Dasha Analysis — Reading Mahadasha & Antardasha

Example Chart 1 — PVNR's D-24 (Siddhamsa)

The D-24 Placements Used

• Lagna: Gemini, with the Moon in it. A5 and A11 are also in Gemini.
• Saturn: Leo, 3rd house. Owns the 8th (Capricorn) and 9th (Aquarius).
• Mars: Taurus, 12th house. Its 4th graha drishti falls on Leo, the 3rd house.
• Mercury (lagna lord and 4th lord): Libra, 5th house.
• Venus (5th lord): Aquarius, 9th house.
• Rahu and Ketu: Virgo, 4th house.
• Jupiter: Pisces, 10th house, own sign. A7 and A8 are in Pisces.
• Arudha Lagna: Aquarius (lagna lord Mercury is 5th from lagna; 5th from Libra is Aquarius).

In D-24 the lagna is the seed of one's existence in learning. Something placed there gives a new beginning in learning, as the D-10 lagna gives a new beginning in career.

Shani Dasha, Moon Antardasha (1986–1988)

The question PVNR sets: someone with this chart comes in May 1987 and asks how the year will be for education. He was then writing intermediate (higher secondary) exams and the IIT entrance exam. Shani dasha ran 1975–1994; Moon antardasha 1986–1988.

Exam ranks, prizes and admissions are tangible, so they are read from arudhas, not houses. An ability developed that nobody can see would be read from houses.

What happened: he stood first in the state in the intermediate exam, was selected for IIT, and got a rank in the 30s in the state engineering entrance exam without studying for it. He was not the topper in the IIT exam — some did better — but there was no opposition; it went smoothly.

Arudhas are not the ability itself. A very able person can do badly in every exam — bad at exams, unlucky, or the examiner in a bad mood. A less able one can get lucky for a day. Ability itself is the 5th house, and nobody has visibility into it.

"When I say arudhas are maya, illusion, that is true. But at the same time, realize that we are living in the world of illusion. … If you ignore arudhas, your readings will not be perfect. Arudhas are very important because we live in an arudha world."

What cannot be read from this: a student asks how to tell in advance that he will go to IIT rather than somewhere else, or come first rather than second. PVNR: that is very difficult. All this shows is tangible recognition of ability, and gains that give a new beginning.

If A5 and A11 were in the 8th house instead: the gains would still come, but would bring a sudden change, or would relate to occult knowledge.

Winning and losing — A6 against AL. A chart showing recognition does not show a win. A candidate who loses an election can still be at the peak of his career and recognition (PVNR's example is John Kerry, then contesting). To judge who wins, compare how the period lord stands with A6 (the opposition) and with AL (the person).

The opposite case: Moon in A6, or in the 2nd from A6, would be supporting A6. Moon antardasha would then increase the opposition — struggle, cramming, late nights.

Image is separate again. A5 is the rank. AL is what people think of the person. Someone can be selected and have everyone say "he doesn't deserve it." Here the Moon is 5th from AL, and that sign's lord Mercury is also in a trine from AL (Libra, the 9th), so people generally think well of his abilities; in Moon and Mercury antardashas some event reinforces it.

Shani Dasha as a Whole

A student asks about Shani dasha itself. For a mahadasha, set arudhas aside and take placement and lordship from lagna.

Shani as 9th lord aspecting the 9th. The 9th is dharma, the guru, traditional knowledge. Saturn owns it and has his 7th graha drishti on it. Saturn himself stands for conservative, traditional knowledge, and he sits in the sign of the Sun, a sattvic planet.

• PVNR was born into a Brahmin family of Sanskrit scholars; learning the scriptures was his dharma.
• He began Sanskrit at about 5, soon after Shani dasha started. At 11 and 12 he passed two examinations — Sanskrita Bhasha Kovida and Sanskrita Bhasha Visharada — conducted by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and a university in Baroda. The final diploma is equivalent to a BA.
• He wrote poetry in Sanskrit and still reads Sanskrit texts without a translation.
• Whatever he knows of Sanskrit and the Puranas was learnt between 5 and 13. After that, nothing new.

