JAMINI ASTROLOGY - MY 7 STEP APPROACH - 1

Lost in wilderness, shrouded in the ambiguity of aphorism and interpreted in arbitrary fashion by astrologers with genuine to fraudulent claims, Jaimini astrology will continue to baffle astrologers for many more decades.

What then should be the approach of an astrologer in genuine search of working and workable Jaimini methods tormented me, as it must have many astrologers. I therefore evolved a seven step approach.

MY SEVEN STEP APPROACH

First step
Each astrologer wanting to make Jaimini astrology his predictive tool must first read whatever books are available, most of them in translations.

My Findings: Karakas
The first problem was to decide when to use seven karakas and when eight. It was not a ticklish problem at all as if all planets are calculated upto seconds, there never was a clash between two planets contesting for the position of a karaka. Try it and see if I am right. I solved this problem easily.

Meaning of Karakas: My Original Research
I studied whatever was available on Jaimini and collected a huge library and found that no one, even the most respected Krishna Mishra or Neelakantha even hinted at how these Karakas were to be used. It was like someone telling me that he lived in Bombay but never gave his address. It shocked me totally and sometimes I felt that either it was hidden or these great and famous commentators never understood their uses. Then, B.Suryanarain Rao, B.V.Raman, P.S.Sastry or Iranganti Rancharya who wrote articles in the Astrological Magazine never even pointed out or produced any research to show how these karakas were to be used. I took a bold decision to do it myself, a task which had never been done before by anyone.

Rule of harmony
Then as in law, so in astrology follow the principle of harmony in the interpretation of karakas. I reasoned out myself and came with a workable method which has turned to be a very effective tool for prediction. I have shown it through various examples for twenty six years now in 2010 and will show many more in this article.

Atmakaraka
In Parashara you have the first house and its lord for self so that should be the Atmakaraka a planet with the highest degrees.

In Parashara you have the third house and its lord for siblings etc so that should be the Bhatrikaraka. So that should be a planet with the third highest degrees.

In Parashara you have the fourth house and its lord for mother and home etc so that should be the Matrikaraka. So that should be a planet with the fourth highest degrees.

In Parashara you have the fifth house for education, children, mantra etc. So the fifth karaka must be Putrakaraka. So that should be a planet with the fifth highest degrees.

In Parashara you have the sixth house and its lord for enemies, diseases etc and so it should be the Gnathikaraka.So that should be a planet with the sixth highest degrees.

In Parashara you have the seventh house and its lord for spouse etc and so it should be the Darakaka. So that should be a planet with the lowest degrees.

What about Amatyakaraka then ? What about the second karaka then ?

It is Amatyakaraka which means a courtier or an important man in the court of a king in the days of monarchy. So in our days it should mean an important man and by extension your own importance. Is it a hint about career I wondered and proceeded with this assumption with my research and got amazing results as I will show.

What about a karaka for father? The problem is easily solved if you use Bhatrikaraka and Sun for father and Bhatrikaraka and Mars for siblings as has been as shown in some books on Jaimini. Here we must remember that sthirakarakas must always be considered in Jaimini astrology.

Abbreviations
The abbreviations I used then were AK, AmK, BK, MK.PK.GK. and DK. I then combined sthirakakas like Sun for father, Moon for mother etc.

Padas
For padas I decided not to use any exception and got excellent results which I will show partially in this article or a later article.

Second step
Whatever the translators say must never be accepted blindly. Remember that most of the translators are Sanskrit scholars but not distinguished astrologers or successful predictors. We are grateful to them for making available many manuscripts but we must become cautious when it comes to their what I call “ shloka mauling and sutra chopping” boast.

My Finding
Manoj Pathak a teacher of astrology in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi, decided to do a research on Parashara’s Chakra dasha and found that out of eight different translations of available Parashara texts, no astrologer knew how to compute it. The translation they gave never gave any accurate results. He has solved the problem amazingly now. He and his students have been giving brilliant readings based on Chakra dasha. Soon they are going to come out with an amazing book.

Through experience you will know when and how to ignore these translators or even commentators (though there is none really who can be called a commentator of these books) and then getting enmeshed in a confusion, seek a way out of it with lot of struggle if you persist with your research.

Third step
Test whatever has been understood on the well known events of your own life on your chart and on those of your family members or friends whose life events are known to you with correct events and correct dates.

My Finding
The results I got were amazing and brilliant and it is the experience of my students also.

Fourth step
Now try it on the well known horoscopes of famous people and test the validity of your understanding on the horoscopes of yours and of your relation and friends which you have done earlier.

My Finding
It is what I am going to show in this article.

Fifth step
Do not bring in fanciful theories which are not mentioned in any translation of Jaimini like the CHAR KARAKA SUBSTITUTION which is a fanciful, if also fraudulent, theory being circulated now.

My Finding
Reject totally what is not given either in Jaimini sutras or in the Jaimini portion in Parashara text otherwise you will walk into a cave where you will suffer astrological suffocation.

Sixth step
Wherever your testing necessitates it, modify with reasons the translation of Jaimini texts remembering that most of these translators were and are only Sanskrit scholars and not sucessful predictors because of which they may have misinterpreted or even wrongly translated some shlokas and sutras.

My Finding
It is a risk you take but not rashly or with fraudulent claim that you have learnt it from some secret tradition which can be dubious and fraudulent.  Claiming to be belonging to a secret tradition is marketing.

