Elderly Man (1931): D30 Saturn Exalted 8H + Gulika+Mars in 8H = "Exalted at Favorite Party"; Mercury MD = 8L D1 + 7L D30 = Maraka; Rahu AD 2011-2013 = Surgery Risk; Saturn AD ~2015-2018 = Maximum Risk; D20 Mercury = 9L+12L = Dharma+Moksha Dasha; Hard on the Body, Good for Sadhana; Vishnu Sahasranama

Case Study — Health and Longevity of a 79-Year-Old Man (1931)

The Question

• He is being hospitalised again and again. Urinary trouble, unable to eat well, lung trouble and asthma — several problems together.
• For checking the time: a man with a great deal of agricultural land who took political positions and has a strong political hold at the local and district level.
• Mercury mahādaśā is running, exactly at its middle. Mercury–Mars antardaśā is running at the time of the class.

Rāśi Chart — Does Mercury Daśā Explain the Ill Health?

The rāśi chart is the chart of physical condition, so something should show there before any divisional chart is opened.

• Mercury for Scorpio lagna: 8th and 11th lord. The 8th lord gives the result of his other house, and the 11th is a malefic house → a malefic.
• His company (Sun and Jupiter, with him in Cancer): Sun is the 10th lord — a natural malefic owning a kendra is not that malefic → neutral. Jupiter is 2nd and 5th lord → a benefic, a little less so for the 2nd. They lift Mercury somewhat. Overall he stays a malefic.
• 8th lord = long-term, chronic disease. (The 6th is problems that come and go; the 8th is problems that stay.)
• Placed in the 9th = the bādhaka sthāna for a fixed lagna. Bādhaka shows undiagnosable and sudden problems.
• Rule: a link between the 6th lord or 8th lord and the bādhaka sthāna is in general not good for health.
• Mercury daśā can show health problems.

Triṁśāṁśa (D-30) — What Kind of Problem

D-30 lagna is Pisces.

• Mercury is not the 6th or 8th lord here. He is the 7th lord, and for a dual lagna the 7th lord is the bādhaka lord. His daśā gives problems here too.
• The 8th house, Libra, holds Mars and Saturn. The 8th shows chronic problems.
• Saturn is the 11th and 12th lord — a functional malefic — and he is exalted.

"An exalted planet is akin to somebody who is at his favourite party. But the guy who is at his favourite party is the one who wants to give you trouble. He is not good for you. Moreover, he is the 12th lord of hospitalisation."

• A student notes Saturn is retrograde. The teacher: that modifies it, so it is not that bad — but he is well placed, and Gulika is also there. Saturn, Mars and Gulika make the 8th quite bad whatever the daśā.
• Saturn gives his results towards old age.
• Body part: Aries head, Taurus face, Gemini throat, Cancer heart, Leo stomach and digestion, Virgo lower abdomen, Libra kidneys and the urinary system, Scorpio genitals and anus, Sagittarius thighs, Capricorn knees, Aquarius calves, Pisces feet. He also reads the affliction as one of the body's fluids — blood, urine, the fluid of the nerves.
• Doṣa: Mars = pitta, Saturn = vāta. Saturn is the main troublemaker → a vāta disturbance is the likely root.

Ṣaṣṭhāṁśa (D-6) and the Antardaśās

The triṁśāṁśa shows the subtle causes; the ṣaṣṭhāṁśa shows the diseases. D-6 lagna is Capricorn.

Mars antardaśā (running, to March 2011) — no relief

• Rāśi: lagna lord, but also 6th lord → neutral.
• D-30: 2nd and 9th lord, a mild benefic — but in the 8th with Saturn.
• D-6: the bādhaka lord (11th lord for a movable lagna). The teacher reads Mars and Saturn, with Gulika, in the 8th house here as well, "based on the divisional longitude". (The site's D-6 puts both in Virgo, the 9th sign from the Capricorn lagna; this reading could not be reproduced.)
• D-6 Mercury: 6th lord, in the 2nd in Aquarius, aspecting the 8th, and the dispositor of Mars. Mars at 27°59' Virgo is in the 8th from Mercury at 25°30' Aquarius.
• Lagna lord of the rāśi chart or not, Mars is not expected to give relief.

Rāhu antardaśā (March 2011 – September 2013) — surgery

• Rāhu and Ketu sit on the lagna in both D-30 and D-6. They are the planets of depletion, and of technology and intervention.

"He will not be left alone during the Rāhu antardaśā. He will be touched by modern medicine."

• Surgery, or some very modern treatment tried on him, is very likely.
• Being in lagna, Rāhu can also give a cure — lagna shows a new beginning. Because it is Rāhu the cure comes at a cost: depletion of the body.

Jupiter antardaśā — some relief

• Rāśi: a benefic. D-30: lagna lord, though in the bādhaka sthāna. D-6: in the bādhaka sthāna again.
• Some bad indications, but not as bad as Mars, Rāhu or Saturn.

