About Alison Bodhani

Alison Bodhani started college at the age of sixteen at Simon’s Rock of Bard College in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and has a Masters in counseling from Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She began studying Vedic Astrology in 1998 with masters of the subject, chiefly Hart de Fouw and Narendra Desai. She has also studied and practiced complementary healing and consciousness expanding traditions including ayurveda, yoga, and shamanism and uses them all to create unique sessions for her clients. She has practiced since 1999 and has taught for the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, NM as well as for various other organizations.

Kalā means performing arts and refers to the 64 classical skills/arts (Chatushashta Kalas) in traditional Hindu scriptures. In ancient India, learning and knowledge of the 64 Kala was a cornerstone in developing a cultured individual in society. Texts like Kamasutra stress on how 64 Kalas would shape an individual.

Lord Krishna possessed all 64 Kalas, and there is an anecdote of Lord Krishna and Balrama learnt the 64 kalas in 64 days, including 14 Vidhyas, at Guru Sandipani’s ashram. Each of these would take a person two and a half years to accomplish.

Nidhi means treasure. Thus, Kalānidhi Yoga means a “treasure of skill.” Skill is defined at dictionary.com as:

1. The ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well.
2. Competent excellence in performance; expertness; dexterity.
3. A craft, trade, or job requiring manual dexterity or special training in which a person has competence and experience.

Kalānidhi yoga is defined in two ways. First, as Jupiter in the second house or fifth house associated or aspected by Mercury and Venus; second, as Jupiter occupying a rashi of Mercury or Venus.

The latter definition becomes more significant when Jupiter occupies such a rashi and occupies the second or fifth house, or aspects the second house, fifth house, ascendant, or ascendant lord. However, even if Jupiter simply occupies a rashi of Mercury or Venus in any house, one will usually find the person has cultivated a special skill even if it only appears as an avocation. They may be an excellent gardener, graphic artist or something of that nature.

Kalānidhi Yoga emphasizes the influence of Mercury and Venus on Jupiter with the involvement of houses of learning and creativity. Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter are the triumvirate of planets that produce interest in knowledge and the arts and the ability to cultivate such interests. Following are the charts of famous people whose lives clearly demonstrate skill.

Examples: Steve Jobs

Inventor of all things “i”, Jobs has a potent Kalānidhi Yoga. Jupiter is in Gemini, the sign of Mercury, it is retrograde, increasing its strength, and it aspects the fifth house from the eleventh. Venus sits in the fifth aspecting back onto Jupiter. Both planets are located with innovative and yoga-intensifying nodes. Plus Jupiter aspects the Sun in the seventh, who is the ascendant lord, thereby tying the yoga directly to Jobs. One of the skills on the list of sixty-four kalas is “the creation of simple mechanical objects”. While Jobs’s objects may not be simple in and of themselves, he did gear his creations in the direction of the greatest simplicity or user-friendliness possible, and his ability to do so has been one of the chief features of his success.

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is one of the most successful, renowned Hollywood directors of all time. The gross receipts on his movies exceed 8 billion dollars. His movie, Jaws, was a huge innovation in film style that had not been seen before. He has made many of America’s iconic films, including Jaws, E.T., and The Color Purple. He also has a great Kalānidhi Yoga. Jupiter is in Venus sign with Venus in the fifth house and Jupiter aspects the first house, tying this yoga.

directly to the person. The fifth house is the premier house of creativity and entertainment and also the house of the intellectual mind.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest universal geniuses of all time. He remains legendary today for his painting, his mathematical abilities and his inventions, but he was also skilled in numerous fields including writing, music, botany, sculpture and architecture. He has a Sarasvatī Yoga formed by Jupiter in the fourth, Mercury in the fifth and Venus in Taurus in the seventh, making also a Mālavya Yoga. His Jupiter is in Aquarius, only the sign of a neutral.

planet to Jupiter, but Jupiter can function like it is exalted in Aquarius, so it is a special exception. Mercury is debilitated but it has nīca bhaṅga from both Venus and Jupiter. Mercury in Pisces can represent a diversified thinker because fish, the symbol of Pisces, breed in hordes, so often the mind of a debilitated Mercury person has hordes of thoughts. This can make someone ditsy and disorganized or multifaceted and brilliant depending on other indications in the chart. Albert Einstein also had a Sarasvatī Yoga with Jupiter in Aquarius and Mercury in Pisces. One difference between Einstein and da Vinci is that da Vinci’s lagna lord is Mars exalted in the third house of skills whereas Einstein’s chart is ruled by debilitated Mercury, so da Vinci had hands on practical skill as well as diversified intelligence, whereas Einstein was primarily a thinker and not at all practical in his own life.