Education & Scholarly Achievement — D24 Siddhamsa

Pandit Sanjay Rath's D-24 (Siddhamsa)

The Chart

The teacher draws it on the board and asks the class to find a Raja Yoga:

• Lagna Gemini — Mercury and Venus in lagna
• 6th, Scorpio — Moon and Sun
• 10th, Pisces — Jupiter
• 11th, Aries — Saturn, Rahu, Ketu
• 12th, Taurus — Mars

Is He Intelligent?

Ability is the 5th house. Of the Dharma Trikona, the 9th is the dharma and the 5th is the ability that decides it.

• 5th house = Libra. A student says Mercury; the teacher corrects: the 5th lord is Venus.
• Venus is in lagna. Lagna is a Kendra and a Trikona at once — it shows both effort and blessings.
• A planet in lagna in an enemy's sign would be bad. Venus is in the sign of Mercury, a very good friend, and the friend is there with him.

"If you are at a friend's house, you are relaxed, you are comfortable. But if your friend is also there, it's even better."

• Mercury, the lagna lord, is in lagna in his own sign.

"Lagna in Rasi chart is you as far as body is concerned. And here Lagna is you as far as learning is concerned. The very essence of this person's learning is decided by Lagna."

• If the lagna lord is weak, other strengths do not make the person strong. Here the lagna is very strong and the 5th lord sits in it with the lagna lord. An extremely intelligent person.

The Raja Yogas of Mercury and Venus

• Mercury owns the 1st and 4th (Gemini, Virgo) — both Kendras.
• Venus owns the 5th and 12th (Libra, Taurus).

Two Raja Yogas from one conjunction:

1. 1st lord + 5th lord
2. 4th lord + 5th lord

"Different Raja Yogas have different sub-themes."

4th + 5th lords = the blessings of Vishnu. Things come easily. In D-24: he has Vishnu's blessings in learning. The planet is Mercury, whose deity is Vishnu, which makes it stronger. He is a worshipper of Lord Jagannatha.

"When you see a 4th and 5th lord Raja Yoga and the person is not doing well in life, tell him to worship Vishnu. He has Vishnu's blessings; if he worships, those blessings come faster. If something is blocking the Raja Yoga, worship the right deity so that it is activated."

1st + 5th lords = following. The 1st is you, the 5th is your following. Ability and following go together. This holds in any house. But when the two lords are together in the 1st or in the 5th itself, Parashara calls it a Maharaja Yoga, not just a Raja Yoga: excellent following.

Here they are in lagna. He has the Maharaja Yoga.

"That doesn't mean he will be an emperor. This is not the chart of career or bhagya. This is the chart of education. In the matter of learning he is a Maharaja, and he will have a great following."

10th House — Karma in Learning

The 10th is karma. D-10 shows career. The 10th of D-24 shows one's activity in society related to learning — "right now I am teaching all of you. This karma is seen from the 10th house, not in my Dasamsa, but in my D-24."

• 10th = Pisces. Jupiter, its lord, is in it. The 10th is very strong.
• A strong Siddhamsa with a weak 10th: very learned, but the knowledge stays with him. A strong 10th: the knowledge is spread.

Argala from Mercury and Venus. Argala comes from the 2nd, 4th and 11th.

• Count from Pisces: Gemini is the 4th. Mercury and Venus have 4th-house Argala on the 10th.
• Virodhargala breaks an Argala. Its places are the same 2nd, 4th and 11th counted in the reverse direction.
• Here: count four in reverse from Pisces → Sagittarius. It is empty. (Even one planet there would not overcome two very strong planets.)
• So his learning and his following have a decisive say in his karma. All his intelligence and knowledge is used for his karma in society.

What kind of karma? Jupiter is the planet of Vedic knowledge. Pisces is the sign of the Maharshis. His karma is spreading Vedic knowledge, the knowledge of the Maharshis.

The teacher then names the native: Pandit Sanjay Rath, one of his Jyotish gurus, from a traditional parampara of Puri. He was an IAS officer in Delhi, was not happy in the job, resigned, went back to Puri to establish the Jagannath Centre, and travels the world teaching Jyotish.

9th Lord — The Guru Himself

A student asks: the 9th lord Saturn is in the 11th and his 3rd aspect falls on lagna — what does that mean?

The 9th house shows the guru. But:

"Rasis are inanimate, Grahas are animate. Remember this basic distinction. If you want to see any person, you should always look at planets. If you look at houses, it only shows their influence on you."

• The 9th house = the guidance received from the guru.
• The 9th lord = the guru himself. The lord of a house is its prana, its life force.

