Journal of Astrology Newsletter July 2010

Reflect on this: A hit on the heart or a blow to a fragile home leave many　vibrations ! Why? This letter takes you to the core of a horoscope – the 4^th house that governs the heart and happiness. Did you know that at the end of each of the first two phases of life governed, respectively by the first to fourth house and the fifth to eighth, alarms ring for a lifestyle overhaul? These alarms gear you up for the periodical reforms. They reveal that the actions at the appropriate time is life’s call, perhaps its purpose. Significantly, the third phase of life (related to the ninth to twelfth house) does not come with much opportunity to reform. It ends, without forewarnings, in death either with moksha or another life attached after death.

With Kaliyuga advancing, the purpose of life is getting more and more difficult to understand : Is there that undefinable thing you are always seeking but are unable to grip-something that you know exists but is difficult to identify? You, at times, can’t locate it though you know it is around. It is abstract but it is the most valuable. One way to define it is happiness. It lies in the security and comfort that you derive from your mother. It is also found in the feeling of belonging and the nostalgia for a place where your roots are- a house you can call yours, a room of your own. It comes in the fragrance of the surrounding where perhaps you had a happy childhood. It is in going back to the college campus and alumni meets. There are many places where this intangible happiness hides. It is felt and is longed for unknowingly. Most of us have the exhilarating experience of it though the level differs. In failures it flips over to unhappiness.　Women melt in sweet appreciation of their looks or dress and men when their ego is greased. This happiness is the most sought after thing. It is the least durable in a Kaliyuga destiny and causes sharp upswings and downward swings that affect the heart and the mind adversely.

In a horoscope this happiness (sukh) can be assessed from the 4^th house. But happiness comes only when there is peace and tranquility within. It cannot rest in you for long unless peace too resides in you.

Does the 4^th house cover all the sources of Happiness and Unhappiness- As per the classic Brihat Parahara Hora Shastra the 4^th house covers:- Conveyance, relatives, mother, happiness, treasure, lands and houses, residential comfort, musical instruments, beautiful mansions and quadrupeds. Many more additions come to the mind when classical text is interpreted in modern context.

Phaldeepika mentions house, land, maternal uncle, a sister’s son, a relation, a friend, conveyance, mother, kingdom, cow, buffalo, perfume, clothes, ornaments, the nadir and happiness as areas governed by the 4^th house.

Satya-Jatakam includes comfort, education, conveyance, heart, landed property, house. mother, friends, relatives, cattle and buildings under 4^th house matters.
　
Interestingly, with respect to the 4^th house, the mother, happiness, home, comfort, relatives　 are the areas which are common and accepted by all the rishis. Since it is a crucial house and deeply internal, we have three karakas (Significatiors) of the 4^th house: Moon, Venus and Mercury. While Moon represents the mother and happiness,　Venus is given the task of governing the sweet home and Mercury has relatives under its control. Mercury has this role assigned to it as it lords the 3^rd and 6^th house of the natural zodiac, the Moon lords the 4^th of the natural zodiac and Venus the 2^nd and the 7th. What emerges is that the interior planets Mercury and Venus are the source of happiness or unhappiness. They are the core around which life revolves. They are the closest to the Sun and the Moon which represent the soul and the mind. The Ascendant is the 10^th from the 4^th and clearly the focus for the 4^th therefore is the 10^th from it the Ascendant which represents the self. Such a relationship of the Ascendant with any other house does not exist.

The condition of the mind at any given time can be assessed by the position of the fast changing Moon which waxes and wanes. It quickly turns a malefic from a benefic. Even when it appears old at times it can suddenly freshen and look young and new.

In mundane -the branch of astrology that predicts a nation’s destiny- earthquakes, weather conditions , political and economic projections and the like the fourth house lords. Land and crops, agricultural, industry, mines and minerals, landed interests, real estates, slum areas, hotel industry, weather conditions, landslides, forests fires, volcanic eruptions and mining disasters, earthquakes and floods, schools, colleges and educational institutions, home, land, patriotism, opposition parties, throne of the king and the like.

The fourth clearly controls the core of a Country.This supersensitive house governs all that is central to a nation　Agriculture is our foundation, industry our future. Natural wealth of minerals and wood from forest is also under its jurisdiction.

The central portion of a horoscope houses the fourth which is also a　 moksha house: In the square of dharma-artha-kaam-moksha represented by 1 to 4 houses . One reaches the 4^th house of moksha after being assigned the dharma for a specific human life governed by the 1^st house. The next station of life’s journey　is the 2^nd house of artha where　matters with respect to securing the self and the family prevail. It has under its jurisdiction the family (kutumbh) and initial education that comes from the mother and family members. It governs money. Dreams, actions, reactions and the rigor are in the next station, which is the 3^rd house. This house is categorized as a Kaam house also. It governs flaming　desires and aspirations which prompt actions. It is only after exhausting these three levels that the doors to salvation or moksha can open.

