Parashara's Functional Benefic Rules & Nakshatra Remedies with Transits

Nakshatra Sutras Continued

The class opens with the Vedic nakshatra mantras recited every week. This week:

Why a Nakshatra Mantra and Not a General Planet Mantra?

• To propitiate Jupiter as, say, the 5th lord so that he gives children, use one of the many general Brihaspati mantras.
• To propitiate Brihaspati as the ruler of Pushyami, because Pushyami itself matters in your chart, use the nakshatra mantra.
• The mantra is addressed to the deity as the ruler of that star in the sky.

Karma Nakshatra

• The 10th nakshatra from the birth star is the Karma Nakshatra.
• It shows the work you do, and the application of your mind to that work.
• Born in Uttarabhadra → Pushyami is the Karma Nakshatra.

How to Use Nakshatra Mantras with Transits

A bad planet transiting the star:

• Saturn was transiting Pushyami at the time of the class.
• For one born in Uttarabhadra this can bring disturbances and tests in career; the mind may not apply itself well to work.
• "The nakshatra is shaking because of the presence of Saturn and Rahu."
• Strengthen the nakshatra by praying to its lord. It then withstands the pressure.

A good planet transiting the star:

• When Jupiter or another good planet transits the star, praying to the nakshatra lets it take the maximum advantage of that influence.

"If you want to maximize the good impact of a good planet on a star, or minimize the bad impact of a bad planet on a star, you can pray to the star directly."

Which mantras:

• The book Vedic Remedies in Astrology gives several simple mantras for each nakshatra, of the "Om … Namah" kind. Use those if you want something simple.
• The Vedic mantras recited in class are very powerful if read with the correct intonation.

Parashara's Functional Benefic/Malefic Rules — Complete Framework

The rules come up while judging Mercury daśā in the Israel 2005 chart (Scorpio lagna, Mercury owns the 8th and 11th). The teacher stops and lays out the whole scheme.

Natural vs Functional

• Natural nature belongs to the planet itself. Jupiter and Venus are benefic. Saturn, Mars, Sun, Rahu and Ketu are malefic. Moon and Mercury are conditional (below).
• Functional nature comes from the houses the planet owns from lagna. It is the planet's agenda for this native.
• A natural benefic who is a functional malefic is like a priest who does good to everybody but does not like you, and keeps doing mantras against you.
• A natural malefic who is a functional benefic is like a mafia don who harms everybody but has taken a liking to you, and looks after your money, food and job.
• Agenda is not capacity. The don who likes you may be stuck in jail. Whether the planet can deliver depends on its strength and avastha.

Trikona (Trine) Houses: 1, 5, 9

• Lords of 1, 5, 9 are always benefic. These are good houses for every planet.
• The 1st house is counted as a trine here, not as a quadrant.

Kendra (Quadrant) Houses: 4, 7, 10

• Natural benefics (Mercury, Jupiter, Venus) owning 4, 7, 10 become inauspicious.
• Natural malefics (Mars, Saturn, Sun) owning 4, 7, 10 are neutral. Not benefic, neutral.
• Jupiter owning the 4th or Venus owning the 7th becomes inauspicious. Mars owning the 7th does not; he is just neutral.

"Some people say beneficial, but that is a flawed interpretation. Parashara's definition is, for malefics, those are neutral houses. For benefics, they are bad houses."

• The blemish of a benefic owning a kendra is smaller in quantity than the blemish of owning 3, 6 or 11. "That evil is not fully evil. That is only like half evil."

Houses 3, 6, 11

• Bad houses for any planet. A planet owning 3, 6 or 11 becomes a bad planet.

Houses 2, 8, 12

• Neutral houses, irrespective of whether the planet is a natural benefic or malefic.

Combining Two Lordships

Take both houses the planet owns and average them.

Mars for Cancer lagna: owns the 5th (trine, good) and the 10th (quadrant, neutral for a malefic). Overall a functional benefic. A natural malefic who wants to hurt everybody, but for this native his agenda is good.

Venus for Aquarius lagna (a student asks how a planet owning a kendra and a trine can be a yogakaraka if the two cancel): the 9th makes Venus benefic in full measure; the 4th makes him malefic in a smaller measure. They do not cancel. The planet stays positive.

Venus for Taurus lagna: owns the 1st (very benefic) and the 6th (very malefic). It looks like they cancel. Parashara says Venus is a benefic, because lagna takes dominance over the 6th.

• The lagna lord's agenda is your health, character and personality. He will not compromise your existence.
• He still gives some 6th house results. He makes you fight. But he is a benefic.

