Sudarshan Chakra Mechanics — Benefic/Malefic Rules & Three Dasha Signs Interpretation

Quick Recap of Sudarshan Chakra Mechanics

How to Draw SC

Three concentric circles, cut by 12 radial lines like a Western wheel chart, so every house has three parts:

• Inner circle = Lagna Chakra (houses counted from Lagna)
• Middle circle = Chandra Chakra (houses counted from Moon)
• Outer circle = Surya Chakra (houses counted from Sun)

Maitreya asked: so many Munis took the chart from Lagna alone — are they wrong? Parashara: they are simplifying. The 1st house is the combination of the 1st from Lagna, from Moon and from Sun. The same for every house.

Core Rules (Parashara)

• For each house take the planets occupying it, owning it and aspecting it in all three chakras, and find the dominating influence.
• A house occupied or aspected by benefics is protected.
• A house occupied or aspected by malefics is destroyed.
• Do not go by Lagna alone. Saturn may sit in the 8th from Lagna, but if the 8th from Sun and Moon has Jupiter and Venus's aspect, the overall result can be positive.

Dasha Calculation

• 1st year of life = 1st house, 2nd year = 2nd house … 12th year = 12th house, 13th year = 1st house again.
• Count the years finished; the person is running the next one. Remove multiples of 12 to get the house.
• Each dasha has three signs — that house counted from Lagna, from Moon and from Sun.
• Antardasha: take the lord of the dasha sign, see where he sits in the chart, start from that sign and go zodiacally through the 12 signs — one sign a month.
• Pratyantardasha: the same again, about 2.5 days each.

The Entry Chart

Parashara's words are varṣādau, māsādau — at the beginning of the year, at the beginning of the month. Take the planetary positions at the moment the dasha (or antardasha) starts — the "Dasha Pravesha Chakra" / "Antardasha Pravesha Chakra" in the software — and judge them from the dasha sign.

Why the Same Sign Does Not Repeat Its Results Every 12 Years

The same three signs return every 12 years. The natal chart gives only a small common pattern; the big factor is the Pravesha Chakra, and that is completely different each time. Even Jupiter is not guaranteed to be back in the same sign after exactly 12 solar years — in the Rasi chart there is a good chance, not a certainty; in divisional charts it is as good as random.

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Benefic/Malefic Classification for SC Dasha Judgment

This classification is by natural nature only. A student argued for a planet on functional grounds; the teacher: "Here we don't care about the functionality. This is strictly by natural beneficence or maleficence."

Fixed Natures

• Mars, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu — always malefic. "You should never have a doubt."
• Jupiter, Venus — always benefic.
• Ketu may be argued as a benefic when the matter is something like marriage (Parashara did not say so; the teacher would accept it there). Not in a career/election judgment.

Variable Planets

The 1st-house condition for Sun was left out of the previous class and is added here.

Why Mercury follows the stronger one: Mercury is the Vaishya, the trader. His dharma is to please people. With two companions he tries to please both; if he has to pick, he picks the stronger.

Rahu's special rule (Parashara): whichever house Rahu occupies, he destroys. In the 3rd, 6th or 11th he is counted as a well-placed planet, but separately there will be some destruction relating to that house. (Also added in this class.)

A second reading of the Sun rule: Parashara's words on Sun not being a malefic in a friendly, own, moolatrikona or exaltation sign can also be read as covering all malefics — so Saturn in own sign in the 4th or 5th could be counted good. The teacher reads it as fixing only the Sun's nature, but tells the class to keep the other reading in mind.

Moon: Paksha or Phase?

Scholars do not agree on when the Moon turns from benefic to malefic.

• By paksha (rate of change): growing Moon (0°–180° ahead of Sun) = benefic; shrinking Moon = malefic. The change is at Purnima and Amavasya. This is what the books say.
• By phase (how much is visible): more than half full = benefic, less than half = malefic. The change is at the half-moon, roughly Ashtami to Ashtami. So the Moon stays benefic for some days after full moon and is still malefic in the first days of Shukla Paksha. Older astrologers with long experience, the teacher's father among them, go this way. Sanjay Rath has also said more than once that the phase must be seen, not just the paksha, because the phase shows the Moon's energy; his threefold division by sattva/rajas/tamas belongs to other uses.

The case in class: Bush's 2004 entry chart has a Krishna Panchami Moon — about two-thirds visible. Benefic by phase, malefic by paksha. The class takes paksha "for now, because that is the more accepted view" in print.

"Both the views are accepted by a significant percentage of great astrologers. So it is foolish to dismiss either view without due consideration."

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Good and Bad Houses for Each Planet Type

Malefics

Benefics

The previous class took every house outside the seven as bad for a benefic. Parashara's exact words name only the 6th and 12th as bad and omit the rest. "There is some leeway for interpretation there." In this class the 2nd is taken as neutral (Jupiter in Kerry's chart); the 3rd is called a border case for Bush's Sun and counted bad, and bad for Kerry's Mercury.

Jupiter is well placed in any kendra or kona, but the 5th and 9th are what he loves most: from there he aspects the whole dharma trikona.

