Vargottama, Gandanta & House Philosophy

Saptaloka: Where Does the Soul Go After Death?

A student asks how you can tell, at the end of a life, whether the soul has progressed or gone down.

• Sanjay Rath has written a paper on the seven lokas: where does one go after death?
• A chart is made for the moment a person dies. It gives a great deal of information, and not only about this life
• It shows where one goes and the intermediate levels one passes through before moksha
• What lies beyond the seven lokas he does not claim to know

Mahatma Gandhi's Death Chart

• He has worked the death chart of Mahatma Gandhi in an earlier course
• The words from Gandhi's mouth when he died were "Hé Ram"

"But the chart is showing something else."

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4th House, Mind, and Healing

"The 4th house is the controller for the 12th house, sleep. And Cancer is the natural 4th house of the zodiac, whose lord is the Moon."

• 4th house = comfort, happiness, peace
• Happiness is subjective. It is a state of mind: what the mind takes as giving joy
• The 4th is also the house of cure. A happy mind heals quickly; a sad mind does not. The body cannot heal if the mind is sad all the time
• The body heals every night in sleep. The 4th house controls the 12th, sleep
• The Moon, lord of Cancer, the natural 4th, is the conscious mind. So the 4th house shows what is in your conscious mind
• The lagna is your intelligence. Whether it is a pure or a corrupted intelligence depends on the planet in the lagna

4H = What Is in Your Mind

In Nehru's chart the Moon, a benefic, is in the lagna, and Venus and Mercury are in the 4th house.

• What is in his mind all the time? Venus and Mercury: education and romance. Venus can mean many other things as well

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5th House vs 9th House: Lineage, Not Harmony

Western astrology treats the 5th and 9th as harmony. Sanjay Rath rejects it:

"It is a lineage. It's a continuity. It's nothing to do with harmony. You could be very disharmonious with your father."

• "For the 5th house you can kill yourself. For the 9th house you will not kill yourself."
• You have heard of fathers dying for their sons; very few sons die for their fathers. A mother will do anything for her children, not for her father
• If the 9th lord is in the 7th house, he will never listen to his father. Where is the harmony in that?
• Trines show a similar nature, a continuity in the line. Nothing more

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Vargottama

Meaning

A planet is Vargottama when it is in the same sign in the Rashi chart and in the Navamsa.

Uttama is the head, the best part of the body. You can do without your hand; you cannot do without your head.

The Inner Effect of Any Planet

Count from the planet's Rashi sign to its Navamsa sign. That number is the house whose results the planet gives inwardly.

• The results may be good or bad; that is a separate question, settled by lordship
• But the results of that house cannot be escaped in the planet's period

Vargottama = the 1st House

• A Vargottama planet counts 1: it acts on the lagna, your inner make-up

"When a planet is Vargottama, it has a direct impact on your internal makeup. It is like an Atmakaraka. It is like the lagna. You cannot escape. You will have the abilities of that planet."

• All the planet's traits will be there. First look at the element of the sign (fire, earth, air, water) for the area where they work, then at the particular sign
• Fire signs are the spiritual signs

A Gift from God

"Vargottama is a gift from God."

• A planet that gives you an ability is good for you. God has given it to be used. If you do not use it, in the next life you will not get it

Vargottama by Planet

Venus is not taken up in this class.

Mercury Vargottama

• Mercury is the learning process. A person who is not a good learner cannot be a good teacher. A soldier who cannot learn to obey cannot be a good soldier, and one who is not a good soldier can never be a good general
• Mercury Vargottama in a fire sign: what he teaches well is spiritual knowledge

Jupiter Vargottama in Virgo

A student has Jupiter Vargottama in Virgo. Virgo is not a fire sign; it is a very material sign.

• What is the priest doing in the material world? He is not teaching spirituality
• He will do well at a good social task: collecting funds for a temple, the financial work for the priest

Vargottama Lagna

• Lagna is health and intelligence. Vargottama lagna: the intelligence is fixed and does not change
• In the negative sense, stubborn. In the positive sense, they take a long time to make up their minds, but when they do it is perfect
• Health: they are blessed by the Mrityunjaya mantra

Retrograde and Vargottama

• Retrogression is one step forward, one step back. Like the monkey climbing the ladder: three steps up, two steps back
• Such a planet needs more cheshta, more trying. What is natural and easy for another takes this person harder work
• More frustration, more difficulty, but he will do it

Exalted or Debilitated and Vargottama

• Exalted and Vargottama: you easily follow that planet's path
• Debilitated and Vargottama: you can fall from its path, and the fall can hurt badly, because a Vargottama planet is yourself, your life, your health

"If in a chart Jupiter is debilitated and Vargottama, that is bad, because Jupiter is your intelligence and your intelligence is falling."

Vargottama Atmakaraka — Past Life

"When the Atmakaraka is Vargottama, that soul has been having that ability from last birth. And when it is given to you in this birth, it means you must have used it well in the last birth."

• But the task was not finished in the last birth. You have taken birth now to finish it

"You better take this Vargottama Atmakaraka very seriously. Otherwise your whole life will be nothing but another waste and you will come back again."

Vivekananda: the Sun is AK and Vargottama in Sagittarius.

• A fire sign, and among the fire signs Sagittarius is the temple. His atma has been associated with a temple from a past incarnation
• The Sun's ability: the administrator, the one who starts something big, the maker of the day. He created the Ramakrishna Mission, which is like a temple
• The idol in that temple is the 9th lord in the lagna, the Sun: his guru

"For him guru worship was more important than any God worship."

