Welcome. I am Ujjwal Tarway, and this is the book of Dwadash Bhav Rahasyam, the secret of the twelve houses.

This book came out of my live classes. I sat with students, chart after chart, and explained each house the way I would explain it to you if you were sitting in front of me. Later we turned those lectures into this book. I have tried to keep the way I speak. If a sentence sounds like me talking, that is on purpose.

Who this book is for

Level zero. That means you may not know what a rashi is. You may not know how many houses a chart has. You may have only heard the word "kundli" at home. Good. Start at Chapter A1. By the end of Part A you will know what a chart is, what the twelve houses are, what the twelve rashis are, what the nine grahas are, and how to open a North Indian chart and read it.

If you already know the basics, you can jump to Chapter B0 and read the method. But please do not skip it. How you think matters more than what you memorise.

How I teach

I teach in one order only. House first. Then rashi. Then graha.

• The house tells you what area of life we are talking about.
• The rashi tells you the environment in which it happens.
• The graha is the character who acts in that environment.

I give 40 percent weight to the house, 40 percent to the rashi, and 20 percent to the graha. Many beginners do the opposite. They see a planet and start shouting a result. Do not do that. A planet is only the delivery boy. First find out what is being delivered, and where.

And one more thing: do not memorise predictions. Memorise concepts, such as what the 4th house shows. Predictions you can derive from the concept. If I ask you, "Ketu in the 4th, what happens?", you should not be searching your memory. You should be thinking: the 4th is home and heart and mother; Ketu cuts and detaches; so what will detach from home? Derive it. Clear?

Predict, do not judge

Your job as a reader is to see and to say what you see. It is not to decide who is good or bad. What is wrong is wrong, what is right is right. Keep your own preferences outside the reading.

A word about strong statements

In this book you will find things that are not comfortable. We talk about affairs, about sexual life, about illness, about depression, about the tendency of suicidal thinking, about epilepsy. I will not hide these from you, because a chart does not hide them. A reader who skips the uncomfortable houses is not a reader. Only dedicated students stay for these chapters, and those are the students I teach.

But please read these statements properly:

• They are tendencies shown by a chart, as I have seen them in my years of reading. They are not final judgements about any real person.
• Medical remarks are not medical advice. If a person is unwell, they need a doctor first.
• Never use a prediction to frighten or shame anyone. A good reader is a sniper, not a preacher: exact, brief, and kind.
• If you ever read about someone close to you in these pages, breathe, and remember that a tendency can be understood, handled and often softened.

How to use this book

1. Read a chapter slowly. Keep a notebook beside you.
2. Do the Check yourself questions at the end of every chapter. They are not there to trick you. They are there so that the concept sits in your head.
3. After each house, draw your own chart on a blank sheet. Write three or four predictions beside every house. That is the real exam.
4. If your first predictions are wrong, do not be disheartened. Study five to ten charts and you will see that not every chart gives a divorce. A beginner always predicts too much trouble. That corrects itself.

What this book does not do yet

To keep your mind clear, in this book I deliberately leave out some tools: aspects, nakshatras, the fine rules of the divisional charts and the timing system (dasha). They are important, and they come later. At this stage we use only about forty to fifty percent of the full method, because if you mix too many variables too early you will understand nothing. Learn the house, the rashi and the graha properly first.

Certification

This course is free to read. If you want to be examined, there is a quiz after every chapter, and later we will run quarterly batches in which I take a live viva myself. A student who passes gets a printed certificate, which I send by post. Certificates are not issued directly on this website. You may offer a voluntary sponsorship if the course has helped you, but it is never required.

Let us begin.

Ujjwal Tarway, AstroIITians

The map of your birth moment

Whenever I begin a new batch, I ask who does not know the 1st house, the 2nd house, the 12th house, and I start from the absolute beginning. I explain the paribhramana paddhati (the method of the revolving sky) and the Surya Siddhanta together, so that you can see how the sky is mapped onto your birth chart, your kundli.

The very first thing we must know to read a kundli, the most basic thing of all, is the houses: which house is which. Everything in this book is built on that, and Chapter A2 teaches it. I start every single class with it, and I will start this book with it too.

The chart is a medium, not the goal

Whenever you open a chart, you will see one shape again and again. Ask yourself: why was it made like this? Could it be drawn some other way? Could it be a circle, an octagon, a pentagon? The answer is yes.

The chart is a madhyam, a medium. It is never the goal, and it will never become the goal. It is only the way in which we are looking at the kundli. The shape changes; the information does not. The real thing is a circle of 360 degrees and the directions of that circle.

In this book we use only the North Indian chart: a square with diamonds drawn inside it. Learn this one shape well and every chart in this book, and every chart I read in class, will open for you. Chapter A2 draws it for you.

Twelve houses, because the Sun gives twelve months

The earth is 360 degrees, and it has directions: east, west, north and south. The chart carries these directions too. Our rishis made a system. They divided this circle into twelve houses and they said: these houses are fixed, because they are directions, and a direction cannot change.

Each house is a field of 30 degrees. Twelve fields of 30 degrees make the full 360. The very first house we call the lagna.

A student asked: "Why twelve?"

I always ask my class: why did the rishis divide the circle into twelve, and give each part 30 degrees? A student says, "Because 360 divided by 12 is 30." Fine, but why twelve? Another says, "Because there are twelve rashis." No. The rashis came later. You have to understand it from the basics.

Imagine you are only looking at the sky. No house has been made yet, and no system has come to the earth. You look at the sky and you observe the Sun. Watching the position of the Sun, you see that the Sun gives you the experience of twelve months. Since he gives twelve months, you divide by twelve. The division is based on the Sun.

The rishis were doing research, and the Sun was the part they kept mapping: the Sun is from here to here, then from here to here, then from here to here. The twelve months exist because of the Sun: every month he transits one rashi, he travels through one section of the sky. So every direction was given 30 degrees.

The second one the rishis mapped was the Moon. Why the Moon? Because the Moon gives a cycle of fifteen days and fifteen days, the two paksha, the bright and the dark halves of the month. When they looked again after these cycles, the Moon was back in the same state, and the same season was coming round again. On the basis of the Sun and the Moon together, they fixed the months.

It is a great amount of detail and observation. We will not make it more complicated now. Just remember that our reference is the Sun. If even 30 or 40 percent of this is clear to you today, that is fine.

The three ingredients

Learn three words and you can follow everything in this book. After the twelve houses came the twelve rashis, and after the rashis come the nine grahas.

A student asked: "Do we read from the rashi or from the lagna? Is the lagna fixed?"

Yes. The lagna is the 1st house, and the house is fixed. Think of it as one box. Sometimes we paint it red, sometimes brown. The box is the house; the colour is the rashi. The box stays the same, and the colour changes how it looks and how it behaves: the colour in it changes from person to person, and each colour, each rashi, gives its own effect. The rashis are different forms of currency, each with its own energy (Chapter A3).

A student asked: "Is the bhava important, or the rashi?"

Both are very important. The bhava, the house, is important, and the rashi is also important. In every chapter of this book you will see both together.

First the house, then the rashi, then the graha

How do we predict? First comes the house, then the rashi, then the graha. This is the order in which we read.

The house decides what event will happen. It is like a coordinate: whose house is it, in which part of life is it happening? The rashi tells you how the event will be: its nature, its style, the environment in which it is happening. The graha is who arrives in that environment: what kind of king, what kind of delivery boy, what kind of ruler or messenger comes into that rashi to deliver it.

I weigh them 40 percent, 40 percent and 20 percent. When no graha sits in a house, the rashi speaks. Chapter B0 explains this method in full.

A student asked: "And if no planet sits in the house?"

There is no problem. The planet will go somewhere or other, won't it? Wherever it has gone, we will look at it there. And the empty house is read from its rashi: the rashi alone tells you the environment of that house. You will see an example with Kanya in Chapter A3.

The title of this book is Dwadash Bhav Rahasyam. Dwadash is twelve, bhav is house, rahasyam is secret, inner knowledge. We are studying the twelve areas in which your whole life happens.

Making a chart in software

You do not draw a chart by hand. You make it in software. Go to Google; you can use anything there to make a kundli. With beginners I use a free kundli website, because that is what most of you already use and it is good enough for making a kundli. Open it, enter the birth details (date, time and place, with AM or PM written correctly), and it gives you the birth chart.

For my own work I generally use Jagannatha Hora, which is a very good software. But you are new right now, and you do not need that much. A free kundli website is enough to learn on.

Why the birth time matters so much

The rashi chart, the chart you make in software, is a two-hour chart. Everyone born within those two hours gets the same rashi chart, and a baby born a few hours later gets a different one. So the time of birth changes the whole chart.

That is why the birth details must go into the software correctly: the date, the time and the place. In one basics class a young man's time was first entered as afternoon. On that chart, with lagna number nine, I began: the lagna lord has gone into the 8th, so you will harm yourself. Then it turned out the time was wrong. In the software you have to write AM or PM: it was 00, not 12. I made the chart again on my own software with the correct time and place, and now the reading came out right.

And because so many people share one two-hour chart, the rashi chart alone tells you only so much. For more precise predictions we use the divisional charts, which come later (Chapter B10). First we learn to read the rashi chart.

Remember

• A birth chart, the kundli, is a map of the sky at the minute and place of your birth. Its shape is only a medium; the real thing is a circle of 360 degrees and its directions.
• The rishis divided that circle into twelve houses of 30 degrees. The houses are fixed because they are directions, and a direction cannot change.
• The division into twelve is based on the Sun's twelve months; the rashis came later. The Moon's two fortnights helped fix the months.
• Three ingredients: the house is the fixed box, the rashi is the colour painted on it, the graha is the character who comes into it.
• Read in the order house, rashi, graha: what, how and who. House 40, rashi 40, graha 20. An empty house is read from its rashi.
• Make the chart in software: a free kundli website to begin; I use Jagannatha Hora.
• The rashi chart is a two-hour chart, so the time must go in correctly, with AM or PM.

Check yourself

1. Why did the rishis say the twelve houses are fixed?

• aBecause the planets never move
• bBecause the houses are directions, and a direction cannot change
• cBecause the rashis are always in the same houses

2. Why is the circle divided into twelve, according to this chapter?

• aBecause there are twelve rashis
• bBecause the Sun gives twelve months of experience
• cBecause 360 is easy to divide

3. How many degrees wide is one rashi?

• a12 degrees
• b30 degrees
• c60 degrees

4. In the order of reading, what does the rashi decide?

• aWhat the event is
• bHow the event is
• cWho delivers the event

5. In what order do we read a chart?

• aGraha, then rashi, then house
• bHouse, then rashi, then graha
• cRashi, then graha, then house

6. How is a prediction weighted in my method?

• aGraha 60, house 20, rashi 20
• bHouse 40, rashi 40, graha 20
• cRashi 80, graha 20

7. Which part of the chart is fixed?

• aThe house; the rashi in it changes from person to person
• bThe rashi; the houses change
• cBoth change with every chart

8. Why does the time of birth matter, not only the date?

• aBecause the Moon changes every minute and nothing else does
• bBecause the rashi chart is a two-hour chart, so a few hours give a different chart
• cBecause the date alone cannot be written in a chart

9. Which software do I suggest you start with?

• aA free kundli website, though I myself generally use Jagannatha Hora
• bOnly Jagannatha Hora, from the first day
• cNone; draw the chart by hand

10. What does the word *rahasyam* mean in the title of this book?

• aA rule
• bA secret, inner knowledge
• cA chart

A house is space, and it never moves

Each 30-degree field of the circle (Chapter A1) is what we started calling a house. A house is nothing by itself. A house is space. Whenever I say "house", or "the energy of the space", take it as the house. The house is always space, and the house is always fixed.

If I call this one the 1st house, it will always be the 1st house. It will never become anything else. This one will always be the 2nd, this one always the 3rd, and so on up to the 12th. The houses never change, whatever number is written inside them.

Please do not get bored that I go so basic. I want you to understand everything as one connected whole from the start. In every class I point at the twelve houses again, one by one, because they remain the same in every kundli. I repeat these basics at the start of every class, because someone is always attending for the first time. It is my constant rule: whatever else happens, the framework of the kundli must be clear. Nothing will happen from this alone, but you must know which house is which.

These houses will always remain the same. Whatever number is written inside them, it represents the rashi.

The North Indian chart

In this book we use only the North Indian chart. Draw it once yourself: a square, then a diamond in the middle, and then cross it from corner to corner.

The numbers 1 to 12 in the chart above are house numbers. Remember them by position:

• 1 is the top diamond. This is the lagna.
• 2 is the top left triangle. 3 is the left-hand triangle below it.
• 4 is the left diamond. 5 and 6 are the lower left triangles.
• 7 is the bottom diamond, directly opposite the 1st.
• 8 and 9 are the lower right triangles. 10 is the right diamond.
• 11 and 12 are the upper right triangles.

The 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th are the diamonds. The 1st is opposite the 7th, and the 4th is opposite the 10th.

You will also hear me use the Sanskrit names: the 2nd is the dvitiya bhava, the 7th the saptam bhava, the 8th the ashtam bhava, the 9th the navam bhava. Ghar is simply the everyday word for a house, so the chautha ghar is the 4th house.

In the North Indian chart the 1st diamond is always at the top. It never moves. The houses are fixed, and only what we write inside the boxes changes. Houses are always counted in one direction around the chart, from the 1st (the lagna) onwards: 1, 2, 3 and so on to 12, counter-clockwise.

The house decides the event

How do we predict? First comes the house, then the rashi, then the graha. I explain the whole method in Chapter B0. Here I only want you to see what the house does.

The house is like a coordinate. It tells you what event is happening, in whose home, in which part of life. Let me take one girl and walk her through her day.

• Her foot hurts: the event is in the 12th house.
• Her head hurts: the 1st house.
• Her stomach hurts: the 5th house.
• She gets a job, and the salary must come: the 11th house has to be activated.
• She sits down and eats her food: the 2nd house.
• Her home is very big: the 4th house.

