Upanayana Muhurtha — Key Rules for Mantra Initiation & Date Selection for a Student's Son (Aug 26, 2007)

Upanayana Muhurtha — A Student's Son (August 2007)

A student wants to do his son's upanayana in India between late June and August 2007, during the school holiday. The class was held late in 2006, with Jupiter still in Libra.

The boy's chart: November 30, 1999, 11:13 PM, Massachusetts.

• Lagna Leo 14°, Moon in Leo in Uttara Phalguni. Lagna and Moon sign are the same. A student asked if that is good. PVNR: "It is neither good nor bad. Don't think in those terms."
• Lagna is vargottama.
• Mantrapada (A5) is in Leo. The 5th is Sagittarius; its lord Jupiter is in Aries, the 5th from it; the 5th from Aries is Leo.
• The lord of Mantrapada, the Sun, is in Scorpio in the 4th.

Step 1 — Jupiter

"For this kind of activity, Jupiter is the most auspicious planet. He is the most important planet. So it's not a great idea to do it when Jupiter is retrograde."

• On June 25, 2007 Jupiter is retrograde in Scorpio. Rejected.
• Is Scorpio a good place for transit Jupiter? Do not count houses from the lagna of a trial chart — the day and lagna are not fixed yet. Judge Jupiter against the natal chart:
  • Jupiter in Scorpio transits the natal Sun, lord of Mantrapada. "Jupiter over Mantrapada or Jupiter over the lord of Mantrapada — he has a link with Mantrapada. Sun is the intelligence behind the Mantrapada."
  • Scorpio is the 4th from natal Moon — a good transit. On the day of the class Jupiter was in Libra, the 3rd from Moon, which is not good.
  • In the natal D-20, Jupiter and the D-20 Mantrapada are in Taurus. Transit Jupiter in Scorpio aspects both by graha dṛṣṭi (7th).
  • The natal D-20 Moon is in Cancer. From it, Scorpio is the 5th, the mantra-sthāna.
• Conclusion: the Scorpio transit of Jupiter is auspicious.
• By bisection in the software, the retrogression ends between the night of August 6 and the morning of August 7, 2007. August 7 onward is available.

Step 2 — The Sun

"Apart from Jupiter, you need Sun bala also. Sun is the dharma kāraka. And you are giving Savitri Gayatri — it is the highest form of Sun. So you want Sun to be favourable too."

• On August 7 the Sun is in Cancer — the 12th from natal Moon and from Mantrapada. The 12th is the Sun's maraṇa kāraka sthāna. Not good.
• Wait until the Sun enters Leo, after about August 17.
• In Leo the Sun is with Saturn, Ketu and Mercury. Bad for the Sun, but he is in his own sign and can handle them; Mercury is his friend and helps him control Saturn and Ketu; and the act itself is traditional and spiritual.

Step 3 — The day

Sunday is particularly good for Savitri Gayatri. PVNR would not make it a condition — "we will have extremely few options" — but looked at the Sundays first.

August 19 (Sunday): Ṣaṣṭhī in the morning, changing to Śukla Saptamī around 1–2 PM. Swati nakshatra, Śukla yoga, Garaja karaṇa. Ṣaṣṭhī is not a tithi for this, and doing it at the exact change of tithi is not desirable either. After 2 PM it is "a reasonable option". From Uttara Phalguni, Swati is not bad.

August 26 (Sunday) — chosen:

Navamsa positions that day: Jupiter vargottama, Mercury exalted, Moon and Venus in friendly navamsas, Mars and Sun together in Gemini, Saturn in Venus's navamsa. "Navamsa looks pretty good." Better than August 19.

Step 4 — The lagna

• Scorpio lagna — Jupiter in lagna. "If lagna is exactly on Jupiter, it is always a safe bet. Jupiter's presence in lagna overrides all evils." The Sun falls in the 10th: close to Abhijit muhūrta.
• Cancer lagna — Jupiter in the 5th, the mantra-sthāna; Rahu in the 8th in Aquarius; the Leo planets in the 2nd. Good, but it rises before sunrise. With hours of procedure before the mantra is given, the pujas would have to start at 11 at night. Dropped.
• Leo lagna — "not bad, but it is not that good."
• Decision: Scorpio lagna, roughly 12:10 to 2:30 PM.

Step 5 — The navamsa lagna

What is the navamsa for? A student said: so that the function goes smoothly.

"Who cares about the function going smooth? This is about you are giving the most important mantra to a person."

• Savitri Gayatri was the first mantra given; a few lakhs of it made the person eligible for anything else. It cleans the nāḍīs of the subtle body and removes karmas. Other mantras are of no use if the nāḍīs are impure.
• The aim: his spiritual progress should be good, and he should be useful to the world.
• Whether the function goes smoothly is seen from the Rāśi chart, not the navamsa.