Shani as 8th lord. The 8th is hard work and occult knowledge. Saturn by himself has little to do with the occult — Rahu and Ketu are the planets for that — so here it is hard work. Saturn is discipline, patience and persistence (the Kurma avatara). In Shani dasha he was disciplined. "After Mercury dasha comes, I may become less disciplined."

Shani in the 3rd house.

"3, 6 and 11 — these three houses are very auspicious for any malefic planet. Shani, Rahu, Ketu, Mars, and even Sun. If they are in some other houses, there can be mixed results."

• The drawback: the 3rd is initiative, determination, the start — the seed of the kama trikona. Saturn is Manda, the slow one. Saturn in the 3rd gives luck, and things come easily, but the person is lazy and has to work at overcoming it. Mars in the 3rd of any chart is the reverse: wants to do everything at once.
• PVNR on himself: always lazy, most of all in Shani dasha. Once he starts something it gets finished, but he tells himself "I will do it" many times before starting. He began his book around 1998, wrote about ten pages in three years, then decided to finish and wrote the whole book in a month and a half.

Why a malefic in the 3rd gives fortune. A student notes that some authors link this to the 9th. PVNR: the 3rd is 7th from the 9th, so a planet there aspects the 9th. Aspect is desire. A benefic with that desire may or may not give; it does not enforce its will. A malefic enforces it.

Saturn's three graha drishtis from the 3rd:

A graha drishti only shows the planet's desire. Whether it produces something depends on the planet's relation to the karaka of that house. Being Saturn, even the giving starts slowly.

Mars on the 3rd house. Mars (in Taurus) has his 4th graha drishti on the 3rd. Mars is the karaka of the 3rd — initiative, aggression. The karaka is the project manager; when the project manager himself wants to do a piece of the work, it gets done and nobody objects.

Combined: Saturn gives sluggishness, Mars gives aggression. Two extremes on one house. He does not start; once he starts, a task that would take someone a year is done in a couple of months.

3rd from Lagna, A3, and 3rd from Arudha Lagna

• A student answers "A3" when asked how people judge his initiative. PVNR corrects: A3 is the things they judge by. Their judgment is the 3rd from AL.
• 3rd from AL (Aquarius) is Aries: a fiery sign, owned by Mars, and Mars in Taurus is in the 2nd from it — an argala, a decisive influence.
• So in writing, teaching and study people take him for an aggressive, forceful, very determined man: "He is writing astrology software, he is writing a book, he is teaching. How can he do so many things?"
• The laziness from Saturn in the 3rd from lagna stays hidden. "Only I know about my laziness."

The image is not false. The lagna lord's placement is what put the Arudha Lagna where it is. The image is what he projects by the way he acts.

"It's not that people are stupid and they have that image. It is what is actually manifesting. That is why people have that image."

Reading a D-24 Without a Period in Mind

A student asks what to look for in D-24 generally. Lagna and the 5th give ability and potential; the 4th gives the kind of learning and the attitude to it.

Kendras are Vishnu sthanas — houses of effort; a planet there gives good results with effort. Trikonas are Lakshmi sthanas — blessings from past good karma; things come easily.

• Lagna: lagna lord Mercury is in a trine, the 5th. Lagna is strong.
• 5th house: occupied by the lagna lord, a very good planet for the chart. Its own lord Venus is in the 9th, another trine. Lagna and 5th are both strong: a reasonably intelligent person, able to learn.
• 4th house — what is learnt:
  • Rahu: research, advanced engineering, abstract subjects such as electronics.
  • Ketu: spiritual (adhyatmika) knowledge.
  • 4th lord Mercury is in the 2nd from the 4th, so he has argala on his own house — a strong influence. Mercury: writing, communication, journalism, mathematics, software.
  • Jupiter in own sign in a kendra gives Hamsa Mahapurusha yoga. He is in the 10th — karma relating to knowledge, such as teaching astrology, which is not his profession but an activity done in society. Jupiter in Pisces is traditional knowledge and astrology, and he aspects the 4th.

