Druk Dasha Full Recap, Retrograde = Past-Life Desire (Cheshta Bala) & Combustion vs Retrogression Are Two Orthogonal Factors

Druk Dasha — Recap

The method:

• Druk Dasha is the progression of the 9th house. Narayana Dasha is the progression of the 7th house, so there the 7th from the dasha sign is taken as lagna. In Druk Dasha take the 5th from the dasha sign as the progressed lagna.
• Read the natal chart from that lagna, and the Dasha Pravesha Chakra (the chart of the moment the dasha starts) from the same lagna.
• The themes common to both charts are the results that are very likely.

"Take the 5th from the dasha sign as the progressed lagna. Taking that as the lagna, see what are the influences."

What the houses show from the progressed lagna (as recapped in this class):

The 12th house and sanyasa:

• In the three charts seen earlier — Jayendra Saraswati, Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, Swami Sivananda — a strong 12th from the progressed lagna (several planets or a powerful yoga) made them sanyasis in that dasha.
• It does not hold for everybody. Three planets in the 12th from your dasha lagna will not make you a sanyasi if you are not meant to become one.

"If somebody is meant to become a sanyasi, that is a very powerful time when that is likely."

The path, from the planets forming the yogas that show sadhana:

• Jnana Yoga: Sun, Mars (agni tattva)
• Karma Yoga: Mercury (prithvi tattva)
• Bhakti Yoga: Moon, Venus (jala tattva) — "bhakti is a very watery process"
• Raja Yoga (pranayama and such techniques): Saturn, Rahu

What Druk Dasha does not show: whom to pray to and how. Those are judged from the natal chart by the standard formulas (Ishta Devata from the 12th from Atmakaraka in Navamsa, and so on). Druk Dasha only tells the period: this is a time of sadhana, of activity, of mantra japa, of bhakti.

A Student's Question — "My 10th house is not strong; should I strengthen it?"

• Do not strengthen anything. Do what comes naturally.
• If the 10th becomes weak and something else becomes strong, the dasha is saying there may be a change. Wait and see. If the time for karma is over and the time for vairagya has begun, vairagya will come.
• Changing from one path to another is not going forward or backward. No path is inferior to another. In Kali Yuga perfection in one path is very difficult; a combination of paths is the likely way, and the order differs from person to person.
• Progress is internal. One may help at a big homa with ego ("what a nice person I am"), or offer oneself without analysing it — the second has gone further. One may do fewer repetitions of a mantra than before, but with such devotion that one is on the verge of tears — that is progress.

"What you are doing is not the important thing in deciding how much progress you have made. How you are doing it, with what attitude."

Exercise set for the class: find the chart of a spiritual person of some stature and track the known events with Druk Dasha.

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Retrograde Planets

Asked on the retrograde Jupiter in lagna of the 1926 chart.

What retrogression means:

• The planet represents a strong desire from the past life — something he wanted to do and could not do fully.
• So there is a sense of urgency and attachment to that agenda. The result the planet gives to the house it occupies is strengthened.
• With it comes agitation, bordering on intolerance of anybody who disturbs the agenda. Retrograde Jupiter in lagna: a strong sense of dharma, of right and wrong — and some intolerance of adharma. If that result is disturbed, Jupiter will not cooperate. This can be used when judging dashas and antardashas.

The house of cards: build a house with a pack of cards casually and, if the wind knocks it down, you build it again. But if you have tried 100 times and this is the 101st attempt, you take every precaution, and tell anybody who comes near to stay away.

"Retrogression is a strong desire carried from the past life."

Cheshta bala: this is why retrograde planets have Cheshta bala — the force of movement, of agitation; a strong momentum.

Several retrograde planets (a student has seen a chart with four):

• One or two: easy to find the common theme. In this chart Jupiter and Mercury are retrograde — Jupiter the karaka of dharma, Mercury the 9th lord. A strong desire to do dharmic work.
• Four: hard to find a common theme. There may be conflicting agendas, from different lives, and tension between them. ("I want to finish my house of cards; my wife has been waiting a long time to play cards with that pack.")

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Combustion

Retrogression and combustion are two orthogonal factors.

• Sanjay Ji advances some theories linking combustion with direct or retrograde motion. PVNR: there is no shastra pramana for them. The classics that treat combustion in detail say nothing about retrogression; they speak only of the distance from the Sun.
• Whatever your agenda, going forward or back, if you are near the bright Sun you are burnt. You pale in front of him.

"In my judgment, there are two orthogonal factors — retrogression and combustion are two orthogonal factors."

Orb: take about 7–8 degrees. The exact orb differs for each planet and is given in the classics. PVNR had not memorised the numbers and said he would look them up for the next class.

A Student's Chart — Sun With Exalted Venus

The case put to him: Sagittarius lagna; the Sun (9th lord) and exalted Venus together in Pisces in the 4th; lagna lord Jupiter debilitated in a Saturnine sign but retrograde. The question was about a handicap.

• The Sun, a functional benefic, wants to protect. Venus, a functional malefic for this lagna, wants to give weakness and make the native vulnerable. Opposite agendas.
• Both are strong: the Sun in a friend's sign, Venus in exaltation.
• Which wins cannot be decided from the rasi. Look at Navamsa and Trimsamsa (the chart of vulnerability):
  • If the Sun is blessed in Navamsa — with Jupiter, with the lagna lord, or otherwise strong — his ability to protect grows.
  • If Venus is weakly placed, or joins afflicting planets in Trimsamsa, her ability to cause vulnerability grows.
• Also see where Saturn, the karaka of rogas, is — whether he aspects them or has argala on them.
• Even with the Sun in his own sign Leo and Venus there in an enemy's sign, Venus may still dominate and give trouble. It depends on who cooperates with whom in the divisional charts.

"Based on the sign occupied and the relative strengths, you can draw some conclusions, but you cannot draw them very confidently. You have to look at other factors also."

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