9th = Aquarius. Lord Saturn is in Aries, the 11th.

• Saturn is a hard worker and very traditional. Among Vishnu's avataras he is Kurma, the tortoise: slow. Jupiter may be willing to modernise a tradition. Saturn "hates deviation from the established path."
• So the guru is a very hard-working, very traditional man.
• Saturn has Graha Drishti on lagna (his 3rd aspect: Aries → Gemini). Graha Drishti is desire. The guru desires to pass the knowledge on to him.

The facts: his first guru was his grandfather, a great scholar of astrology, from whom he did not learn much directly. His father knew little astrology. He learned most from his uncle, Pandit Kashinath Rath — "a very, very strict old man." The uncle's own children did not pick the knowledge up, nor did Sanjay Rath's two brothers. He was the only one.

"From Kashinathji to Sanjayji the link was very thin — just one person. So there was a strong desire on the part of his guru to give this knowledge."

9th House — The Guidance Received

Argalas on the 9th (Aquarius):

• 2nd — Pisces — Jupiter: a very auspicious Argala. Jupiter in Pisces is sattvic knowledge; the guidance he received was very sattvic.
• 4th — Taurus — Mars: enthusiasm.
• 5th — Gemini — Mercury and Venus: the secondary Argala.
• 3rd — Aries — Saturn, Rahu, Ketu: the malefic Argala, below.

The 3rd-house Argala of malefics. Parashara's dictum: if there are several malefics in the 3rd from a house, they too have Argala on it. "We don't know what several means, but typically we take that as two or more."

The logic: the 3rd is the house of determination and initiative. Malefics are for rash action. Saturn, Rahu, Ketu, Mars in the 3rd show a lot of energy, and for initiative that destructive energy is welcome. This Argala shows burning desire and initiative.

Here three malefics are in the 3rd from the 9th — and it comes from the house that holds the guru (Saturn). The guru pushed him hard to learn.

Graha Malika Yoga

When the teacher asked for a Raja Yoga, one student pointed instead to four planets in a row.

Definition: at least four consecutive houses, each holding at least one of the seven planets Sun to Saturn. Rahu and Ketu do not count.

• 10th Jupiter → 11th Saturn → 12th Mars → 1st Mercury and Venus.

In general a great yoga. Seen in the Rasi chart or Dasamsa, one can say at once the person will rise to great heights, like a king or a minister. The ordinary Kendra–Kona Raja Yoga many people have; Graha Malika is rare.

"Usually people don't find this yoga. You directly found the difficult one."

The results depend on where it starts and where it ends:

• It starts with Jupiter in Pisces — sattvic karma of Vedic knowledge. That is the trigger.
• It culminates in Gemini, in the Maharaja Yoga of Mercury and Venus — the following.

Once he starts the karma of spreading this knowledge, he gets a huge following. When he left his job and went into astrology full-time, he triggered the yoga.

"Even though Sri Jagannatha Centre is in very initial stages, one day it will be a big organization with great following and also with great contributions to reviving this knowledge."

Sri Aurobindo's D-24 (Siddhamsa)

The Chart

• Lagna Capricorn
• 2nd, Aquarius — Mercury, Venus, Saturn
• 8th, Leo — Sun, Rahu, Ketu
• 11th, Scorpio — Mars
• 12th, Sagittarius — Moon, Jupiter

The teacher keeps the name back until the reading is done.

Lagna and the 5th: Strength in Learning

Lagna is one's very being from the point of view of learning. The 5th is learning ability. Look at these two first.

• Lagna lord Saturn, 5th lord Venus — together in the 2nd.
• Saturn is in Aquarius, his Moolatrikona. Of a planet's two signs one is the Moolatrikona, and Moolatrikona placement is the stronger. Saturn in Aquarius is stronger than Saturn in Capricorn.

The Raja Yogas in the 2nd House

• The 9th is the strongest of the trines, more auspicious than the 1st and the 5th.
• The lords of the 1st, 5th, 9th and 10th are all together: "innumerable Raja Yogas" — of dharma, of karma, of ability and following.

Yogakaraka. When the same planet owns a trine and a quadrant, it is a Yogakaraka.

• Capricorn and Aquarius lagnas: Venus
• Cancer and Leo lagnas: Mars

Here Yogakaraka Venus joins the lagna lord Saturn and the 9th lord Mercury.

• 9th + 10th lords = Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga
• 1st + 10th lords = Raja Yoga
• Lagna lord with the trine lords = Raja Yoga

Raja Yoga between friends. A Raja Yoga between enemies — Sun and Saturn, Moon and Mercury — is not so effective. Mercury, Venus and Saturn are good friends. These yogas are very powerful.