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Gandanta

Definition

Gandanta is the border between a water sign and a fire sign. The first navamsa on the fire side is Gandanta.

"Water and fire cannot be together. One will quench the other. Either water quenches the fire or the fire will evaporate all the water."

The three borders:

Naming of Gandantas

The Gandantas are named after the nakshatras on either side of the border. The teacher works out one:

• Scorpio–Sagittarius: Jyeshtha on the water side, Moola on the fire side
• Jyeshtha's deity is Indra, Devendra. Moola's deity is the Rakshasa

"What happens when the Rakshasa and Indra come together? They go to battle. One of them will have to be destroyed."

• Moola Gandanta is very dangerous: you are pursued by Devendra, to be killed
• Jyeshtha Gandanta is terrible: a Rakshasa like Ravana is after your blood

Effect of Planets in Gandanta

• Under the rule of a planet in Gandanta, physical and mental pain can come
• Vargottama increases the effect of the Gandanta
• Exaltation does not save it

"Gandanta is bad no matter what. Keep this in mind."

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Example Chart: Exalted Vargottama Sun in Gandanta

Sanjay Rath puts up a chart of someone known to the class and asks what happened in the Sun dasha, which ran in infancy. (The time used is a rectified one.)

The Sun in This Chart

• Sun in Aries, exalted, and in Aries navamsa → Vargottama
• The first navamsa of Aries is the Pisces–Aries Gandanta
• The Sun is in the 3rd house: hands and arms
• The Sun is the 7th lord, a maraka

The students first guess from "exalted, strong, Vargottama": a royal birth, a big house full of people. He keeps asking why. One student says "defective hands": 7th lord, a maraka, in the 3rd. The 3rd is not brothers here; the native is an only child.

The Event

"As soon as the baby was born, his arm broke, his hand broke, and it had to be plastered, and he was in plaster for 6 months."

• Vargottama: the Sun must give results of the 1st house, the body and health
• He sits in the 3rd, the house of the hands
• He is in a maraka mood and a Gandanta mood. So he breaks the arm

If the Sun Were in the Second Navamsa

• Aries to Taurus counts 2: a 2nd house effect
• The arm would not have broken. Something serious would have happened to wealth or family, or something of the 3rd house in the family's affairs would have been destroyed

Gandanta Is the Cause

• When the Sun's period comes he teaches hard lessons, because he is a maraka for this chart
• The trouble itself was because the Sun is in Gandanta. Without Gandanta it would not have happened, exalted or not
• A 7th lord need not be bad. The 7th lord is your partner, and you have to harmonise with that. It is a maraka too; anything in excess is a maraka

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Charts of the Teachers and Students

Sanjay Rath asks who has Vargottama planets and goes through the charts quickly.

PVNR

• Mercury Vargottama in Aries: speaks well, teaches well, a good learner
• Aries is a fire sign: what he teaches well is spiritual knowledge

"So you think you can continue learning this from him? Just on this basis, because this is Vargottama Mercury."

Another Jyotish teacher in the room

• Mars Vargottama: a good soldier who will make a good general

"You got a battle with somebody, talk to him. He will give you the best advice. He is so swift and fast that you cannot manage."

• Mercury Vargottama, again in Aries: teaching and training. Both he and PVNR spoke at the Boston conference
• The retrograde planet in this chart is what prompts the monkey-on-the-ladder remark

Sanjay Rath

• A third chart has Mercury Vargottama in Leo, another fire sign. "My chart as well"
• In every chart he showed of people who made a mark teaching Jyotish, Mercury is Vargottama in a fire sign

"Jyotish is a spiritual science. I am not going to accept it is not spiritual."

Students

• Jupiter Vargottama in Virgo: the priest in a material sign (Part 14)
• Vargottama lagna, Moon and Saturn: as in the table in Part 14
• One student has Jupiter and Saturn both Vargottama in Aries: Jupiter gives the ability of a priest, directing people on the spiritual path; Saturn in a fire sign is the hard worker turned toward renunciation

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Key Philosophical Summaries

The Chart Is a Yantra

A yantra is a diagram, and the zodiac drawn as a chart is a diagram of the sky.

"People who know Jyotish are really very spiritual people. Unless you are so blessed, you would not be sitting and drawing this yantra every day."

• One form of the chart represents Narayana in the sky
• The square zodiac represents Narayana on the ground and is very auspicious. For a marriage or anything of the material world, the zodiac is drawn on the floor in this form and no other, with grains, and worshipped

Never Curse an Astrologer

"If you curse a Jyotishi, you will be born blind. The Jyotisha has the power of the Sun God behind it."

Parasara's definition of a Jyotishi is strict: a yogi, one protected by Vishnu.

The Astrologer's Flaw

"The biggest minus point among astrologers: they have a lot of ego. If you want to be really good at Jyotisha, learn to shed this ego. Take the knowledge of the Sun but don't take the ego of the Sun. Let go of the ego, become devotional."

More Surya comes inside you with the study, and with it more ego.

What Does the Soul Want?

"If you don't know what the soul wants, you could be loitering your whole life. Outwardly you will be very happy in having a BMW car and the latest everything, but internally you will be very tormented."

Rahu and Ketu — Both Are Intelligent

• The Moon in the negative sense can cheat, and be a brilliant cheat. It was on Amavasya that the Moon carried off Tara
• Even to cheat you need brains. His example: the man who sold the Leaning Tower of Pisa to a tourist and took money to straighten it

"Rahu gives you the brains to research, the ability to think and ponder. Ketu is the headless one, working totally on intuition. Your sixth sense is very sharp and strong. But both are very intelligent planets."

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Summary Table: Vargottama Abilities

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