 5th lord and the Sun the 9th lord: two trine lords. A very good year.
• Mars is in Aries, a pṛṣṭhodaya sign, so the 5th lord in the 5th gives recognition and rise towards the end of his daśā. That is what happened.

The three daśās since 1989

• With these fitting, the D-10 lagna is "most likely Sagittarius, not Capricorn". Sagittarius ends 2 seconds after 7:08 and begins 11 minutes earlier: the window is 7:00 – 7:08.

The native's question (May 2012): is my luck over, should I ease off?

The work has become hectic, with much travel. Projects he worked on did not succeed, his parents have died, he has lost money, and he wants to stop working or find something easier. PVNR first asks whether anyone at work is actually pressing him, or whether he is pressing himself.

D-1 first, for luck overall

• Jupiter daśā, 1990 to 2006: 9th and 12th lord — flourishing abroad, fortune — placed in the 6th, so hard work with it.
• Saturn daśā now: bādhaka lord and 10th lord in the 12th house. Travel, instability, expenses and losses, some spiritual progress; not much gain. "Your luck may indeed be kind of peaked out already. But it doesn't seem as bad as you are thinking."
• Antardaśā Ketu: 8th lord in the 6th, and in the 7th, a māraka place, from Saturn. Next comes Venus: from Saturn he is the 8th lord in the 9th. Some slowdown in life is possible.
• Saturn and Rāhu in the 12th can give health concerns.

D-10 for the career itself (Dvisaptati Sama; the D-10 Viṁśottarī has already failed here)

• Mercury daśā: 10th lord in the lagna. "Your peak is not over as far as career is concerned." More work, more responsibility.
• Mercury–Saturn, just ending: Saturn is a malefic in the 9th and the kāraka of hard work. Some lack of fortune, much labour.
• Mercury–Rāhu, from June 2012 for about a year: Rāhu acts like Mars, the 5th lord; he is Mercury's friend; he is in the 5th house from Mercury. Very auspicious: recognition, more responsibility, more success, fame. The native then says his company is asking him to become a director. "It's possible." Asked later whether he should take it: "Take the director job and work hard."
• Mercury–Sun: the Sun is in the 12th (Scorpio) but is the 9th lord. 10th lord's daśā, 9th lord's antardaśā — "not bad at all". The pace continues and may even rise.
• Mercury–Moon, September 2014 to October 2015: the Moon is the 8th lord from the lagna and from the daśā lord alike, and is eclipsed by Ketu, the 12th lord. A break, a change, a slowdown or a partial retirement is possible then.
• Advice: postpone the plans. Work hard a few more years; the next years can bring the successful projects he feels he has lacked, since the lagna, 5th and 9th are being activated. If he wants a sabbatical, 2014–15 is the time to consider it.

"Somebody with Aries lagna with so much fire in the belly — maybe you will enjoy for a few months, but you will really get bored. I think you should keep working."

Education — D-24

Bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1990; master's in environmental engineering in 1994; a two-year part-time diploma in business management in 1996.

D-24 lagna is Taurus; 2 minutes 46 seconds earlier it would be Aries. Both are tested, with the D-24 Viṁśottarī.

Taurus lagna

• 1990, Venus–Mercury — bachelor's. Venus is the lagna lord and Mercury the 5th lord: both auspicious in this chart, so they give the degree. Mercury is in the 9th house, the house of bachelor's studies; he shows computers, mathematics, logic. Saturn is the planet of civil engineering, and Saturn is in the lagna.
• 1994, Sun's period — master's. The master's is the 2nd house, Gemini. Mercury owns the 2nd and sits in the 9th, so the master's is connected with the bachelor's. Moon and Mercury are the planets of the environment; Gemini and Mercury can show environmental engineering.
• Why the Sun? "For every education you can take the corresponding ārūḍha." The 2nd is Gemini; its lord Mercury is in Capricorn, the 8th from it; the 8th from Capricorn is Leo. A2 is in Leo, the Sun's sign. The lord of the ārūḍha of that education gives it.
• 1996, Sun's period again — diploma in management. The Sun is the kāraka of management. A two-year diploma after a bachelor's is another master's, a specialisation useful in the career: still the 2nd house.
• Had it been a doctorate or research after the master's, one would go to the 6th from the 2nd, the 7th house. The Sun is in fact in the 7th, but he does not use that argument: a management diploma is not a PhD.
• Aspects on the 2nd house (graha dṛṣṭi): the Sun from Scorpio has a three-quarter aspect; Venus from Sagittarius has a full aspect. "For management, the planets are Sun and Venus. Venus shows project management, Sun shows overall administration."

Aries lagna fails

• Venus in the 9th does not explain civil engineering.
• Saturn in the 2nd does not explain environmental engineering.
• The Sun in the 8th, aspecting the 2nd, could explain business administration; the other two do not fit.
• So Taurus stands, and the birth is not before 7:05:15 PM.

The native's question: should I do an MBA now?

