Ishta/Palana/Dharma Devata Calculation, Complete Planet-Deity Table, Vastu Directions & Jyeshtha-Moola Gandanta

Nakshatra Devatas — Jyeshtha-Moola Gandanta

The class opens with the nakshatra mantras: Mitra for Anuradha, then Indra for Jyeshtha. Moola comes next class.

• The border between Jyeshtha and Moola is the border between Scorpio and Sagittarius.
• Every gandanta is a border between water and fire, so none of them is desirable.
• This one is worse than the others because the nakshatra devatas also clash: Indra on one side, Nirriti on the other.

"Everywhere you see there is a big conversion going on, there is a big transformation going on at that border. So that border is a very critical border. Among all the gandantas that we have, this is a very critical gandanta."

Vastu — Planetary Directional Mapping

A student, hearing that Nirriti rules the south-west, asks whether directions can be tied to planets and houses. The teacher says such relations can be made and gives the usual Vastu scheme.

How an Area Is Divided

• Any living area can be taken: a room, the whole house, the plot, a village, a town, a country.
• The most popular theory divides the rectangle into 9 × 9 = 81 parts, each with its own devata.
• It is not just "sitting in the south" or "sitting in the east". The result depends on which devata's part you sit in and what you do there.
• "The way Vastu is done by many people today is very superficial. If you go to the śāstra, there is much more."

The Simple Nine-Part Scheme

Leave the 81 parts aside and divide the area into a middle part and eight directions.

• The teacher first gave Mars for the south-east (Agneya, "relating to Agni") and corrected himself at once: Moon is south-east, Mars is south.
• The recording is unclear on which of Jupiter and Mercury takes north and which north-east. He adds that there is another classification "in which Jupiter comes into north-east", and that "Mercury is the leftover planet".
• The published class notes settle it: north is Jupiter's, north-east is Mercury's.
• Use with D4: if the planetary influence at the time is Moon's, translate it into the south-east direction. He leaves the subject there.

The Navagrahas at a Satyanarayana Puja

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

• At a Satyanarayana puja the nine graha idols are set out by the directions they rule. The class notes draw the grid with east at the top:

Deity Analysis

"Even if you don't know anything, you can in general guide, tell people, do prayer to this God or do prayer to this Goddess. It doesn't hurt." All the devatas are seen from navamsa.

Ishta Devata — Moksha

• Atmakaraka is Moon. In navamsa he is in Pisces.
• The 12th from him, the house of moksha, is Aquarius. Its lords are Saturn and Rahu; Saturn is stronger.
• Saturn is in a Mercurial sign (Gemini) with Sun.
• Saturn is Vishnu. In a Mercury sign it is certainly a Vishnu form.
• Which form? One can say Venkateswara. But Saturn is with Sun, so one can say Rama.
• "If he prays to Rama, then he will go towards moksha."

Palana Devata — Livelihood

• Look at the 6th from Amatyakaraka. Take the occupant if there is one, otherwise the lord.
• Amatyakaraka is Mercury (Scorpio in navamsa). Rahu occupies the 6th from him.
• Rahu is Durga. "If he prays to Durga, she will take care of his livelihood, give him money, give him food."

Dharma Devata

• The 9th from Atmakaraka Moon in navamsa is Scorpio. Mercury occupies it.
• From Mercury say Vishnu. To be more specific, take a Vishnu form that suits Scorpio, a Martian sign: Narasimha.
• Or combine the Ishta and Dharma devatas and simply say Vishnu instead of Rama and Narasimha.

Lord, Occupant or Aspector?

A student asks which planet to take. The texts give no clear formula.

• Lord, occupant, aspector — whichever you take leads the right way in the end, as long as it has a link to that house.
• Aspectors are risky: "Just because somebody wants to influence his dharma doesn't mean he will make him do dharma." Occupant and lord are safer. Take the lord always and you are safe; he is in charge of the place.
• He may start with Vishnu, and Vishnu may take him to Hanuman.
• Do not think you will name a mantra, he will say it 108 times and get moksha. One thing leads to another, to progress in this life, to combinations in the next. You are only one link in a long chain.
• "Don't put too much pressure on your shoulders thinking, 'I have to find the right devata.' … As long as you are looking for one devata, that is enough."

How to Pray

• Take some form of Vishnu and some mantra of Vishnu. A simple one is enough.
• Set rules — a stotra on a fixed weekday, a mantra a fixed number of times a day, before eating or after the bath.

"Which rules you set is not that important, but whether you follow the rules that you yourself or your guru set, that is more crucial."