Now she and her friend start fighting. "My papa is good, your papa is not good." Where is this event? In the 9th house, of both of them. So we open both charts and look at both 9th houses.

Suppose the friend has Mesha in the 9th and she has Simha in the 9th. With Simha there, her father is authoritative and always balanced. With Mesha there, the friend's father always has to start something new, wants to do many things in one day, and keeps giving instructions to everyone. How that father talks, how he moves, how he deals with people: all of it comes from that one house.

Same house, same area of life, a different environment. You can already see why a reader needs more than the house alone.

I have not looked at a single graha yet, and already I have described two fathers. First comes the house. And if I want to read the father's life in depth, I make the 9th house the lagna and read the whole chart from there. That is the rotation of the axis, which you will learn in Chapter B0.

The twelve houses at a glance

Here is the map before we walk through it. Tap any house in the chart to read what it shows.

A first round through the twelve houses

In my first class I do not wait to finish the 1st house before showing you the other eleven. I go round all twelve quickly, to give you the flavour. I am not asking you to remember these lines. I want you to see how predictions come khat-khat, one after another, once you understand what the house is.

For each house I first tell you what the house is, in the words I use when I open that house in class. Then come the quick predictions from my first round. Every house gets its full chapter later, with every graha and every rashi.

But one thing you must do now. You must know what we see from each of the twelve houses. That much you have to remember, and that is why I am giving it to you here.

The 1st house: personality and the body

The lagna tells you the personality and the physical body. It is the takht, the simhasan: the throne of the chart. This is the most important place in the chart, because the whole chart is controlled from here.

The 1st house keeps you alive. Whoever owns it, the rashi there and its lord, keeps the person alive. When does a person die? When his 1st house is destroyed. So the energy of the lagna must be maintained and given poshan, nourishment. Every lagna rashi needs a different nourishment, and not every person is hurt by the same thing. Illness comes when the energy of the lagna becomes weak. When we stop watering the rashi of the lagna, the lagna dies.

The owner of the rashi in the 1st is the lagna lord, and I call him the king of the chart. He is the manager of your personality's development, and wherever he goes, you put most of your energy. A graha that physically sits in the 1st has sat on the throne, and it stamps your body and your nature.

Now the quick round. When we say "his personality never grew", "he is egoistic", "he is very timid", "he does not want to face anyone", "he is always finding faults in others", we are talking about the 1st house. When we say "he is always ill", "his body is weak", "he never takes a stand for others", "he is not absorbed in himself", that is also the 1st house.

Read Chapter B1 for the nourishment each lagna needs, the lagna lord in all twelve houses, and every graha on the throne.

The 2nd house: speech, family and wealth

The 2nd house is your resource, your sampada: the foundational resources available to sustain you. The lagna is the personality and the things a person starts. Whether those things are able to remain, we see from the 2nd house. How much resource you have, and how valuable you are, is the 2nd house.

From the 2nd we see how a person talks: the voice, the tone, the speed, the vocabulary, and how much weight and truth his words carry. We see which family he belongs to, the lineage and ancestry he is born into, and the kutumb, the household, and what its people are like. We see how much wealth he can accumulate and how many tangible assets he can build, and how much power there is in his vachan, his word.

We also see how many people a person can feed: for how many he can do bharan-poshan, food and upkeep. And we see his food: whether he eats sattvic food (the way sadhus eat, three times a day, peacefully), rajasic food (chaat and pakodi, eaten heartily), or tamasic food (non-vegetarian food, liquor, cigarettes, intoxication). The 2nd is the door of the mouth. It also gives face value, how good you look, and the face and neck. (The inner machine of the throat belongs to the 3rd.)

Counted from other houses, the 2nd shows your father's faults and misfortunes, his roga, rina, shatru (disease, debt and enemies); your mother's desires; and your grandfather's karma. There is a saying about this house: when a person has everything, many people gather around him, and when the resource starts to run out, that same kutumb becomes marak, a killer.

Now the quick round. A child who cannot speak: the problem is in the 2nd house. A broken family, a person who never got love in the family: the 2nd house. No wealth in the family: the 2nd house. A child is born and Lakshmi arrives, money starts raining on the family: the 2nd house. "Your ancestors were giants": the 2nd house. How you speak, which words you choose, how much you say wrong, bad or false things: the 2nd house.

Read Chapter B2 for how every graha and every rashi speaks, eats and saves.

The 3rd house: courage, effort and the subconscious

The 3rd is the house where children play and jump about, the house of the subconscious brain. How do we think? How do we drive? How do we hurl abuses? What makes us angry, and what do we like? All of this is the 3rd. It is the child inside us. It represents what we enjoy doing naturally, and how we deal with our immediate surroundings. Whatever you are enjoying, we see from the 3rd house.

From it we see the neighbour and the surroundings: the area around your house and the condition of its main gate. We see the central processing unit: your analytical skill, how well you process and calculate, how well you understand your environment. We see the subconscious brain, the thoughts that run through your mind, and your intellectual capability: book reading, and how you respond.

It holds the vocal cord, so how well you speak, write and sing, and the thyroid gland, which releases the hormones. It holds your younger brothers and sisters, your hobbies and what you do in your free time, your dedication in sadhana and your mantra japa, and the medals and recognition you get. It is parakram, how brave you are. And it gives self-awareness, exploration, short travel and driving: a trip somewhere in a day, roaming in a mall.

Now the quick round. How brave are you? Can you fight for yourself? Can you suppress someone? How do you talk, and how do you sing? Your vocal cord is the 3rd house.

• Someone sings heavy, like a Punjabi singer: Martian energy.
• Someone sings very sweetly: the Moon.
• Someone does Vedic chanting beautifully: Jupiter in the 3rd.
• Someone chants the Gayatri: the Sun in the 3rd.
• Someone sings romantic songs well: Mercury and Venus.
• Someone writes very well: Mercury.

Someone listens to sad songs: Saturn in the 3rd. Romantic sad songs: Saturn and Venus. His wife left him, his girlfriend left him, and now he only listens to heartbreak songs: Ketu with Venus, Ketu with Rahu, or Rahu with Venus. Someone wins many medals: Mars and the Sun dominating. Someone teaches very well, like a principal: the Sun in the 3rd. When he speaks, people go mad to listen: the Moon with some graha in the 3rd.

His younger brother is useless: the 3rd house. His younger sibling was killed, or the mother had an abortion and the sibling was never born: Mars, Ketu or Saturn, or Mars with Rahu, in the 3rd. There is no younger sibling after him at all: the 3rd is damaged.

"You do nothing to make me happy. Your effort is zero. You are donkey number one. You never work hard. In team work you are zero. You always copy-paste. You never do anything on time." This is a damaged 3rd house.

You are not getting opportunities, the job is not coming, you are completely drained, you keep thinking negatively without knowing it, and you have filled my mind with negativity too. The 3rd house is also the subconscious mind. What do you listen to? Whose company do you keep? Whose thoughts do you take in? All of this is the 3rd house.

Use it like an IIT exam. His wife beats him with a slipper: Mars in the wife's 3rd house. With a stick: Saturn in the wife's 3rd. With a shoe: the Sun in the wife's 3rd. She calls the police or some authority, or keeps quoting the court: Saturn in the 3rd. Even the threats you give come from the 3rd house, so you can predict how a client threatens people.

"Whatever happens, God will see. I am in God's hands. Keep doing your karma, keep singing the glories of Hari." That is Mina and Jupiter in the 3rd.

"I fell asleep, I could not study." Someone lives in illusion: he heard from somewhere that his wife is having an affair, and does not even know from whom he heard it. That is the Moon in the 3rd, listening to rumours.

Nobody asks about him, and he is always getting other people's work done, acting as a catalyst: Mercury in the 3rd. He got someone's papers lost, arranged a forgery, tells lies, spreads false rumours: Rahu in the 3rd.

Now derive one more. The younger sibling's married life is bad: count the 7th from the 3rd. The younger sibling keeps finding small mistakes: the 3rd house again. I am not telling you to memorise any of this. See how the predictions come khat-khat once you understand the 3rd. I will not make you a rote astrologer. You will derive from the basics.

Read Chapter B3 for the neighbourhood, the mind, the voice and every graha in this house.

The 4th house: home, heart and mother

The 4th house is naturally the house of the mother, and it is naturally given to Chandra, the karaka of the mind. When a person is very troubled, when all his hope and despair stay locked inside the house, when he is so hurt that he does not feel like going out: that is the 4th house.

It is your own home, where there are no rules. Nobody is judging you. You are in your natural clothes. Everything that gives you joy is there. A person fights in the world anyway: in the 6th house with rog, rin, shatru, in the 10th for position, in the 5th for fame, in the 9th for dharma, and in the 7th he wants happiness from the partner. But the 4th is not for showing anyone. It is our heart, our privacy, home sweet home, where we rest.

It is our emotional body. When someone has a breakup, the pain is so great because he had given the key of this house to his partner: "I gave my heart to my partner." A physical injury heals quickly. But when the blow lands on the heart, from the one you love and trust, the pain is very, very great.

From the 4th we see home sweet home; the emotional body, how we feel and whom we like; the public, and whether the common people accept you; your core, your moral values, your bhaaripan (gravity, weight), and how far you can fall morally; the heart, and the diseases of the heart; and the mother. A mother does not love with logic or for profit and loss. She feeds you, washes your clothes and gives you things on time. So the 4th also gives loving service, the kind for which no money is received.

It shows land and wealth, everything in your home from the bed to the washing machine and the stove; peace, where you find shanti; your childhood and your memories with your mother; the mother's karma; what triggers you at home; and your depth of realisation, how much of what you study you have actually experienced and how well you understand yourself.

In the dasha of the 4th house many people end up sitting at home, and the job goes. The 4th also represents food and rest: if a graha sits there and you do not eat properly, the job goes and health issues come. The 4th and the Moon are the karaka of happiness. Man ke haare haar hai, man ke jeete jeet: lose in the mind and you have lost; win in the mind and you have won.

Now the quick round. A big house: Jupiter in the 4th. Vastu defects in the house: Rahu in the 4th. A transformer near the house, a big drain near the house: Rahu in the 4th. Barren land beside the house: Ketu in the 4th.

The neighbour is poor, the people at home are always ill, there is conflict at home: Kanya in the 4th. You have to use the rashis too. He donated land: a Mars and Ketu combination.

His mother left him: an afflicted 4th. His mother gave him to an orphanage in childhood: a damaged 4th, with an 8th-house dasha running. He never got the mother's love: a damaged 4th. Constant quarrels at home: malefics in the 4th. That one line, that in the 4th house we look at the malefics, has helped me a lot. You will always have the doubt: will he get beaten at home or not? Look at the malefics in the 4th.

At home she always gets others to do the work and becomes the big boss: the Sun in the 4th. There is beating and fighting at home: Mars in the 4th. A lot of junk and garbage lies around the house: Saturn in the 4th. The house is full of electronic items: Mercury in the 4th. The house is on the third floor, or they live in an apartment: Mercury in the 4th.

There is a neem tree near the house: Mars. Lots of small, beautiful plants around the house: Mercury, in the 3rd or the 4th. They live in a very good society: the Sun in the 4th. There are guards and security around the house: Mars.

Read Chapter B4 for the accounts of Chandra, the heart and every graha at home.

The 5th house: intelligence, education and children

The 5th is the Sun's house, and it is the house of the previous birth, the purva janma. From the 5th you can make predictions that you cannot make from anywhere else. And today, when people are so independent and want to arrange their own marriages, it matters more than ever, because it shows the love life and what kind of partner you are sexually attracted to.

From the 5th we see your vision: how big and how deep you can think, how big you can see yourself. We see education and school life: who was the topper, who did very well, who was heavily bullied, and in some charts the trauma and sexual abuse of school years. We see mantra siddhi: God is only Bhagavan Sri Krishna, Bhagavan Vishnu, but on which form should this person meditate, which mantra should he chant, which deity should he worship?

It holds your punya karma, the merit consolidated from past lives. That is why the partners we like, the ones we desire, the ones we want to marry, come from the 5th: they come from the previous birth. It shows the love life, and, from the 5th house and its lord, what type of partner attracts you sexually.

It shows which stream of education suits the person: technical or non-technical, doctor or engineer, science, biology, mathematics, arts, finance or commerce. (We see career from the 10th, but the field of study from the 5th.) Whose aspect falls on the 5th? With the aspect of Mars or Saturn, I say technical degrees; with Venus, an interest in biology.

It gives the chair and position: every promotion, from Software Engineer 1 to Software Engineer 2, from manager to senior manager, every officer's post, IAS, IPS, a PO, a post in the RBI, a constable. A connection of the 5th with the 10th, the 11th or the 2nd is good, because the 5th's job is to give you a chair. That is why the 5th house of an IAS, an IPS or any big officer must be good. And because from a chair you can fall as well as rise, the 5th also shows allegations: only when the 5th is in good condition can a person stay in a good position.

It shows your grandfather, and your mother's family: her face, her speech and her wealth. It is the energy of maintenance, what keeps you performing in a job and keeps improving your status, physique, appearance and social acceptance. It is your social life and social status: the 4th was the common public; the 5th is society, how society sees you. In my first round I put it simply: the 5th is status.

It shows children: how many, whether you can conceive, whether to try IVF. Many times, even when the sexual life is bad, children still happen; that too we see here. At an advanced level, the children's Sun and lagna come from the 5th house of the mother and the father, so from there we can even check whether a child is yours. And the 5th, which keeps processing and connecting you to the past life, together with the 8th, shows the depth of realisation.

Now the quick round. This boy studies like Brihaspati himself: Jupiter in the 5th. "His respect is like Surya Narayana's; when he comes, everybody becomes happy": good grahas in the 5th. His girlfriend comes from a very royal family: a very good graha in the 5th. He was defamed after a relationship: the 5th lord in the 8th.

You cannot even tell whether he is in a relationship or not; he thinks about his girlfriend every night: Vrischika in the 5th. He searches for girls on Instagram: Rahu in the 5th.

