brahma & maheswara in ayur jyotish

Brahma & Maheswara in Ayur Jyotisha© Sarajit Poddar

Brahma & Maheswara in Ayur Jyotisha © Sarajit Poddar

INTRODUCTION

Brahma and Maheswara are two key concepts in Ayur Jyotisha. We

know that in Hindu Pantheon, the Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and

Maheswara Create, Protect/ sustain and Annihilate respectively. Thus

the concept of Brahma as creater and Maheswara as the liberator are

used in some key Ayur Dasas such as Brahma, Sthira, Shoola dasa etc.

Though their importance is high, many do not venture into finding

them as they turn out to be little complicated. I tried to make this

little easier to understand and compute. With hard work and patience,

this can be learnt and applied in Ayur Jyotisha.

BRAHMA

Yagyam is the worship or praise for Prajapati the progenitor. This is

the fourth principle of Jyotish and is called Lagna or the ascendant

representing the seat of Prajapati the progenitor and the ‘praise

worthy one’. He is the (physical) creator of all beings and is a form of

Brahma. He is praised with the Gayatri mantra for His excellent

service to all creation. (Pt. Sanjay Rath)

One among these six planets (Sun to Venus) will represent Brahma

the creator, in the horoscope. Saturn being the Ayus Karaka and

having Brahma as his deity[i] cannot represent Brahma. The nodes do

not have a physical body and cannot contribute one, besides they are

actually demoniacal and have become immortal due to their ‘drinking

of the amrita’ clandestinely at the time of the churning of the

primordial ocean. (Pt. Sanjay Rath)

Saturn is the deity of Brahma and is the karaka for the Dusthana.

Thus the calculation of the Brahma involves finding out the stronger

among the three dusthana lords namely, 6th, 8th, 12th lord based on

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their placement in odd and visible signs. The predominance of Odd

and Visible signs indicates towards the masculine energy and the

power to create. If however, the condition of Odd and visible signs are

not fulfilled, the Visibility condition is dropped and if even the odd-

sign condition fails, the condition gets modified to odd-house

placement.

THE 8TH LORDSHIP IS ALWAYS SEEN IN REGULAR ORDER FOR

DETERMINATION OF BRAHMA, RUDRA or MAHESWARA AND NOT

AS PER THE VRIDDHA'S PRINCIPLE OF EIGHTH HOUSE

RECKONING.

STEPS TO IDENTIFY BRAHMA

RIDER: If the lord of the eighth house from the Atmakaraka is placed

in the eighth house itself, it disqualifies to be the Maheswara, and

instead becomes the Brahma overriding all previous conditions for

Brahma determination.

1. Determine the stronger between the lagna and seventh house as

per sources of strength and call this dominant satya peetha.

Follow the following steps to determine the stronger of 1st or 7th.

i. The sign aspected by more planets becomes stronger.

ii. The sign placed with exalted or the sign lord becomes stronger.

iii. The sign aspected by the sign lord, Jupiter or Mercury becomes

stronger.

iv. The sign whose lord is placed in sign with different oddity becomes

stronger. For example if the sign under consideration is Even, and the

lord is placed in Odd then it is stronger than if the lord has been

placed in the even sign.

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v. The sign whose lord has more longitude is stronger.

2. Identify the lords of the 6th, 8th & 12th houses from the dominant

satya peetha. Remember to consider the co-lordship of Aquarius

(Rahu) and Scorpio (Ketu) if these signs are involved.

3. Check whether any of these lords are

i. Placed in an odd sign and

ii. placed in the visible half of the zodiac from the dominant satya

peetha. The visible half of the zodiac constitutes the signs from the

7th to 12th house (the signs which are above the horizon).

4. If more than one planet becomes Brahma, check the stronger of

them to qualify for Brahma. However, if none of the 6th, 8th or 12th

lord from the dominant satya peeta, are placed in the odd & visible

sign, then move to the weaker satya peeta and check the conditions

for the 6th, 8th and 12th lord therefrom.

5. If none satisfy the odd & visible sign placement, drop the "visible

sign" condition. Now check again from the Dominant Satya Peetha, if

the lords of 6th/8th/12th placed in odd signs. If this fails, move to the

weaker Satya Peetha and check the placement of 6th/8th/12th lord in

Odd sign.

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6. If all the lords (6th/8th/12th), from both satya peetha are placed in

Even signs, then the placement of 6th/8th/12th lord in Odd "Houses"

need to be checked from the Dominant Satya Peetha and if this

condition is not met, the same is checked from weaker satya peetha.

7. If two or more planets contend for the position of Brahma, then the

strongest should be declared as Brahma.

8. Should any of the three planets Saturn, Rahu or Ketu qualifies for

the position of Brahma , then the sixth planet from it, in the order of

the reckoning of the weekdays, becomes Brahma.

i. If Saturn qualifies as Brahma , then replace Saturn with Mars.

ii. If Rahu qualifies as Brahma , then replace Rahu with Mercury.

iii. If Ketu qualifies as Brahma , then replace Ketu with Jupiter.

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MAHESWARA

There are Ekadas (11) rudras in a horoscope, each being the lord of

8th from each of the signs excluding the one which is conjoined with

Jupiter. Among them, the lord of the 8th house from the sign occupied

by Atmakaraka has the higest status among the Rudras and is called

Mahesvara.

The Bhagwat Gita also indicates this difference when Sri Krishna says,

”amongst the rudras I am çaìkara (or mahesvara)”. The philosophical

difference is that each of the other ten rudras simply destroys the

body whereas Mahesvara liberates the soul (atma) by delivering it

from the cycle of rebirth to the highest spiritual plane. (Pt. Sanjay

Rath)

RIDERS:

1. If the 8th lord from Atmakaraka is exalted or in own sign, the lord

of the 8th/12th from it, whichever is stronger, becomes Mahesvara.

This is based on the principle that the 8th lord in exaltation or in own

sign loses its sting to kill and delegates the power to another i.e. the

lord of the 8th/12th from the sign where it is placed.

2. If Rahu or Ketu becomes Mahesvara then the sixth planet counted

in the weekday order becomes the Mahesvara.

Rahu is replaced by Mercury

Ketu is replaced by Jupiter

3. If Rahu or Ketu is in the 1st/8th from Atmakaraka the sixth lord

respectively becomes Mahesvara. Here we most note that the sixth

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house is the 8th counted in the reverse direction from Atmakaraka

due to Rahu & Ketu.

Note: A planet who is qualified to become Brahma is disqualified to

become Maheswara. This can happen if the 8th lord from Atkakaraka

is in own house in 8th. For such case, the 8th lord becomes Brahma,

over-riding all conditions of Brahma determination. However for

Maheswara, we need to look at the 8th/12th lord from the disqualified

Maheswara (in the previous step).

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brahma & maheswara in ayur jyotish

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