• It reminds him who he is and what his mission is, and takes him towards moksha.

General Deity-to-Planet Mapping

Sign and Company Decide the Form

• Saturn can show many devatas. Kali is one, Vishnu another. Look at the influences on him.
• Here: a Mercurial sign and Sun, so a Vishnu avatara.
• Had the same Saturn been with Rahu in Scorpio, the teacher would have said Chandi, Kali or Chamunda.
• A wrong pick does not matter much. "It will be just an additional step or maybe an additional two or three steps."

Ketu in Leo — Which Ganapati

A student proposes praying to Jupiter for Ketu.

• If Rahu or Ketu give trouble, Guru helps. Sun with Rahu: pray to Jupiter.
• But do not always answer Rahu and Ketu with Jupiter. They have their own devatas. For Ketu take Ganesha.
• Ketu here is in Leo, the rāśi lagna. Leo is the kingly, royal sign. So Raja Ganapati; there is a Raja Ganapati mantra.
• Or Mahaganapati: the mantra 1,000 times, properly seated.

Ketu in Lagna, Leo Lagna — Advice on Character

• Ketu in lagna or the 12th: a strong chance of spirituality.
• Ketu in lagna also gives eccentricity: jumping to conclusions, wrong judgments, acting in haste without thinking. In the paka lagna it shows even more, because that is how the intelligence is used.
• Leo lagna: stubbornness, authority, pride. He will not listen to anybody.
• Leo lagna people also get things done. They are good administrators and delegate to the right people. The teacher is not asking him to drop that, or to be less spiritual.
• So besides a puja you can tell the person: be more humble, listen to people, think more logically.

"For everybody, there are certain qualities that God puts in our life, and we have to overcome those qualities. Then we will find our true self."

Philosophical Teachings on Astrology and Karma

Is the Advice Good or Bad?

• A trait may have been given for a reason. Whether your advice works for good or bad in the long run is very hard to know. There are no thumb rules. Go by intuition.
• "Depending on how pure the light within you is, the advice you give ends up being either correct or not correct."
• Example: a man with Cancer lagna, and Rahu — Moon's enemy — in the 7th of navamsa, was in a divorce case. Cancer lagna is sensitive; he thinks and acts with his heart. The other side was shrewd and used it against him. The teacher told the father: tell him not to be emotional, to listen to his lawyer. The father confirmed that things done on emotion had been used against him in court.
• Even that advice may be bad. The suffering may be good for him; it may shorten his road to moksha by ten lives.
• "There is no real good or bad. It's all about whether your path to moksha is 10 million lives or 2 million lives."
• If some logic supports the advice, give it.

The Astrologer's Karma

"This is the most important point."

• If you think "I learnt so many principles, that is why I made that good prediction, that is why I am giving this good advice", you pick up new karma. Whatever happens to those people because of your advice comes to you.
• If you sincerely believe that God is doing the work through you, and give up doership, nothing touches you.
• It is not an easy state. Begin by saying "I am not doing this" even while part of you knows otherwise. It grows stronger.
• Whatever astrology you learn, do not give up devotion. Then the advice comes from the light within and bears fruit. A prediction may be wrong or sound odd and still be for the good in the long run.

Everything Is Her

• When Mahishasura fought Durga, his desire (iccha shakti) was her, the energy in his action (kriya shakti) was her, and she who came and fought him was her.
• So-called bad advice is given by her, and so-called good advice too. She has many manifestations pulling in different directions.
• Behind them is the purest one, close to Nirguna Parabrahman. As the light inside you grows stronger, what you say is good from the point of view of that innermost light.

Dharma

• See the 9th house in rāśi and navamsa. The 9th from Atmakaraka matters even more than the 9th from lagna: it is the duty with which the soul came into this world.
• Astrology gives only a general idea of it.

"If you pray to your Dharma Devata, the light will become stronger and stronger and eventually you will know your dharma yourself. That is the only reliable way."

• The 10th is the 9th from the 2nd. The 2nd is your resources, the 10th the work you get done: karma is the dharma of your resources.

Rahu and Ketu in D20

• D20 is not a chart of dharma. Being spiritual is not the same as being religious.
• Spirituality rests on 8th-house matters: reaching for the unknown, knowing your true self and that of the whole world.
• Sun, Moon, Mars and the rest have a body, and that limits them. Rahu and Ketu have none.
• "For exploring the secretive things, the occult secrets of the world, mysteries of the world, Rahu and Ketu are very versatile."
• In D20 they are very auspicious.