Kali Sadhaka Chart (1973) — Pravrajya Yoga, Ketu in Lagna, 6 Planets in Moksha Houses & Saturn in the D20 12th House

Example chart

Background given by the student: a highly spiritual man, a Kali upasaka. He is married. He has done several different sadhanas, mostly Kali sadhana, and has siddhis at least to the extent of healing others. He has occult experiences. He is in Rahu dasa; Jupiter dasa comes soon.

Rasi Chart

• Born on Amavasya.
• Ketu in lagna (Gemini). Ketu is the moksha karaka.

"If Ketu is in lagna, either the person is very eccentric, very crazy, or he is spiritual, or both. Spiritual people can also be really crazy."

• Six of nine planets in the moksha trikonas (4, 8, 12): Saturn in the 12th (Taurus); Moon, Venus, Mercury, Sun and Jupiter in the 8th (Capricorn). The 8th and 12th dominate.
• Pravrajya yoga, the combination that makes an ascetic. Even if married, such a person has the spirit of a sannyasi and is very detached. Moon is in a sign of Saturn, Saturn has rasi drishti on Moon from Taurus, and Venus and Saturn are in parivartana, so Venus too acts like Saturn.

The rasi chart alone does not decide

"The 8th house is not only the house of spiritual sadhana, it is also the house of misfortune, fall, troubles, hardships, incurable diseases."

• From the rasi chart this could be a man who wants only moksha, or a wretched and unlucky man who can do nothing in life.
• The divisional charts settle it. When a dominant 8th house and Ketu in lagna suggest a spiritual person, go to the Navamsa, then the Vimsamsa.

Navamsa

Navamsa lagna is Sagittarius. Planets in trines show the main abilities and attitude, the blessings the person is born with.

• Ketu is in a trine (Aries, the 5th). Ketu gives mathematics, abstract thinking, skill with very small instruments (large machinery is Rahu) — and spirituality, moksha. Ketu is not the karaka of speech; that is Mercury and Jupiter.
• A student noted that Ketu is the 12th lord (Scorpio) in a trine. PVNR took it up: the 12th is the house of losing things and losing the self.

"Moksha is nothing but losing yourself completely. Any self-identity is a bondage."

• Lagna is the ego, the concept of self. The 12th from lagna is the key to liberation. Here its lord Ketu is in a trine in Navamsa and in the lagna in Rasi.
• Sun, the 9th lord, is in the 7th (Gemini) and aspects lagna. Sun gives managerial, administrative skill. From Navamsa one can say only that he has the knack; whether he is drawn into such work is seen from the Dasamsa.
• A student asked whether this is a desire of the inner self, the 7th being the house of desire. PVNR: yes. Navamsa shows the abilities and the agendas of the inner self, given on the strength of past desires and deeds.
• Another student read the 9th lord in the 7th as "fortune blocked by the spouse". PVNR corrected it: the 9th lord in the 7th means marriage brings fortune. A9 in the 7th is even better, because an arudha shows tangible fortune appearing at marriage.

Vimsamsa: Capricorn or Aquarius Lagna?

At 3:05 PM the Vimsamsa lagna is Capricorn with Saturn in it. About one minute later (3:06:02 PM) it becomes Aquarius. Both had to be weighed.

The case for Capricorn (a student's): Saturn in the D-20 lagna in his own sign shows an ascetic nature.

PVNR's counterpoint: the Saturnine, ascetic nature is already explained without it — by the Pravrajya yoga in Rasi, and with Aquarius lagna the lagna lord Saturn sits in the 12th, the house of giving up. In the chart of spiritual pursuit Saturn is discipline: he can go through any hardship.

What Capricorn lagna would give

• The 5th is the house of mantra and upasana. The 10th is spiritual karma — here, helping others with one's insight.
• Their lord Venus (5th and 10th) is in the 6th, his marana karaka sthana. A key planet there lowers the whole Vimsamsa. This does not fit a man who did many mantras, achieved something with them and helps people.
• Sun and Jupiter occupy the 5th (Taurus). They are the Vedic, dharmic planets and can show Shiva. PVNR would then expect a Shiva worshipper, a great Vedanti learned in the Vedas, progressing by the Vedic path. And for this lagna Sun is 8th lord and Jupiter is 3rd and 12th lord — functional malefics afflicting the 5th, not good for luck in mantra and upasana.
• A student's point that Rahu and Ketu in the 10th show karma of a spiritual kind is fair, and it survives the change of lagna.

