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In Hindu astrology, yoga is the relationship between one planet, sign, or house to another by placement, aspect, or conjunction. It is the consideration of the planetary dasha's directional effects, the most important factor which distinguishes Hindu astrology from Western astrology.
Laghu Parashari , a treatise on dasha, is based on Parashara's Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra [1] and is the simplest and most widely-followed system. Ancient Hindu astrologers seem to have confined their exercises to the seven planets: [2] the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; the lunar nodes Rahu and Ketu are rarely mentioned. Parashara refers to five additional chayagrahas, invisible mathematical solar positions which affect individuals and nations. The Rigveda refers to a total of thirty-four chayagrahas: twenty-seven nakshatras lunar stations) and the seven astrological planets. [3] Elsewhere, however, it refers to forty-nine chayagrahas: the previous thirty-four plus the two lunar nodes, the twelve zodiac signs, and ayanamsa . Varahamihira favoured Satyacharya's dasha system, although he said that many people had degraded it with useless additions. [4]
Good or bad planetary results depend on the good or bad yoga caused by the planets. [5] Planets influence each other with mutual, direct (or indirect) sambandha . [6] Auspicious yogas arise when lords of kendras (squares) and trikonas (triangles) establish an association. [7]
The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root Yuj, meaning to join properly, to control judicially, or to integrate. It has been used to indicate lunisolar distances and planetary situations, associations, and combinations. Yogas are formed when one planet, sign, or house is related to another by placement, aspect or conjunction. [8] The consideration of planetary yogas and dashas is the most important factor that distinguishes Hindu astrology from Western astrology. [9]
Yoga may have good or bad effects. Raja yogas are auspicious, and daridra yogas indicate poverty. Sanyasa yogas indicate sannyasa (renunciation). Some yogas cancel the effects of inauspicious yogas [10] or raja yogas. [11] Some planets yield generally-beneficial yoga, indicating honour and prestige. [12]
Hindu astrology is based on the interpretation of nakshatras (constellations), rasis (astrological signs) and Navagraha (the astrological planets). Planetary combinations and their indications are based on strength, nature, aspect, and avastha (state). [13] [14] Hindu astrology requires the identification of yogas and their application in accordance with established principles. [15]
Although yogas are based on fundamental principles described in standard texts, not all texts cover all possible planetary combinations and associations, and texts have different interpretations of a given yoga. [16] Certain yogas described in the texts cannot occur; these relate to Mercury and Venus vis-à-vis the Sun. Mercury never goes beyond 28 degrees in front of or behind the Sun, and Venus never goes beyond 47 degrees. [17] Saraswati yoga is common and auspicious. [18]
Yogas are generally classified as Chandra (Moon), Surya (Sun), Nabhasa (celestial), Raja, Dhana, or Darida. Their common factor is the relative strength of the planets and their houses by ownership, occupation or aspect. Janardan Harji, in the fourth chapter of his Mansagari , assigns certain outcomes to certain combinations. [19] Yoga results are indicated by the circumstances of birth and the course of a person's life, from birth to death. [20]
According to Saravali, the planets amplify a person's fate. [21] [22] Hindu astrologers have attempted to enumerate all possible yogas, with varied results. [23] [24] [25]
Dasha The dasha pattern shows which planets according to Hindu astrology would be ruling at particular times.
Uttara Kalamrita is a reference work on Vedic astrology or Jyotisa. It is also termed as sidereal astrology, written by Kalidasa. However, it is unknown whether the Kalidasa who wrote this work is the same Kalidasa who wrote Raghuvamsha and Abhijñānaśākuntalam. The manuscript is available in various libraries in India, including the Government Oriental Manuscript Library in Chennai.