He solves problems very well: Mars in the 5th. He solves problems with the back of his hand, sideways, effortlessly: Rahu in the 5th. He has so many contacts there is nothing more to say: Mercury in the 5th. He believes only in hard work, nothing else: Saturn in the 5th. He got everything by inheritance: a strong Sun or Jupiter in the 5th.

He weighs everything in money and brings everything into the family: Venus in the 5th. Whenever this girl runs short of money, she makes a boyfriend: Tula in the 5th. The house always gives you the event; the rashi and graha give the flavour.

Read Chapter B5 for the love life, children and every graha in the house of past merit.

The 6th house: disease, debt and enemies

All rog, rin, shatru, disease, debt and enemies, come into our life from the 6th house. Every obstacle comes from it, and pending karma is seen from it.

It is the house of a set of procedures and of rules and regulations. Think of an office. Someone creates a ticket, the ticket is assigned to you, you work on it, you resolve it, feedback comes, and from the feedback you get a rating. That is a procedure, and it belongs to the 6th house and to Kanya. Government rules, the paperwork an office demands: the 6th.

It is working under someone: your colleagues, your workplace, the corporate in which we all work, and your wages. It shows servants: the maid, the home help, and everyone who reports to you and whom you manage. If aggressor grahas, very strong malefics, sit in the 6th, the workplace becomes a battlefield.

It shows disease. The 6th holds kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya (lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, envy), and from these a person falls ill. Disease also comes from debt: when you take someone's money and do not return it, when you create trouble in someone's life, or when you do not take care of your own body. So in the dasha of the 6th, work on your body: yoga and meditation, food on time, pure vegetarian food. In the body it is the kidney, which purifies, the urinary tract, and the area below the navel.

It shows debt, lawsuits and court cases. When 6th-house troubles are running, remember Narasimha Bhagavan and Bajrangbali. The graha in your 6th also gives physical help: the Sun there, and the father helps; the Moon, and the mother helps. A weak 6th means less help, and a person who cannot work under someone.

It shows enemies, and enemies give you feedback. Whatever graha goes into the 6th keeps correcting you. It wants to improve you, and it makes your skin thick. It holds your anarthas, the unwanted things in the heart, the desire under whose influence you took this body. It holds what you can neither swallow nor speak: you know someone is doing wrong, and you cannot say it.

See how the anarthas work. Lust, kama, is intense desire: you must come first, someone else comes first, you get angry, and now you have an enemy. Greed, lobha: "I have to make a lakh in the stock market", so you borrow, and now you have debt. Envy, matsar: you keep grinding your teeth over someone, cursing and abusing him, and from that hatred disease comes. To activate the 6th, compete. And in the 6th you have to do seva, service, even when you do not want to.

From the 6th, and from Mercury, we see the maternal uncle and the bua, the father's sister. It shows the father's karma: the disease, debt and enemies a son suffers come, somewhere or other, from what his father did. So a father should be very careful not to do anything in society that makes his son suffer. In the charts of those who regularly take bribes, you will see the son's 6th completely spoiled: a disabled son, a son always ill, stomach ulcers, no doctor to be found, a son regularly blowing money on Dream11. It shows the grandfather's family, the father's siblings and kin, who keep competing with you. And it shows competitive exams.

Now the quick round. A kidney problem: Venus in the 6th. A prostate problem: Mars in the 6th. Problems in the private parts: Ketu in the 6th. Liver, backbone, vertigo: the 6th house, with Jupiter for the liver. Pain in the legs all the time, arthritis: Saturn in the 6th.

A doctor has a very prominent 6th and 8th. A lawyer has a very prominent 6th. Someone in IT has a prominent Kanya, because he has to solve problems. You get paid to solve problems.

Read Chapter B6 for the anarthas, the workplace and every graha in this house.

The 7th house: spouse and partnership

When we study the 7th house, many things become clear, because the 7th is how people see you. It shows partnership of every kind, marriage and business both: should this person go into partnership at all? Some grow enormously through a partner; some partners turn out to be frauds.

It shows how the world sees you, your perception. It shows the private parts, the genitals. Counted from the mother's house, it is the 4th from the 4th, so it shows your mother's moral values, her inner core and her happiness. Counted from the father, it shows the father's income and his desires.

The 7th is opposite to your personality. If 9 is in your 1st, 3 is in your 7th (the numbers are rashis, Chapter A3): Dhanu, a mute sign, faces Mithuna, a sign of chatter. The one who attracts you in the 7th has a personality opposite to yours. It shows the spouse and the business partner.

The 7th is the killer of your personality, and so it is called maraka. It kills your aloneness, your individuality, your pride, your ego. Here you lose individuality and become ready to go along with someone. Here you get corrections, and you start going out a little dressed up.

It shows the possibility of marriage: "Sir, will my marriage happen, or will I stay like this?" And in kundali matching we check three things here: divorce, downfall after marriage (you married, and then everything sat down), and cheating.

For marriage I look at four things. The 7th house: whether marriage will happen. Shukra: its quality and flavour, whether the one you marry will love you. The 7th lord: what happens after marriage, gains or losses, a career made, a promotion, a new house, living apart from the family, or a marriage that happens and breaks. And the lagna of the Navamsa, the D9: whether fortune rises, and the overall picture.

Now the quick round. "Her husband is gay. How will you see it?" A student said Mercury and Saturn. Mercury with Saturn will not make him gay, but it gives sexual problems, and it can give tendencies.

Her husband is very violent: Mars with Rahu. Husband and wife sleep separately: a student said Saturn; I said ego issues, the Sun. Her husband left her and lives with someone else; he has two families: Mercury.

See, you are not remembering anything. You are making combinations. That is what I will teach you through the whole course. We do not memorise big things.

Read Chapter B7 for marriage, partnership and every graha in the house of the spouse.

The 8th house: secrets, sudden change and the occult

The 8th is the house of the occult: astrology, numerology, vastu, healing, every secret that tells you the future or tells you about yourself. It shows the in-laws, the sasural paksh, the spouse's side of the family. It shows the hidden secrets of your life, what you never tell anyone, what is very close to you. Assault, rape and child abuse come in here: stains that nobody can erase, which need healing.

Counted from the father, it shows the father's bedroom, his sleep and his dreams. In the body it is the anal area. It shows badnami, disrepute; research; death; the decay of relationships; the sexual life; rock bottom; and prolonged illness. It shows fear and anxiety, whatever you are afraid of; negativity; depression; and stuck situations where you are trapped.

It shows the past life, your past-life attachments and regrets, and the past-life pending karma that comes into your life to lay it waste and to teach you something. It shows your condition in your mother's womb, the qualities you got there, and the stomach and genetics you carry from the mother, because you are born out of her past karma. And since it is the 5th from the mother's 4th, it shows the mother's fantasy.

It is the house of decay: whatever slowly rots, goes bad, converts and transforms. So it is also the house of transformation. It shows unsolvable disputes, fights that can never be settled. It shows darkness, tantra and siddhi. And it shows sudden gain of money, what we call money buried in the ground. The 8th has been called "roots and ashes": the place where nothing can survive.

Now the quick round. He has been earning for ten years and nobody knows where the money comes from. He received an inheritance. His LIC policy matured and he got a lot of money. A property was sold and a lot of money came. He won a lottery. All of this is sudden: the 8th house. Sudden changes, sudden illness, obstacles, depression, molestation: the 8th house. It is the house of longevity, sudden change and obstacles.

Read Chapter B8 for the in-laws, the womb, the hidden and every graha in this house.

The 9th house: dharma, fortune and the father

The 9th is your bhagya, your fortune, and it is ruled by Devaguru Brihaspati. Fortune is something every person needs, so understanding the 9th house, and living life according to the 9th house, is very important. It shows the level of luck and divine support you receive in this life, and the blessings of the guru, of Bhagavan and of the deities who are your vigraha, the forms you worship. Mare Krishna rakhe ke, rakhe Krishna mare ke: if Bhagavan Sri Krishna is bent on killing someone, who can save him, and if he is bent on saving someone, who can kill him? So we stay sharanagata, surrendered.

It shows the father, the guru and the acharya, and even what kind of bosses and teachers you will get. It shows long-term goals and the higher vision: how big your goals are, how far ahead you can dream, how high you can go. Guru thinks beyond birth and death. That is why, in the chart, he is the biggest elephant: the projection he sets, he sets very big. And so the 9th is also higher studies: universities, degrees, PhDs and deep philosophy. (For a PhD look at the 8th too, because research is done in the 8th.)

It shows the long journey: going abroad, shifting from one city to another, long trips, and pilgrimage to Vaidyanath, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Vrindavan or Mathura. It is the discomfort zone. It challenges your peace of mind and pulls you out of the comfort you are settling into, because it always inspires you to move forward. So the dasha of the 9th house is never a comfortable one. It is always building your ribs, your character, and trying to make you stand up.

It gives the guidelines of moral principles: wake up early, eat after bathing, eat sattvic food, respect elders, go to the temple, do yoga daily, make a timetable. These are guidelines, not rules. There is a difference between Jupiter and Saturn: in Jupiter you have free will. You express, you breathe, and so deep breathing belongs to the 9th and to Jupiter.

The 9th house is your temple. It is also the house of theory and philosophy: logic runs in the 5th house and in the 10th, but the 9th is the house of theory. That is why Mangala, the karaka of logic, gives trouble here: he wants to understand the dharmashastra, the scriptures of dharma, by logic.

Counted from other houses, the 9th is the 6th from the 4th, so it shows the mother's death, disease, debts and problems. And it is the 5th from the 5th, so it shows your children's education.

Whichever graha sits in the 9th will make you uncomfortable, and it strongly shapes your guidelines and moral values. It dictates your relationship with your gurus and your father, your religious inclination, and how your fortune manifests. If the 9th is very good, with good, sattvic grahas there, a person gets great support from fortune. If its lord sits in the lagna or in a kendra, that is a very good yoga. Fortune always comes from the 9th house; karma is assigned from the 10th.

Now the quick round. He is very egoistic and fanatic about his religion: Mesha in the 9th, or Jupiter in Mesha in the 9th.

Read Chapter B9 for the guru, the father and every graha in the house of fortune.

The 10th house: career, karma and public standing

The 10th is a hard house. Whatever happens, a person must not give up karma. This is what Bhagavan Shri Krishna told Arjuna: whoever stands in front of you, you have to perform your dharma; for the sake of dharma you will have to fight this war.

This house burns everybody. Here every person is helpless. Some fight here for power, some for position; some want money, some want respect. And some want nothing: they do their work as servants of Bhagavan, which is nishkama karma yoga. According to the dasha, the direction, past karma and the gunas, every person is assigned his karma, and that karma is the 10th house.

From the 10th we see the karma assigned to the soul. We see how much strength you have: how much sacrifice, how much tapa, austerity, you can give, because it is Shani's house. We see your father's financial condition and your father's family; your career and job; your mother-in-law; and fame, the place just above the head. This is not the fame of the 5th. It is the fame you get for your work.

Whatever rashi or graha sits in the 10th will burn you 110 percent. When the dasha of the 10th runs, it heats you and puts you through tapa: through insult, through pressure from your father, a mother who scolds you, a guru who gives you too many instructions. But whatever graha sits there will keep trying to take you to the top of the ladder.

Now the quick round. He is a CA: Mercury and Saturn in the 10th. He does communication work: Mercury, or Mithuna, in the 10th. He handles a lot of resources: Vrishabha in the 10th.

Read Chapter B10 for every rashi's field of work and every graha in the house of karma.

The 11th house: gains, desires and the network

The 11th is the house of ichchha-purti, the fulfilment of desire. It shows your obsessive nature, what you are mad about, and the rules you would break: it gives desire with such madness that you will smash any rule to get what you want.

It is the destroyer of peace. It is the 8th from the 4th, so it sets fire to the home and eats the peace and happiness of the 4th. It shows the elder sibling, the brother or sister just above you. As the 8th from the mother, it shows the mother's hidden matters: not bad things, but things about her you do not know, her interest in the occult or research, and the desires of hers that were never fulfilled. It shows the chacha, your father's brother, and the grandfather's business or married life.

Seen from the 9th, it is the 3rd from the father, his subconscious brain. So the mother shows you a picture of what she could never achieve, and the father puts in front of you, as your desire, whatever seems right to him. The grandfather's energy, the uncle's and the elder sibling's all enter here. In the 11th you are being heavily programmed. That is why it is such a karmic house, with so much frequency in it. Listen to this part two or three times.

Now the quick round. His desires keep getting fulfilled from childhood: Mercury or the Moon. His social circle is huge, everybody knows him: Jupiter in the 11th. He earns so much that it looks as if he prints notes: the 11th house.

Read Chapter B11 for where your money comes from and every graha in the house of desire.

The 12th house: expenses, losses and liberation

The 12th is the house of mukti, liberation, the place where you are freed. From it we see sleep and rest, how sleep comes to you; isolation and loneliness; daan, the giving nature; and letting go of things.

Counted from other houses, it shows the spouse's roga, rina, shatru, the 6th from the 7th; the happiness and peace of your father, the 4th from the 9th; and the mother's bhagya, the 9th from the 4th, along with your mother's guru. It shows your nana, the maternal grandfather.

It shows independent decisions and independent thinking, and an independent profession: in the 6th you work under someone, in the 12th under nobody. It shows spirituality, dreams, dhyan (meditation), and jail, hospital and liberation. Wherever you become uncomfortable, we see it from the 12th house. Look at your father: the calmer and happier he is, the better your 12th.

So is your 12th good or bad? See whether you sleep peacefully. People come to you who cannot sleep: the job has gone, the EMI is due, the father is troubled. A good 12th lets you sleep, lets you give ("Here, take it, leave me alone"), lets you walk on the bank of the Ganga absorbed in meditation, moving towards liberation. If you do not do these things, it will take you to the jail and the hospital.

The 12th is also the bedroom, so domestic violence is seen from here. With many malefics in the 12th, the person does not sleep, and there is beating and fighting. Malefics here do not let you be free.

