Article by Love Tandon

Astrology is mainly interpretation of symbols and combination of basic, defined building blocks. Wherever it is specific, the results may be deduced using astrological symbols. The Rishis have defined the symbols or the building blocks and have directly and indirectly said in places that we have to guess the results as per our understanding. We all know that the results have to be interpreted with reference to the environment and the times.

As an example of direct mention by Rishi Parashar, many would be familiar with this shloka :

Brihat Parashar Hora Shastra,
Chapter Vargvivekadhyaya (Divisional Considerations)
Shloka 37

Tanu, Dhan, Sahaja, Bandhu, Putra, Ari, Yuvati, Randhra, Dharma, Karma, Laabha and Vyaya are in order the names of the 12 houses. I explain these to you in brief. Other things than these should be understood according to one’s own intelligence.

If we interpret by applying the building blocks and using the symbols, then astrological scriptures reveal a number of hidden messages. Some such messages are hidden in Vimshopak.

As we will discuss ahead, the focus of the messages is that learning, worship, evils, fortune, wealth are not as important for happiness as one’s own health and family.

Before we move ahead with the revelation of the messages let us do a quick recap so that we all have a common understanding of Vimshopak as used here. We will use only Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra.

Varga and Vimshopak

The Signs may be divided into a number of parts which are then assigned to a planet as its lord and also to a Sign. These parts are called Vargas or Divisions and given specific names. These Vargas may be used for analysis of specific matters in life. For example, a Sign may be divided into two parts called Hora or three parts called Drekkan. Hora is used for analyzing wealth whereas Drekkan is used for analyzing co-borns.

A number of Vargas are grouped together in a few sets and given specific names such as Shadvarg (six-Varga i.e. group of six Vargas), Saptvarg (seven-Varga i.e. group of seven Vargas) etc. Such sets are used for analyzing areas of life that combine such Vargas.

We will use only Vargas and Varga-groups defined in Brihat Parashar Hora Shastra. The Vargas, the notation used for each Varga, the areas the Vargas are used for, the groups of Vargas and their notation are in Table 1 : The Sixteen Vargas And Their Groups.

Table 1 : The Sixteen Vargas And Their Groups

We know that Vimshopak is different for any Varga in each Varga group. It is shown in the following Table 2 : Vimshopak Values in Varga Group. In current times we are more used to percentages, therefore, in addition there is also a column on the percentage Vimshopak for a Varga.

Table 2 : Vimshopak Values in Varga Group

The Vimshopak strength of a planet in a Varga depends upon its placement and is shown in the following Table 3 : Vimshopak On Placement.

Table 3 : Vimshopak On Placement

Own Varga or auspicious Varga is defined in Brihat Parashar Hora Shastra as Exaltation Sign, Mooltrikon Sign, Own Sign and the Vargas in Signs owned by the lord of the Kendras i.e. angles from its own Arudh. Generally people ignore the Kendras from Arudh while considering Own Varga.

If we have to calculate Vimshopak strength of a planet in a group of Vargas V-6, V-7 etc. then we have to take proportionate strength of the Vimshopak-On-Placement in all the Vargas as per values in Table 2 : Vimshopak Values.

For example : The Vimshopak for a Varga in V-6 is calculated using the following formula:

(Vimshopak-on-placement * Vimshopak values in V-6)/20

If a planet is in Sign of extreme friend in D-1 then it will have Vimshopak-on-placement of 18. In V-6 the Vimshopak value for D1 is 6. The Vimshopak for the planet in D-1 for V-6 will, therefore, be 18*6/20 = 5.4. Similarly, the proportionate Vimshopak is calculated in each Varga and all are added together. The following Table 4 :Vimshopak Strength Calculation shows the calculation for a planet.

Table 4 :Vimshopak Strength Calculation

Symbols

The main symbols or building blocks in Vimshopak are the Vargas, placement of planets in each Varga, the Vimshopak values used for calculation in Varga-groups, Vimshopak strengths in each Varga groups and the Varga groups themselves. We will use all of these to see the hidden messages.

Messages

Vargas are used to analyse specific life matters. Placement of planets in their own Vargas is considered auspicious and such planets contribute good strength or auspiciousness to the Varga group.

The Rishi is not satisfied with Vimshopak in a Varga but has gone on to define Varga groups. Not only that, he has also given different proportionate values to Vimshopak strengths in various Vargas in different Varga groups. The proportion is nothing but the weight or importance attached to various Vargas in Varga groups. What do the Varga groups and the weights reveal? The Varga groups include matters as shown in Table 1 : The Sixteen Vargas And Their Groups and summarized in a different manner in the following Table 5 : Varga Groups And Matters Considered.