Counting

• Nine planets. More than 4 well placed = good; 4 or fewer = bad.
• Most of the time the count comes to 4 or 5, so the count alone tells little.
• The count is relative when two people compete: "Even 4 out of 9 may be a good score if your opponent has only 1 out of 9."
• See which houses the well-placed and badly-placed planets own. Good events come through the houses of the well-placed ones; the houses of the badly-placed ones suffer.

Yogas Come After the Count

Take the dasha sign as lagna and look for yogas — Raja Yogas, Saraswati Yoga (learning in that year), and the bad ones. A strong yoga lets you discount the count.

A student asked whether Parashara gave only the thumb rules. The teacher: the thumb rules are a starting point "for somebody who needs a flowchart to do the job." Parashara did not say they are exclusive, and he did say to look at yogas from the dasha sign.

Benefics and Malefics in the 3rd and 6th

• Only benefics in the 3rd and 6th, no malefics = usually a combination for loss.
• Malefics in the 3rd and 6th = win.

Debility in the 3rd or 6th (from tradition, not Parashara)

The same 3-6-11 rule is used for judging from Arudha Lagna in natal charts, and tradition refines it there. The teacher applies the refinement here:

• Malefic in the 3rd or 6th but debilitated = not good. He goes for the kill, works hard to destroy the opposition, cannot do it, and is depressed about it.
• Benefic in the 3rd or 6th but debilitated = good. Debility shows a change of attitude later.
• A benefic in the 6th (not debilitated) does not even try to destroy the opposition. He accepts it.

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Three Dasha Signs — How to Interpret Each

Parashara taught how to find the dasha and how to judge it, and said all three references matter. He did not say how to tell the three apart. It is not a matter of counting good and bad from all three and adding them up: Lagna, Moon and Sun stand for three different sides of a person. What follows is the teacher's own reading after some experiment.

"Lagna is how you affect the world. Moon is how you feel the world is reacting to you, and Sun is how the world is actually reacting to you."

• If the higher-ups are impressed with your work and encourage it, that fact is from Sun. Your feeling that you are being encouraged is from Moon.
• Sun is the soul, and also the Vishwatma, the combined soul of the universe. So the Surya-chakra sign shows how many souls are cooperating with yours.
• For elections look at Sun, not Moon or Lagna. A man can win a big election and still be unhappy — "I got only half a percent majority, I cannot push my agenda." From Moon the dasha may look poor while from Sun it is a great one.

The teacher's caveat: "This is open to research. This is not really conclusive… based on my current intellectual evolution, this is what I feel."

The Soul's Work Is Not Necessarily Good Work

"Work of the soul" does not mean sadhana, puja or upliftment. From the soul's side there is no good and bad. Each soul has a sequence of karmas to finish before moksha, decided by the Devi who separated it from the Paramatma.

• Someone doing sadhana in the Himalayas for 20 years and someone running a brothel are both under the same Devi, in different forms of the Shakti.
• Ramakrishna Paramahamsa: there is vidya maya (learned illusion — the pursuit of Jyotish is this) and avidya maya (unlearned illusion). Both are maya. To one ready for moksha neither means anything.

"For a politician, going to a war and killing 50,000 people in a faraway country may be his karma. And that soul's work is encouraged by other souls who elect him."

These equations were written "at time minus infinity." He fulfils the dharma of his soul, and the other souls cooperate by electing him. That cooperation is what the Surya-chakra dasha sign shows.

Valid in Divisional Charts

In the teacher's experience SC Dasha is not limited to the Rasi chart. In a divisional chart take that chart's Lagna, Moon and Sun, find the dasha signs, and judge the planets in the same divisional chart of the entry moment from the dasha sign. All the examples below use D10, the chart of karma — one's activities in society.

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Additional Technical Points

Jupiter in Aquarius and Scorpio

Apart from his own signs and exaltation, Aquarius and Scorpio are considered very good signs for Jupiter.

Amavasya Yoga

Sun and Moon together in any house. Named from the exact conjunction on Amavasya. It puts down the house it occurs in — bad for career and material things, suitable for certain sadhanas. Milder than Mars–Rahu or Sun–Rahu.

Kuja–Rahu Yoga

Mars and Rahu together: fire, and wind blowing it everywhere. The house is destroyed. Rahu with Mars, Sun, Moon or Jupiter is in each case a terrible yoga.

7th and 8th Lords Together

• The 8th lord's agenda: give longevity — give troubles, but keep him alive to go through them.
• The 7th lord's agenda: kill, so there is nothing left to worry about.
• Together: death, or death-like suffering, for the house where they meet.

Nodal Affliction

A negative event from Jupiter or Venus is relatively gentle. One from Rahu or Ketu comes out of the blue: karma catching up.

Mandi and Gulika

A student brought Mandi into the 2005 chart. The teacher: ignore it. Where in Saturn's portion Mandi rises is disputed, and Sanjay Rath has changed his view more than once. "Maybe in the Rasi it is accurate, but especially in the divisions, take it very easy."

Next Class

Parashara says SC Dasha combined with Ashtakavarga is the simplest way to give annual, monthly and daily results. The next class uses Ashtakavarga in the Dasha and Antardasha Pravesha Chakras.

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