Planetary Significations — Derived from Puranic Mythology

Graha vs. Planet

"Planet" is only a rough translation of graha. In modern usage a planet is an object going round the Sun. The Moon is a satellite of Earth, not a planet — but it is a graha.

"Graha is basically any entity that is close to Earth that has a significant impact on the lives of human beings and also organizations."

• Grahas influence not only you and me. They influence a country, a political party, a government — any organization of human beings.
• A student asked whether an inanimate thing such as a house can be such an entity. The teacher's answer: even inanimate entities have luck and fortune; good and bad things happen to them, and the grahas show those too.

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Microcosm and Macrocosm — The Key to Deriving Planetary Significations

The aim of this part of the class: instead of learning rules and formulas, build the theory from the ground. Why is Jupiter intelligence, the Sun the ātmā, the Moon the mind?

Advaita and Dvaita are both right

• Some say God is within you — Advaita, "not two". Others say that is absurd, there is a God out there — Dvaita, duality.
• The teacher does not call Śaṅkarācārya wrong or Rāmānujācārya wrong. Both are right. The picture below holds both.

The Structure of the Universe (per the śāstras)

• The whole universe is made of Nārāyaṇa.
• Only one-eighth of it is perceivable by us. That form of Nārāyaṇa is called Vāsudeva.
• The other seven-eighths we cannot perceive. Maharṣis and devas may.

So when the Purāṇas say Śiva lives on Kailāsa, you may go to the Himalayas and not find him. That does not mean there is no Śiva, no Vaikuṇṭha, no Viṣṇu. They exist. The Purāṇas describe them in a simplified form that we can picture. They do not live in our four-dimensional world.

The same holds for a graha. On the material plane Jupiter is a ball of gas going round the Sun. In the complete universe there is a Jupiter who is a person — not a person like us, but with a persona — and he teaches the gods.

The other half of the truth

"Each human being is a microcosm of the entire universe. So whatever exists in this whole universe, it exists in a microcosmic form within us."

• Earth goes round the Sun, the Sun round the Viṣṇu-nābhi, and that round something else. It is like a fractal: one pattern repeating inward and outward without end.
• Śiva, Viṣṇu, Devī, Gaṇeśa, the gods, the demons, Bṛhaspati, Śukrācārya — they exist outside, and they exist within you. Bigger does not mean better.
• So God is within you (Advaita), and God also exists outside you (Dvaita).
• The stories of the Purāṇas are unfolding within us.

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Planetary Significations Derived from the Purāṇas

The teacher works two examples in full — Jupiter and Venus — and leaves the rest to the student. The published class notes carry the other grahas; they follow after Venus.

What the class states without derivation

• Sun is the ātmā (soul). Śrī Rāma stands for the Sun; that is why he was born in the Sūrya-vaṁśa.
• Moon is the mind. Śrī Kṛṣṇa stands for the Moon.
• Lagna is the self. Hari stands for the lagna.
• So the paramparā mantra Hare Rāma Kṛṣṇa itself says: read every horoscope from lagna, Sun and Moon.

Jupiter (Bṛhaspati) — Intelligence and Discrimination

• In the Purāṇas: teacher of the gods. He guides them and works for their upliftment and victory.
• Who are the gods within us? The good qualities in each person.
• Who teaches and builds those good qualities, and works for their victory? The discrimination, judgment and intelligence within each person.
• Signification: Jupiter shows intelligence and judgment.

"The spark that God has put in us so that even when we want to do bad things, there is something inside us which tells us that it is wrong… That spark of intelligence and discretion, that is Jupiter."

Venus (Śukrācārya) — Spirit of Enjoyment

• In the Purāṇas: teacher of the demons. Śukra-nīti is not as strict as Bṛhaspati-nīti. Bṛhaspati is sāttvic; Śukrācārya is rājasic and makes compromises.
• That is what teaching demons takes. Tell them to sacrifice and be nice, and they will not listen. Śukrācārya makes a Bali Cakravartī out of a demon: one who gives much in dāna instead of destroying the world. Enjoy life, gather luxuries — but keep within limits. The demons do not become gods, but the damage they do is minimized.
• Who are the demons within us? The negative qualities and temptations.
• Who within us keeps them within limits? A student suggested conscience. The teacher said no: conscience discourages the bad; it does not put the bad under check by giving it an outlet. That is the work of the spirit of enjoyment.
• Wanting to enjoy is not godly; it is a little demonic. But it is more tolerable than going out and murdering someone. Watching a violent film is better than doing violence.
• Signification: Venus governs enjoyment, luxuries, films, music, passions and entertainment.