Until you understand what we see from the 12th, you cannot predict. You cannot rest, you are lonely, things will not leave you, you cannot donate, you cannot let go or move on, your spouse stays ill or drowned in debt, your father is unhappy, your mother's fortune is bad, you do not get along with your nana, you cannot take independent decisions: you have to work on the 12th house.

Now the quick round. He had to go to jail. He had to be admitted to hospital. His expenses are very high. He is very good in spirituality. He lives alone, talks to nobody, keeps walking on the roof. All of this is the 12th house.

Read Chapter B12 for sleep, the bedroom, giving and every rashi and graha in the house of mukti.

Houses counted from other houses

You will have noticed that many of these meanings come from counting. The 7th is the mother's 4th, so it shows her inner core. The 9th is the 6th from the mother and the 5th from your children. The 11th is the 8th from your home and the 3rd from your father. The 12th is the 6th from your spouse, the 4th from your father and the 9th from your mother.

This is not a list to learn. It is a method: make any house the lagna and count from it. I teach it fully as the rotation of the axis in Chapter B0, with a table of every relative and derived matter I use in class.

Remember

• A house is space. It never moves, whatever number is written in it.
• In the North Indian chart the top diamond is always the 1st house, the lagna. Count counter-clockwise to the 12th.
• The diamonds are the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th. The 1st faces the 7th; the 4th faces the 10th.
• The house is the coordinate of the event: what is happening, and in whose life. First comes the house.
• Same house, a different rashi: Simha in the 9th gives an authoritative, balanced father; Mesha a father who keeps starting new things.
• Know what each of the twelve houses shows. That much you must remember.
• The lagna is the throne; the owner of its rashi is the king of the chart.
• Many meanings come from counting one house from another: the rotation of the axis.

Check yourself

1. What is a house, in my words?

• aA planet's home
• bSpace, always fixed
• cThe number written in the box

2. In a North Indian chart, which box is the lagna?

• aThe top diamond
• bThe bottom diamond
• cThe left diamond

3. Which four houses are the diamonds?

• a1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th
• b1st, 4th, 7th and 10th
• c2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th

4. A girl has a pain in her stomach. Which house is the event in?

• aThe 12th
• bThe 1st
• cThe 5th

5. Two friends fight over whose father is better. Where do you look?

• aThe 9th house of both charts
• bThe 4th house of both charts
• cThe 7th house of one chart

6. From which house do we see how many people a person can feed?

• aThe 4th
• bThe 2nd
• cThe 11th

7. Whatever we enjoy doing naturally is seen from which house?

• aThe 3rd
• bThe 5th
• cThe 12th

8. Why is the 7th house called maraka?

• aIt causes accidents
• bIt kills your individuality, aloneness and ego
• cIt is the house of death

9. Why does the 11th house disturb peace at home?

• aIt is the house of the mother
• bIt is the 8th from the 4th
• cIt is the 12th from the 12th

10. How do you test whether a person's 12th house is good?

• aSee whether he sleeps peacefully
• bSee whether he travels abroad
• cSee whether he has many friends

11. Why is the dasha of the 9th house never comfortable?

• aBecause Saturn rules it
• bBecause it pulls you out of the comfort zone towards higher goals
• cBecause it destroys wealth

The numbers written inside are rashis

Whenever you look at a kundli you will see numbers written in it, something like this: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and after 12 come 1, 2, 3 and 4. So the question comes: what are these numbers? They represent the rashi. In a kundli you will not find the names of the rashis written anywhere. You will find only numbers.

Wherever 1 is written in a kundli, we call it Mesha rashi. Where 2 is written, Vrishabha. Where 3 is written, Mithuna; 4, Karka; 5, Simha; 6, Kanya; 7, Tula; 8, Vrischika; 9, Dhanu; 10, Makara; 11, Kumbha; and where 12 is written, Mina.

Keep this in mind: these are the numbers of the rashis. When you receive a real chart, the numbers written inside are rashi numbers, not house numbers. This is the thing that confuses beginners. So when you see 8 in one box, 5 in another and 11 in a third, ask yourself what each number is. It is signifying the rashi.

The rishis gave the twelve divisions twelve rashis, and they said that the energy of each one is different. Here they are. Please learn the names and the numbers together, and make notes of this at least, because everything else stands on it. Keep it beside you until you no longer need it.

In every kundli, the same number represents the same rashi. 5 is always Simha, 8 is always Vrischika, 10 is always Makara, 11 is always Kumbha. But any rashi can come in any house. That is why you have to remember the numbers, not the positions. The numbers go in a circle: after 12 (Mina) comes 1 (Mesha) again. This matters every time we count houses.

Why do I make you memorise these twelve? Because it is from the rashis that we make predictions. Rule one of this course is to derive, not to cram (Chapter B0). But these twelve you must know by heart. Say them again and again until it is memorised. When you remember them, you will have far less trouble and you will read any kundli comfortably.

The rashi in the 1st decides every other house

The first thing I do with any chart is look at the number in the top diamond. That is the rashi rising, the lagna. Then the numbers rise by one, counter-clockwise around the chart. With 6 at the top: 6, 7, 8 and so on up to 12, then 1, 2 and up to 5.

Walk it once with me. With Kanya in the 1st: Tula is in the 2nd, Vrischika in the 3rd, Dhanu in the 4th, Makara in the 5th, Kumbha in the 6th, Mina in the 7th, Mesha in the 8th, Vrishabha in the 9th, Mithuna in the 10th, Karka in the 11th and Simha in the 12th. The number in a box is always the rashi that lives in that house.

Another person born with Mesha (1) rising has Mesha in the 1st, Vrishabha in the 2nd, Mithuna in the 3rd, and so on. The houses are the same, the rashis are different. Same box, different colour. That is why the same house gives different results for different people.

So once you know the rising rashi, you know the rashi in every house. Write the number of the rising rashi in the 1st house and go round adding 1 each time, returning to 1 after 12. I will make you practise this until it becomes automatic; Chapter A5 gives you the quick formula. And it works backwards too: tell me the rashi in any one house, and I can tell you the lagna. Chapter B0 shows you how.

The lords of the rashis

Every rashi has a lord, its swami, the graha who owns it. The lord of Mesha is Mangala; in English we call him Mars. The lord of Vrishabha is Shukra, Venus. Mithuna's lord is Budha, Mercury. Karka's lord is Chandra, the Moon. The lord of Simha is our Surya Narayana, whom we call the Sun.

Kanya's lord is again Budha. Tula's is again Shukra. Dhanu's lord is Guru, Brihaspati, Jupiter. Makara's lord is Shani dev, Saturn, and Kumbha's lord is again Shani. Mina's lord is again Guru. Learn the rashi, its lord and the English name together: Mesha, Mangal, Mars. Those three facts go as one.

So Surya and Chandra own one rashi each. Mangala, Budha, Shukra, Brihaspati and Shani own two each. You have to remember this table; we use it in every chapter.

Two rashis with two lords

Vrischika has two adhipati, two ruling lords. In the beginning, understand it as Mangala. In the table in the book only Mars is written for Vrischika, but it is not only Mars. Whoever has the book with him, add Ketu in your notebook: Vrischika is Mangala plus Ketu, and mainly we take Ketu.

Kumbha is also ruled by two: Shani plus Rahu, and mainly we consider Rahu. We will see in the chapters how important the lord is. For the first drills in Chapter A5 we use Mangala and Shani, as I did in the first classes.

The owner of the rashi in the 1st is your lagna lord, the king of your chart. Where he goes, and what sits on his throne, is the first thing we read in Part B. How to find him is in Chapter A5.

A rashi is a currency

After the houses and the twelve divisions came the next thing, which we call energy. We see energy in the form of currency.

So what is a rashi? It is sampada, an asset or treasury; it is currency. What is India's currency? The rupee. America's is the dollar. Japan's is the yen. Each is the currency of a different country, its own currency. In the same way, each rashi is a different currency of energy, and it works in your life as an energy.

And what does the rashi tell us? Its guna, dharma, dosha: its qualities, its nature and its faults. It is these that we have to understand in detail, rashi by rashi.

A rashi is an environment, not a person

This is the most common mistake I see. A student says: "He is Mesha, so he is aggressive." No. Mesha is a place. Think of Mesha as an environment of starting, pushing and fighting for the first position. A graha walking into that environment behaves according to its own character and according to what the environment demands.

Let me give you the kitchen example I always use. Imagine four people: a doctor, a thief, a child and a king. Put each of them in a kitchen. The kitchen is the same, but what happens in the kitchen depends on who is standing in it. Now put the same doctor in a hospital. The doctor is the same; the setting is different. The setting, the kitchen or the hospital, is the rashi. The person is the graha.

So the rashi always gives the flavour. The event always comes from the house. And when a graha is sitting there, there is a flavour of the rashi and of the graha together.

The rashi always gives the flavour. The event always comes from the house.

Each rashi needs its own nourishment

Because each rashi is a different currency, each one is fed by something different. Karka is fed by emotional comfort. Mesha is fed by being allowed to start new things. A king's environment is fed by position and respect. Dhanu is fed by freedom of belief and learning.

Take that currency away, and the person suffers. When we stop watering the rashi of the lagna, the lagna dies, and illness comes when the energy of the lagna becomes weak. So when it is a question of killing a person or keeping him alive, the energy of the lagna becomes very important. It has to be maintained and nourished.

Not every person is affected by the same thing. In Chapter B1 you will see how this decides whether the lagna stays alive.

Why the rashi is the heart of this course

I will tell you honestly where the major predictions come from: from the rashi. The houses are like the basics, and basics you must know. That is why in my classes I go fast through the houses and very slowly through the rashis. The main thing I have to teach you is the rashi, not the house.

So this is the order of the course: first the twelve houses, then a set of practice classes, and then the twelve rashis in full depth, from notes I keep working on every day.

As the houses develop, I keep introducing the rashis along the way. Nobody should get depressed that there is too much content. I give you extra points now, so that when you revise after a month or two you will say, "Ah, he taught this there." Take it like a crash course: fast, but cut to cut. Then the practice will be fun.

A student asked: "What about aspects and nakshatras? What percentage do they carry?"

For now, we take nothing from them. In this stage we are dealing with only 40 to 50 percent of prediction, and I will not mix things. When the aspects come, we will learn them clearly: the 4th aspect, the 7th aspect, pada drishti, the dvipada and chatushpada drishti, the 75 percent drishti. That comes when we reach the predictive part, in the rashis.

And understand one more thing: it is not only the grahas that have aspects. The rashis also have aspects, and that is more important. The rashi aspects I replace with the padas of Jaimini. I am a Vedic plus Jaimini astrologer, and Jaimini will be used very heavily going forward.

The twelve rashis one by one

Here is each rashi as an environment: its guna, dharma, dosha, what you will find in it, its lord, and a few glimpses of how it shows in the houses. Whenever a line says "he" or "the person", it means the native living in that environment, never the rashi itself. The glimpses are only pointers. The full teaching of each rashi in each house sits in that house's chapter.

1

Mesha

Fire, speed, and always something new

Mesha is rashi number 1, Aries. It is the first rashi, and its environment is the environment of starting.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• Fiery, technical, logical and fast.
• Pitta-pradhan, pitta-dominant: an environment that brings quite a lot of anger.
• It is of samhar, destruction. So in this environment the demand always comes very strongly: "We want this thing."
• It is of new things: whatever is new gets started here.
• It is the rashi of the army commander.

What you will find in it

• Regular initiative: new work, new things, always enthusiasm for something new.
• The cycle of Mesha: we start things, they die slowly, we start again, they die again.
• No patience: things have to be done immediately.
• No storage. Mesha has no storage energy, so money does not stay; it gets spent.

Its lord

Mangala. Mesha in a house brings Mangala's nature there.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: such a person needs to keep starting things. Shame him for every unfinished start, and he lives in guilt (B1).
• In the 2nd: fast, logical, technical speech; mouth ulcers and a dry throat from pitta; money that does not stay; great care of the home and family; and a commander who arranges the ration and can feed a whole bhandara (B2).
• In the 3rd: the person thinks very fast and has no patience; children nearby play cops and robbers, and there is a police station or a fire-alarm system close by (B3).
• In the 4th: Mesha in the 4th means Mangala, so things are always being broken and rebuilt at home (B4).
• In the 9th: a father who keeps starting new things and giving instructions. With Brihaspati in Mesha there: a person egoistic and fanatic about his religion (B9).
• Shani in Mesha tells his lie in a hurry (B2).

2

Vrishabha

The bull, Lakshmi's milk, and collecting

Vrishabha is rashi number 2, Taurus. It is the sign of the bull, and it is a very good rashi.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• It is the rashi of Ma Lakshmi. That is why milk, curd and things to eat and drink are always there.
• It is Parashurama's rashi. Touch a member of the family where Vrishabha sits, and the person becomes Parashurama: if he wants, he can destroy you immediately.
• Adiyal, stubbornness, the nature of the bull. Once the person here has decided, "I have to go this way," and you come in between, he knocks you down and goes through.
• Ego: "My word must have value."

What you will find in it

• Accumulation: things and resources are collected here. The mind in this environment already wants to collect.
• A good khandaan, a good lineage.
• Banks: when Brihaspati sits in a rashi of Shukra such as Vrishabha, he makes banks.

Its lord

Shukra.

Glimpses from the houses

• In the 2nd: excellent savings, a rich lineage, no shortage of milk and curd, and a very strong neck, because its energy goes into the 3rd. Vrishabha in the 2nd I have always seen as very good (B2).
• Vrishabha lagna puts Karka, naturally a water sign, in the 3rd. Many such people are in the navy: a collecting mind suits a ship, where everything runs from the storehouse and the kitchen is very big (B3).
• In the 10th: a person who handles many resources (B10).

3

Mithuna

Talk, information, devices, and "mine"

Mithuna is rashi number 3, Gemini. Its environment is talk, information and the things of Budha.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• A lot of talk. In speaking, the person here is a pandit: shlokas, songs, lokokti (proverbs), he memorises all of them instantly.
• Information is gathered here.
• Thinking of oneself. In this sense I call Mithuna a very mean sign: wherever it goes, we think of ourselves. My money, my communication, my device, everything mine. The family also becomes "me, me". The material calls it "self-serving"; I write it softly because you get offended.