Saturn antardaśā — the dangerous one (see below).

Ketu mahādaśā from 2018

• Ketu is in lagna in both D-6 and D-30. In the rāśi chart he is a lord of the lagna, but he is with the Moon — the bādhaka lord and his enemy.
• So it is not a case of "suffer six or seven more years and then it is fine". Mercury daśā and Ketu daśā both stay troublesome.

Who Can Kill — Mārakas

A student: "I thought the 2nd and 7th were the mārakas."

• The 3rd and 8th are the houses of longevity. Their lords, when weak, ill placed or afflicted, become mārakas.
• The 2nd and 7th lords can be mārakas, when afflicted or when strong.
• Malefics in the 2nd house become mārakas.
• 3rd lord in the 2nd, 2nd lord in the 3rd, 7th lord in the 8th, 8th lord in the 7th are mārakas.

Applied:

• Mercury: 8th lord, in the bādhaka sthāna, in an inimical sign → ill placed → can kill. In D-30, the chart of vulnerability, he is the 7th lord. Putting both charts together, the running mahādaśā is that of a māraka.
• Saturn: 3rd lord in the 2nd, and a malefic for this lagna sitting in the 2nd. In D-30 a malefic afflicting the 8th. Counted from the daśā lord Mercury he is the 7th and 8th lord. A māraka.
• Mars antardaśā cannot kill. Rāhu is not a māraka. Jupiter, though 2nd lord, is the lagna lord's friend and unlikely to kill. Ketu, a lagna lord, is unlikely to kill.

Verdict: Mercury–Saturn, in 2015–2018, carries a strong chance of death.

"You can never be sure. If God is graceful, you can live many more years. But there is a decent chance that he may not live beyond that."

Remedy: in Mercury daśā the best remedy is the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma stotra.

Viṁśāṁśa (D-20) — The Spiritual Side

D-20 lagna is Libra.

• 9th house (dharma, religion): Sun, Rāhu and Ketu — an eclipse of the Sun, and the Sun is the bādhaka lord. House-wise the three fall back into the 8th.
• 9th lord Mercury is in the bādhaka sthāna (the 11th), so the 9th lord and the bādhaka lord exchange signs.
• Lagna lord Venus is debilitated in the 12th with Jupiter. In this chart that is good: a giving nature, a big heart, some devotion.
• No strong combination for outstanding spirituality. Some inclination is there.
• The running daśā is auspicious here. For this lagna Mercury is a functional benefic: 9th lord of dharma and 12th lord of mokṣa.

"He is a dharma and mokṣa lord, and his daśā is running right now. So this daśā is conducive to spiritual progress."

• The same Mercury daśā that is hard on the body is the time for sādhana.
• In the old days people gave up everything after sixty or so, cut off responsibilities and desires, and lived simply for God. Now people pursue desires to the last second. Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṁsa's story: a man on his deathbed, a few months at most to live, shouting at his children that the lamp in the next room is wasting oil. The moment he dies the oil and the money saved mean nothing to him, yet his mind is stuck on them to the end.
• Dṛg daśā: the transcript has him name the Pisces daśā as running and read Sun, Mercury and the exalted Jupiter "in lagna", Jupiter being the 9th lord there, with the 9th afflicted by Rāhu. A good daśā for spiritual progress and for getting good guidance: Jupiter's blessings are there in spite of Rāhu. (The site does not compute this daśā. The placements he describes are those of the rāśi chart seen from Cancer.)

Summary Given in Class

"I don't anticipate any major disease. On the other hand, I anticipate some kind of surgery to be needed in a couple of years, and I am concerned about his longevity around 6, 7, 8 years from now."

Checking the Birth Time — Career in the Daśāṁśa

"It's a 1931 chart, time could be way off" — so the teacher checks whether the known career adds up. D-10 lagna is Sagittarius; the 10th lord is Mercury.

• Sun is exalted in Aries at 8°, with Rāhu at 1° Aries. In the teacher's house-wise view he falls in the 4th house; a slightly earlier time puts him in the 5th.
• The man held political power, so the exalted Sun belongs in the 5th. "Even though we said 3:05, it may be 3:04 or 3:03." No rectified time is fixed.
• Sun is a functional benefic for Sagittarius and a friend of the lagna lord → fortune in professional life and a political position.
• Which house carries the career: the 6th holds the lagna lord Jupiter and the 5th lord Mars — a rājayoga — and the 6th lord Venus is in lagna, a parivartana of the 1st and 6th. The 6th dominates; judge the career from it.
• By Parāśara's guideline for Sagittarius lagna, Jupiter is not a functional benefic. Sun and Mars are.
• Mars in the 6th: hard work, a lot of land, some litigation with success in it.
• "He is probably more like a landlord than an agriculturist." A man who labours in the field himself would show Saturn. Here Sun and Mars stand out: land and influence from Mars, political clout from Sun.
• Sun is with Rāhu, seven degrees apart. The student confirms that the native's dealings were always with people of the lowest social standing.