"Our spirit of enjoyment is putting the demons within us, the bad qualities within us, under check. It's guiding those bad qualities to do something that's not so bad."

The Other Grahas

From the published class notes; this part is not on the recording.

Each graha stands for one quality and unfolds within us as that quality.

Sun (Sūrya) — the soul

• The Sun shows the soul within you. He is the king of your existence.

Moon (Candra) — the mind

• The Moon is the mind and shows the mood.
• The Moon passes through 16 phases, the ṣoḍaśa-kalās. The mind does the same: sometimes full, sometimes empty, happy and then sad. Mood swings are the Moon.
• The scheme of 16 divisional charts, the ṣoḍaśa-varga, is ruled by the Moon.

Mars (Maṅgala) — initiative

• Mars is called Mahī-suta, son of Mahī (the Earth), and is born from the sweat of Śiva.
• He is represented by Subrahmaṇya and carries the same energy.
• Signification: initiative, aggression, energy, the push to get things done. Mars shows career.

Mercury (Budha) — learning ability

• Candra eloped with Tārā Devī, the wife of Bṛhaspati. Budha was born to the Moon and Tārā.
• Bṛhaspati accepted Tārā back and took Budha as his adopted son and student. Jupiter is the ideal teacher, Mercury the ideal student.
• Signification: Mercury governs the ability to learn.
• Jupiter is a sāttvic planet, Mercury a rājasic one. Both are saumya grahas.

The same story within us

• Jupiter is intelligence. Intelligence alone sits in a vacuum and means nothing.
• Tārā is strī-śakti: the expression, the manifestation of that intelligence. Śiva is energy; Śakti is that energy made manifest.
• From that expression, joined with the mind, the learning ability is born. Intelligence then accepts it as its own son and student.
• The mind cannot take from intelligence directly. It needs an agent. Moon (mind) receives from Jupiter (intelligence) through Mercury (learning ability). Mercury processes; the mind acts on what is processed.
• So for a person to be very smart, all three — Jupiter, Mercury and Moon — must be strong in the chart.

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Avatāras, Nature and Guṇas of the Grahas

From the published class notes; this part is not on the recording.

Each avatāra of Viṣṇu carries one graha's energy

The stories of the Purāṇas may have taken place in a plane we do not perceive. Their microcosmic form unfolds within each of us. Read them as eternal truths about yourself.

• Vāmana — Jupiter. A learned sāttvic brāhmaṇa, a dwarf: learned humility. Bali was a great giver but a demon; pride in one's own giving is Bali within us. Pride is defeated by humility.
• Paraśurāma — Venus. Also a brāhmaṇa, but rājasic. When Paraśurāma met Rāma he lost his energy and surrendered to him. In a chart this is Venus close to the Sun: Venus gives up its energy to the Sun.
• Kūrma — Saturn. Saturn is discipline and hard work; without him nothing is achieved. Those who will not work hard, he forces. He is Śani, Manda, the slow one — 30 years round the zodiac. In the churning of the ocean the mountain is our intelligence, the coiled snake is tapasyā, the nectar at the end is the result, and the poison that comes up on the way is taken by Śiva — which is why a guru is needed. The discipline that carries the whole effort is Saturn. Saturn is strong in the charts of saints: steadfastness, niṣkāma karma, austerity. He is taken for a bad planet, but he puts people to work and makes things happen.
• Rāma — Sun. Solar energy; Rāma is of the Sūrya-vaṁśa, a royal line.
• Kṛṣṇa — Moon. The Moon is a sweet planet and has no enemies.
• Narasiṁha — Mars. Angry, energetic, aggressive.
• Buddha — Mercury. Mercury stands for learning. Parāśara links the Buddha avatāra to Mercury.
• Matsya — Ketu. Viṣṇu rescues the Vedas from destruction. Within us, when traditional knowledge is being lost, Ketu rescues it. Ketu is strong in Vedic people and astrologers. He shows learning in a paramparā and the path of mokṣa.
• Rāhu shows the path of bhoga and rebirth. Within everyone Rāhu and Ketu are always in conflict.