What you will find in it

• Budha's things: earphones, mobiles, electronics of every kind, stationery.
• A child with Mithuna here always has a full geometry box: many pens and pencils, sketch pens, a three-colour pen and a four-colour pen too.

Its lord

Budha.

Glimpses from the houses

• In the 2nd: the family is kept joined, yet the people at home are matlabi (selfish) and will not help; the mother has a fondness for travelling and roaming; and the person does not let you speak and keeps talking himself (B2).
• In the 10th: work in communication (B10).

4

Karka

Mother, home, water and emotion

Karka is rashi number 4, Cancer. Karka is the rashi of emotions.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• It represents the mother, the home, the comfort zone, food habits, water and emotions. It is naturally a water sign.
• What nourishes it is emotion. Stop watering it, and it dries up.
• Moods: today the person talks, tomorrow he will not, the day after he talks again.
• Very unpredictable, with no logic. Nobody knows when what will happen: who will cry, who will die, who will throw something.
• Sweet speech, and the search for happiness and peace.

What you will find in it

• A need for comfort and personal space: "I can fight everywhere, but not in my room. In my room I need rest, no argument."
• Someone else cooking in this kitchen, or using this bathroom and personal space, is all right for a few days, and then it becomes an inconvenience.
• Decisions without logic: "You built the house, but you earn anyway. Leave the property; give it to your younger brother. Why do you need it?"

Its lord

Chandra.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: send such a person into a toxic, envious environment and the body slowly suffers. A Karka-lagna woman whose mother-in-law turns every comfort zone into hell can go into depression (B1).
• In the 2nd: emotional drama and kalesh at home, sweet speech and mood swings (B2).
• In the 3rd of a Vrishabha lagna: water all around, and the navy (B3).

5

Simha

The king's court: position, the kept word, and balance

Simha is rashi number 5, Leo, the rashi of Surya Narayana. Its environment is the king's court.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• Authority, position, status and prestige.
• Justice, and the kept word: "Look, what I say, I do. I like only people who do what they say. I don't like people who work behind my back."
• Balance and regularity: once a standard is set, it must be kept.

What you will find in it

• Orders, not requests. In a king's court the instructions are clear-cut: "Mantri-ji, you have to do this. Mantri-ji will see to this; that one will see to that."
• Fresh, balanced food, neither too hot nor too cold nor too spicy, and on time: if breakfast is at 8, it is at 8 every day. Surya balances kapha, pitta and vata.
• A belief that money sits with power: "Only the politician earns money. Whoever has power, authority and servants, whoever is true to his word, has money."

Its lord

Surya Narayana.

Glimpses from the houses

• A lagna with a king's energy needs position, respect, a managerial role and people under him: "I will work less, because I am the king; I am a bit lazy, still say nothing to me." Make such a man work like a servant and insult him, and he slowly goes down into depression (B1).
• In the 9th: a father who is authoritative and always balanced (B9).
• In the 2nd: a respected lineage; he wants to be the head of the family and speaks with authority: "I am the head of the family; you should respect me." (B2)
• Simha lagna puts Kanya in the 2nd, so the king speaks in SOP, and when his salary comes the EMIs are already fixed (B2).

6

Kanya

Corrections, cleanliness, and the SOP

Kanya is rashi number 6, Virgo. Its environment is correction and procedure.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• Small mistakes are always picked out and corrected: "Look, you are messing up here. This can be refined a bit. These four things you are doing, refine them. See which one is working and which is not, and sideline what is not working."
• Cleanliness: keep the room clean, keep the house clean, keep the body clean.
• Time: "Everything has its time, babu. Breakfast in the morning, lunch at lunch time, dinner at dinner time. Learn to live like a human being."
• Always by rule, by the SOP, the set procedure.
• Point to point, without emotions. People say to the person here: "Why are you so emotionless? Why can't you understand? I can't work like a machine every day."

What you will find in it

• A fixed menu: idli today, rice tomorrow, khichdi the day after, then chhole bhature.
• Money by procedure: "This scheme gives 5 percent, put some money there. This one comes out quickly, put one and a half to two lakh there. Keep some liquid cash. Store the rest in bonds."
• Fear, alongside the SOP.
• Problem-solving for pay. In an IT worker Kanya is prominent, because he is paid to solve problems.

Its lord

Budha.

Glimpses from the houses

• In the 2nd: speech in SOP format, "first this, then the second floor, then father will come"; wealth kept in legal documents and bonds; disputes over family land (B2).
• In the 3rd: abuses and corrections while driving, "Brother, don't you know how to drive? How did you cut from the side?" (B3).
• In the 4th: a poor neighbour, people at home who are often ill, and conflict at home (B4).

7

Tula

Relationship, balance, and measured give and take

Tula is rashi number 7, Libra. Its environment is the relationship.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• Relationship first: "Let's solve it by relationship. Let's not go beyond this. This is creating conflict; let's stay together."
• A bit of diplomacy, a bit of compromise, and always balance.
• Measured give and take: "Bua's children spent 7,000 at our wedding. We will spend 7,500, because there is 7 percent inflation too. Whenever they come, they bring something; we should give too."
• A diplomat's way of thinking: "We need to get work done from him; give him some resource."

What you will find in it

• Surya is debilitated in Tula. Surya gives independence, "We are enough in ourselves; we don't need you." In Tula he says, "Come along with us." He works after asking, always needs a partner and guidance, cannot do it by himself, and doubts himself. Tula is Shukra's rashi, so such a person keeps searching for the partner.
• Shani is exalted in Tula: patience, and if two or three lies have to be told to save the relationship and keep peace in the family, he tells them.
• With Brihaspati in Tula, the husband is also the guru.
• As a place to eat: a very good restaurant.

Its lord

Shukra.

Glimpses from the houses

• In the 2nd: balanced, diplomatic speech and excellent resource management, and a balance always to be found between the family and the wealth. Kanya lagnas, who have Tula in the 2nd, are very good at managing the family: who should get how much (B2).
• In the 5th: a girl who, whenever money runs short, makes a boyfriend (B5).

8

Vrischika

Secrets, quiet depth, and the sudden explosion

Vrischika is rashi number 8, Scorpio. Its lords are Mangala and Ketu, and mainly we take Ketu. Its environment is the secret.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• Secrets. Nobody has a bigger secret than the person in this environment. Decode him, and you decode everything.
• Problems are solved quietly here, but words can suddenly explode.
• Deep grudges: "This family of mine has never been of any use to me." There is always some drama.

What you will find in it

• Silence about money and family matters.
• Hidden relationships: you cannot tell whether he has one or not.

Its lords

Mangala and Ketu; mainly Ketu.

Glimpses from the houses

• In the 2nd, for a Tula lagna: secrecy about money and family, grudges, "you cannot imagine what these people always do to me", and much trouble with the father (B2).
• In the 5th: you cannot tell whether he has a relationship or not, and he thinks of his girlfriend every night (B5).
• On the lagna: once you decode a Vrischika-lagna client, he tells you everything (B2).

9

Dhanu

Dharma, scripture, and the promise

Dhanu is rashi number 9, Sagittarius. Its environment is dharma.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• Dharma and belief: what one eats, which temple one goes to, which deity one worships, higher education, the study of jyotish.
• The promise: "When you said it, you promised to do it. Why didn't you deliver? You should have done it, or you should have told me before. How can you not do it after saying it?" This is Brihaspati and Dhanu together.
• A lot of talk, with the background of religion, dharma and the scriptures, and the person here is very good in religion too.

What you will find in it

• Vegetarian food, one's own temple, one's own deity, and the desire to learn.
• The material says Dhanu speaks less, with wisdom. That is wrong. Dhanu speaks a lot.

Its lord

Brihaspati.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: force such a woman to eat non-veg, take her to another temple, stop her worship, her higher education, her astrology, and slowly she falls ill (B1).
• Dhanu lagna puts Makara in the 2nd: he cannot bear to use anyone else's things, so he buys everything himself, three or four of each. Dhanu lagnas are good at collecting things (B2).
• In the 2nd, for a Vrischika lagna: talks a lot in private, with scripture behind it (B2).

10

Makara

The crocodile's "mine", the boundary, and the mines

Makara is rashi number 10, Capricorn. Its environment is ownership and stock.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• The boundary: "Don't enter inside this. This is my area. I don't like you coming into my personal space. Why don't you leave me alone? Put up the gate; go out."
• The crocodile, makara: in this environment everything is marked "This is mine."
• Makara represents the mines: so many things, so many options that you go mad.
• Very practical. The person here is a powerful speaker, always talking about struggle or career, and highly demanding of his resources.
• Shani collects as much as he can.

What you will find in it

• Stock: three or four of everything, five kilos of rice even if only one or two people live there, two packets of tofu where one would do. So many utensils that you go mad: the microwave, the air fryer, everything three or four.
• With Shani, tamasic habits: the fridge as a storage box, cold food, and regular vata trouble.
• Daksha Prajapati, in the account of Chandra, represents Makara (A4).

Its lord

Shani.

Glimpses from the houses

• In the 2nd, for a Dhanu lagna: every item at home is his, there is no shortage of anything, and his restaurant is the buffet (B2).

11

Kumbha

Networks, SIM cards, and Rahu's pull

Kumbha is rashi number 11, Aquarius. Its lords are Shani and Rahu, and mainly we consider Rahu. Its environment is the network.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• Money is made in a group: "We'll eat together, we'll feed you too, we all eat together."
• The way a network shares: the peon takes ₹200, but he does not keep it all. ₹50 goes to the one above him, ₹100 to me because I sign, and ₹50 is distributed among the rest.
• Big promises, and the risk of sudden frauds or losses.
• Friends and groups become family here, so the corporate circle is very big.
• Kumbha represents Rahu: an addictive, obsessive element.

What you will find in it

• SIM cards, three or four of them, and every kind of networking device.
• Its symbol: a lady pouring water from a pot.
• Stairs: a restaurant reached by stairs.

Its lords

Shani and Rahu; mainly Rahu.

Glimpses from the houses

• Kumbha is in my own 3rd. When I built my house, the Kumbha symbol was made on my gate, the lady pouring water from a pot. Near the gate there is Rahu's obsessive element, and outside, Budha with Rahu: children who play and jump into my house to get their ball out (B3).
• In the 2nd, for a Makara lagna: group money, many SIM cards, and friends who become family (B2).
• In a child's 2nd: a Kanya-lagna father has Makara in the 5th, so the child's 2nd is Kumbha, and the child says, "Papa, money will come; why do you always take tension?" (B2)

12

Mina

Giving, the roof, and surrender

Mina is rashi number 12, Pisces. Its environment is giving.

Its guna, dharma, dosha

• Mina is about giving: "Take it, brother, take it, no problem. It will come back to me. Use it."
• Spirituality and abstract ideas.
• Surrender: "Whatever happens, God will see. I am in God's hands. I keep doing my karma and keep singing Hari's glory."

What you will find in it

• Mina represents the roof: the restaurant on the top floor.

Its lord

Brihaspati.

Glimpses from the houses

• In the 2nd, for a Kumbha lagna: he gives his personal resources away to the family. My Kumbha-lagna clients respect a consultation, and they can bear very strong sadhana (B2).
• In the 3rd with Brihaspati: the surrendered words above (B3).

Remember

• A chart shows only numbers: 1 Mesha, 2 Vrishabha, 3 Mithuna, 4 Karka, 5 Simha, 6 Kanya, 7 Tula, 8 Vrischika, 9 Dhanu, 10 Makara, 11 Kumbha, 12 Mina. After 12 comes 1.
• The number in a house is the rashi, never the house number. 6 in the top diamond means Kanya is in the 1st house.
• The rashi in the 1st sets the rashi of every other house: count up by one, counter-clockwise. Same box, different colour.
• Lords: Mangala, Shukra, Budha, Chandra, Surya, Budha, Shukra, Mangala with Ketu (mainly Ketu), Guru, Shani, Shani with Rahu (mainly Rahu), Guru.
• A rashi is a currency of energy, with its own guna, dharma, dosha.
• A rashi is an environment, never a person. The rashi gives the flavour; the event comes from the house; the graha is the character.
• Each rashi needs its own nourishment. Stop watering the rashi of the lagna, and illness comes.
• The major predictions come from the rashi, and rashi aspects, read through the Jaimini padas, matter more than graha aspects.

Check yourself

1. The number 6 is written in the top diamond. What does it mean?

• aThis is the 6th house
• bKanya rashi is in the 1st house
• cTula rashi is in the 1st house

2. Which rashi does the number 10 represent?

• aKumbha
• bMakara
• cDhanu

3. Kanya (6) rises. Which rashi falls in the 2nd house?

• aKanya
• bTula (7)
• cSimha (5)

4. Lagna is Mesha (1). Which rashi is in the 7th house?

• aVrishabha
• bTula
• cKarka

5. Which rashi is number 8, and whom do we mainly take as its lord in this method?

• aVrishabha, Shukra
• bVrischika, Ketu (along with Mangala)
• cTula, Shukra

6. Which rashis does Shukra own?

• aVrishabha (2) and Tula (7)
• bMesha (1) and Vrischika (8)
• cMithuna (3) and Kanya (6)

7. What is a rashi, in the image I use?

• aA person with a fixed temperament
• bA currency, like the rupee, the dollar or the yen, with its own guna, dharma and dosha
• cA planet that owns a house

8. "He is a Mesha, so he is aggressive." What is wrong with this sentence?

• aNothing; Mesha means aggressive
• bA rashi is an environment, not a person; the house and the graha also have to be seen
• cOnly Western astrologers say this

9. Which rashi has "no storage", so that money does not stay?

• aMesha
• bVrishabha
• cMakara

10. Which rashi is the rashi of Ma Lakshmi and of Parashurama?

• aSimha
• bVrishabha
• cMina

11. Which rashi represents the mines, the crocodile's "this is mine" and the boundary?

• aKumbha
• bKarka
• cMakara

Who are the nine?