Moksha at the 4^th house stage is to　be interpreted as an opportunity to review, change and reform. It is for this reason that the following house, the 5^th , is the house of higher learning and education. The 5^th is again a house of dharma where the 1^st phase is to reviewed and resolutions to reform made. It is the house of thinking, sentiments and emotions as also the house to be seen for accumulated karmas. The house for karma is 10^th and 5^th being the 8^th from it　becomes the house of death of a karma or its registration. One is required to regulate the lifestyle and control the　thoughts to reform. One can derive from the pattern of a horoscope the potential to reform.

The 2^nd phase ends in the 8^th from lagna which is also called the house that has the battlefield. This house traces the struggle and changes and is also seen for moksha. During the 1^st phase 0-32, it the Lagna (body that rules. The Moon (Mind) holds the key during the 2^nd phase 32-64 and thereafter the Sun (Soul) from 64 onwards. These three nodal points in a horoscope should be used accordingly.　 　

The travel of the soul　from one life to another is certainly a tedious journey in life terms A journey perhaps at a speed unknown to man and the route perhaps God has willed not to reveal. 

The key to a meaningful life is contentment and happiness: Whether you delve deep into the thinking of Greek philosophers- Socrates, Plato and Aristotle　 or in the feelings of poets and philosophers all across the globe or in the messages 　every religion have to offer, the focus is on karma that benefits all to make the life happy and meaningful.

Hindu Philosophy believes that it the karma of earlier births that decides the destiny. Why should a man be born blind? Why should one born in a family of king and another in the family of a pauper. As per Hindu philosophy you are on auto　-mode. `As you sow you reap’ .You create your karmas and your karmas create your destiny. Niskaam karma is what Bhagavad Gita prescribes (a karma without its fruit as a consideration ) A karma out of duty and not out of desire. This can only lead us to contentment and happiness.

Home, ‘Sweet Home’ is not in everybody’s destiny: As your karmas of earlier births determine where you would be born, they also allocate the level of happiness which can be seen from the 4^th house. If you have the 4^th lord in 4^th house or the ascendant lord is in 4^th, without afflictions, it promises an all weather home. Such combinations also promise happiness, conveyances, helpful relatives and comforts. Even when the 4^th lord is exalted or in its own or exalted Navamsha good results from the 4^th house can be expected.

Our classics mention that if the 10^th lord joins the 4^th lord in an angle or in a trine, the person will acquire beautiful mansions. The gypsies or the migratory shepherds and birds, who are deprived of a continuing comfort of the home, surely should be having an afflicted 4^th house or their 4^th lord in the 6^th, 8^th or the 12^th house .

The research available in the book Planets and Travel Abroad by M.S. Mehta explains the 4^th house and 4^th lord affliction as a combination for settlement in　 a foreign country, away from the ancestral home and relatives. In the coming centuries many people may be required to migrate from regions with unbearable heat due to global warming. This has to reflect in their 4^th house.

What type of house can you have ?
- The Moon and Venus in the 4^th give multi-storyed houses, Ketu and Mars – brick houses, Jupiter – a house of timber, Sun a hut of grass.
- Exalted planets in the 4^th give beautiful houses. Benefics in the 3^rd and the 4^th also give beautiful houses.
- Saturn and Sun worry for the houses most of the time but good houses as tenants.
- Moon in the 4^th -a farm house.
- Venus in 4^th – a house with much garden.
- Rahu in the 4^th,a person deprived of a house. Ketu buys and sells farms and makes profit.

The position of planet in the house is one determinant, though the final conclusion is to be drawn by processing many determinants like 4^th from Karakamsha lagna, and the 4^th from Swamsha. The promise in divisional chart Navamsha and Chaturthamsha is also to considered in evaluation while not forgetting to use at least two type of dashas. All this under a tested methodology to get to the correct prediction.

The fourth as the house of Life Force: The importance of 4^th house should　 be judged from the fact that our rishis have assigned Moon the significator of　 ‘Life force’ (praan) as karaka (significator) of the 4^th house.

The equation of 10th vs 4th : Karma vs Happiness is perennial. The 4^th house is the house of fructification for the 10^th and the 10^th house for the 4^th.The 4^h house is the most internal and the 10^th house the most external house of a horoscope. In a high stress lifestyle people tend to be short tempered and impatient. Globalisation have made people ambitious and restless. The internal aspirations have to reflect on the karmas governed by the 10^th house There will always be a direct relation of karma with happiness and of happiness with the karmas.