Maharaja Yoga of the 5th and 9th lords. From Parashara's chapter on Raja Yogas: the 5th and 9th lords together — both trines, neither a quadrant — give a Maharaja Yoga provided the lagna lord is strong. Here 5th lord Venus and 9th lord Mercury are together and lagna lord Saturn is in Moolatrikona. The yoga stands.

Result. The yogas involve the 5th lord of intelligence.

"He is supremely intelligent. He is probably the most intelligent person who was born in the last 100 years."

The 2nd is the house of resources and speech. He is not only learned; when he speaks, things become clear. A great orator, from the strength of the 2nd.

8th House — Sadhana and the Hidden

The other house with three planets: Leo, the 8th — Sun, Rahu, Ketu. Sun is in his own sign.

Are Rahu and Ketu bad for occult knowledge? No.

• Ketu is the planet of spirituality.
• Rahu is not only deceit. He is the planet of searching for the hidden.
• Jupiter (wisdom) and Saturn (following tradition diligently) are good, but they keep you within the limits of tradition. Rahu is research.

"Research doesn't mean just sitting in front of a computer. If you keep pondering — what is this world, why are we born, who is God, what does this particular Purana story really mean — it is research. That kind of research is shown by Rahu."

• Rahu under bad influence: a rebel, a maverick, who disrespects tradition and falls.
• Rahu when good: goes beyond what is known, beyond the tradition, explores the unknown and understands it better. Abstract thinking.

Rahu and Ketu in the 8th of D-24:

"Clearly this person is somebody who investigates the truth of the universe. Where people like us are happy, he is not happy, and he works hard to understand better."

Sun with his enemies. Rahu and Ketu are the Sun's enemies. But the Sun is the natural Atmakaraka, the significator of the soul, and the 8th is a Moksha Trikona house (4, 8, 12). Placed there with the planet that gives Moksha and the planet that gives research, the Sun is happy and goes along with the sadhana.

Rahu–Ketu influence on the 8th: a sadhaka. This person was a great sadhaka, engaged in sadhana and tapasya.

12th House — Moksha in Learning

The Moksha Trikona in sequence: the 4th is comfort; that leads to tapasya, the 8th; and when everything is understood, the relaxed happiness of the 12th.

In Rasi or Navamsa the 12th shows actual moksha. In the chart of learning it means:

"Being totally happy with your knowledge. Being so learned that there is nothing more to be learned. Whatever you wanted to understand, you understood it all so well that you are just relaxed."

Gajakesari Yoga. Moon and Jupiter together, or in mutual quadrants — Jupiter in the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th from the Moon. Of the four, being together is the most auspicious. Here it is the best kind, and in the 12th. The yoga makes a person famous.

Jupiter is in Sagittarius, his own sign and Moolatrikona. Moolatrikona is like the planet's office: he does his job, the giving of Moksha, with a sense of duty. That Jupiter takes part in the Gajakesari Yoga and has Graha Drishti (his 9th aspect) on Sun, Rahu and Ketu in the 8th.

The key to the chart. The 2nd house is very strong and full of Raja Yogas. But the 8th and 12th dominate.

"The Moksha Trikona is stronger than even the Artha Trikona. He serves a purpose in society — he has a lot of resources, he speaks a lot, he writes a lot. But his real greatness is he got Moksha in the matter of knowledge."

A very learned sadhaka. The chart is Sri Aurobindo's.

The Life

• Probably the greatest scholar of the last hundred years to write insightful commentaries on the Vedas and Upanishads — the deep meaning, not the surface meaning of the words.
• Until about the age of 20 he knew no Sanskrit and no Indian language, not even Bengali, his mother tongue.
• His father hated India and did not want his son to be an Indian. He sent him to England, kept him with a Christian priest, with clear instructions: no meeting Indians, no exposure to Indian culture.
• He sat the civil service examination but dropped out midway. He knew six European languages and no Indian one. His European teachers were struck by his intelligence.
• "The moment he landed in India, he felt something." He learned Bengali and Sanskrit — Sanskrit well enough to understand the Vedas and Upanishads better than people who had studied them from childhood.
• The legend is that in jail he had visions of Sri Krishna teaching him.
• Students add: he was also a great poet, his Savitri a profound work; and the Mother at Pondicherry is worshipped as a goddess.

"You keep him out of the knowledge of the soul — forget it, he will come back to it."

His father was foolish. Yet it turned out well: he learnt it in the right dasha, so it came faster.

Vaiseshika Amsas

Take a planet. Look at all sixteen vargas. Count the charts in which it is in its own sign, Moolatrikona or exaltation sign.