Planetary aspects are interchange of energies at great distances; the respective mass of each planet generates and radiates its own specific energy-field. At times these planetary aspects take a lead over planetary conjunctions. Planetary aspects play an important role in predicting future events. However, there are three great differences between Western astrology and Hindu astrology in computing these aspects - (1) in the former system the count is made from degree to degree, in the latter system the count is made from sign to sign, (2) in the former system the aspect will be mutually the same i.e. if Mars and Jupiter are in trine it can be expressed as either Mars Trine Jupiter or Jupiter Trine Mars, in the latter system if Jupiter is in Aries and Mars in Leo, Jupiter will have full aspect on Mars but Mars will have 50% aspect on Jupiter and, (3) in the former system certain aspects such as sextile are good whereas square and opposition are evil, the latter system does not have such classification in which system aspects by benefic planets and those owning trines i.e. the 5th and the 9th, are always good, and by malefic planets and those owning cadent houses i.e. the 6th, 8th or 12th, are always evil; moreover, the aspect of any planet on its own sign strengthens that house and causes no harm to its indications.
Brihat Jataka or Brihat Jatakam or Brihajjatakam, is one of the five principal texts written by Varāhamihira, the other four being Panchasiddhantika, Brihat Samhita, Laghu Jataka and Yogayatra. It is also one of the five major treatises on Hindu predictive astrology, the other four being Saravali of Kalyanavarma, Sarvartha Chintamani of Venkatesh, Jataka Parijata of Vaidyanatha and Phaladeepika of Mantreswara. The study of this classic text makes one grasp the fundamentals of astrology.
Phaladeepika is a treatise on Hindu astrology written by Mantreswara. The text is written in lyrical Sanskrit verse comprises 865 slokas and 28 chapters. It is one of the more significant works on Hindu astrology, along with Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra of Parashara, Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira, and Jataka Parijata of Vaidyanatha Dikshita. It deals in a most comprehensive and authoritative manner with almost all astrological aspects of human life. Mantreswara has equated a retrograde planet with an exalted planet in strength and effects even though it be in an inimical or its debilitation sign differing with Saravali which states that benefics are powerful when retrograde and cause Raja yoga but malefic when retrograde do not confer favourable results.
Raja yogas are Shubha ('auspicious') yogas in jyotish philosophy and tradition. They are believed to give success and a grand rise in career or business, and a greater degree of financial prosperity particularly during the dasha of the planets that give rise to Raja yogas. However, these results get adversely modified by the presence of other Ashubha ('inauspicious') Arista yogas. Basically, the Yoga or Raja yoga-causing planets during the course of their respective dashas confer their most auspicious results if they happen to own the lagna-bhava or the Suta-bhava or the Bhagyasthana ; the person remains healthy, wealthy, happy and successful enjoying yoga and Raja yoga results in case the lagna, the 3rd, the 6th, the 8th, the 9th and the 12th houses counted from the lagna are also not occupied by any planet, and the kendras (quadrants) are occupied only by benefic planets.
Mansagari is a popular classical treatise on Hindu predictive astrology. It is written in the usual poetic form in the traditional Sanskrit Sloka format; the language and the method of expression used are both simple and unambiguous, and therefore, easy to understand. Its author, Janardan Harji, about whom not much is known, was the son of Janardan, of Gurjar Mandala, who belonged to the Shandilya Gotra, who was also a learned and renowned astrologer of his time and place. This text, comprising five chapters, covers briefly the essential parts of Ganitha and Siddhanta, but deals with the Phalita portion of Hindu astrology in far greater detail. It has described numerous yogas and Raja yogas and also narrated their effects, as also the results of the planetary dashas as all major dasha systems in vogue. Along with the more renowned works of Parashara and Varahamihira, Mansagari has remained a standard reference book. The book, Three Hundred Important Combinations, was written by Bangalore Venkata Raman on the basis of Jataka Tantra, Parashara Hora Sastra and Mansagari.
Bhavartha Ratnakara was formerly a little-known Sanskrit treatise on the predictive part of Hindu astrology which is believed to have been written by Ramanuja, it had for a very long time remained confined mainly to the southern parts of India. It was in the year 1900 that Raman Publications, Bangalore, published this text along with its translation into English and comments by Bangalore Venkata Raman, the 10th Edition of which translation was published in 1992 followed by another edition in 1997.