Table 5 : Varga Groups And Matters Considered

We will notice that these define about four non-exclusive stages of life. V-6 is the stage when one is of marriageable age, V-7 is the stage when one has children, V-7 is the stage when one moves further in life in terms of status, vehicle pleasures and other matters, V-16 is the stage when everything in life is considered. In other words one will not consider V-6 for a child unless he reaches marriageable age and will not consider other Vargas-groups till he reaches appropriate life stages.

Let us consider V-6

V-6 is for general well-being and happiness and planets in strength in V-6 provide happiness related to them in various Vargas as per the weights of Varga. So, is the case for other Varga-groups. In other words, the weights are the importance attached by the Rishi to various matters in life in a Varga group. If one has to be generally happy then considering V-6 we notice that the importance of various matters is in the following Table 6 : Importance Of Matters As Per V-6. The Rishi has attached the maximum importance to physique or health followed by spouse, co-borns then parents. Wealth and evils or misfortune occur the last.

Table 6 : Importance Of Matters As Per V-6

If one wants to be truly happy in life then one needs to focus more on his health and family. Wealth is not so important and evils and misfortune are the least important. It only goes to show that a person may be happy even with shadows of evils and misfortunes over him. He may also be happy even without wealth. He would be really miserable if he loses health or the support of his spouse.

How many people do we see nowadays consulting astrologers on wealth and misfortunes? They are so many! They must be really stressed and that is why they are consulting astrologers. If they were stressed only with misfortunes then that is only 5% of the weight. There should be something more than that. The table shows that the remedy perhaps lies elsewhere and not in their diagnosis of wealth and misfortune.

There is also another message hidden in the table. The weights show the sensitivity of the remedies adopted. The same change will have a different impact on the total happiness depending upon where it happens. For example, a change applied in D-9 will have 25% impact whereas the change applied in D-2 will have only 10% impact. Do not get carried away with the actual percentages but focus on the area that will have a greater impact.

Table 7 : Two Pillars Of Life

Another message is hidden in the distribution of the weights. It appears that many of the miseries may be overcome with the support of the family provided one is healthy. The two pillars in life shown in Table 7 : Two Pillars Of Life, in the view of the Rishi, appear to be health and family taking 85% of the total importance.

Spouse plays a very key role in the happiness as may be seen. One may argue that parents have been given a very low weight compared to others. In fact the importance to parents is same as the importance given to wealth. While in the first instance this appears to be true but a closer examination reveals a deeper message. Society is made by human beings and sustained by the relationships between them. A major relationship any person holds is of the family. The family itself may be divided into two parts. One is blood-family as in parents and co-borns and second is the self family created by oneself as in spouse, children and grandchildren. Children and grand-children are also blood-family. On reorganizing the earlier table along such lines we get the three pillars of general happiness in the following Table 8:Three Pillars Of General Happiness.

Table 8:Three Pillars Of General Happiness

The three pillars of general happiness together add up to about 85% with the balance 15% across wealth and evils/misfortune.

Coming back to the question on parents getting a low importance in the scheme of V-6 we now find that it is not really so. The blood family where they belong has as much importance as physique and health and the spouse. The message, therefore, is that anything done to improve happiness in the blood-family will also increase happiness of the parents as well as co-borns.

The question, then, arises as to why co-borns have a higher importance compared to parents. This seems all the more contradictory as the parents are considered even higher than God in the scriptures. Assume for a moment that the importance is reversed, i.e. parents getting more importance than the co-borns. In such a case, with co-borns being ignored, how can parents ever be happy? The linkage, leverage or dependence of happiness of parents with the happiness of co-borns shows that the apparent low importance to parents is not real but only apparent. There is, therefore, more than meets the eye. Parents work through their children.

Another thing that is easily visible is that in the absence of coborns the happiness will be much less. It is the family, that adds to the happiness.

If we classify the table in the manner Kalyug operates then the pillars would be self, wealth and family.

Let us now consider V-7.

Table 9 : Importance Of Matters As Per V-7

The importance of matters in V-7 or Saptavarga are summarized in Table 9 : Importance Of Matters As Per V-7. The importance of V-6 is shown for comparison. The weights tell us the that when we get children then the attention shifts to them. Health takes a slight backseat as well as the co-borns. The spouse becomes very unimportant – apparently – as the weights show but the parents gain the most in importance. The greater is the family, the greater is the importance of mischief by evil.

The leverage of the happiness by the children through the parents is clearly visible. Parents may be kept happy by keeping the children happy but at the same time, parents instill the long terms values in the children and if they do not have sufficient importance then the long term happiness would definitely suffer. The message is clear. Children need the values and nourishing atmosphere and that is possible only through the experience of the parents. The spouse, too, gains through their experience.