Parashara's Lagna-by-Lagna Lists

• In the same chapter, after the thumb rules, Parashara goes through every lagna: for Mesha lagna these planets are benefic, these malefic, these terribly malefic, this one yogakaraka, and so on.
• Those lists quantify the thumb rules and settle the close cases.

Moon and Mercury — Natural Nature Is Conditional

• Moon: benefic when full, malefic when empty. Judge by how full he is.
• Mercury: with benefics he is benefic, with malefics he is malefic.

"If he is with a crowd of saints, he is a saint. He talks about Vedanta when he is with great Vedantis. … With bad people he is bad, with good people he is good."

• Count first. If malefics clearly outnumber benefics, Mercury goes with the malefics even if the one benefic sits next to him.
• If the numbers are equal (two and two), see who is closest to Mercury. He joins that conversation.

Example: Mercury in the Israel 2005 Chart (Scorpio Lagna)

• Natural nature: Mercury is in Pisces with Sun, Rahu, Moon and Venus. Moon is just past amavasya, practically invisible, so he is a malefic. Three malefics against one benefic, and Venus at 27° is not close to Mercury at 8°. Mercury is a clear malefic here.
• Functional nature: Mercury owns the 8th (neutral) and the 11th (bad). Overall a functional malefic.

Mundane Chart Principles (Consolidated)

Which New Year Chart

• Lunar New Year chart (the Sun-Moon conjunction that starts Chaitra, cast for the capital): the general fortune of the country, the mood of the people. With no specific purpose in mind, use this one.
• Solar New Year chart: the political manoeuvring in the country.
• Finance New Year chart: the finances, e.g. whether the stock market will crash.

Houses and Arudhas

• A change of Prime Minister is a change in the 10th house: the governance the country gets has changed.

Ruling Party vs Opposition

• Take the 10th house as lagna → how the daśā is for the ruling party and the ruler.
• Take the 3rd house as lagna → how it is for the opposition.
• Compare the two.

Tangible War

• A6 must have a role in the period.
• Look for a confluence between A6, the 6th house and Mars.
• A karaka's aspect on an empty house is not enough if the house lord does not cooperate (see the Iran 2005 chart).

Daśā for a One-Year Chart

• Check the conditional daśās as in a natal chart: lagna lord in the 7th or 7th lord in lagna (the 72-year daśā), lagna vargottama (the 100-year Shatabdika daśā), Sun in lagna, 10th lord in the 10th.
• If none applies, use Vimshottari. Whichever daśā is used, it is compressed to one year.
• Dual lordship (a student's question): Scorpio has two lords, Mars and Ketu. If Mars is elsewhere but Ketu is in the 7th, does the 72-year daśā apply? Yes. "You can take either lord as the lord."

Questions at the End — Father's House, Daśā Is Not Transit

9th House, Not 10th, for the Father

• Some branches of astrology use the 10th house for the father. That people get results with a technique should not bias you; people succeed with all kinds of things.
• Their logic: the 10th is the 7th from the 4th, so the father is the husband of the mother.
• But one can as well say the mother is the wife of the father, and so put the father in the 9th and the mother in the 3rd. Such logic can be bent any way.

"Our classics are very clear. There is absolutely no ambiguity. All the classics — Parashara, Varahamihira — everybody talked about the 9th house."

• That some Western astrologers and other branches use the 10th is no reason to follow them. It has no basis in the classics.

Moon Goes Round in a Month — How Can a Daśā Take Years?

• A student: Moon covers all the stars in one month. How does his progress through the stars take so many years in the daśā?
• That is transit. A daśā is not a physical transit.
• At birth Moon is at one place. As time passes he gives results as though he were somewhere else. After 10 years, as though somewhere else again; after another 7 years, again.
• The scheme is built so that by the end of 120 years he has given the results of the whole zodiac.
• Something that happens in about 27 days is mapped onto 120 years. All progressions work this way.

Pranapada Lagna — Homework Assigned

• Open Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and read the results given for Pranapada Lagna being in each of the twelve houses from lagna.
• Most of the results, not all, will pertain to one theme. Find it.
• Is it the energy level of the person? The attitude? The luck? Wealth? The wife?
• Parashara does not state what a special lagna is for. He did not for Hora Lagna or Ghati Lagna, nor even for Arudha Lagna. It is deduced from the results he lists.
  • The understanding in the parampara: Hora Lagna shows wealth-related matters, Ghati Lagna shows power-related matters.
  • If the results from Upapada mostly describe the wife, conclude that Upapada is for seeing the wife.
• Use whatever translation you have. The teacher hopes the translations differ only in minor ways.
• The answer is left for the next class, when the course returns from mundane astrology.