You must prove it and replicate it over a period of many years as I have done before publishing my research. Your aim must be to contribute something for understanding the changed and changing times through astrology and reject  or modify whatever has agricultural and pastoral connotation when these books of astrology were written.

Seventh step
Without losing respect for Krishna Mishra or Neelakantha, the famous commentators on Jaimini sutras, keep in mind that their own understanding or interpretation may be incomplete or even wrong.

My Finding
I will refer to it later and not in this article.

After laying the seven step approach let me explain how I proceeded in interpreting Jaimini astrology within my own limitations. I took a bold decision to do it myself, a task which had never been done before by anyone.

MY AIMS IN DOING RESEARCH IN JAIMINI CHARA DASHA
I must explain that I had been giving excellent predictions through Vimshottari dasha and vargas which late Shehadri mentioned in his books but which I popularised on a large scale.

But I had to use Chara dasha and many other dashas of Jaimini out of sheer necessity and demand. The reasons are:

1. During my service career I was posted in Shillong (1962-63) when I met many Bengalis who had lost their birth horoscopes when they were fleeing from what then was East Pakistan.

2. Then I had two postings in Calcutta (1967 to 1969 and again from 1975 to 1978 when again I met many Bengalis who had lost their birth horoscopes when they were fleeing from what then was East Pakistan.

3. From 1978 till my retirement in 1990, I met many Punjabis and Haryanvis and Delhites who were either refugees who had lost their horoscopes while fleeing from West Pakistan at the time of the partition of India in 1947 or had Arya Samaj background and never got their horoscopes prepared. When they felt the need to have astrological readings, some of  them came to me and I found out that if I fixed their lagnas properly on the basis of the scanty information they provided, without fixing the degrees of the lagna, I could give them helpful predictions on the basis of Chara dasha and seven, and only seven karakas.

I also found that being a government officer with ten to five office hours, I was always short of time and I needed accurate Vimshottari dasha after correcting the birth time which is wrong in ninety percent times. I solved my problem by heavily relying on Chara dasha and Karakas and double checked it with Vimshottari dasha without using vargas in most cases and gave good predictions though some went wrong awfully also.

In those cases where I had accurate horoscopes, I used both dashas and even some conditional dashas on which I did lot of research but have left it to my colleagues in the Astrology Faculty of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan. In these cases I invariably used divisional charts most of which,(leaving some) I have revealed in my books.

Keeping this background in the mind follow my discussion of the horoscopes under ECMCD or education, career, marriage, children and death.

Follow my line of reasoning by preparing charts in which all birth horososcopes are:
1) Marked with karakas.
2) Mark the Karakamsha (KL) alongwith the Atmakaraka also in the lagna.
3) Mark the putrakaraka (PK)
4) Mark the darakaraka and also the darakaraka navamsha in the birth horoscope. (DKN) and note the dual use I make of it for marriage and also death.
5) Mark the upapada in the birth horoscope.

Computing the Chara dasha periods
In calculating the periods I neither add one extra year for exalted planet nor deduct one extra for debilitated period for the following reasons:
1) Since there are only twelve rashis, so the maximum dasha period can be of twelve years only. If Mercury is at two degrees in Kanya,by adding one year to full twelve year period it will become thirteen.
2) If Jupiter is at two degrees in Makara, for the Dhanu period the period will be zero which appears absurd to me as no rashi can have zero period. Additionally, Dhanu periods are known for rise and fall, sudden events and even tragedies. If in a horoscope there is a zero year for it, some important events cannot be seen at all is my experience.
3) In timing events in horoscopes which have exalted and debilitated planets as in the case of Queen Elizabeth II and Chandrasekhar, the former prime minister of India, I will show how following my method, timing of events becomes accurate.

I and my students have followed this method and have given many successful predictions with timing becoming accurate. The illustrative horoscopes being used here are of those famous persons who life events are historically documented and the horoscopes used have correct lagnas though the degrees of the lagna may be debatable. But in using Chara dasha that is not a handicap.

NOTE: I use the Karakamsha lagna in the birth horoscope for many good reasons which are sound. I will explain it. If all karakas are used in navamsha it is called Swamsha. It is the tradition followed in many parts of northern India and gives excellent results. See a sutra for example:

Shukrendo Shukradrishe rasavadi p 49, meaning that if Venus is in Karakamsha lagna and is aspected by Moon, he will become a dealer in medicines etc. (Suresh Ch, Mishra Jaimini Sutram of Ranjan Publications, 1989 edition in Hindi)

Anyone in the world with Moon and Venus in the same degrees as Atmakaraka and Amatyakaraka in the birth horoscope will also have them in navamsha and they all will become dealers in medicines. If you judge it from Karakamsha in lagna it may give a different meaning and lot of flexibility is available for interpretation. It is why traditionally, north Indian astrologers put Karakamsha in the birth horoscope and judge the results.

If you blend the results from Karakamsha in lagna and Karakamsha in Swamsha (meaning all karakas put in navamsha as south Indian astrologers do) you get better results.

Special Point
Finally, no writer on Jaimini has talked of Darakaraka as both giver of spouse and also death. Death should ofcourse be predicted after finding out the span of life which is a tough task and should be approached through many techniques combined in a harmonious scheme and technique.