There are more names in between (Uttamamsa and so on); the full list is in the teacher's book.

• Own, Moolatrikona and exaltation are roughly 3 signs out of 12 — a 1/4 chance in any one chart.
• For five charts, treating them as independent events (they are not quite): (1/4)⁵ = 1/1024. About one in a thousand for Simhasanamsa.

Sri Aurobindo's Sun, the natural Atmakaraka, is in Sridhamamsa.

"He is something just out of the world. You don't get people like that every 100 years or 1000 years."

On the chart: the Sun is at 0°20′ Leo. He is in Leo or in Aries, his exaltation, in every one of the sixteen vargas except D-20 (taking the Sun's own hora in D-2).

When Does a Raja Yoga Give Its Fruit?

A student asks whether all these yogas fructify at a certain time — for him, after the return to India.

• A yoga starts functioning at a particular age. Once it starts it is there for the whole life. "Starting is the key. The trigger."
• A person with a Raja Yoga may be an ordinary man until then.

"Just because you don't know any astrology until now, it doesn't mean you will not become a great astrologer. Just the right Dasha has to come."

• Even when the right dasha is not running, if an approximately favourable one is, praying to the right gods can trigger it.
• Once triggered the Raja Yoga lasts for life. But the main fruits, especially of material yogas, are limited to a particular dasha.
• Dasha or circumstance? "Both mean the same thing. When the right dasha comes, the right circumstances will come." He flourished because he came to India; that came because the dasha changed.

Atmakaraka Change

The Sun is the karaka of the soul for everyone. Besides that there are Chara Karakas, significators that differ from person to person, and so a Chara Atmakaraka for each person.

• For some people the Chara Atmakaraka changes at a later point in life.
• Sri Aurobindo went through such a change: his Atmakaraka was one planet and later became another.

"That really triggered everything for him, more than the Dasha. His soul went through a big transformation during that time."

The teacher mentions it only to keep it at the back of the mind. Chara Karakas and Atmakaraka change are taught later.

Swami Chandrashekhara Saraswati's Rasi Chart

The Chart

For a change, a Rasi chart — one's physical existence, not only one's learning.

• Lagna Leo
• 2nd, Virgo — Saturn, Ketu
• 4th, Scorpio — Moon, debilitated
• 7th, Aquarius — Mars
• 8th, Pisces — Venus, exalted, and Rahu
• 10th, Taurus — Mercury, Sun, Jupiter

Lagna — Majestic, Not Bold

Lagna shows appearance — how a person comes across. A student says Leo lagna makes him bold. The teacher corrects it:

"Boldness is given not by Sun but by Mars. Sun just radiates light. Sun is like a king — majestic. More than bold, that is the right word."

• Leo is owned by the Sun and has Sun-like qualities. Mars is bold and aggressive, the commander-in-chief. The Sun is the king.
• Authoritative. "When you see him, you basically get respect." A majestic, royal kind of person.

Start With What Stands Out

• The 2nd–8th axis holds four planets.
• The 10th house holds three.

With a specific question — is he happy? — go straight to that house, the 4th. Without one:

"You just look at what really stands out, what really stares at you, and then start from there."

If one room in a building is full of people and the others are empty, a visitor goes to that room first to see what is going on. It is not that nothing goes on in an empty house — whoever represents its agenda is somewhere else.

10th House — Following, Speech, Wisdom

Raja Yoga. Lagna lord Sun and 5th lord Jupiter are together in the 10th, a Kendra.

• 1st + 5th lords = a great following. The 1st is the native, the 5th his followers.
• Being in the 10th, the following goes into his karma.

A third planet in a Raja Yoga influences it. Mercury is with them. He owns the 2nd and the 11th. The 2nd holds two planets and is the stronger, so read the 2nd: resources, the seed of the Artha Trikona — and speech.

• Mercury is the natural significator of speech and owns the house of speech. He has command over the resources of speaking, and he has gone into the house of activity in society.
• Physically, he speaks a lot. (His career proper would be read from Dasamsa; the Rasi chart shows the physical part.)
• With the 5th lord there too, people listen when he speaks.

Jupiter on speech. For speech Mercury is the karaka and Jupiter the secondary karaka. Jupiter's influence makes speech wise, measured, full of intelligence.

• 2nd lord Mercury is with Jupiter.
• Jupiter has Graha Drishti on the 2nd house by his 5th aspect (Taurus → Virgo).

A wise speaker whom people listen to.

