Gandanta Does NOT Weaken Raj Yoga, A9 vs L9 for Father's Death & Adopted Children Framework

Gandanta Planets and Raj Yoga

Question: If a planet in Gandanta gives a Raj Yoga, is the yoga weak?

"No, I wouldn't say the yoga is weak. Being in Gandanta does not really affect the yoga that the planet takes part in."

• Gandanta portions are often where a planet is Vargottama and in good Vaisheshikamsas, and some Raj Yogas are powerful for exactly that reason.
• What Gandanta shows: "It is not a general weakness ... it is an inclination of the planet to do harm, and usually it is a physical harm." A big blow.
• Where it does count: a duryoga — lagna lord with 8th lord, or lagna lord with 6th lord — involving a Gandanta planet is augmented.
• For Dhana Yogas and Raj Yogas, do not be much concerned. "That is my opinion."

Analogy: A man gives you a cheque for $1,000 and, while breaking something, his hammer slips and crushes your foot.

"Just because he hurt you with a hammer, you don't say that he doesn't like you or the $1,000 cheque that he gave you will bounce."

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A9 vs L9 for Father

A9 = arudha of the 9th house. L9 = arudha of the 9th lord.

PVNR starts from the person himself: for a person we give importance to lagna and Arudha Lagna. Arudha Lagna is the tangible image — "this particular body, this particular person who has this stature." The arudha of the lagna lord is that image with life put into it: arrogant, intelligent, emotional.

Basics to go back to: arudhas are tangible, houses and planets are intangible; houses are inanimate, house lords are animate.

• At death both the animate and the inanimate manifestation are gone, so L9 may show something too. But "A9 is more important than L9" for it.
• Death or a big accident, using Shula dasha: give more importance to A9.
• In Dwadashamsha (D-12), to see what happens to the father: give more importance to L9.
• PVNR admits the relative weight of the two "is very tricky. It is not very easy to express, it is not very easy to understand also."

Pitri Shula Dasha Check

A student suggested that once the father is dead one simply reads the 9th house. PVNR: no. The destruction of A9 must itself be seen from A9.

• The Pitri Shula dasha sign running at the father's death should be linked to A9: a trine from A9, or the sign holding A9's lord, or the 8th from A9.
• This cannot be used to predict:

"You cannot predict based on it because if you predict based on this, roughly 30% or 40% of the time father can die."

• Use it when the father is already in a critical period, to judge whether the time favors recovery. It confirms what you already suspect.
• The same works with Matri Shula for the mother, and for brothers and children (5th house).

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Adopted Children — No Classical Guidelines

The case raised: a woman who had lost two pregnancies wanted to adopt. The students were reading her Tithi Pravesha charts.

Natal chart first:

• If the rashi chart gives very little chance of a child, a strong Tithi Pravesha Saptamsha does not mean a child will be born that year. "It doesn't work like that." The natal chart is the foundation; a house on matchsticks does not stand.
• But with a Datta Putra yoga in the natal chart, a Tithi Pravesha with good combinations on the 5th house may show an adoption.

What 5th-house weakness means:

• Influence of Saturn, Ketu and the like, or other undesirable combinations on the 5th, can give Datta Putra yoga: having to adopt, "not being able to give your soul to a child."
• It does not show that one can have no child at all.

"Who can stop you from giving love to somebody? Who can stop you from giving guidance to somebody? Nobody can. But if there is a weakness, you can be stopped from giving your soul to a different soul."

• People who can conceive also adopt. PVNR's example: Angelina Jolie, who has her own child and keeps adopting.

Seeing individual adopted children:

• Children from marriages have a known rule, covered many times in class: the 7th house, the 11th from it, and the sequence; for a second marriage take the second-marriage house and proceed the same way.
• For a first and second adopted child: "There must be [a sequence], but I am not aware of any guidelines from the tradition on that."
• His reasoning: an adopted child is not the fruit of a relationship aimed at children. It is the fruit of one's own desire to guide a soul not made from one's own. "Maybe 11th house from something else, I don't know what it is."

Whether an adoption happens in a given year: look for positive influences on the 5th house in that year.

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Muhurta Ethics — Astrologer as Servant

The question: a student fixed muhurtas for a marriage and a house-warming. The family moved the marriage to a day convenient to them, and the new date looked bad for the groom. Must he tell them?

• If they ask "is this day all right?" — tell them honestly that it is convenient but a bad muhurta.
• If they say "thanks, but we are doing it on this day" — say good luck. "It's not your problem, none of your business."
• "If they are not destined to follow it, it is not your problem."

"We are basically just serving them. We are not commanding them. ... If somebody is your student and he looks at you as a guru and asks you for advice, then you can command."

PVNR's own case: He saw problems for childbirth in a pregnant woman's Saptamsha and annual chart and gave a muhurta for the Seemantam, when the mother gives her blessings. The woman's parents were not interested in muhurtas and held the function at a bad time. There was a C-section, complications after the birth, and much trouble in the family afterwards. "This is not the only reason ... but at least if they went with a good muhurta, they could have helped. But I just watched. There is nothing I can do."

Unasked advice (a child born on a day with Saturn in Gandanta):

• If the parents ask, tell them.
• If they did not ask: it depends how free you are with them. With friends who may value it, say it in a non-intrusive way. If you know they do not want advice, keep quiet.

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