Use of the table: it tells which form to pray to for mokṣa. In the navāṁśa, the planet in the 12th house from the ātma-kāraka is the one that gives mokṣa to that native; praying to it sets the native on that path.

Combustion

• Any planet close to the Sun is burned by him and becomes weak. This is combustion — maudhya, the planet being asta.
• Venus suffers from it the most. A combust Venus is too weak to act, and the Sun gives the result.
• Jupiter's combustion is not bad. Jupiter with the Sun is good, even when the Sun is debilitated.
• Rāhu and Ketu are the exception: they have no physical body and do not combust. With the Sun they eclipse him instead, and it is the Sun who becomes very weak.

More on Saturn

• Jupiter takes 12 years and Saturn 30 to go round. After 60 years both are back where they stood at birth. That return is celebrated as ṣaṣṭi-pūrti.
• The area of life in which Saturn makes the native work hard depends on his place in the different varga chakras.
• The natal position is the main thing: it shows what one must go through. Transits show when.
• If Saturn is lagna lord or yoga-kāraka, he hardly troubles the person, even in Sade Sati.

Krūra and Saumya

This is not about friends and enemies. It is about the way a graha gives its result. Krūra grahas give blunt, abrupt results.

• Mercury is a very diplomatic planet. People with a strong Mercury are very indecisive.

The Five Bhūtas

A bhūta is a state of being. The bhūtas govern not only the material world but everything non-material as well.

• Intelligence and wisdom are unseen, yet everything depends on them. That is ākāśa, and Jupiter.
• Mercury partakes of every bhūta, earth most of all.

Gender

Used to judge the sex of children.

• Male: Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Rāhu
• Female: Moon, Venus, Ketu
• Neutral: Saturn, Mercury

The Three Guṇas

• Sattva: truth, purity. Things happen of themselves; there is no pursuing.
• Rajas: energy, passion, active pursuit. Brahmā is associated with this guṇa.
• Tamas: the dark state, the lowest. Rākṣasa-tattva.
• Everyone has all three, in a measure that changes with time.
• Ketu has no guṇa.

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Deriving All Significations from the Purāṇas

The method:

1. Each graha is a character in the Purāṇas. Understand what that character stands for there.
2. Find how that character is represented within us, in the microcosm.
3. That is the graha's signification.

"All the concepts of astrology map to the Purāṇas… I just gave two examples, but if you ponder about it, you will be able to derive everything that's given in astrology."

There is a great deal of astrological knowledge in the Purāṇas. Whoever understands the microcosmic meaning of their characters and stories will understand astrology well.

A student's question: Western astrology has no Purāṇas — how does it get its meanings?

• Most of the concepts Western astrology uses are very similar to ours. The Greeks had their own stories, with some parallels to ours.
• Western astrology resembles one part of Indian astrology. Chinese, Tibetan and Arabic astrology each resemble another part. India is the superset: take a small subset, twist it slightly, and you get one of the other astrologies of the world.
• The teacher's own view: thousands of years ago there was probably one astrology. Learned people spread across the world around the end of Dvāpara Yuga; contact between them stopped; a different branch flourished in each region. India kept the full teaching of the Maharṣis.
• He does not accept the theory that civilization came into India from outside. Archaeology he calls a speculative subject: even today the inhabited part of the land is very small, so a few random excavations ten thousand years from now could easily miss us.

The yugas (as given in class)

• Kali Yuga began about 5,000 years ago — per the scriptures, when Śrī Kṛṣṇa left this world. The Mahābhārata war fell close to the end of Dvāpara Yuga.
• Kali Yuga lasts 432,000 years. Dvāpara is twice that, Tretā three times, Kṛta (Satya) four times. The ratio is 4 : 3 : 2 : 1.
• At the end of Kali Yuga there is a pralaya; the world merges back into Nārāyaṇa.

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