After the twelve houses and the twelve rashis come the nine grahas. When I list them in class, first comes Surya Narayana, the Sun; then Chandra, the Moon; Budha, Mercury; Shukra, Venus; Mangala, Mars; Brihaspati, Jupiter; Shani, Saturn; and then Rahu and Ketu. Who each of them is, and the story of how each appeared, I teach in this chapter. In this book you will usually see them in the order of the table below.

We call a graha the karaka, the significator, of what he stands for: Chandra is the karaka of the mind, of herbs, of happiness and of peace.

Do not try to memorise this table today. Read it, and then keep coming back to it while we go through the houses. Each time you see a graha at work, its character will sink in.

Their short names in a chart

In a chart the grahas are not drawn. Their short names are written inside the house where each one sits. The software you use writes the English short name, so you must be able to decode it at a glance.

The last column is only for this book. In the profile boxes of the house chapters I mark each graha with its Sanskrit short name, so Chandra is Ch, Budha is Bu, Guru is Gu and Shukra is Sk. In the software chart the same grahas appear as Mo, Me, Ju and Ve. They are the same graha.

So when you see "Sa" in a box, say to yourself: this is Shani Maharaj, Saturn. When you see "Ma": "Ma" means Mars, and Mars means Mangal. When you see "Mo": Moon, and Moon means Chandrama. "Ju" is Jupiter, our Guru.

When two or more short names are written in the same box, those grahas are sitting together in the same rashi and the same house. We call this a yuti, a conjunction. If "Ra" and "Ju" are written together in the box with 3, there is a yuti of Rahu and Guru in Mithuna rashi.

Say it in a full sentence

Get into the habit of saying every graha's position as a full sentence. If I ask you, "In which rashi is your Ketu?", you should be able to answer at once, "My Ketu is in Simha rashi." "In which rashi is your Sun?" "In Simha rashi." And then the house: "My Shani is in Mina rashi, in the 5th house."

Graha, rashi, house: three facts for every graha. When you can say these three facts for all nine grahas of a chart, you have read the chart. Chapter A5 takes you through it step by step.

Think of them as people

When I teach, I do not say "Mangala is a malefic planet". I say: imagine a young soldier. He has a lot of energy; he speaks less and hits more. Put that soldier into your 4th house, your home. What happens at home? Fights. Renovation. Furniture moving around the room. That is how we predict. We do not memorise "Mars in the 4th = domestic disturbance". We put the soldier in the home and watch.

The same with the others. Shani is the old labourer who works hard, repeats himself and resists change. Budha is the young-looking chatterbox who talks big, connects people and is as stubborn as a child. Brihaspati is the elder who gives advice. Ketu is a headless body: he feels, he cuts, but he cannot see where he is going. Rahu is the one who wants everything right now.

Two people are very hard to change: an old man and a child. Both are stubborn. That is Shani and Budha. Shani works in repeat mode and wants the same thing again and again; Budha, the child, wants only what he likes, and only the way he likes it.

Each graha comes from his own loka

Why does a graha bring the same qualities wherever he sits? Because he comes from his own loka, his own world, and he brings the qualities of that world with him. Surya comes from Surya-loka, so wherever he dominates, you see the traits of the Suryavansha, the Sun's dynasty.

These are beautiful qualities, and you have to feel them, not just read them like a classroom list. When you feel the character, the prediction comes by itself.

The graha delivers; the house and the rashi decide

First comes the house, then the rashi, then the graha (Chapter A1). The graha is the one who comes into that rashi: what kind of king, what kind of delivery boy, what kind of ruler or messenger is arriving there. In my method he carries 20 percent of the prediction.

So the graha is like a delivery boy. The house he owns is his cloud kitchen, where the food is made, and from there it goes out. The house where he sits is where it is delivered. There is always a difference between the source and the sink. You will learn to use this fully in Chapter B1.

And when a graha sits in a rashi, he gives his own flavour on top of the rashi's flavour. There is a flavour of the rashi and a flavour of the planet, together.

A student asked: "Which number has to be written with the Sun?"

Whatever number is written with the Sun, whatever rashi it is, if the Sun sits on the lagna you will see the Sun's results. If the Sun is not peedit, not afflicted, you will see exactly these things, because these are the lakshan, the signs, of the Suryavanshi. Whether Surya Narayana is at 0 degrees or at any other degree, you will see these results. The graha carries his own nature into any rashi.

But the rashi still changes how he can use it. If Surya goes into Tula, where he is debilitated, the same king can no longer work independently. You will see this in his profile below.

We make combinations, we do not memorise

When two grahas sit together, you do not look for a memorised line. You combine their characters. In the houses you will see me do this again and again: Budha with Shani, Mangala with Rahu, Shukra with Rahu. This is what I will teach throughout. We do not memorise big things; we make combinations.

Learn the story of each graha

You have to understand the svarupa of the nine grahas, and by svarupa I mean their prakatya: how each one appeared, how each one was born. This is not decoration. We use the story in prediction.

The course is called AstroIITians, and that means you question everything from the basics. The stories are part of those basics. There is a book called the Navagraha Purana in which you will find the stories of all the planets.

How the story is used

Take Budha. How was Budha born? Chandra had a union outside marriage with mother Tara, who was the wife of Devaguru Brihaspati. Budha is that child. Now suppose someone asks you, "Has an illegitimate child been born? Is this my son or not?" Whose involvement will you look for? Budha's. And who commits that mistake in the story? Chandra.

So Chandra in the 2nd house, the house of the family lineage, means that somebody in the lineage produced a child outside marriage: somebody with a brother's wife, somebody with a maternal uncle's wife, and a varna-sankara, a child of mixed lineage, entered the vansh. Budha in the 2nd: an illegitimate child has been born somewhere in the lineage. And with whom did it happen in the story? With Devaguru Brihaspati, the one who was wronged. So Brihaspati in the 2nd says it happened with somebody of this lineage.

Take Surya. When Surya was born, mother Aditi found him very hot. After some time all the mothers took him in turns, half an hour each, forty-five minutes each. So if Surya dominates someone's 1st house, the house of personality, the person is "hot". What does hot mean? It becomes difficult to bear him, difficult to live with him. Why? Because of the Sun's heat.

I am only giving you the basic here. I am not predicting yet; I am showing you that we always use the story. Do not go into prediction now; just understand the point. The planets come much later in the method. But whenever you study a graha, ask: what is his story, and how would that story show itself in this house?

Suryavanshi and Chandravanshi

We all come from lineages, and the grahas carry the qualities of theirs.

The kings of the Suryavansha, the Sun's dynasty, had multiple wives. So if Surya comes into someone's 7th house, the house of relationship, can there be multiple relationships? There can be, because that is the quality of the Suryavansha. Chandra had many wives, twenty-seven of them, so with Chandra in the 7th house there will be many wives, many partners. And Brihaspati was attracted to his brother's wife and destroyed the child in her womb. So when Brihaspati comes into the 7th, whose debt comes? A debt within the family's own relations.

When Surya dominates a chart, I call it a Suryavanshi chart. The person becomes a manager, tries to control others and gets his own work done through others. He is authoritative and has ego inside him. He is also called a daanveer, a great giver, and he is nyaypriya, a lover of justice. On the lagna this comes out completely, with the body signs too, and you will read them in Chapter B1.

When Chandra sits on the lagna, we call the person a Chandravanshi. He carries Chandra's emotional, changing nature, and he carries Chandra's curse too: the curse of women. You will understand why when you read Chandra's account below.

The account of Chandra

Here things get a little emotional, because the Moon is the karaka of emotions. If I do not teach Chandra in that way, you will not grasp the marm, the inner core of the matter.

Anusuya's darling

Chandra's mother is Anusuya, and his father is Atri Rishi. Mother Anusuya loves her lala, her darling child, Chandra, very much. After a great deal of effort and labour, Mother Anusuya received a boon from Brahma ji, among Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, and from that boon Chandra takes birth from her.

Chandra is the karaka of herbs (jadi-buti), the karaka of happiness and the karaka of peace. And Chandra is very beautiful. His radiance, his kanti, is said to be like the radiance that comes out of the body of Mahavishnu; it is a form of it. On a moonlit night we all become happy looking at Chandra. We want to keep gazing at him.

Now look at that Chandra: how many punishments he received, how much he was rebuked.

Chandra and Tara

First, in his adolescence, Chandra goes to Devaguru Brihaspati to learn. There, Tara takes a liking to him. Mother Tara, the wife of Devaguru Brihaspati, knows what she is doing. Still, she creates utkantha, a longing, in the heart of an adolescent, and Chandra begins to love her. When Chandra begins to love, that love takes a different form. Tara meets him sometimes here, sometimes there.

Remember, Chandra's mother, Mother Anusuya, is very beautiful. She is a pativrata, wholly devoted to her husband, the greatest tapasvini, a woman of austerity. And Tara asks him: "Who is more beautiful, me or Mother Anusuya?" You are asking a boy, an adolescent, who is more beautiful? The mother is very beautiful. But the experiences of adolescence are very new to him.

Tara plays with him. Tara traps him. And from the beginning Chandra knows perfectly well that this woman is the wife of Devaguru Brihaspati. The relationship is established, and after that he takes her to his palace. There he asks her one simple question: "Will you always stay with me?" Tara agrees, and for a long time they live together. Budha is the child of this union.

Meanwhile Devaguru Brihaspati keeps searching, and then he comes to know that she has gone. Indra, who is his disciple, attacks Chandra. And Shukracharya, who is Shukra, takes Chandra's side and fights the devatas. Then Brahma ji comes, and he hands Tara back to Devaguru Brihaspati.

And Devaguru Brihaspati tells Chandra: "From now on, whatever function takes place at your house, I will not give my blessing to it."

Why Mrigashira carries that curse

That is why, when a graha sits in Chandra's Mrigashira nakshatra, say Shukra has gone there, sitting in the 7th house or in the 9th house, the person does not receive the grace of the Brahmins. You will see many crises come in the marriage. In Mrigashira, whose deity is Chandra, the grace of Devaguru Brihaspati is not received. Things cannot happen according to niyam, according to rule, and so there is a lot of trouble.

The curse of women

So the first and biggest suffering that reached Chandra came because of a woman. And the Chandravanshis, all who have Chandra on the lagna, carry a curse: the curse of women. They should be very careful of women. They feel loneliness, and they stay troubled day and night.

That is why Chandra has a very big role in heartbreak: they did not get the one they loved.

Daksha's daughters and Rohini

On the other side, Chandra's marriage takes place. Daksha Prajapati, who is Shani, who represents Makara rashi, has twenty-seven daughters, and Chandra is married to them. These daughters are the twenty-seven nakshatras: Ashwini, Bharani, Krittika, Rohini, Mrigashira, Ardra, Punarvasu, Pushya, Ashlesha, and so on.

And once again, Chandra stays only with Rohini. The rest he does not accept even as maidservants. He tells them, "You go away." So once again he receives a very big curse, this time from Daksha Prajapati. Rohini receives it too.

When the curse comes, Chandra's lalima, his glow, goes away. The beauty he had, his loveliness, goes. Chandra is troubled and afraid: "What will happen now? Now I can be seized. My size will always keep waxing and waning."

The graha with the most curses

That is why many remedies have to be done for Chandra: the Moon has received the most curses. Indra has also received curses. He got the throne, and to save it he received many curses, in rajoguna, the mode of passion. But Chandra received curses of a kind that destroy, tahas-nahas, his happiness.

The Moon has received the most curses, so the Moon needs the most remedies.

That is why, in any native's chart, the Moon and the 4th house should both be very strong. The Moon is our core. The Moon represents the mind.

The nine grahas one by one

Here is each graha laid out the same way, so that you can compare them: who he is, how he behaves, his story where I teach one, a few glimpses of him in the houses, and his rashis. The glimpses are only pointers; the full teaching sits in each house's chapter.

Su

Surya

The king at the centre

Surya Narayana, the Sun, comes first among the nine.

Who he is

• The king. In our saurmandal, the solar system, the Sun keeps everyone on his axis. The Sun is the centre, the Sun is the king, and that is why he manages everyone and tries to control.
• Surya controls the nine grahas. So where he is strong, won't he control others?
• He gives independence: "We are enough in ourselves. We don't need you."
• Authority, ego, the "I", leadership, the father, and heat.
• Highly practical.

How he behaves

• He gets his own work done through others and does not do much work himself.
• He speaks with authority and control, not with violence: "If you were told to do this, you should have done it. If your father is telling you to do something, you should do it."
• He wants a source that stays stable and always gives power, not a lot one day and nothing the next: "Son, study. Education is capital. A degree is capital. A government job is capital."
• Regularity and balance. Surya balances kapha, pitta and vata, so his food must be fresh, balanced and on time, and once a standard is set it must be kept.
• Discipline, pride in his lineage, and a king's love of justice.

His story

• Mother Aditi found the newborn Surya too hot to hold for long, so all the mothers took turns. A person dominated by Surya is "hot": hard to bear, hard to live with.
• The Suryavansha kings had multiple wives, so Surya in the 7th can give multiple relationships.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: the Suryavanshi chart. The hair goes early, the eyes are light brown, there is trouble in marriage, and husband and wife get along less. "My husband is very controlling, always I, I, I." "My husband manages a thousand people in his office and looks after an entire state." (B1)
• In the 3rd: good Gayatri japa; many medals; a person who teaches like a principal; government buildings and officers near the home; a routine-oriented mind that enjoys politics and the news; younger siblings made to fetch water (B3).
• In the 4th: he becomes the big boss at home and gets everyone else to do the work; the society is very good (B4).
• In the 5th, strong, with Brihaspati: everything comes by inheritance (B5).
• In the 7th: husband and wife sleep separately, because of ego (B7).

His rashis

• Owns Simha (5).
• Debilitated in Tula. There his independence turns into "Come along with us." The manager becomes dependent on the partner, and others get their work done through him. He works after asking, always needs a partner and guidance, cannot do it by himself, and doubts himself. This is what debilitation does.