Moon in the 4th

Gajakesari Yoga. Moon in Scorpio and Jupiter in Taurus are opposite. After being together, opposition is the strongest form — stronger than the 4th or 10th from each other. Its result is fame: "It doesn't make one a king, but it makes one very famous."

Moon's agenda. Moon owns the 12th (Cancer), the house of giving and of Moksha, and sits in the 4th, the sukha sthana.

"What gives him happiness? Giving. He does not want to accumulate things. He wants to give things to people."

Moon's Graha Drishti on the 10th (7th aspect, Scorpio → Taurus). His activities in society are guided by the Moon's desire to give and be happy. When a dasha triggers that aspect, he gives to people.

Moon debilitated. Moon is the karaka of sukha, in the 4th. But he is in Neecha, so this is not the happiness of "I just want to relax."

• Exaltation is akin to pride and excitement. A student the night before an examination, sure he will do well. What if he doesn't? This is why too many exalted planets are not good — some people with many exalted planets went through a lot of suffering.
• Debilitation is akin to working hard, not being contented. "Tomorrow there is an exam. I still need to read something more."

He gives and is happy — but he is never fully satisfied.

Neecha Bhanga Raja Yoga

The teacher meant to leave it for later; a student points out that it is in this chart.

The basic flavour (there are others): a planet is debilitated, and the owner of that sign is in a Kendra.

Result: first struggle, then great success. "Somebody may be very poor and he may become a king."

Meaning. "When we look at astrological rules we also have to understand the meaning. Then we can adapt them to situations."

• The debilitated planet is not contented and still needs to work hard.
• The owner of the sign holds the keys to that house. A Kendra is a Vishnu Sthana, a house of effort. Vishnu rules effort; Lakshmi rules the fruits of it.
• Owner in a Kendra → effort is going on.

"Even though this planet is not fully satisfied, there is effort going on, so it will be satisfied. It is actually better than being exalted, because there is effort going on here."

Here: Moon is debilitated in Scorpio. Its owner Mars is in the 7th, a Kendra. The yoga is present.

Timing. The yoga is triggered not by the debilitated planet — "Moon is troubled" — but by the planet that causes the cancellation, the one alleviating the trouble. "Not in this case, but in a similar case," if the person is unhappy, it is when the Mars dasha or Mars antardasha comes that he becomes happy.

Does it last? The standard opinion: once triggered it remains for the whole life.

Tapasvi Yoga

The 4th starts the Moksha Trikona. The next step is the 8th: tapasya, sadhana. Here the 8th has exalted Venus and Rahu.

"If somebody wants to be a yogi or a sadhaka, don't ignore Rahu and Ketu. They are extremely auspicious."

Tapasya needs passion and determination. And if it is done for a particular thing the result is not full. Done with detachment, for Moksha, it is. "Everybody does tapasya, but somebody who does it with detachment gets moksha."

The combination: Venus, Saturn and Ketu together, or in mutual trines, or opposite each other. The person will be a tapasvi.

Tap means to burn. One who burns with a desire — for Moksha, to understand something, to reach Shiva — is doing tapasya.

Why Saturn and not Mars. Mars too is a planet of determination, but his is "just do it" — go and kill somebody, open a machine, finish it. He gives initiative. Tapasya is not something one just goes and does. The determination to endure long trouble comes from Saturn.

Here: Saturn and Ketu in Virgo, Venus in Pisces — opposite, each aspecting the other (the 7th Graha Drishti; Virgo and Pisces also have Rasi Drishti on each other). The yoga is present.

Which houses. Tapasvi Yoga works in any house. In the Moksha Trikona it is very auspicious.

• The 8th and 12th are called dusthanas because they give much effort with no material result. For Moksha they are very good houses.
• The 8th is more auspicious than the 12th for this yoga. The 12th is the final Moksha; the 8th is the sadhana itself, and siddhi.

Here the 8th house, Pisces, is involved, so the yoga is stronger still.

A tapasvi of the highest order: hard-working, detached, keeping his austerities.

Does the Tapasya Reach Society? Argala on the 10th

Argala: 2nd, 4th, 11th; the 5th gives the secondary Argala; the 3rd gives the motivating Argala if at least two malefics are there.

From the 10th (Taurus):

• Pisces is the 11th — Venus has 11th-house Argala.
• Virgo is the 5th — Saturn and Ketu have the secondary 5th-house Argala.

All three planets of the Tapasvi Yoga have Argala on the karma sthana.

"Some people may do tapasya and just keep it to themselves. But whatever tapasya he is doing, whatever sadhana he is doing, that benefits the society through his karma. He engages in karma which transfers some of the result to people around him."

The chart is that of Swami Chandrashekhara Saraswati of Kanchi.