Muhurtha as Guidelines, 3rd from AL in D60 for Death & Nasthajatakam

Muhurtha — Names of Yogas and Karanas Are Guidelines

The question

A student asked: the day has Varīyān yoga, whose name means great or chief. But the lord of the yoga is badly placed, in the 6th or 8th house. Which one wins — the name or the lord?

A disclaimer first

• The use of yogas, karaṇas and tithis in muhūrta is a grey area. The classics give no clear guidelines, unlike daśās or Tithi Praveśa.
• What the teacher says here came from elders and his own reflection. It does not come from a maharṣi.

"So the knowledge is likely to be not completely reliable, unlike the knowledge of other astrology that we have learnt."

The name only hints at the nature

"It is my view that the names are just guidelines. You can't just go by the name."

• A yoga whose name means "great fall" is not automatically terrible. Varīyān does not make you great because you started something on it.
• The placement of the lord of the yoga in the chart matters more. The lord also has to be favourable.

Karaṇas work the same way

• Some karaṇas are called auspicious and some inauspicious. The placement of the karaṇa lord is a second factor.
• The parallel is with daśās. "Jupiter daśā is good for 16 years, Saturn daśā is bad for 19" is first-level astrology. In a particular chart Jupiter may be terrible and Saturn excellent.
• Garija karaṇa is ruled by Jupiter and counted good. Depending on Jupiter in the chart, it may be a bad karaṇa for that muhūrta.
• Viṣṭi karaṇa is ruled by Saturn. People avoid it for auspicious beginnings. But if Saturn is strong in the natal chart of the person and in the muhūrta chart, Viṣṭi may be the best karaṇa to start on.
• If Venus is a māraka, or the 3rd and 8th lord, and the person is starting a career, the karaṇa of Venus may not be good for him even when Venus is strong in the muhūrta chart.

The ideal

• There are five divisions of time: tithi, vāra, karaṇa, yoga and nakṣatra. Each has a ruling planet.
• If possible pick a so-called good lagna as well, but make sure its lord is a good planet in the natal chart.
• Choose the karaṇa, tithi, yoga and vāra of planets that are conducive in the birth chart. The planet should be good in the natal chart and in the muhūrta chart.
• The nakṣatra carries a lot of strength among the five.
• Pick the right planet in the natal chart first; judge the muhūrta after that.

"Thumb rules are just thumb rules. Perfection comes only through elaborate and complicated work."

When you cannot choose the time

"If you don't have a choice, just go with the flow. Whatever is destined, you have to take."

• The teacher's suggestion is not even to look at the muhūrta in that case.
• If you do look, find the weak planet and pray.

Example — a first job with a fixed start. A woman known to the teacher was hired with a batch of trainees. All had to start on a Monday at 9 o'clock. It was the start of her career.

• Lagna at that time: Leo. Lagna lord Sun in the 12th in Cancer — maraṇa kāraka sthāna.
• The muhūrta was terrible. The teacher would never have picked it. The job may not last long.
• If the Sun is pleased, the job may go but the career can last; she may find something better.
• Remedy given: bathe in the morning and read Āditya Hṛdayam before going to work that day.

Example — a good muhūrta with Rahu in the 8th. Rahu in the 8th house of the muhūrta shows a sudden setback, a big change forced on you that frustrates you, during whatever was begun.

• Remedy given: pray to Mother Durgā, read a Durgā stotra. The problem may still come, but much toned down.

"If you want a perfect time, there is no perfect time. It comes once every maybe thousands or tens of thousands of years. So pick the best available time."

When does joining a job begin?

• Some take the moment you leave home to go to the new work. Sanjay Rath and others use this.
• The teacher's father and many traditional astrologers do not. You may leave home, visit ten towns and twenty relatives, and only then join.
• The teacher's view: the moment you enter the workplace with the intention of being an employee there, or the moment you start working. He has no firm view on which of the two.

No cheating

A student asked about stepping out before Rāhu kāla and leaving later.

• If your definition of starting is going out, then go before Rāhu kāla. Putting something outside, coming back in, watching a movie and leaving an hour later does not change when you started.

"There is a tendency to cheat in several things, and cheating never works."

The muhūrtas printed in the pañcāṅga

• Siddhāntis who know the subject pick times that are good in general for many people and print them.
• Such times already carry many positives. Even with some negatives from the individual horoscope, the total is likely to stay positive.
• A priest does not pick one at random. Most check tārā bala from the person's star: parama mitra tārā is taken, naidhana tārā is not. So a given day suits only a fraction of people.
• Weaknesses remain. The karaṇa lord may be strong in the muhūrta and weak in your chart.
• Ideally look at the lagna too. Taurus is a good lagna for marriage, being a sign of Venus. But if Taurus is the 6th or 8th house in your horoscope, marrying on it is not so auspicious.
• Temple priests know thumb rules, not the whole śāstra. They still serve people well.
• This is why in an Indian city all the halls are booked on certain days, and dozens of couples marry at the same hour.

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Birth Place, Birth Time and the Limits of Rectification

How much does 15 miles matter?

A student asked how sensitive a chart is to the birth place — a village for which only the nearby town's coordinates are known.

