BPHS Ch.96 — Prasava Vikara Shanti: Unusual Deliveries, Animal Vikara & Parashara's Closing Philosophy

BPHS Chapter 96 — Prasava Vikara Shanti (Unusual Deliveries)

The name: ākāra = shape, vikāra = unusual shape. Prasava vikāra śānti = remedies for unusual deliveries.

"These are basically not just for mother, father, or a particular person. These are basically unusual deliveries which foretell danger for the whole community."

The opening verse says they bring ariṣṭa to the whole grāma (village) and the whole kula (family, lineage).

Types of Unusual Deliveries

How short, how long? Parashara gives no figure. Santhanam translates it as 2, 3 or 4 months earlier or later than the approximate due date. PVNR: the exact line is open to debate, but 6 months, or 11½ months, is definitely unusual.

Fingers and toes: a student raises extra fingers. PVNR mentions people born with an extra thumb, and someone he knows born with only three toes on one foot. Parashara says only hīnāṅga and adhikāṅga; he does not say the aṅga must be a big one. PVNR leaves it to the student to interpret, but thinks the words probably cover these too: "Even the sixth thumb is an unusual thing."

Not only humans: more or fewer body parts "than is usual for that particular species". A buffalo born with three legs is the same problem.

Animal-shaped births are very rare — the sort of thing that appears in a newspaper. A client with such a baby is very unlikely.

"It is not that they are bad, but they are unusual, and according to Parashara, such unusual deliveries forebode some evil."

Effect

• All these unusual deliveries indicate vināśa — destruction, evil results.
• Whether it is a woman or an animal that delivers so, big undesirable events can happen in that house, or in the extended family, or possibly the community.
• So śānti must be done, and with effort (prayatnataḥ).

The Verse on Abandoning

• The verse names the woman (strī), the cow (gau) and a third word PVNR could not break up; he leaves that word. Santhanam translates the line as women and animals — cows, mares, etc.
• It then says parityajya — abandon — for one who wants good.
• Read literally, the verse says: if a woman delivers such a baby, leave the baby; if a cow delivers such a calf, leave the cow.
• PVNR does not endorse it: "Whether it is actually Parashara's directive or not, I am not 100% sure of."

Dosha for a Very Young Mother

• Conception OR delivery in the woman's 15th year or 16th year from birth is not for good.
• 15th year = 14 years completed, 15th running. 16th year = 15 completed, 16th running.
• This is an additional inauspiciousness, separate from the unusual births above. There should be no conception or childbirth in those two years.

Cow and Buffalo: the Two Solar Months

• A cow delivering when Sun is in Simha (Leo) — inauspicious.
• A buffalo delivering when Sun is in Makara (Capricorn) — inauspicious. The verse says only "nakra" (= makara) without naming the planet; by extension of the previous phrase it is the Sun. Roughly January 15 to February 15.
• The newborn calf causes harm to its owner (the owner of the mother) and also to itself.
• "It's not that the cow is bad, it's just that it is showing some evil that is going to come to you." So a remedy is needed.

Remedy

1. Give it to a brāhmaṇa. This is said of the calf born in those two solar months. The verse says "tām" — that one, singular — so the literal meaning is the calf, not the mother. "If you want to be safe, give away both."
2. Pūjā and homa. Pūjā of Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara (Shiva) and the grahas. All the homa and other rites are done exactly as in the trītara-janma śānti covered in the previous class (a child of the other gender born after three children of one gender).

Result: the house prospers, has comfort and happiness, and is freed of all the evils and sins.

Parashara's Closing Verse

"When inauspicious results are indicated, if a human being performs remedial measures for the inauspicious events that are foretold by the birth of a child in certain combinations, then all the desires will be fulfilled and the human being will be happy, prosperous, and will live for a long time."

PVNR: this is the philosophy behind all the remedial measures covered so far.

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End of BPHS Remedial Section — PVNR Announcement

• The next chapter is skipped. It is the conclusion of the whole Parashara Hora Shastra and reads as if astrology is over. "We are only done with remedial measures, not with the whole astrology."
• The class goes back to the beginning of BPHS, from Part 1 of the book.

"Now we finished astrology once. Now we are going to revise astrology. Now we are going to start from the beginning."

Plan:

• Not one chapter per class any more — these chapters are longer. Read enough verses to cover about an hour of BPHS each class.
• A student points out that most of it will be repetition. PVNR: it is a good revision, and it shows where the class differs a little from what Parashara taught.
• Go slowly where something is worth discussing; browse through the rest.

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