Gemstone Selection Methodology, Sattvic vs Rajasic Prayer vs Gemstones & Ghatika Lagna Definition

Gemstone Selection for Marriage

The question is hypothetical: had she come before Mars–Mars, what could have been done to stop the divorce?

"It is useful to know how to try to stop it, more than knowing how to predict divorce."

Prayer comes first

• Kartikeya, for Mars. Mars is with Venus in Navamsa, so Kartikeya with his wife — Valli Subrahmanya. On Tuesday (Mars owns Scorpio, where the problem comes from) or Monday (Mars is in Moon's sign in Navamsa), or both.
• Fast every Wednesday and pray to Krishna at the end of the fast. UL in Rasi is in Gemini → Wednesday. The 2nd lord from UL is Moon → Krishna.
• Fasting on the day of the UL lord and praying to the deity of the 2nd lord from UL is advised for getting married. It is equally for keeping a marriage smooth. The 2nd lord from UL is the sustainer — "he keeps giving food to the marriage."
• If the person has some belief but is below the threshold, say plainly how bad the period is. That can push them to do it. If they have none at all, respect that and leave it.
• Hanuman is a brahmachari and prefers the 6th house to the 7th. Asked specifically for marital happiness, he may still give it.

Gemstone

"Gemstones are a very tough business. You have to be careful." Look at both Rasi and Navamsa and find a planet suitable in both.

• The 7th lord is the sustainer of marriage, so he is checked first. Both 7th lords fail here.
• The 9th is dharma and marriage is dharma — hence Mercury.
• Sun: exalted in the 7th house, and his agenda there is not bad — he is the 11th lord. Had he been the 6th lord sitting in the 7th, the teacher would have been concerned.
• Sun in the Navamsa lagna is a malefic in lagna, but the teacher cites Parasara that for marriage Sun is a benefic.
• Sun is also the karaka of dharma.
• Ruby would have had no drawback.

A coral for this Mars would be a disaster.

Sattvic Prayer vs. Rajasic Prayer vs. Gemstones

A student asks: strengthening Mars with a coral is a disaster, yet praying to Mars is advised. Why would the two differ?

Sattvic — prayer with no desire:

• You pray and ask for nothing. Mars may decide the best thing is the divorce, so that the old karma is finished and you start on a clean slate. He will give you the divorce. Your prayer stays as your bank balance.
• You do not even look at it as a bank balance. You do it as dharma, as a habit. That is what a jivanmukta does.
• The analogy: you work hard, earn money, and leave it behind you for whoever comes and takes it.

"You just do good karma, without any expectation. That is sattvic."

Rajasic — prayer with a desire:

• "Please save my marriage." "I will fast for 40 days because I want to get married."
• Like giving a bribe to the officer who is about to harm you, so that he harms you less.
• Like working hard, earning money and spending it on a computer. The prayer is used up undoing some previous karma.
• Still better in general than wearing a stone.

Mantra sadhana and control:

• Do a Mars mantra for twelve hours and you gain some control over Mars — over the Mars within you, the anger within you. Then you can gain control over the external Mars.
• Mars being happy with you and you having some control over Mars are the same thing.
• Using that control for a purpose is rajasic. Keeping it and using it for nothing is sadhana.

Gemstones and specific tantra:

• Not a bribe and not pacifying. It is like playing cards with that officer every night and encouraging him to do whatever is in his mind.

"If you are wearing a gemstone of a planet, it is not that you are controlling the planet. You are strengthening the planet to do what the planet is destined to do."

• Like taking a $50,000 loan on a charge card to buy the computer. It may or may not solve the problem. It can postpone it.

Which advice to give:

• A student objects that any action done with a desire makes karma. The teacher: people in such trouble cannot be told to stay away from karma and seek moksha. Their heads are like twisted metal. They need to use up some good karma, get out, and start on a clean slate. Prayer with a desire is fine for them. Desireless prayer can come later.
• Two cases are told — a dharmic husband whose wife's family married for a settlement, and a husband trapped in a false case by his wife. Tell him to bear it as karma, or give a prayer to get out of it? Both can be given. There is no fixed right and wrong.
• Go by instinct. Instinct becomes purer as your own sadhana grows.

Ghatika Lagna (GL) — Technical Explanation

Old Indian measure of time: the day is divided into 60 parts, each part again into 60.

Horas were also used, for the planetary hours.

Ghatika Lagna (GL in the software):

• The normal lagna moves unevenly — 2.5 hours in one sign, 1.5 hours in another.
• GL moves at a uniform pace from sunrise to the next sunrise and goes round the zodiac 5 times.
• A lagna moving uniformly once a day (Bhava Lagna) stays 2 hours in a sign. GL is 5 times faster: 120 ÷ 5 = 24 minutes per sign.
• One sign for one ghatika, the next sign for the next ghatika. Hence the name.

Jyeshtha-Moola Gandanta — Additional Details

A student quotes a text: the last 6 ghatikas of Jyeshtha and the first 8 ghatikas of Moola.

• 6 ghatikas = 144 minutes. For lagna that is far too long, so the measure must be for the Moon.
• In about two hours the Moon moves roughly one degree. So it comes to roughly the last degree of Scorpio and the first degree or so of Sagittarius.
• Why exactly 6 and 8, the teacher is not sure. The Moon does not always take the same time to cover a degree — sometimes 6 ghatikas, sometimes 7 or 8. Time has only a rough correspondence with degrees. The figures may be a guideline.

What tradition says, for lagna, Moon or any planet:

• The last navamsa of Scorpio and the first navamsa of Sagittarius are inauspicious.
• Within them, the final degree and the first degree are the crucial ones — the deep gandanta.