Navamsas of Scorpio run from Cancer onward. Planets in navamsa: Jupiter in Scorpio, Sun and Mars in Gemini, Mercury in Virgo, Moon in Aries, Venus in Aquarius, Saturn in Taurus, Rahu in Capricorn, Ketu in Cancer.

Leo navamsa (lagna in Anuradha — a good nakshatra for the lagna):

"Navamsa is dharma. What is the 4th house? The direction, the sense of comfort as far as your dharmic life is concerned, which comes from having a good direction. So Jupiter is driving his dharma."

"After looking at all, Leo stands out."

Step 6 — The window

• Leo navamsa of Scorpio lagna runs from about 12:26 to 12:40 PM.
• A student proposed the exact middle. PVNR: no. The boy has to get the svara and the pronunciation right; that takes five minutes. He should be all set by the end of the brahmopadeśa, without being taught again and again.
• Start telling the mantra at 12:28–12:29, leaving a couple of minutes of buffer, so that it is done by 12:40, still in Leo navamsa.
• At 12:30 the lagna is Scorpio 4½° and the Sun is at Leo 8¾° in the 10th — four degrees short of exact Abhijit. "Almost Abhijit muhūrta."

Checks done afterwards

• Tārā bala: checked last, "as a formality". By the muhūrta the Moon has moved into Shravana. From the natal Uttara Phalguni, Shravana is Sampat tārā — good. Uttarashadha, seen earlier in the day, is Janma tārā: neutral, "not great, but not bad". Sampat, Kṣema, Sādhana and Mitra tārās are the good ones.
• Shravana is Vishnu's nakshatra, auspicious for most dharmic purposes.
• Hora: Mars hora. "The Hora Lord — what houses he owns in your natal chart is important." For this Leo lagna Mars is the 9th lord and yogakāraka. "5th lord or 9th lord hora is a good hora for doing dharmic activities, mantras."
• The one weakness: the Sun is with Saturn, Ketu and Mercury, and Sun, Saturn and Ketu are all in Magha. That weakens him. But they are in different navamsas — Ketu in Cancer, Saturn in Taurus, Sun in Gemini.

"That weakness can actually turn into a blessing also. The planet of spirituality is influencing Sun, the planet of soul. It may result in some trouble for the soul in the short run, but it may be good in the long run."

• Fit with the natal chart: Sun (the lord of Mantrapada), Saturn and Ketu are all transiting Mantrapada in Leo. The muhūrta lagna and Jupiter are in Scorpio, the sign that holds the natal Sun, lord of Mantrapada.

What moment is the muhūrta?

• In a marriage the muhūrta is the tying of the mangalasūtra — that is when the relationship becomes solid. Some Telugu priests treat the placing of cumin and jaggery on the head as the muhūrta and tie the knot two or three navamsas later. The jyotishi's muhūrta is then wasted. PVNR's father told both priests at each of his sons' weddings: do what rituals you like, but the mangalasūtra goes on at that time.
• For upanayana the muhūrta is the brahmopadeśa — one who has done sādhana with the mantra giving it aloud in the boy's ear.

"Whatever procedure they do, maybe 1 hour, maybe 6 hours, maybe 16 hours, we do not care. But make sure that at the time of the muhūrta you do the brahmopadeśa. That is the most important thing in upanayana."

• Tell the priests clearly what you want. Some do not understand and "waste the work of a jyotishi".

A side remark — the class itself

When PVNR opened a new chart in the software as the class began, the lagna was Libra with Jupiter and Mercury in it, and the navamsa lagna was a sign of Venus with Jupiter and Venus in it. Two benefics in lagna in both Rāśi and navamsa, Jupiter in both. "This class started at a very auspicious time."

Muhurtha Rules for Upanayana in Brief

1. Jupiter is the most important planet. Do not do it when he is retrograde.
2. Transit Jupiter should link with the natal Mantrapada (A5) or its lord. Check his transit from natal Moon, and in D-20 from the D-20 Moon.
3. The Sun must be favourable — he is dharma kāraka and Savitri Gayatri is his highest form. Not in the 12th from natal Moon.
4. Śukla Trayodaśī is Jupiter's tithi. Sunday suits Savitri Gayatri, but do not insist on it.
5. Jupiter in the muhūrta lagna overrides all evils.
6. Choose the navamsa lagna for his dharma, not for a smooth function. Jupiter in the 4th of navamsa drives the dharma.
7. Hora of the natal 5th or 9th lord is good for mantra and dharmic acts.
8. The muhūrta is the brahmopadeśa — the giving of the mantra. Leave time for the boy to get it right inside the window.