For the sake of consistency let us classify this into the three pillars of general happiness and we get Table 10 : Three Pillars Of General Happiness Through V-7

Table 10 : Three Pillars Of General Happiness Through V-7

The matters seem unevenly divided between the three pillars. This is so because the leverage is operating across the Self-family and Blood-family. The parents have gained massively in terms of importance in this Varga as the happiness depends upon their direct involvement and experience. How can we say it is so? The importance to the family still remains at 80% as in Table 11 : Two Pillars Of Life in V-7 with V-6 shown for comparison.

Table 11 : Two Pillars Of Life in V-7

The importance of family as compared to wealth and evils stands out. The importance of various family members at different stages in life stands out. The importance of overall happiness due to the linkages between family members stands out again in V-7.

We have seen so far that the happiness is dependent upon the family as a whole and their interdependencies. There is one clear message to the modern nucleus family concept where it is only the couple and their children who form the family. It is visible from the following Table 12 : Nucleus Family in V-6 and V-7

Table 12 : Nucleus Family in V-6 and V-7

The importance of blood family and the self-family is unequal till such time someone from the bloodfamily joins the self-family. It is only then the happiness increases. If we consider that the blood-family is nothing but the modern nucleus family then the statement makes so much more sense. Even in the modern world we find that the parents or the co-borns have to join hands to help run the family smoothly either through taking care of the children or general household management. It is only then that the happiness increases. Of course, many people use the assistance of household-help, crèches etc but is it the same? They come to the family only through the wealth which is a total of about only 10% of the importance and can thus contribute only one small part of it through the helps etc. No wonder the happiness is always incomplete many a times.

Let us now consider V-10

After the children are born then the other factors come into consideration for happiness like personal status, vehicular pleasures and many other indications.

Table 13 : Importance Of Matters As Per V-10

The surprising thing is that the importance of evils/misfortune and wealth is down. Suddenly, it looks as if everything has an equal importance. Is this really so? Look at the Table 14 : Three Pillars Of General Happiness Through V-10.

Table 14 : Three Pillars Of General Happiness Through V-10

Everything is beautifully equal. Status and Vehicular pleasures may be shared across and would accordingly change the values. Does it not tell us that sharing our pleasures with the family would increase the overall happiness? We must not forget the cross linkages and dependencies which further enhance the happiness.

What about D-60 that indicates everything? We could distribute it across all the vargas in V-10 in the same proportion as the rest of the matters and it would not alter anything. The message remains the same.

What about the nucleus family message that was available in V-7? Is it still consistent here? A look at Table 15 : Nucleus Family In V-10confirms it. Only with the addition of blood-family can the nucleus family be complete.

Table 15 : Nucleus Family In V-10

Let us now consider V-16

When considering all matters in life in V-16 we also include Fortune, Worship, Learning, Strength & weakness, Auspicious/ & inauspicious matters in addition to all others considered in V-10.

Is there a change in the three pillars of general happiness? See this Table 16 : Three Pillars Of General Happiness Through V-16.

Table 16 : Three Pillars Of General Happiness Through V-16

Physique & health as well as self-family have perfectly equal importance whereas the importance of the blood-family seems to be now much less. This does not seem strange if we remember the cross linkages of happiness discussed earlier. We will notice that the direct responsibilities and anything to do with them always have a greater importance apparently. For instance, parents gain importance when we need their experience and help in V-10 for direct fulfillment of self-family responsibilities. Does it indicate a kind of selfishness? Not really. Let us see the importance of the other factors. See Table 17 : Importance Of Other Factors in V-16. Only two have been included as they are the ones that require direct action by an individual.

Table 17 : Importance Of Other Factors in V-16

Whom does anyone worship? Parents take the foremost place in worship followed by the Gods. We could, therefore, include this with the importance of the parents. Worship is for the general well being. Isn’t there a linkage visible now between this and other factors of happiness? What about learning? This is learning of various lessons of life and otherwise.

Let us include this in our table on the nucleus family and see the results in Table 18 : Nucleus Family In V-16

Table 18 : Nucleus Family In V-16

The importance of the both the families remained the same till V-7 but what has happened in V-16? The self-family is suddenly more important. While the cross linkages argument still holds there is another thing to be noticed. The sacrifice for learning has come in from the blood-family. Similarly the importance of auspicious & inauspicious and strength & weakness has come in from the blood-family. Does it mean that all sacrifices have to come in from the blood-family in favour of self-family? There are two ways of looking at this. First, again the cross linkages of happiness. The self-family sacrifices for the happiness ensuring that your direct responsibilities are not directly affected. They show their solidarity for you as they are responsible towards you more as you are more directly responsible for your self-family. Remember, you are the self-family of your blood-family. Second, it is to be noticed that your happiness has come in with full confirmation of the blood family. You have got your self-family because of the approval of blood-family. If you get them without the approval of the bloodfamily then the happiness in other varga groups will definitely suffer as we have seen earlier.