Ch

Chandra

The mind: the most beautiful, and the most cursed

Chandra, the Moon, is the karaka of the mind.

Who he is

• The karaka of man, the mind, and the karaka of emotions. The Moon is our core.
• The karaka of herbs, of happiness and of peace.
• Very beautiful, with a radiance like that of Mahavishnu's own body.
• A psychic, intuitive nature.
• The 4th house, the house of the mother, is naturally given to Chandra. That is why the lord of the 4th house is Chandra.

How he behaves

• He always changes: sometimes emotional, sometimes crying, sometimes fighting, sometimes complaining. You cannot tell what runs in his mind, when his day turns into night, or what will hurt him.
• His voice is the voice of mood: "You cannot understand me, how I am feeling. Do you know what goes on inside me?"
• Sweet words that change with the mood. If he is happy today, get it in writing today; later he will change.
• Together with the 4th house he is called the karaka of happiness. In Shakata yoga, and whenever daridra yoga, the yoga of poverty, forms, the Moon's role becomes very big. Man ke haare haar hai, man ke jeete jeet: lose in the mind and you have lost; win in the mind and you have won.

His story

• The son of Anusuya and Atri; Tara and Budha's birth; Brihaspati's curse; the curse of women; Daksha's twenty-seven daughters and Rohini; the waxing and waning. All of it is told above, in The account of Chandra.
• Chandra had twenty-seven wives, so with Chandra in the 7th there will be many partners.
• Chandra commits the mistake in Budha's story, so Chandra in the 2nd shows a child born outside marriage in the lineage.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: the Chandravanshi, in any rashi. Moody and easily hurt; accused whenever he distributes things; a milky white face; quick to catch nazar, the evil eye; unable to keep continuity, something new every day; his eating disturbed whenever trouble comes; many shraap, curses, and big, costly fancies; and someone who must never receive a curse from women (B1).
• In the 2nd: sweet words that change with the mood, and a family that goes through heavy emotional cycles. In a father's chart: "Papa, you change; you say it, but you don't give it at that time." (B2)
• In the 3rd: very sweet singing; with another graha there, people go mad listening to him speak. A neighbourhood near water and peaceful spots; arts, singing and romantic literature. But in the 3rd he has no eyes, only ears, so he believes rumours (B3).
• In the 11th, as with Budha there: desires fulfilled from childhood (B11).

His rashi

• Owns Karka (4), the rashi of emotions.

Ma

Mangala

The commander who speaks less and hits more

Mangala, Mars, is the senapati, the commander of the army.

Who he is

• The commander. Where Mangala sits, a senapati sits.
• The young soldier with a lot of energy, who speaks less and hits more.
• Brave, passionate, logical and short-tempered.
• Energy, courage, fight, action, speed, and the heat of pitta.

How he behaves

• "You need to do it." He speaks less and hits more. When he speaks, he speaks boldly, first and fast.
• Wherever Mangala is, the person is very active there.
• He knows how to bring food to the plate, and he takes heavy responsibility for it: "Do what you're told. The food on your plate, we earn it and give it to you. So eat quietly and do as you are told."
• He wants command, control and power.
• Once he fights, it is band-baaja-baaraat afterwards: everything is wrecked.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: injuries, a face that goes red in anger, manglik, uniforms and tight clothes, few friends, a short temper (B1).
• In the 2nd: eats fast, and throws the food he does not like: "Twelve years you have been cooking and you still cannot make food!" In the 2nd he is the karaka of dhatu, which is why Ketu there brings dental or mouth trouble. Mina lagnas are very responsible from an early age and start teaching tuitions (B2).
• In the 3rd: heavy singing, like Punjabi songs; many medals; a highly technical, fast-processing brain; sports and fast driving; police quarters, security or a restricted area nearby; and a very good position in the army, the police, the BSF (B3).
• In the 4th: the soldier at home, very active there: fights, constant breaking and construction, the interior always changing; he protects his mother and fights with her; a neem tree near the house; guards and security around it (B4).
• In the 5th: solves problems very well. In the 6th: the prostate (B5, B6).
• With Rahu: a very violent husband, or a neighbour who is always fighting. With Shani: the khatre ka khiladi, the daredevil at the wheel (B7, B3).

His rashis

• Owns Mesha (1) and Vrischika (8). In Vrischika, Ketu is also lord, and mainly we take Ketu.

Bu

Budha

The consultant, the chatterbox, the child

Budha, Mercury, is the consultant.

Who he is

• The consultant, and badbola: one who talks big, a chatterbox.
• The young-looking chatterbox who talks all the time and connects others. He looks very young, with good metabolism.
• A little knowledge of everything. He is very sharp in other people's problems and tells them the solution: the consultant, the diplomat, the problem-solver.
• He memorises things very quickly.

How he behaves

• He speaks in full expressions: "You know what, what he was doing?" With Shukra the voice turns polite: "Can you please do this one?"
• He makes money through counselling and solving problems.
• He is always playing with numbers, and he connects two parties. "The neighbour's land is selling for 10 lakh. He is selling it to you for 12? I'll get it done for 10." And he got it sold to him for 8.
• The child in him is stubborn about what he likes: "I only want pasta, only Maggi. My food doesn't look pretty; I won't eat it. Give it to me in a nice bowl. You didn't put that masala."
• His things are earphones, mobiles, pens and every kind of electronic item.
• His people are the mama, the bua, the sister and the behnoi. "My bua troubles me": look at Budha, or at the 6th house, and see where Budha is creating the problem.

His story

• Budha is the child of Chandra and Tara, born outside marriage. So when the question is "Is an illegitimate child born? Is this my son or not?", look for Budha's involvement. Budha in the 2nd: such a child has been born somewhere in the lineage.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: the consultant who looks young, with a V-cut face; the mama, bua, sister and behnoi shape his personality (B1).
• In the 3rd: writes very well; the catalyst who keeps getting everyone else's work done; romantic songs with Shukra; children, schools and parks nearby; brilliant in debate, with many hobbies, writing and travel (B3).
• In the 4th: many electronic items, an apartment, a house on the third floor, many small plants (B4).
• In the 5th: so many contacts (B5).
• In the 11th: desires fulfilled from childhood (B11).
• With Shani in the 10th: the CA. With Shani in the 7th: sexual problems and tendencies. Alone in the 7th: a husband who keeps two families (B10, B7).

His rashis

• Owns Mithuna (3) and Kanya (6).

Gu

Brihaspati

The guru, and everyone's money

Brihaspati, Guru, Jupiter, is Devaguru, the guru of the devatas. Indra is his disciple.

Who he is

• The elder who gives advice: wisdom, the teacher, dharma.
• A blessed person, spiritual, wise, without jealousy and naturally magnetic, whom society sees as a guide and an advisor.
• Devaguru, whose blessing every function needs.

How he behaves

• He talks with pauses, and he even writes with pauses, putting capital letters in the middle on his own.
• He writes long sentences, like a granth, in story format, so that it is understood. Answers fill pages.
• He speaks directly, with wisdom. He gives gyan, and he holds you to your word: "You promised. Now you have to do it."
• Sattvic food, lots of sweets, lots of fruit: "Bring fruits for me."
• He is temple money, trust money, government money: everyone's money. When such money is used at home for one's own gain, curses come. Never use anyone's things for free.
• In a rashi of Shukra, such as Vrishabha, he makes banks.

His story

• He is the husband wronged by Chandra and Tara. So Brihaspati in the 2nd says the matter of the lineage happened with someone of that lineage.
• His curse on Chandra: no blessing on any function at Chandra's house. That is why Mrigashira carries it.
• He was attracted to his brother's wife and destroyed the child in her womb. So Brihaspati in the 7th brings a debt within the family's own relations.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: "This guruji is very good; a thousand followers listen to him in a hall every day." (B1)
• In the 2nd: good at banking and investing in gold; solves the family's problems with knowledge. In Tula there: gyan about the relationship and about money, guilt over every broken promise, and the husband who is also the guru (B2).
• In the 3rd: good Vedic chanting; temples, banks, schools and many trees nearby; a slow processor, but wise and spiritual; he enjoys reading and teaching. In Mina there: "Whatever happens, God will see." (B3)
• In the 4th: a big house. In the 5th: he studies like Brihaspati himself, and, strong with Surya, everything comes by inheritance. In the 6th: the liver. In the 11th: a huge social circle (B4, B5, B6, B11).
• In Mesha in the 9th: very egoistic and fanatic about his religion (B9).

His rashis

• Owns Dhanu (9) and Mina (12).

Sk

Shukra

Luxury, charm, and Shukracharya

Shukra, Venus, is Shukracharya.

Who he is

• Love, luxury, fine dining, beauty and charm.
• Usually beautiful eyes, charming speech, a soft nature and a highly refined aesthetic sense.
• Shukracharya, who once fought the devatas on Chandra's side.

How he behaves

• His speech is soft.
• He loves luxury, high-end fashion and fine dining: the five-star hotel, the candle-light dinner, the fancy place.
• Beautiful things, a refined aesthetic sense, and wealth.

His story

• When Indra attacked Chandra over Tara, Shukracharya took Chandra's side and fought the devatas.
• Shukra sitting in Chandra's Mrigashira nakshatra, in the 7th or the 9th, does not receive the grace of the Brahmins, and the marriage sees crises.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: "A thousand-crore man; whomever he touches becomes a billionaire." Yet you will also find Shukra on the lagna and no money at all: God gave only beautiful eyes. I will teach you that later (B1).
• In the 2nd: excellent for wealth; speaks beautifully and charmingly (B2).
• In the 3rd: romantic songs, with Budha; markets, spas and luxurious places nearby; highly refined communication, always thinking about aesthetics and relationships (B3).
• In the 5th: weighs everything in money, and brings everything into the family. In the 6th: the kidneys (B5, B6).
• With Shani: romantic sad songs. With Ketu or Rahu: heartbreak songs. With Rahu outside the gate: boys having affairs (B3).

His rashis

• Owns Vrishabha (2) and Tula (7).

Sa

Shani

The old labourer who repeats history

Shani dev, Saturn.

Who he is

• Discipline, delay, hard labour and age.
• The old labourer who works hard, repeats himself and resists change. The old man is hard to change.
• He represents the lower level.
• In Chandra's account, Daksha Prajapati is Shani, and represents Makara.

How he behaves

• Repeat mode: he wants the same thing again and again.
• He repeats history. Argue with him and he will dig up buried corpses, gade murde: "You did this then, then this, and now this. Later you will do this. You promised this before."
• He collects as much as he can.
• He tells lies, because Shani represents the judgement of the lower level.
• He speaks slowly, creates a high-pressure atmosphere when he speaks, and is harsh in his words at times.
• A workaholic mind, but one that restricts change.
• Someone who has never seen a thing goes mad when he sees it. At a party he eats like mad; going somewhere, he wants the expensive things.
• He enjoys the poor man's food: the cheapest place, the dhaba, natural food.
• He works hard and faces delays. Results come only after struggle, or after external validation: "Brother, I am doing well, no?"

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: constant effort and discipline, results after struggle (B1).
• In the 2nd: slow speech, early poverty or delay in wealth; with Makara, the fridge and cold food (B2).
• In the 3rd: sad songs; threats through authority and the police; a factory, a broken house or tin sheets nearby; thyroid trouble, and Budha's qualities grow old early (B3).
• In the 4th: lots of junk at home. In the 5th: believes only in hard work. In the 6th: pain in the legs, arthritis (B4, B5, B6).
• With Ketu: frozen food every day, and the mother says, "He is mad number one; he eats anything, eating Maggi at night." I tell you this one because I myself could not understand why I had such an obsession with it. Control it slowly (B2).

His rashis

• Owns Makara (10) and Kumbha (11). In Kumbha, Rahu is also lord, and mainly we take Rahu.
• Exalted in Tula: patience. "Be patient, be patient; wealth will come slowly." He works regularly and patiently, does not switch jobs, and spends slowly on things that last. He tells a lie only to save the relationship and the peace of the family. In Mesha he tells it in a hurry.

Ra

Rahu

Illusion, endless hunger, and the outsider

Rahu is illusion and endless hunger.

Who he is

• Craving, obsession, the foreign, shortcuts and the outsider. He wants everything right now.
• Rahu is illusion.
• Rahu has no lower end.

How he behaves

• He speaks without boundaries. He tells half, tells it wrong, exaggerates and compromises the truth: "We went with him; he beat them so much you can't imagine." "My nana had so much land that half went into the Ganga and the other half we just donated. All this you see was our land; we gave it to them."
• Endless hunger, never full. He opens a big mouth, because Rahu has no lower end. He has no filter: he eats anything, any amount, at any time, with no timetable, even while watching films. Pran jaye par bhojan na jaye: let life go, but not the meal.
• The more illusion you create, the more he likes it. Put oregano on it and he will like it. He wants the tangy taste, "no fun without chatka", and the European herbs. He will not like methi; he will like basil leaves.
• Fancy and exotic things, photographed and shown off: "OMG, so yum." He must try everything once.
• Massive desires and early success. He may feel like an outsider, networks better outside his own state and family, and treats friends as family.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: massive desires, early success, speech without boundaries, the outsider (B1).
• In the 2nd: half-truths, the desire for massive wealth, tamasic food, endless hunger, a gap between the teeth, and he will smoke; he always gets along with outsiders (B2).
• In the 3rd: someone's papers lost, forgery, lies and false rumours; a hustler's mind for quick money and outsmarting others; reckless driving; a wealthy, showy neighbourhood near corporate hubs (B3).
• In the 4th: vastu dosha; a transformer or a big drain near the house (B4).
• In the 5th: searches girls on Instagram; solves problems with the back of his hand (B5).

His rashi

• Kumbha (11), with Shani; mainly we take Rahu. Kumbha represents Rahu.

Ke

Ketu

The headless body that cuts and seeks

Ketu is the headless body.

