D20 Vimshamsa — Spirituality Chart & Three-Level Framework

D-20 (Vimshamsa) — Chart of Spirituality

D-20 shows religious and spiritual activity and spiritual growth — sadhana. D-24 is knowledge and siddhi, the moksha reached through jnana. D-20 is not learning; it is understanding the God within.

The 5th House Is Bhakti

The 5th in any chart is ability. PVNR asks the class what ability spiritual growth needs. "Knowledge" and "discipline" are offered. His answer: devotion.

"Devotion is the only ability that you need. If you have devotion, everything will come. You don't have to be a smart person."

A rickshaw driver who knows no shastra may have seen the God within himself and within others, and may even have merged with Him.

Three Readings of Devotion

• A student first answers that A5 is perceived bhakti. PVNR corrects: perceived bhakti is the 5th from AL. A5 is the image of the devotion, not the image of the person.
• "I have bhakti to Lakshmi" is not tangible. "On 28 January 1994 I started reading Lakshmi's 108 names 108 times every Friday, and have done it since" is tangible. That is A5.
• A5 is maya and is not the bhakti. "Before that I may have more bhakti. After I started that puja I may have less." But it is the only way anyone can see it.
• Staying through an akhanda Vishnu Sahasranama parayana, reciting Sri Suktam daily, doing Satyanarayana vrata every Purnima — people see these and say "he has bhakti."

Are A5 and the 5th from AL related? A student asks. Usually yes — one feeds the other. The exception: an actor wins a Filmfare award and people say it was politics. The trophy is A5, and it is there; a planet in A5 may be running. But that planet may be inimical to the 5th from AL, so people do not think he deserved it.

Houses Counted from an Arudha

A student asks what the 5th from A5 shows. Nothing about the person. In general houses from arudhas are ignored.

• A5 is not the person or his image. It is the trophy, or the puja — an entity of its own, independent of him.
• Houses from A5 show the fortunes of that entity. If a Satyanarayana vrata planned for a Purnima could not be done, the break to the puja is seen from the 8th from A5.
• Arudha Lagna is the exception. It still shows the person, as he exists in people's minds.

"Lagna's houses show my qualities. Arudha Lagna's houses show qualities of my image — my qualities in people's perception. The other arudhas show other things that surround me — my trophies, my pujas — and houses from there show their fortunes."

PVNR's D-20

Same birth data as Example Chart 1. D-20 lagna: Taurus.

• 5th house (Virgo): Sun, Mars, Venus. Venus is debilitated.
• Mercury: Gemini, own sign.
• Jupiter: Libra, a sign of Venus.
• A5: Sagittarius (Dhanus). The 5th lord Mercury is 10th from Virgo; the 10th from Gemini is Pisces, the 7th from the house, so the pada moves to the 10th from there.

Graha drishti shows permanent desire. Argala is temporary and decisive.

Rasi drishti on A5: Mercury (Vishnu) from Gemini; Mars (Hanuman), the Sun (Shiva) and Venus (Lakshmi) from Virgo. Each wants a different mantra recited.

The three planets in the 5th from lagna all aspect A5. The 5th is the bhakti and A5 the mantras recited, so here the gods he has bhakti for are the ones whose mantras he recites. There is a correlation, but it need not be so in every chart.

Debilitated Planets Are the Strongest in D-20

Which of the four is strongest? Mercury in own sign is the tempting answer. It is Venus, because he is debilitated.

• We are born human because we separated from the Paramatma. The way back is persistence, patience and devotion.
• Purusha prakriti is ahankara; stri prakriti is submitting. A debilitated planet in D-20 shows submission to that deity.
• This does not hold in all charts.
• Srila Prabhupada, founder of ISKCON, had three or four debilitated planets in his Vimshamsa. It looks spoiled. It shows great devotion and patience.

"If a planet is in debilitation in this chart, you have to realize that that planet is actually stronger than other planets. Don't think that it is bad."

In PVNR's D-20, debilitated Venus is submission to Lakshmi. With Mercury in own sign next in strength, the deities that stand out are Lakshmi and Narayana.

Is debilitation good in D-10 too? A student quotes Sanjay Rath to that effect. PVNR: yes, but not in the same sense. D-10 is the chart of karma, of delivering for society; a debilitated planet there shows practical thinking and hard work. In D-20 it is submission to the deity.

Shani Dasha, Guru Antardasha in D-20

Could a new puja or mantra start in Guru antardasha (1992 – 25 December 1994)? A student answers yes, because it is Guru. PVNR: Jupiter is the karaka of mantras, but that is a separate matter. He takes it from A5:

• Jupiter owns Sagittarius, the sign of A5.
• Jupiter in Libra is in the 11th from A5. Every planet in the 11th from a house has argala on it.
• The lord of the sign having argala on it: in his antardasha mantras flourish, or a new one starts.
• Which mantra? Jupiter sits in a sign of Venus and is at Venus's disposal. Of the four planets with an interest in A5, Venus prevails.

Result: on 28 January 1994 he began reading Lakshmi's 108 names, 108 times, every Friday. The pratyantardasha was of Venus.