The Study of Jyotisha · Chapter 17 of 54 · Part Four · Yogas

#How yogas work

#What a yoga is

Yoga means "joining" or "combination". In Jyotisha a yoga is a named pattern in the chart — a particular combination of planets, signs and houses — that the books say produces a particular result. "If Jupiter is in a kendra and exalted, the person is a Hamsa", "if no planet is on either side of the Moon, the person suffers poverty", "if three planets are exalted, the person becomes a king": each of these is a yoga.

(The word yoga is also used for one of the five limbs of the panchanga, Chapter 5. That is a different thing with the same name.)

Yogas are the part of Jyotisha that people most often hear about, and the part most often misused. A reader who announces "You have Raja Yoga — you will be a king!" or "You have Kemadruma — you will be poor!" has misunderstood how the books themselves treat yogas. This chapter explains how they actually work. The next four chapters describe the most important yogas one family at a time.

#Where the yogas come from

Varahamihira devotes several chapters of the Brihat Jataka to yogas:

His companion work on omens, the Brihat Samhita, has a chapter on the five great persons (pancha mahapurusha, Brihat Samhita 69). Later books multiplied the yogas enormously. The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra gives dozens in its chapters 34 to 42; the Phaladeepika (chapter 6) and the Jataka Parijata (chapter 7) add many more, and later collections list hundreds.

#The kinds of yoga

Yogas can be sorted by what they are made of.

1. Yogas of position. A planet in a certain sign or house. Example: Jupiter exalted or in its own sign in a kendra (Hamsa yoga, Chapter 18).
2. Yogas of relationship. Planets placed in a certain way from one another. Example: planets in the 2nd or 12th from the Moon (Sunapha, Anapha, Chapter 18); the Moon in a kendra from Jupiter (Gajakesari, Chapter 18).
3. Yogas of lordship. The lords of certain houses joined or related. Example: the lord of a kendra and the lord of a trikona joined (a raja yoga, Chapter 19). These are typical of the later, Parashari books, and are almost absent from Varahamihira.
4. Yogas of pattern. All the planets arranged in a shape round the chart — in one half, in alternate signs, in four consecutive houses (Nabhasa yogas, Chapter 20).
5. Yogas of counting. A number of planets meeting a condition — for example, three or more exalted (Brihat Jataka XI.1, 13).

#Five things to remember about every yoga

#1. A yoga needs strength

Again and again the texts say that a yoga gives its result only if the planets that form it are powerful. Varahamihira's rule about planets in exaltation says so in as many words: if the planets are not all powerful, the person "will not become a king" (Brihat Jataka XI.13, with Aiyar's note). The great-person yogas are formed only "when the five planets from Mars to Saturn are powerful" (Brihat Samhita 69.1). A yoga made by weak, combust or afflicted planets is a shadow of itself.

So whenever you find a yoga, ask: how strong are the planets that make it? — by dignity, house, aspect, combustion and the measures of Chapters 14 to 16.

#2. A yoga can be cancelled

Most yogas have cancellations (bhanga): further conditions that undo them. The famous "poverty" yoga Kemadruma is cancelled, according to various authorities, if the Moon is in a kendra, or joined by a planet, or if a planet is in a kendra from the Moon (Brihat Jataka XIII.3; Phaladeepika 6.5–7). A debilitated planet's weakness is "cancelled" under several conditions (Chapter 21). Before announcing any yoga, check its cancellations.

#3. A yoga's promise depends on the life it falls into

This is the most important rule, and it comes from Varahamihira himself. After describing his royal yogas, he adds:

Persons born under the various yogas described above, though they may be born in low families, will become kings... We shall now proceed to describe certain yogas, persons born under which will become kings if they belong to a king's family and will become rich, if otherwise (Brihat Jataka XI.12, Aiyar).

In other words, the same yoga means different things in different lives. "Becoming a king" for a prince is becoming a king; for a farmer's child it is "becoming rich", or rising high in their own world. Varahamihira quotes his own shorter work, the Swalpa Jataka, to the same effect (note to Brihat Jataka XI.1). A good reader always asks: in the life this person actually has, what would this promise look like?

#4. A yoga acts at a time

A yoga does not act all at once or all life long. Varahamihira says that a royal yoga gives its result in the dasha (Chapter 22) of the planet in the 10th house or the ascendant, or of the strongest planet (Brihat Jataka XI.19). In general a yoga "fruits" in the periods of the planets that form it. A person with a fine yoga formed by Saturn may see little of it until Saturn's period.

#5. The books report; they do not always vouch

Varahamihira was honest about his sources. Some of the royal yogas he records are astronomically impossible — for example, one needs Venus and Mercury on the ascendant with the Sun in the 10th house, which cannot happen, since Venus is never more than about 47° from the Sun and Mercury never more than about 28°. Aiyar's note reports that Varahamihira, "while admitting the impossibility of the yoga, says that his task is simply to state the views of the ancient writers and nothing more" (note to Brihat Jataka XI.20). Even the master was a compiler as well as an authority. You may follow his example: report what the books say, say where it comes from, and do not pretend it is more certain than it is.