What Aquarius lagna gives

• Lagna lord Saturn in the 12th (Capricorn). Saturn is in the 12th in both Rasi and Vimsamsa.
• Venus, the yogakaraka, in the 5th (Gemini): good for mantra sadhana.
• Rahu and Ketu in the 9th (Libra), still influencing the 10th.
• Moon, the 6th lord, in the 8th (Virgo); Mercury, the 8th lord, in the 6th (Cancer). A parivartana of 6th and 8th lords and a Viparita Raja yoga. The 6th is the house of the tapas being done; the 8th is the house of occult experience.

Moon and the 8th house

"Some link of Moon to the 8th house or the 8th lord, or to Saturn, is very conducive to occult experiences."

• Moon in the 8th is in marana karaka sthana. For spiritual progress that is not bad at all.

"The whole goal of spiritual progress is to kill the mind. Nirvikalpa samadhi is nothing but mind completely dead."

Decision: PVNR goes with Aquarius lagna in D-20 and moves the birth time by about a minute, saving the original 3:05 PM in a note. The same change makes the Dasamsa lagna Virgo.

Narayani and the Deity of the 5th House

The recording has a gap here; the argument resumes mid-sentence.

Venus in the 5th of Vimsamsa suggests Lakshmi. The man worships Kali. PVNR's way through:

• The rahasyas attached to the Durga Saptashati (Markandeya Purana) — pradhanika, prakritika, vaikritika — describe the birth of the Goddess. She is Narayani.
• Narayana is the Parama Purusha, the nearly formless form from which Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva emanate. Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma are limited aspects. The Narayana Suktam says: he is Brahma, he is Shiva, he is Hari, he is Indra.
• Narayani is the energy of that form, the energy behind creation and manifestation. Call her Chandi or Durga; when the gods praise her they say Narayani.
• In the rahasya, first there is Mahalakshmi, without guna and then of all three gunas. She divides into Mahalakshmi (sattva), Mahakali (tamas) and Mahasaraswati (rajas), and from them come Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and their consorts.
• So "Lakshmi" from Venus need not be only the sattvic Lakshmi.

Why Kali fits this chart

• Mandi is with Venus. Mandi is Saturn's son and gives Saturn's results. Saturn shows Kali.
• The 5th is upasana but moksha is the 12th, and Saturn is in the 12th in both Rasi and Vimsamsa. With that much Saturn, give more weight to Mandi beside Venus.

The limit of technique

• PVNR's aside on Ramakrishna Paramahamsa: he reached the highest by many paths — jnana, bhakti, karma and raja yoga — and reached nirvikalpa samadhi within days under Totapuri, after asking Kali's leave. Beyond it is sahaja samadhi, which only a handful attain.

"If you use all the techniques that are at our disposal, we could not have told him Kali, but it was Kali for him."

• The śāstra we know is limited. Advice has to come from a heart made pure by one's own sadhana; otherwise it is highly fallible.

Mercury: Many Sadhanas

With Aquarius lagna in Vimsamsa:

• Mercury is the 5th lord and sits in the 2nd from the 5th (Cancer, with Mars), so he has dhana argala on the 5th. The lord of a house having argala on it is a very strong influence.
• Mercury is rajasic, indecisive, the jack of all trades. The wish to try many things comes from him.

"Anybody who does a lot of sadhanas, you will see some strong influence of Mercury on their house of sadhana."

• This is why PVNR had asked whether the man did other sadhanas. Jupiter, or even Ketu, would have made him master one thing.
• The 5th also holds rajasic Venus. So there is much rajas, much passion about sadhana, and an interest in mastering several.

One well

• Ramakrishna's saying: if you want water, dig one well in the right place and keep digging. Dig in many places and you find none, or dirty water.
• Different deities and mantras serve limited aims — obstacles, career, marriage. Spiritual growth is not a limited aim.

"You just stick to one devata, one mantra — enough, you are made."