When one house stands out — three or four planets in it — go straight to that house, as was done in an earlier class with Sri Aurobindo's D-24.

Shani Dasha, Guru Antardasha (1992 – 25 December 1994)

Jupiter is in Pisces with A7 and A8.

A7. The 7th from lagna is interaction with people as it exists inside oneself. A7 is the actual meeting. In Jupiter antardasha: meetings with Jupiter-like people.

A8 (Mrityu pada). The 8th is disturbance, trouble, anxiety, the end; also occult knowledge. A8 is the manifested end, or manifested occult knowledge. A planet influencing A8 in D-24 can give a break in education in its period; in D-10, a break in career.

• Mahadasha by lordship: Saturn owns the 8th, so 8th-house results come in Shani dasha.
• Antardasha by arudha: Jupiter owns the sign of A8 and sits in it.

Result 1 — the end of formal education. In July 1993 he finished his Masters, did not go on to a PhD, and started working.

Result 2 — astrology. Jupiter is karaka of Vedic knowledge; Pisces is a sattvic sign, the sign of the Maharshis. A student asks whether A8 could be tantric. PVNR: the 8th covers astrology, palmistry, numerology, and tamasic tantras too; with a sattvic planet in a sattvic sign it is the occult knowledge of the Maharshis. After the Masters he spent about six months in India with his father, learnt from him, and has pursued astrology ever since.

"When I was maybe 6 or 7, I knew the first lessons of astrology. But the problem is every summer I used to learn and every winter I used to forget. … It was in '93 that I started being very serious about it, and the continuity started there."

As a boy he applied the Ashtakavarga longevity formulas by brute force and worked out the date and time of his own death. His father: "Are you mad? This doesn't work."

Shani mahadasha with Guru antardasha is the best combination in this chart for the occult pursuit. Jupiter's antardasha in Mercury dasha or Ketu dasha can also bring events in it, but without Saturn's help.

A student's question: the antardasha ran 1992–94, yet the study continued after it. PVNR: the antardasha is the two years in which that arudha rises. It shows the trigger, not the duration.

Pratyantardasha and Rectifying the Dates

• When within the two years? Go to the pratyantardasha, and judge pratyantardashas from lagna. Ketu, karaka of spiritual knowledge, is in the 4th house of learning in D-24 and exchanges rasi drishti with Jupiter (Virgo–Pisces). Ketu's pratyantardasha can give the start of the formal study.
• There are six levels: dasha, antardasha, pratyantardasha, sukshma dasha, prana dasha, deha dasha — the last a matter of hours.
• In practice the fine levels are off by days. In his own chart, even with the time right, he had to add a day to the calculation; after that he could explain events to the hour (shown at a New Jersey workshop the year before).
• One minute of error in birth time shifts the Moon-based dates. Recalling the formula for a birth in Venus dasha he hesitates between 5 days and 5 months, and settles on 5 months. The pattern holds; the dates are displaced.
• Until the epoch is corrected: antardashas look right, some pratyantardashas fit and some do not, and at the sukshma level it is all noise.
• Pandit Jagannath Rath, Sanjay Rath's grandfather, rectified by hand from dated daily events — a train taken at a given time in a given direction, the hour of a wedding — to fix the Moon to the second. It took him almost a day. With software PVNR aligned his own chart in a couple of hours.
• Being right to the hour is neither important nor easy. Stay with dashas and antardashas; pratyantardashas give reasonable accuracy.

"Any planet that occupies an arudha or has argala on an arudha will tend to give results relating to that arudha in that particular antardasha."