#Too many yogas

Here is a fact every student should know. This website's engine knows about sixty yoga rules from Varahamihira, Parashara and the Phaladeepika (counting the different versions of one yoga separately). When it is run on the example chart, twenty-seven of them are present, including:

• two of the five great-person yogas (Ruchaka from Mars, Hamsa from Jupiter);
• Gajakesari (in Parashara's version, not in the Phaladeepika's);
• several raja yogas (Saturn as the planet that rules both a kendra and a trikona for a Libra ascendant; the Moon and Jupiter in their exaltation signs);
• Amala (benefics in the 10th) and Vasumat (benefics in the growing houses);
• and also Dainya (an exchange of signs involving the lord of the 8th) and Duryoga (the lord of the 10th in the 8th), both classed as unfortunate.

This is normal. With hundreds of yogas in the books, almost every chart has many, including several "raja yogas" and several "bad" ones. If almost everyone has a raja yoga, then having one cannot mean much by itself.

The lesson is not that yogas are useless. It is that a yoga is a pointer, not a verdict. It tells you where to look. Then you judge the chart as a whole: the strength of the planets involved, their houses and lordships, the cancellations, the timing, and the person's actual life. A yoga that is confirmed by strong planets, good houses and a supportive dasha is worth mentioning. One formed by weak planets, cancelled, or contradicted by the rest of the chart is a footnote.

#The helping planets

One of Varahamihira's simplest and most useful yogas is the idea of helping planets (karaka). Planets in their own, exaltation or moolatrikona signs that are also in kendras are said to be "helpers" to one another; and a planet in the 10th house from another is its special helper (Brihat Jataka XXII.1–2). This yoga describes a person supported by circumstance: the strong planets in the angles reinforce each other.

In the example chart, Mars (own sign, 7th house) and Jupiter (exalted, 10th house) are both dignified and in kendras, so they are helpers to each other. And Mars is in the 10th sign counted from Jupiter (Cancer to Aries is ten signs), so Mars is Jupiter's special helper: Jupiter's wisdom and generosity are carried into action by Mars's energy.

#How to read a yoga: a checklist

When you find a yoga in a chart:

1. Name it and source it. Which book, which verse? Different books often define the "same" yoga differently (Chapter 18 gives examples).
2. Check the strength of each planet that forms it.
3. Check the cancellations.
4. Check the lordships. For the later yogas especially, what houses do the planets rule in this chart? A benefic yoga formed by the lord of the 8th is mixed.
5. Check the timing. In whose periods will it act?
6. Translate the promise into the person's real life — Varahamihira's "king if royal, rich otherwise".
7. Weigh it against the rest of the chart. A single yoga should never decide a reading.

#Summary

• A yoga is a named pattern in the chart with a stated result.
• Yogas come from Varahamihira (Brihat Jataka XI–XV, XXII; Brihat Samhita 69) and, in much greater numbers, from the later books.
• Kinds: position, relationship, lordship, pattern and counting.
• A yoga needs strong planets (Brihat Jataka XI.13; Brihat Samhita 69.1); it can be cancelled; it acts in the periods of its planets (Brihat Jataka XI.19); and its promise depends on the person's circumstances (Brihat Jataka XI.12).
• Because there are so many yogas, almost every chart has many, good and bad. A yoga is a pointer, not a verdict.

#Exercises

1. Into which of the five kinds does each of these fall? (a) the lord of the 9th joined with the lord of the 10th; (b) all seven planets in the four kendras; (c) Mercury exalted in the 1st house; (d) planets on both sides of the Moon.
2. A friend's chart has a "raja yoga" formed by a debilitated, combust Mars. What would you say about it?
3. Why does Varahamihira distinguish between persons "born in a king's family" and others? What does this teach about reading yogas today?
4. In the example chart, why is Mars called Jupiter's "special helper"?
5. A reader tells someone, "Your chart has Duryoga, so your career will fail." Using this chapter, list three things the reader should have checked first.

Answers: 1. (a) lordship; (b) pattern; (c) position; (d) relationship. 2. That the yoga is weak: its planet is debilitated and combust, so by the texts' own rules it cannot give its full result; check for cancellations, and judge the rest of the chart. 3. Because the same promise is realised differently in different lives; today, translate a yoga's promise into the person's actual circumstances rather than reading it literally. 4. Both are dignified planets in kendras, and Mars is in the 10th sign from Jupiter (Brihat Jataka XXII.1). 5. For example: the strength of the planets forming it; whether it is cancelled; the other yogas and strengths affecting the 10th house (in the example chart, Jupiter exalted and Venus in the 10th, Amala yoga); the timing; and the person's actual life. No single yoga should decide a reading.