Arudha Lagna of the Vimsamsa

• With Aquarius lagna the arudha lagna of D-20 falls in Gemini, with Venus and Mandi.
• AL is the image in that area of life — here, how people see him spiritually.
• Mandi gives a Saturnine result: an image of discipline and austerity.
• Venus is a rajasic Brahmin. In spiritual matters he gives the image of a big yogi, a man of power with many siddhis. Jupiter would have given a more sattvic image.
• Physical build is not seen here. That is from the Rasi chart, whose arudha lagna is Leo.

Out-of-Body Experiences

• A student objected that these are not spiritual experience. PVNR: they are one kind, and among the first. The body is only the default self-identification. Sadhana is to rise above it, identify with something higher, then with the highest, and finally lose all identification — samadhi.
• Karakas: Rahu and Ketu give mystical experiences beyond the body. The class settled on Ketu.
• House: the 8th, reaching for the unknown. A8 matters too.
• PVNR's own finding, from several charts of people with out-of-body experiences and kundalini awakening: take the arudha pada of the 8th house from Ketu, counted in reverse (all counting from Rahu and Ketu is backwards).
• Here: Ketu is in Libra in Vimsamsa. The 8th from it in reverse is Pisces. Its arudha falls in the 6th house (Cancer), which holds the 8th lord Mercury. A link between this arudha and the 8th lord makes the indication strong.
• Rahu, the other karaka, has graha drishti on it: he wishes to give the result.
• The very prominent 8th house of the Rasi chart supports it. Rasi is the trigger; the experiences themselves are read from Vimsamsa.

The two faces of the 8th house

• Positive: sadhana, tapas, the search for one's source — who am I, why am I born.
• Negative: lifelong troubles, disease, anxiety. Worrying where tomorrow's food comes from is also a search for the unknown.

Antardasas of Rahu dasa

• Rahu–Ketu (2001–2002) was a key period for his sadhana.
• For experiences: Rahu–Saturn through Rahu–Ketu, and Rahu–Moon. Rahu–Mercury counts because Mercury is the 8th lord. Rahu–Saturn joins two malefics and gives jolts; some out-of-body experiences are jolts.
• Rahu–Venus gives more sadhana than experience.

Atmakaraka Mars, Ishta Devata and Rahu–Mars Antardasa

• Mars is the Atmakaraka (a student corrected PVNR, who had thought it was Moon). Mars is at the very end of Scorpio, in deep gandanta, and debilitated in Vimsamsa (Cancer).
• Ishta Devata: in Navamsa the 12th from the Atmakaraka (Aquarius, counted from Mars in Pisces) holds Venus. Its lord is Rahu, and Venus and Rahu are in parivartana, so Venus acts like Rahu. PVNR chooses Rahu. In Vimsamsa too Rahu is in the 9th, the devata sthana, and aspects the 5th by graha drishti (his 9th-house aspect, from Libra to Gemini).
• Rahu shows Durga. Among the Mahavidyas the deity is Chinnamasta. PVNR's feeling: Chinnamasta is right for him, and he should stick to her.

Rahu–Mars, about to begin

• A student suggested propitiating Mars against a blow, Mars being in gandanta.
• In Vimsamsa Mars is with Mercury and they exchange results. Mars gives Mercury's: the 5th and 8th houses, upasana and tapas. Mars is willpower and loves a fight.

"This Mars will either give an intense sadhana or give some big blow physically."

• So he need not propitiate Mars. He should do rigorous sadhana that puts the body at risk, probably of Chinnamasta.
• PVNR rates this antardasa above Rahu–Saturn, Rahu–Mercury, Rahu–Ketu and Rahu–Moon: it is the antardasa of the Atmakaraka, and Mars is in the 6th. A malefic in the 6th overcomes obstacles — here the siddhis, and the attachment to them that rajasic Mercury gives.
• Bhoga: Mars is 10th from Rahu in Vimsamsa; the 10th from Mars is Aries, the 3rd house, a fiery sign of Mars. Very strong initiative and resolve in this antardasa.

A student: he seems to want to steer the planets toward gain

• A student who knows him said he asked how to turn the planets to his benefit. PVNR took it as benefit for sadhana.