Jataka Parijata is an Indian astrological text that is ranked alongside Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra of Parāśara Muni, Bṛhat Jātaka of Varāhamihira and Phaladīpikāḥ of Mantreśvara. It is regularly studied as a textbook and a reliable reference-book, and is one of the few books that gives time on the nativity, the other two being Horā Ratnaṃ and Jātaka Bharaṇaṃ.
Laghu Parashari, also known as Jataka Chandrika, is an important treatise on Vimshottari dasha system and is based on Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra. Written in Sanskrit in the usual Sloka format, it consists of forty-two verses divided into five chapters. Thus, it is a brief but an important treatise on predictive part of Hindu astrology whose authorship is not known even though it is presumed that it was written by ardent followers of Parashara. It contains all the fundamental principles on which the Parashari system is based. It is widely relied upon by the exponents of Hindu astrology and a text that is frequently cited.
Dashadhyayi is a commentary on the first ten chapters of Varāha Mihira's Bṛhat Jātaka, written in present-day Kerala, India. This text was regularly studied and memorised along with Bṛhat Jātaka and its interpretation of terms readily accepted.
Planetary dispositors play an important role in Astrology. A dispositor is a planet that rules the sign that another planet is located in. For example, if Venus is in Gemini, then Mercury is the dispositor of Venus.
Balarishta in Hindu astrology is one of the Arishtas. These Arishtas are indicated by certain specific planetary situations or combinations or associations present at the time of one's birth or at the time of query or at a particular muhurta or happening as are revealed by the Natal Chart or the Query Chart or the Muhurta Chart. It is a Dosha.
Sanyasa yoga in Hindu astrology are the peculiar planetary situations or combinations seen in certain horoscopes that indicate Sanyasa i.e. renunciation of worldly material life by persons born with those yogas. Sanyasa yogas are also known as Pravrajya yogas.
Dhana yogas are astrological combinations or yogas for wealth and prosperity which prove more fruitful if both the lagna and its lord are strong, and there are no Arista yogas present affecting the Dhana yoga - causing planets and the bhavas associated with earning, acquisition, and accumulation of wealth. Jupiter is one of the natural Dhana-karaka, a strong Jupiter gives lifelong prosperity and financial stability.
Karmasthana, also known as the Kirtisthana and the Rajyasthana, is the 10th bhava or house counted from the Lagna or the Ascendant or from the Chandra-lagna i.e. the natal position of the Moon. It is the house of action and the house of profession.
Trikonasthanas or trikonas or trines are conventionally the Lagna or the Birth-ascendant, the fifth and the ninth bhava or house counted from the Lagna. They form the Dharma-trikona and are also known as the Lakshmisthanas, these bhavas and their lords signify luck and prosperity. The Lagna is both, a kendrasthana and a trikonasthana.
The term Upachayasthana is derived from the Sanskrit word उपचय which means increase, it also means the entire process of acquisition, assimilation and augmentation or proximate aggregation or increase or gain of nourishment or in growth or in body weight.
Yoga-karakas are those planets which, according to Hindu astrology, confer fame, honour, dignity, financial prosperity, political success, and reputation. The lords of the kendras and trikonas associating with each other, or the lords of the 9th and 10th interchanging signs or fully aspecting each other, give rise to Raja yoga.
Parajāta yogas are special planetary combinations or yogas that indicate birth of children who are not genetically related to their father or non-marital children or born out of illicit connections of their married mothers. Illegitimate children are stigmatized for no fault of theirs; some, like T.E.Lawrence, are made to seek redemption of their mother’s status but most accept their fate like Satyakama Jabala did. In India, illegitimate children of a Hindu father do not inherit from him on intestacy but they do inherit from their mother at par with her legitimate children.
Slokas 1-3
Slokas 6-8