Gods wanted man to live happily in his creation but the Kaliyuga Man continues to spoil himself and God’s creation in the quest for more: The making of earth beautiful and living happy has to be from the actions of the earthlings as spoiling of it is. We need to protect the environment, culture, heritage and morality for our own sake for we are going to be born as children in this earth in an advancing kaliyuga situation. Think of at least your own self if not of others before the greed for more captures you.

Does every destiny follows the horoscopic pattern? Yes indeed? But it gives you many opportunities to correct and reform as there is 25 percent freewill with 75 percent destiny. Do not miss the bus in this life.　

News Quarter

Why should the oil spill and the Gas leak be seen differently? A question that became an embarrassment for the Obama administration. How is Gas leak of Bhopal different from Oil spill of BP, the petroleum giant which could plug the leak after 3 months of polluting the earth beautiful. A suppressed voice of Bhopal gas victims accused the international community of double standards. A gas leak can kill 20000 and ruin career of so many. Anderson, the Chairman of Union Carbide is 90 and reported to be senile and hard of hearing . Should he pulled out of house for allowing double standards in safety that caused the deaths of the innocent 20000 in Bhopal. The law certainly demands that. What will happen if there is a nuclear leak. Can anyone arrest the President and Prime Minster of the country as the insurance cover surely is limited. Nuclear Liability Bill needs to be properly drafted.

Many places have missed their date with the monsoon: During my morning walks along the Sukhna lake in Chandigarh　since last two years, I saw the level of water in the lake going down as never before. I wondered what will happen if it rained like last year. The news of widespread rain in the region and of flood fury in Haryana, Punjab and Himachal though caused momentary concern but this news came as a big relief. As predicted by us in the Journal of Astrology　 May June , 2010 issue and our Newsletter of June, 2010 the rains in the north and west of Ujjain is normal and in the east and south east they are deficient. It is reported that Ganga is at its lowest level in Varanasi presently due deficient rain. Rain is deficient in Orissa and Bihar also. As predicted, though the delay is there but from 23^rd of July the Monsoon is likely to cover up the deficiency.

The recovery path from gloom and doom to boom. Economic revival amidst　 prophecies of Nostradamus and the Mayan Calendar is predicted based on the Leo Lagna horoscope of U.S.A: Hungary and South European Countries need to review their sovereign debt crisis:Countries like Italy\and Greece seems have overspent as they got easy loans. These countries have to realize that doing the same thing again and again and expecting the same results is insanity They need to make sweeping sacrifices and shift from populist measures to austerity measures to ensure continuity of the Euro. IMF Global Growth forecast is encouraging. Growth projections for China and India are also good. As predicted on many forums, Global economic revival will happen from April, 2011.

Soccer World Cup Frenzy :The game of rage and passion It was kicking revelry till the finals on 11^th July won deservedly by Spain . One fable has it that 　during the time around 3000 years ago a tyrant king was beheaded and people started to kick his head in rage and ecstasy. It was from here football originated and was encouraged initially to sharpen the warriors . World Cup threw the spotlight on South Africa ’s exemplary governance and Octopus Paul. In his previous life Paul could have been either a Spanish soccer player deprived of glory or an Indian astrologer as hundred percent correct predictions can be predicted through Vedic astrology alone. The hundred percent correct predictions goes to show that there are many things beyond the present day knowledge of science as also the statistical law of probability does not always work. Eight times correct prediction means 0.5x0.5x0.5x0.5x0.5x0.5x0.5x0.5 = 1/256 . It is a one out of 256 chance The weak argument against the predictions of Paul by rationalist like Mr. Sanal on TV channels showed how biased and away from reality they are.

CRPF (Central Reserve Police Froce) is Central not Spare: Are we demoralizing the force and thereby weakening our own strength. They are our strength　 which is every ready to pull socks and combat. Any stone or abuse thrown on them is aimed at us. They are our shield. The armed forces of a country are seen from the 6^th house which is 3^rd from 4^th. They shoulder the responsibility of Home represented by the 4^th house. Their merciless killing by enemies within and outside has to be taken more seriously. It should　 remind us all of Kashmir, Punjab and Taliban terror in recent decades and the consequences of letting it loose. The killers cannot be described as the wronged tribals revolting repression, they are to be seen as mercenaries who have support of terror outfits.

Remedial Measures: To combat Kaliyuga, our rishis have prescribed　 Truth (satya), concern for the needy( daya), charity (daan ) and simply remembering God (Jaap). The rishis, perhaps had realized a thousand year ago that the busy, selfish Kaliyuga man will not be able to do anything more. Give alms, speak truth, have concern for the needy and say Hari Om even while driving your car to ward of inauspiciousness that could be occasioned by infelicitious conjunctions in your horoscope which can be seen by astrologers alone.