Drig Dasa and Narayana Dasa of Vimsamsa

Drig dasa (read in the Rasi chart)

• Capricorn dasa, February 1998 – February 2006, age 25 to 33: the sign holding all five planets of the 8th house. A life-altering dasa, the most important of his life, and already over.
• Scorpio dasa, 2006–2012: it holds the Atmakaraka Mars, and the Capricorn planets aspect it. Serious, intense sadhana.
• The Bhratrikaraka Saturn — the guru — is in the 7th from Scorpio and has graha drishti on it. Rasi drishti is the usual test for the guru's coming; graha drishti shows at least the desire, his to meet a guru or a guru's to influence him. A guru may also have come already in the Capricorn dasa.

Dasamsa

• With the corrected time: Jupiter in lagna (Virgo), in Anantamsa — a learned man, a guru by nature. Sun in the 7th.
• No raja yoga for founding a large organisation, as Vivekananda did. The lagna and 10th lord Mercury is in the 8th with the 8th lord Mars.

"Forget the point I mentioned earlier about being an administrator. Probably he is not really meant to be an administrator, but he will be a sadhaka."

Narayana dasa of Vimsamsa

• Aquarius earlier, now Capricorn, 2001–2013: the 12th house with a strong Saturn.
• Thirds of a dasa: aspecting planets give results in the first third, the lord in the middle third, the sign in the last third. The middle third is running: Saturn's results — discipline and austerities.
• 2009–2013: the 12th house itself — some level of liberation.
• Next is Sagittarius, the 11th: some fruits of sadhana. Jupiter is with A8.
• Advice: the next few years suit a great deal of sadhana with nothing expected in return.

The Obstruction of Desire, and Sadhana That Defies the Body

• The chart is of a renunciate, but the emphasis on the 5th and 8th houses of Vimsamsa is rajasic. Rajas helps one move up and also obstructs.
• A student said he had not felt any "I-ness" in the man. PVNR: the ordinary kind — I will initiate a hundred people, I will spread this — may be absent. "I must get moksha, I want to see Kali" will be there.

"The desire is too strong, that the desire itself is basically stopping the desire from being satisfied."

• This cannot be grasped by being told. It comes only through much sadhana, and he is meant for severe sadhana.

Blow or sadhana — how to tell?

• Because the rest of the chart is an ascetic's, and Mars is linked in Vimsamsa to the 8th house and to the arudha taken from Ketu.
• To an ordinary person with Mars in gandanta one would say: pray to Hanuman or Kartikeya. Here Kartikeya suits better: Mars is in Scorpio — snakes and scorpions — which goes with Subrahmanya.
• For this man a physical blow may itself be a spiritual opening. The planet in gandanta is the Atmakaraka.

"The goal of all sadhana is to get such control over your mind that at any given point of time your mind can be thinking whatever you want it to, or not thinking anything at all. If that happens at the time of death, you basically got moksha."

• One can pray and hope for good thoughts at death, or practise that death many times over. Aghoris — strong Mars, Rahu and Saturn in Rasi and Vimsamsa — put the body to harm for this.
• In Rahu–Mars an aghori guru, or sadhana of that kind for Chinnamasta or Kali, can be very beneficial to him.

One Devata or Many?

A student raised what people often ask: why Hanuman for one person and Lakshmi for another?

• To reach the source, any devata will do. Traced to the source, every devata is Nirguna Brahman.
• The highest Vedic prayers all say so. The Ganapati Atharvashirsha tells Ganapati: you are Brahma, you are Vishnu, you are Rudra, Indra, Agni, Vayu, Surya, Chandra. The Narayana Suktam says the same of Narayana.
• This is not flattery of each god in turn. The rishis wrote from the experience of that devata in the nearly nirguna form, where all gods seem to emanate from him.
• Reaching the formless directly is hard. So one starts with a form and traces the way up with that deity.

"When you are asking for limited things, it is better to choose the right devata for that. When you are asking for the unlimited, which is self-realization, it doesn't matter which devata you pick."

• As forms, the devatas have particular roles. Ask one for what is another's to give and it may not happen. Choose by the nature of the aim or by the chart.
• Even for the unlimited aim the chart is used: sadhana of a devata worshipped in a past life bears fruit more easily.
• Any devata gives moksha sooner or later — "in the next million lives or two million lives".
• The student's working explanation, which PVNR accepted: for limited aims there are blocks in particular nadis, and particular mantras resonate with and clear them.