Who he is

• Detachment, cutting, breaks and spirituality. Ketu represents breakage, a break.
• A headless body: he feels, he cuts, but he cannot see where he is going.
• A soul that has not got its food. That thirst remains.

How he behaves

• He speaks very few words: "Hmm, thank you. Good morning." Two or three words, never completed: "What can I even say... I don't have words to express." But the words he does say often come true.
• Repeat mode. Once he likes something, he likes it, with no sense to it. He likes the thela, the street cart, not the five-star.
• Introverted and spiritual, detached from worldly gain and family wealth, and prone to anxiety.

Glimpses from the houses

• On the lagna: introverted and spiritual; few words that come true (B1).
• In the 2nd: cheese and the street cart; detached from family wealth; dental or mouth trouble (B2).
• In the 3rd: an isolated, blocked neighbourhood near old temples, with barren land or others' land beside it; irritated by chatter; trekking, raw music on a single instrument, the occult (B3).
• In the 4th: barren land beside the house; with Mangala, land given away in donation. And because Ketu is the break, the heart's impulse comes in stops and starts (B4).
• In the 6th: problems of the private parts (B6).

His rashi

• Vrischika (8), with Mangala; mainly we take Ketu.

Which rashis each graha owns is drawn in Chapter A3, in Who owns which rashi.

Ganesha rules jyotish. We pray to him that, by his grace, we understand a little of jyotish.

Remember

• Nine grahas, in my listing: Surya Narayana, Chandra, Budha, Shukra, Mangala, Brihaspati, Shani, Rahu and Ketu.
• In a chart they are short names: Su, Mo, Ma, Me, Ju, Ve, Sa, Ra, Ke. Several in one box are a yuti. Say every graha as a full sentence: graha, rashi, house.
• A graha is a character from his own loka. Feel the character, and the prediction comes.
• The graha is the delivery agent, 20 percent of the prediction. The house he owns is his cloud kitchen; where he sits is where it is delivered.
• Learn every graha's svarupa, his prakatya. We use the story in prediction, from the Navagraha Purana.
• Surya is the king at the centre who controls the nine and gives independence; debilitated in Tula, he needs a partner and doubts himself.
• Chandra is the mind, the most beautiful and the most cursed: by Brihaspati over Tara, and by Daksha over Rohini. So he needs the most remedies, the Moon and the 4th must be strong in every chart, and Chandravanshis must guard against the curse of women.
• Budha is the child of Chandra and Tara; Brihaspati is the one wronged; Shukracharya fought on Chandra's side.
• Shani repeats, collects and digs up the past; Rahu is illusion with no lower end; Ketu is the headless body with a thirst that remains.

Check yourself

1. In a software chart you see "Ve". Which graha is it?

• aBudha
• bBrihaspati
• cShukra

2. "Mo" and "Ma" are written in the same box. What does that tell you?

• aMars is aspecting the Moon
• bChandra and Mangala sit together in that rashi and house, a yuti
• cThe Moon owns that house

3. Surya sits on the lagna. Which rashi must be written with him for the Suryavanshi signs to show?

• aOnly Simha, his own rashi
• bAny rashi, at any degree, as long as Surya is not afflicted
• cOnly Mesha

4. Surya sits in Tula, where he is debilitated. What happens to his independence?

• aIt becomes even stronger
• bIt turns into "Come along with us": he needs a partner and guidance, and doubts himself
• cNothing changes

5. Surya dominates someone's 1st house. Using Surya's birth story, what do you expect?

• aThe person is cold and distant
• bThe person is "hot": difficult to bear and difficult to live with
• cThe person has many younger siblings

6. Whose involvement do you look for when the question is about a child born outside marriage?

• aShani
• bBudha, the child of Chandra and Tara
• cMangala

7. What curse did Devaguru Brihaspati give Chandra?

• aThat he would lose his kingdom
• bThat no function at Chandra's house would receive his blessing
• cThat he would never marry

8. Why does Chandra wax and wane, in the account I teach?

• aBecause Indra attacked him
• bBecause Daksha Prajapati cursed him for staying only with Rohini among his twenty-seven wives
• cBecause Tara left him

9. Why does Chandra need many remedies?

• aBecause he owns two rashis
• bBecause the Moon has received the most curses, curses that destroy his happiness
• cBecause he is far from the Sun

10. Which graha "has no lower end", so he opens a big mouth and his hunger never ends?

• aKetu
• bBrihaspati
• cRahu

11. Which graha, in my teaching, is "the headless body", a soul whose thirst remains?

• aRahu
• bKetu
• cBudha

12. In an argument, who digs up the buried corpses of the past?

• aBudha
• bShani
• cMangala

Reading a chart step by step

Every chart in this book, and every chart I read in class, is opened in the same order. Do it the same way every time, so that it becomes automatic.

You make the chart in software (Chapter A1). Here is exactly what I do in class with a chart from the software: I take a screenshot of the chart and put it on my screen, or print it, and keep it beside the table of rashis (Chapter A3). Then:

1. Know the houses by position. The top diamond is the 1st; count counter-clockwise to the 12th.
2. Find the lagna. Read the number in the top diamond and turn it into its rashi.
3. Write the rashi in every house. Go counter-clockwise, adding one each time; after 12 comes 1. Beside every number, write the name of its rashi in a different colour: 8 becomes Vrischika, 9 becomes Dhanu, and so on round the chart.
4. Locate the grahas. Decode each short name (Su, Mo, Ma, Me, Ju, Ve, Sa, Ra, Ke) and say three facts about it: which graha, in which rashi, in which house. Grahas written in the same box are in yuti, conjunction.
5. Find the lagna lord. Take the rashi of the 1st house, find its lord (Chapter A3), and see in which house that lord is sitting.

Only then do we start predicting, and we always follow the order we have learnt: house, then rashi, then graha.

If you learn it like this, step by step, you will understand. You have to do it again and again, so that it gets memorised.

Finding the house of any rashi

Often you know the rashi and want the house: Shani is in the box with 12; which house is that? My way in class is to count. Put your finger on the top diamond and say "first", then move counter-clockwise, "second, third", until you reach the box. When I showed the class where Shukra had gone, I counted it out loud: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, into the 8th house.

You can also work it out from the numbers alone, without the chart in front of you:

House = rashi number − lagna number + 1. If the result is zero or less, add 12.

With Kanya (6) as lagna, rashi 10 gives 10 − 6 + 1 = 5. It is the 5th house. Rashi 2 gives 2 − 6 + 1 = −3; add 12 and you get 9. It is the 9th house.

The other way round, to find which rashi sits in a given house:

Rashi = lagna number + house number − 1. If the result is more than 12, subtract 12.

With Kanya (6) as lagna, the 3rd house holds 6 + 3 − 1 = 8, Vrischika. The 9th house holds 6 + 9 − 1 = 14; subtract 12 and you get 2, Vrishabha.

Finding the lagna lord

Who is the lord of the 1st house, and in which house is he sitting? This is the first question I ask of every chart after reading the rashis. The method is always the same: read the number in the house, turn it into the rashi, find the lord of that rashi, and then look for where that lord is sitting in the chart.

The graha that rules the rashi in your 1st house is your lagna lord, and the master of the 1st house is the raja, the king, of the chart. Whatever number is written in the 1st house, take its rashi, then that rashi's owner: number 8 in the 1st means a Vrischika lagna, and the lagna lord is Mangala. For these first drills take Mangala for Vrischika and Shani for Kumbha, as I did in the first classes; Chapter A3 tells you about Ketu and Rahu. Here is how I showed it to the class, on three charts.

Chart one. What number is written in the top diamond? 8. Now go to the table of lords (Chapter A3): the lord of 8 is Mangal. So you have to find, in this kundli, where Mangal has gone. Look for "Ma", because "Ma" means Mars and Mars means Mangal. He is in the 10th house. So we say: the lagna lord, the master of the 1st house, Mangal, has gone into the 10th house.

Chart two. Here 11 is written in the top diamond. The lagna is of number 11, which is Kumbha, and its master is Shani. Where has Shani gone? Count: first, second, third house. The master of number 11, Shani, has gone into the 3rd house.

Chart three. Here 2 is written. 2 is Vrishabha, and its master is Shukra. Where is Shukra in the chart? Count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Shukra has gone into the 8th house.

You must understand this one sequence: what is written on the lagna, which rashi it is, who its master is, and where that master went. If it is not clear, I can teach it not four times but ten times. What each lagna lord does in each of the twelve houses is taught in Chapter B1. For now, practise only the finding.

Drills from the classroom

These are the charts I used in the basics classes and in the recaps at the start of the house lectures. Do each one yourself first, on paper, and then check against the answer.

Drill 1: Simha in the 1st house

The chart has 5 in the top diamond, and then, counter-clockwise, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3 and 4. This is the order you will see whenever 5 rises.

In class I did not start from the top. I started from the box with number 1 and asked: which rashi is here, and which house is it? Number 1 is Mesha, and that box is the 9th house. So Mesha rashi is in the 9th house. Then I went on round the chart.

Check yourself with the formula: rashi 1 with lagna 5 gives 1 − 5 + 1 = −3, plus 12 = 9. The 9th house.

Drill 2: In which rashi is each graha?

The second chart came out of software, somebody's kundli. Going round the chart, the numbers were 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and then 1 and 2 again. First turn every number into its rashi: 3 is Mithuna, 4 Karka, 5 Simha, 6 Kanya, 7 Tula, 8 Vrischika, 9 Dhanu, 10 Makara, 11 Kumbha, 12 Mina, 1 Mesha and 2 Vrishabha.

Then, before we even look at houses, read the rashi of each graha.

• "Sa" is Shani Maharaj, Saturn. He is in the box with 12. Number 12 is Mina, so Shani is in Mina rashi.
• "Ma" means Mars, and Mars means Mangal. He is in the box with 9. Number 9 is Dhanu, so Mangal is in Dhanu rashi.
• "Ke", "Su" and "Me" are written together in the box with 7. "Ke" is Ketu, "Su" is the Sun, Surya, and "Me" is Mercury, whom we call Budh. Number 7 is Tula, so all three are in Tula rashi.

This is the first habit to build: the number represents the rashi, and the short name tells you who is sitting in it.

Drill 3: A Vrischika lagna made in class

Next I made a chart in software in front of the class, took a screenshot and put it on my screen. Going round from the top diamond, the numbers were 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Beside each number I wrote its rashi in another colour: 8 Vrischika, 9 Dhanu, 10 Makara, 11 Kumbha, 12 Mina, 1 Mesha, 2 Vrishabha, 3 Mithuna, 4 Karka, 5 Simha, 6 Kanya, 7 Tula.

This very first house we call the lagna. If anyone asks you which rashi is in the 1st house, it is the rashi of number 8, Vrischika. In the 2nd is number 9, Dhanu. In the 3rd, number 10, Makara. In the 4th, number 11, Kumbha. In the 5th, number 12, Mina.

Then the grahas:

• "Su" and "Ke" are in the box with 5. 5 is Simha, so Ketu and Surya are both in Simha rashi.
• "Mo" and "Ma" are in the box with 6. "Mo" is the Moon, Chandrama, and "Ma" is Mars, Mangal. 6 is Kanya, so Chandrama and Mangal are in Kanya rashi.
• "Sa" is in the box with 12. 12 is Mina, so Shani is in Mina rashi. And in which house? The box with 12 is the 5th house. So Shani is in Mina rashi, in the 5th house.
• "Ju", Jupiter, is in the box with 3. 3 is Mithuna, so Jupiter is in Mithuna rashi.

Drill 4: A Dhanu lagna

This was the first student chart we read in the basics class, done exactly the way I had just taught. In the 8th-house lecture I set the same start as a recap: suppose a chart starts from number 9.

Number 9 is in the top diamond. What does 9 represent? Dhanu. So the 1st house has Dhanu. Then 10 is Makara, 11 Kumbha, 12 Mina, 1 Mesha, 2 Vrishabha, and in the same way you can write out all the rest.

Before any prediction, I said the whole chart out loud, and you should learn to do the same. The 1st house has Ketu, in Dhanu rashi. The 2nd house has Makara, and Mangal is in Makara. The 6th house has Vrishabha rashi, and Shani is there. The 7th house has Mithuna, and in Mithuna there is a yuti of Rahu and Guru. The 9th house has Simha rashi, and in Simha we have Chandrama. The 11th house has Tula rashi, and in it are Shukra, Surya and Budh.

Then the lagna lord. The lord of Dhanu is Devguru Brihaspati. Where is Brihaspati sitting? In the 7th house, in Mithuna, with Rahu. What that reading went on to say is in Chapter B13, with the other readings from the live class.

Drill 5: The class test from the fifth-house lecture

At the start of the fifth-house lecture I tested the class with two questions.

First: 6 is written in the top diamond. Which house is it, and what does the 6 represent? It is the 1st house, and the 6 represents Kanya rashi: not Tula, and not the 6th house. One student answered "Libra". No: 6 is not Libra, 6 is Kanya, Virgo. This is the question the class stumbled on.

Second: suppose 3 is written in another box. Which rashi is it, and which house? Count from the top: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth house. One student wrote: "It is the seventh house and Gemini." Keep counting: seventh, eighth, ninth, and the box has become the 10th house. So the house is the 10th. Number 3 represents Mithuna, Gemini. The rashi was right; the house was not. I told another student the same thing the other way round: "You are correct on the house, but work a little on the rashi." If you do not learn this properly, you will make mistakes.

The rotated chart: a first look

Now one more method, which you will use all through this book. For a question about another person, make that person's house the temporary lagna, and read the chart from there. We call it rotating the axis. To see the father's chart, for example, make the 9th the lagna and keep the 9th at the centre.

Example: your father wants to buy property. Your father is the 9th house. So to look at your father's property, make the 9th house the new 1st. Count: the 9th is the new first, the 10th is the second, the 11th is the third, the 12th is the fourth. The 4th house (home, property) from the 9th falls on the 12th of your chart.

So your father's property purchase is read from your 12th house. Again: father is the 9th, his property is the 4th from there, which is your 12th house. In Chapter B0 I give you the full list of such relations.