BPHS Ch.85 — 14 Inauspicious Birth Doshas, Shanti Remedies & Ketu in 2nd House (Voice Quality)

BPHS Chapter 85 — Ashubha Janma (Inauspicious Births)

Chapter 85 in Santhanam's edition (86 in another): Ashubha-janma-kathana adhyaya.

Opening Verse

Sulagne sugraheshu api — even in the case of an auspicious lagna and auspicious planets — there are other reasons by which the birth becomes a giver of inauspicious results.

"Even if lagna and planetary positions are all auspicious, there are other reasons which are capable of making the birth inauspicious. I am going to talk about those now."

• What follows overrides everything else in the chart.
• It means problems for the native and for the people around him because of that birth.
• The whole life is inauspicious unless something is done about it — and Parashara gives the solution, not just the problem.

A Note on the Text

• A student's Telugu edition gave these shlokas in a different form, with the same meaning.
• PVNR: this knowledge was kept orally for a long time. In the later chapters (graha shanti and the like) there are variant readings; the meaning was preserved while the wording differs. The basic early chapters are probably identical across editions — worth checking. The variants may even go back to Parashara.
• The class follows the version in Santhanam's edition.

The List of Inauspicious Birth Conditions

This class only lists them. Each has its own chapter later; the next chapter is the Amavasya birth.

Notes on Each

Darsha:

• Traditionally translated as Amavasya. Literally, darsha is about seeing — Moon being just seeable.
• So it could be read as the end of Amavasya / beginning of Shukla Pratipada, when Moon is just becoming visible.
• Or even the way the Islamic tradition observes it: the first visible crescent, a couple of days after Amavasya.
• Amavasya is not the new-moon day. It is the day when a little of the Moon is left and he is going towards zero. Moon is zero at the end of Amavasya. The new Moon comes after Amavasya.
• PVNR does not draw a far-reaching conclusion. The class sticks to the traditional reading, Amavasya. But keep the mind open: there has been a dark age for a few thousand years and much knowledge may have been corrupted.

Krishna Chaturdashi:

• A tithi Shiva likes — and birth on it is inauspicious nevertheless.
• Not the entire Chaturdashi. Part of it is auspicious and part inauspicious, by Parashara's own classification, which comes in that chapter.
• PVNR himself was born a few hours after Chaturdashi began, on a Saturday that had Trayodashi in the morning (Shani Trayodashi).

Vishti: Vishti karana — one of the karanas of the Panchanga, considered very inauspicious.

Sodara-bha / Pitri-bha:

• Bha = nakshatra (it can also mean rashi; normally taken as nakshatra).
• Sodara = born from the same womb. So brother or sister — any sibling.
• Born in the same nakshatra as the father or a sibling = dosha.
• The dosha is on the later born. It may affect the earlier born too if the Shanti is not done.
• Same pada or any pada? Parashara does not say, so it seems any pada. For any one relative that is a 1/27 chance — many people have this dosha.
• A traditional Indian family would do the Shanti.

Surya Sankranti:

• Once a month. About 1 birth in 30.
• PVNR knows cases of Sankranti birth where the chart was brilliant and there were big problems: in one the career did not take off, in another marital life was a mess, in another health was terrible. In all of them the reason traces to the Sankranti dosha.
• How long does it last? Parashara does not specify. The standard interpretation is the entire day on which Sun changes sign.
• It cannot be the exact moment. Every other item in the list — Amavasya, Chaturdashi, Vishti, a nakshatra, an eclipse — is a measurable duration. An ingress is a point in time; nobody is born at a point. In the cases PVNR saw, the birth was a few hours after the Sankranti.
• Open questions left for that chapter: how to reckon "the day" if Sun changes sign at 2 in the night; or whether to go by Sun's distance from the sign border (say half a degree).

Pata: Literally a fall. What kind is not known. One possibility is a comet falling or the like. Left open.

Arka-indu-graha: Arka = Sun, indu = Moon, graha = taking (grahana) — the taking of Sun and Moon by Rahu and Ketu. Birth at the time of a solar or lunar eclipse.

Vyatipata and the other duryogas:

• Not planetary combinations. These are the yogas of the Panchanga (tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga, karana) — 27 of them.
• Vyatipata is one. Atiganda ("terrible danger"; not the same thing as Gandanta) can be taken as another.
• No list is given. Go through the 27 yogas and their meanings and work out which are inauspicious from the name and meaning.

Gandanta: Three kinds. Explained in its chapter.

Yamaghanta: The period known in Telugu as Yamagandam. There is a different view on what it means; taken up in its chapter.

Dagdha yoga: Literally "burnt". Not known yet; taken up in its chapter.

Tritara-janma (tri + itara = three others):

• A girl born after three boys, or a boy born after three girls.
• Do miscarriages count? A student's question. PVNR has no answer. Miscarriages, natural and induced, have always existed, but the sex is often not known, so the rule could hardly be observed. Stick to children born.
• If a miscarriage leaves it in doubt, do the Shanti as benefit of doubt and cover both options.

Prasava-vikara: Abnormal birth — heavy physical deformity, two heads, three hands and the like.

The Remedy

Shantya bhavati kalyanam, tad-upayam cha vachmy aham — by doing Shanti, auspiciousness comes; I am telling you that remedy.

• Shanti literally = peace. Here: pacification, pacifying actions.
• Ideally done when the native is a baby — in the first 21 days or the first 41 days.
• It is never too late. If an astrologer finds the dosha when you are 28 and in a lot of trouble, do it then. PVNR knows cases where it was done at 27–28 and much improvement followed.
• At 70 or so, one may instead go through the remaining suffering and think of it as a blessing. A student: and if 15 years are left? PVNR: then you probably want to do it.

The Moment the Chapter Was Begun

While explaining Sankranti, PVNR checked the sky:

• Sun was about 2½ minutes of arc from the Gemini–Cancer boundary — changing sign 27 minutes later, before the class ended. A Sankranti day.
• Vishti karana was running.
• Atiganda yoga was running.

"So if somebody is born right now, they should do a lot of Shanti."

A student asked what it means that the chapter was begun at such a moment. PVNR: it does not mean anything much — only that everyone will get plenty of examples. For the next month, check each chart that comes for these doshas; they may be the problem.

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Ketu in 2nd House — Speech Clarification

Student's question: an earlier class said Ketu in the 2nd gives very clear speech; another said a secretive voice and speech problems. Which?

Answer: both results are possible.

• Ketu is like a big explosion. He is capable of destroying any house he is in, even a house he likes.
• So Ketu in the 2nd can give speech problems. The native may not be a good speaker. There can be stammering — at least in the beginning.
• The scriptures also say Ketu in the 2nd gives a very clear voice. When the problems are over, the voice is extremely clear.
• It depends on whether Ketu is strong or weak. When Ketu is weak, there can be problems.

What "clear" means here: not eloquence, not choosing the right words. The nature of the voice itself — of the vaikhari, the sound that comes out of the mouth. Some people have a clear voice; some have a murmuring voice and it is hard to make out what they say.

"Ketu is supposed to give a very clear audible voice, but before he does it, he can give some problems also."

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