• The D-24 daśā now is Mars: 12th lord in the 12th house. The knowledge he gives belongs to the 12th — the house of mokṣa, spiritual knowledge. He has nothing to do with the 2nd house. Much effort, little reward.
• "Time is not really that conducive for doing an MBA."
• Mars–Venus, about 2014–15, is better: Venus is the lagna lord, is in the 9th from Mars, and aspects the 2nd house. Mars–Sun after it can also show a master's or management study.
• Advice: not now. He is being promoted by people who like his work; use that while it lasts. When those people move on he will have to prove himself to others, and politics grows as one climbs.

"Use it while it is there. Later when you want it, it may not be there."

Spiritual Path — D-20

The native says that after years of going to satsaṅga he retains nothing: he knows no mantra by heart; he listens, or works there, and comes home.

The D-20 lagna has 5½ minutes of leeway backwards (and 2 seconds forwards), "so we can be confident of this lagna". The lagna is Virgo.

• D-20 Viṁśottarī: Mars daśā since 2009–10. Mars is the 8th lord in the 8th house (Aries, his mūlatrikoṇa). "A very good daśā of internal transformation."
• The 8th is the house of death, of Kuṇḍalinī and of mystical experience. With a strong 8th house a person can experience death while alive — an out-of-body experience. Mystics of any religion, Hindu, Sufi or Christian, have a powerful 8th house. That is the path of Rāja Yoga.
• The 8th is also a house of hard work. The 6th, 8th and 10th are the houses of Karma Yoga.
• Which is it here? When Rāhu and Ketu influence the 8th, Rāja Yoga is more likely. Here they are in the 10th and have little to do with it.
• The other strong planet is Saturn, 6th lord in the 6th in mūlatrikoṇa (Aquarius). The 6th is serving others and overcoming obstacles. A strong 6th and 8th: much work and much service.
• "Most likely this is a chart of Karma Yoga."

"If you go somewhere and you work, you do some service and come back, that is also a form of worshipping God. That itself is good enough for you. You don't necessarily need a mantra."

• The four paths as he puts them: Jñāna Yoga — reading, comparing, thinking it through; Bhakti Yoga — praising God; Rāja Yoga — taking charge and forcing awareness above the body; Karma Yoga — working and serving, because God is in the people and animals around you. All are valid.
• A seeker in a group that follows another path is looked down on for not conforming and feels uneasy. "Just do whatever is natural to you."
• Prediction: with the 8th lord's daśā running "you have to experience something" before it ends. Mars–Venus or Mars–Moon, 2014–15, more likely 2016, Mars–Moon, the Moon being in the 8th house: an inner awakening, a mystical experience.

Diet for a Pitta Constitution

The native asks whether he should avoid pickles. He mentions constipation and piles from heat.

• Heat gives acidity and gas; it also rises to the head and gives tension, anxiety, frustration and a short temper.
• "Pickles are poison for you." No heating spices: red chili, green chili, black pepper.
• Good: coriander above all, seeds and leaves; mint; cumin and fennel seeds. In moderation: cardamom and cinnamon, which are warming, not heating.
• Buttermilk after every meal.

"Buttermilk is really like amṛta for you."

• Eat full meals, a few times a day, and no snacks. A strong pitta system produces a mass of digestive acid even for a little food. Unused acid gives stomach ache, acidity and gas.
• Herbs: śatāvarī and bhṛṅgarāja, half a spoon of each, boiled in a cup and a half of water down to one cup, filtered and cooled. Bhṛṅgarāja cools the body and slows ageing, which runs fast when there is too much fire. Śatāvarī is the root of asparagus; asparagus the vegetable is good for him too.

Vāta and kapha, for comparison

• Vāta: dry, emaciated bodies with little digestive juice and hunger that comes and goes. Five or six very small meals. A little spice to trigger the enzymes, but chili and pepper in moderation because they dry the thin stomach lining. Cardamom, cinnamon, cumin and fennel are better. Hing (asafoetida) is very good; so is cumin with salt.
• Kapha: heavy, moist bodies, the stomach lined with thick mucus, slow hunger. Plenty of chili, black pepper and ginger. Raw ginger half an hour before a meal, or ginger and pepper with honey in the morning. Trikaṭu — ginger, black pepper and pippalī (long pepper) in equal parts — with water or honey.
• Ginger suits all three in moderation, because it is not as drying as pepper or chili. With honey it relieves kapha; with sugar, jaggery or rock candy it relieves pitta; with salt it relieves vāta. Dry ginger powder with salt and ghee in the first mouthful of rice provokes hunger.

Pṛṣṭhodaya, śīrṣodaya and ubhayodaya signs

• A planet in a pṛṣṭhodaya sign (rising with its back) gives its results towards the end of its daśā.
• A planet in a śīrṣodaya sign (rising with its head) gives them in the first third or first half.
• A planet in an ubhayodaya sign gives them in the middle.
• The only sign he names in this class is Aries: pṛṣṭhodaya.

Dvisaptati Sama daśā

• Applies when the 7th lord is in the lagna or the lagna lord is in the 7th house. (The recording garbles the name; the condition and the nine-year daśās of the example are those of Dvisaptati Sama daśā.)
• In the example the condition fails in D-1 and holds in D-10 (7th lord Mercury in the D-10 lagna). He uses it there in place of the D-10 Viṁśottarī, which did not fit the career. See Part 10.