Gems Useless for Major Karma (Even Diamond Risky = Venus Maraka in D30); Ugra Narasimha = Correct Remedy (Scorpio+Mercury+Rahu → Mars Deity in Fierce Form); 8-Day Homa Tuesday; Soft Devata = Slow+Safe; Fierce = Fast+Spillover; Mantra: Desire+Mantra Coexist = Karma Burns; Karma Transfer = Astrologer Takes Small Part

Remedy Analysis

Whom to propitiate

• A student proposed Venus, the lagna lord. Good, not great: the lagna lord is not active. The dasha is Rahu, the antardasha Mercury.

"This house is owned by, let's say, me. I just gave it to somebody else and I went to the US. If the tenant is creating trouble in the house, I can't really take care of it. I am not there."

• The troublemaker is Mercury. He has to be pacified.
• This Mercury is afflicted, extremely closely, by the sarpa graha Rahu, in the serpent sign Scorpio, in Trimshamsa.

Which deity

• Subrahmanya is one possibility.
• For Mercury, worship Vishnu. Which avatar? For Rahu it is Varaha; for Ketu, Matsya.
• These planets are in a Martian sign and Rahu is fierce: a fierce form is needed, not a gentle one.
• Scorpio is owned by Mars, and Mars shows Narasimha. Not any Narasimha: Ugra Narasimha.
• Sudarshana homa is the other suggestion. Many people are comfortable with it and know the procedure.
• Chandi homa (a student's suggestion) applies since Rahu dasha is running, but the teacher does not prescribe it. Rahu alone would have been a small problem. The problem is the 8th lord Mercury so close to Rahu, and Mercury is reached through a form of Vishnu. A Devi form (another student's suggestion) is set aside for the same reason.
• A student had told the family to chant the Mrityunjaya mantra. A good idea, but the Narasimha mantra is more suitable — "like another form of Mrityunjaya mantra."

The mantra

• The Ugra Narasimha mantra of 32 letters that begins Ugraṁ vīraṁ mahā-viṣṇuṁ … sarvato mukham and ends namāmy aham. The recording garbles the rest. Its close bows to "the death of death".
• It is called the Mantra-raja pada mantra. There is a stotra given by Shiva to Parvati; take the first word of each verse and this mantra is built.
• No bija is needed. As another option, samputikarana with the bija kṣrauṁ.

"This is the most powerful mantra for Narasimha that I know of. This is especially for scaring away death itself."

Gems

A student asked whether a gem could postpone it.

"Do you think it is a small karma? It is a major karma. Do you think that just by buying, maybe spending $1,000 or $5,000 and buying a gem, you can postpone such a big karma? ... Whether you do meditation or whether you do homam or whether you do gem, a huge deal is needed to push it off even by a second."

• Mercury, Rahu, Ketu and Gulika in Scorpio in Trimshamsa: you cannot buy relief from that.
• A wrong gem can aggravate. Suppose one suggests diamond because Venus is the lagna lord and will protect. In Trimshamsa Venus is a maraka; it may quicken the death.

The prescription

• Homa: the mantra should go into the fire a few lakh times, over days. A hundred or a thousand repetitions by visiting priests "is unlikely to do anything." No elaborate procedure — a simple purvanga and uttaranga from a standard homa manual. Fire makes it more powerful.
• 8 days in a row, from a Tuesday to a Tuesday. Asked why 8, the teacher first said he gave it at random — it must be days, not hours — then tied it to the 8th lord Mercury. A student pointed out that starting on Tuesday and ending on Tuesday are the same thing.
• The family — wife, father, mother — should learn the mantra and keep chanting it whenever there is time, with or without bath and ritual, until it runs in the mind by itself. They have the desire that he should live. The priest may not.
• One mantra only. "Instead of doing 100 mantras, 100 sadhanas, just stick to one. You are calling upon various energies. It's confusion."
• In the beginning it is boring and the mind wants television. Kept up for a few days it becomes second nature, "and once that happens, things will start to happen."

Karma, Sadhana and the Fierce Devata

Why priests usually fail

"Your mind should be lost in two thoughts: that person should get well, and then the mantra that you are doing. No other thought. Then the mantra will be directed towards the desire and it will actually give the result."

• Most people who do sadhana today have no focus — not only priests. "They are thinking, how many more is left? What is my son doing right now?" No focus, no result.
• Even with focus, the person must be held in mind deeply enough to transfer the result. Very few priests can. So the teacher does not usually send people to priests; if the family has one they trust, let him do the Sudarshana or Ugra Narasimha homa.

The cramp

• As soon as the teacher settled on this mantra as the solution he got a big cramp in his foot.

"When an astrologer has a desire to help somebody, you are actually taking some small part of the karma. The only way you can avert it is doing with absolute surrender and absolute detachment."

• Feel "poor guy, I hope he is well" for a second and you take on some karma.
• He took the cramp as a good sign: it came when he narrowed down on that mantra and convinced himself it was right. "So that is the right mantra."

Soft and fierce devatas

The basket analogy: a good fruit lies under rotten ones.

• Whoever does this mantra wishing another well may get a fever or some small disease. It will not be fatal.

"It is better than if you don't do. If you didn't do that, there will be a lot more rotten fruits in the basket."

• Whoever does it must accept this beforehand. "If you are ready for it, go ahead and do it."
• A student compared it with distance healing, where the healer feels the reverse effect. The teacher: with meditation and homa most of the karma is burnt without anyone experiencing it; the spillover depends on how fast you go. Slow and careful, and the good takes long to come. When the good fruit is a life, "it is worth it."

Attachment

A student said the family must detach themselves to do this well, and that it is very hard.

• Hardly anybody is detached. Their attachment is at least not selfish; it is for their son.
• Attachment to the body's survival is acceptable: the body is needed for any dharma of this life. Sadhana to become prime minister, or to make someone suffer, is the bad kind.
• Parashara's own remedial chapters prescribe homas to pacify a weak Saturn or a maraka combination. Some basic selfishness is not wrong.
• Worry for the son pushes out the hundred other thoughts — the office, the film not seen. Desire and mantra then share the mind.
• Better still, a hundred times more effective: the mantra in front, the desire at the back, nothing else.

"If you can actually put your mind in that state even for a few seconds, you can actually do anything. That is what rishis do."

• For people like us it happens by accident, once or twice in a life. Never plan on it. Cut down other thoughts and focus as much as you can.