The message in relationships seems to say that the spouse is more important than the parents or even the co-borns individually. It only goes to show the importance of marriage and the vows that one exchanges at the time of marriage. In other words, it shows the importance of the vows, duties or dharma of a person. While you have your dharma towards your parents you also have dharma as well as vows towards your spouse and your family. This is double the responsibility. After the parents have left then it is only you, your spouse, children and your co-borns. Their teachings and your learnings from them remain to guide you and its importance does not go down. Parents generally score low in direct importance as they have voluntarily given away their child to its spouse and to its own created family.

A point to be noted is that it is always the family above the self. Evils and wealth have little importance and learnings and worship are important only after the family and self.

While this is all good in analysis and in principle, how can an astrologer use this to guide the people who approach him?

Illustration 1:

The Vimshopaka results are in Table 20 : Vimshopak for V-16 For Illustration 1 after applying the weights and Sun adjustment.

Sun adjustment is as per Rishi Parashar who has said that the strength of a planet is maximum at 180 degrees and reduces proportionately to zero closer to the Sun. This has been done using the following rules after application of the mind.

• Ve and Me go a maximum distance of 47 degrees and 27 degrees respectively. Their strength is considered maximum at 47 degrees and 27 degrees and proportions considered accordingly for D-1 for these planets.
• Sun adjustment is applied separately for the divisional charts using the 180 degrees formula for all planets.
• D-2 has a spread of 60 degrees and not 360 degrees. This means that the circle is of 60 degrees. This has been used and accordingly maximum strength is considered at 30 degrees from the Sun for D-2

The classification is based on each 2.5 difference in strength starting with Atiheen or Very Low to Very Full. The complete table is in Table 19 : Strength Classification

Table 19 : Strength Classification

Table 20 : Vimshopak for V-16 For Illustration 1 After Sun Adjustment For D-Charts

The average classification is Fair for the entire chart. The life of the person has been Fair throughout. We will notice that none of the planets are above Medium classification. Sun is the only one that is Medium. He is a middle class person with medium status and lives comfortably with lot of effort.

He left his job at the start of Jupiter dasa and branched out on his own. At the same time he gravitated towards meditation and spiritualism through an organized sect. In addition and as a result of all this he imposed a number of lifestyle restrictions on himself.

Let us see how we can help him.

The weights in Vimshopak are the maximum strength that a planet can achieve in a Varga. The actual will depend upon the dignity achieved such as exaltation, own house etc. The proportion from the maximum weight indicates the actual strength compared to the maximum possible. For example: The maximum weight for Sun in D-1 is 3.5 but the actual is 1.2 which is 1.2/3.5 or about 35% only. The complete proportions are in Table 21 : Proportions From Maximum Strength For Illustration 1.

Table 21 : Proportions From Maximum Strength For Illustration 1

Let us build the pillars from this data. They appear in Table 22 :
Three Pillars For Illustration 1.
Table 22 : Three Pillars For Illustration 1 Showing The Proportion From Maximum

Since he is also heavily into spiritualism let us also see the learning and worship group showing proportions from maximum in Table 23 : Illustration 1 : Worship

Table 23 : Illustration 1 : Worship

It will be noticed that this is the weakest in the pillars with 20% and 14% strength in Worship and Learning. These matters will therefore impact his life and not support him. This is exactly what is happening. The spouse is giving him grief in these matters and of course there is scope for improvement with children.

With Jupiter dasa running let us see what does Jupiter tell us through Table 24: Three Pillars In Jupiter Dasa For Illustration 1

Table 24: Three Pillars In Jupiter Dasa For Illustration 1

There is good support from spouse as well as better support from children. There is still scope from improvement as the strength is still in Fair classification or borderline Very Fair classification for children and Medium for spouse. It seems the self-family has reconciled and doing whatever best is possible whereas the coborns have perhaps given up. Health needs attention and is less than what is visible from the natal chart.

Let us also consider the Worship and Learning in Jupiter dasa through Table 25 : Illustration 1 Worship In Jupiter Dasa

Table 25 : Illustration 1 Worship In Jupiter Dasa

The Learning is very poor and the worship has also gone down in the sense that there is no gain in this. This will not help him and he is into it to a great extent.

What is the solution? Isn’t it now obvious! He is trying to make himself happy focusing on spiritualism, worship and learning. He is not succeeding in that. What should he do then? The leverage is available through the self family and his physique which has an importance of 17.5% each. He should focus on that. He needs to work with his children, his wife and work on his physique. That is what will give him more joy for the same quantum of effort that he is putting in worship and learning. All he needs to do is to divert some attention from worship and learning to these matters. His joy will increase multifold.

It is said in astrology that when a planet is giving you grief and taking you into a closing spiral then all you need to do is break its cycle to start the outward better spiral. This is easier said then done but not impossible many a times as in this case.