• The rāśi chart is not very sensitive. Some higher divisional charts are, and their rising sign can change. Accurate coordinates are needed.
• An error in the place and an error in the time have a similar effect. Both end up as a change in one number: the longitude of the lagna. So the two can be treated as one variable.
• That is a simplification. The Moon's longitude depends only on the time, not on the place. Fix the lagna perfectly by treating the two as one, and the Moon can still be off by some arc-seconds. The sixteen divisional charts may all be right while the daśā is off by a couple of days.
• The teacher corrected his own lagna and his own Moon separately — the divisional charts and the daśā each aligned on its own — and could then explain events of his life to the hour, sometimes the half hour.
• For that kind of precise work you need both the exact time and the exact place. For judging a week or a month, one combined variable is enough.

Finding a time when only the day is known

• With a half-hour window there are still thousands of different profiles, yet events and the person's nature may be enough to reverse-engineer the time.
• With only the day there are hundreds of thousands of possibilities. Sometimes a solution is found. It cannot be guaranteed.
• A match can be a false one, like a local maximum: some things fit and others break down.
• For a great person the chance is better. From what the person achieved you expect certain yogas, and that can fix the rising sign — a two-hour window. Clear physical features can also suggest the lagna.
• The search has to be hierarchical: first two hours, then 14 minutes, then maybe 10 minutes, and so on down. It may or may not work.

"If you tell me, was he born at 2:17 AM that day? I may be able to give a clear yes or no answer, but I don't have a clear algorithm which allows me to perfectly fix the time."

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3rd from Arudha Lagna — A Death Known in Advance

The rule

A student brought up Yitzhak Rabin: his assassination was said to have been predicted a year before, and he was told of it.

"The 3rd house from Arudha Lagna will show how the death occurs, what kind of death."

• A killing with a violent weapon: expect Mars or Rahu there.
• A death that was expected, not a total surprise: expect Jupiter associated with the 3rd from AL.
  • A man comes out of a coma, learns he has cancer, and he and his family know he has three months.
  • Or there was a prophecy.
• Use: if the birth data is uncertain between two alternatives, pick the one where Jupiter is associated with the 3rd from AL in the rāśi chart.
• The teacher did not have Rabin's birth data and cast no chart for him.

The same combination in D-60

• The rāśi chart is this life. If someone says "in my last life I was that person, and I knew I was going to die", look for the combination in D-60, not in the rāśi chart.
• There it means that in the previous life he knew he was going to die.

Ramana Maharshi — he knew when he would leave the body

At the end of the class a student said Ramana Maharshi knew of his death in advance. The teacher opened the natal chart to test the rule.

• Āruḍha Lagna is in Capricorn. The 3rd from it is Pisces, a sāttvik sign.
• Jupiter is not in Pisces. Saturn is in Pisces and Jupiter is in Aquarius: a parivartana. Because of it Jupiter acts as though he is in Pisces.
• Pisces is Jupiter's own sign and the most sāttvik place for him — more than Cancer, since exaltation is a rājasik state.
• A sāttvik influence shows a death that does not come in pain or suddenly, but is known and meditated upon.

"I won't call it death, I will call it leaving the body. He knew when he would leave the body. He may have even planned it."

Planet = the knowing, sign = the place

A student suggested Pisces also showed a place near the sea.

• Knowing is animate; it involves intelligence. The planet shows that. Jupiter shows the knowledge.
• The place is inanimate. The sign shows it. Pisces can show a sea bank, a hospital, somewhere near water.
• The teacher did not know where Ramana passed away and did not judge the place.

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Nasthajatakam — Lost Horoscope Technique

A student asked what to do when the birth time is not known at all.

• Naṣṭa Jātaka — "lost horoscopy" — is a special kind of praśna. It is for a person who knows nothing of his birth: not the year, the date, the place or the time.
• A praśna chart is cast, a question put to the divine. Certain combinations must be present in that chart to show the question will be answered.
• Then there are clear rules. From Rahu's sign, Jupiter's sign and so on you find the year — which sign Jupiter occupied at birth — and then where the Sun, the Moon and the lagna were.
• The rules are in Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra. A book on Naṣṭa Jātaka by T. S. Sastry collects the verses from several classics with examples.
• The teacher has not worked with it and has no framework to test it.

"I'm more comfortable when somebody tells me, 'This is when I was born', then make a chart, maybe change it a little bit."

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Proving Astrology to Skeptics

The student proposed studying the charts of Rabin and his killer together to show skeptics that astrology has value.

Explaining the past convinces nobody

"Even if I look at both the charts and say, see, it is so clear that the destinies are linked, still a skeptic would remain a skeptic."

• Someone who knew no astrology could make up logic to explain a known event.

Predict what is hard to guess

• Bush against Kerry was a 50% guess. The teacher predicted Bush, as did many. It proves little.
• Right after that election he predicted that Al Gore, though retired from politics, may come back and be the next president. "That may not happen" — but a prediction like that, if it comes true, is worth more.
• Low-probability predictions, made with reasonable consistency, are what prove the subject.

The test he plans

• Rationalists bring 20 charts with accurately recorded data. For each, one event with five options — for example the date of marriage.
• Random guessing gives 5 right out of 20. If he gets 16 or 17, there is something in the subject.
• With 100 charts chance gives 20; 80 or 85 correct should settle it.
• The answers are A, B, C, D or E. There is no room for interpretation.
• Better still a group of astrologers: one gets 70, one 80, one 90, the average 85.
• He is not ready. He is still refining his understanding, and expects to be ready in about five years.

Why not the stock market

• A student said: predict the market, people make money, people believe you.
• This is a divine subject. Abusing it brings bad karma. That is the hesitation.
• His techniques for the market work only 60–65% of the time.

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