As a research Astrologer, I have been evaluating horoscopes for more than 50 years and I have found there are lot of misconceptions or myths in Astrology which are used to frighten the unsuspecting public by wayside astrologers.
Kuja Dosha (Manglik)
It is most unfortunate that in India, we are led to believe many frightening theories as being originated from a divine science like Astrology by astrologers who are not well enlightened on this subject and the most important among them is the Kuja Dosha also known as Manglik in Northern India and many matching horoscopes are declared unfit by wayside astrologers for marriage on account of this.
The placement of Mars in 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th house is considered as a horoscope with Kuja Dosha in general since astrologers attribute a sense of maleficence to Mars as one planet capable of causing death and therefore placement in the above houses brings deathlike instances in life, it is believed. There are minor variations in this theory from place to place, but people in general are frightened of this dosha. And the astrologers make a hayday by pronouning cancellation of this dosha by theories like if Mars is aspected or having conjunctions with benefic planets like Mercury, Jupiter or Venus and certain other reasons of Mars being in own house, in exaltation or having good Yogas or combinations in the horoscope.
The funny thing is astrologers attribute this dosha or defect only in female horoscopes as one capable of killing their husbands and not vice versa. This was predominately due to male supremacy prevalent in the olden days and females were considered only as a helping media for procreation and continuance of the human race without any individuality or personality assigned to them in a male dominated society.
Often the Astrologers take the help of Parashara or Varahamihira to prove their point. Usually they have only a very faint idea about the science of Astrology. The axioms in astrology were sometimes not very consistent and there were translation errors and often misinterpreted.
In Brihat Parasara Horasastra, chapter 81, verse 47 said the following: “If Mars is placed in the Lagna, 12th, 4th, 7th and 8th houses, without any aspect or conjunction of the benefic planets, the husband of such a woman will certainly have an early death.” So it is clear that if Mars has the aspect or association of a benefic, there is no dosha. It must be noted that in the very next verse, verse 48, he gave the other important exception as follows: “The yoga in which a woman takes birth and becomes a widow, if a male takes birth, he also becomes a widower. If a woman with the widowhood yoga marries a man with similar yoga, such yoga will be cancelled.” So the 2nd exception given by him is that this feared dosha is cancelled if both the girl and the boy have mangal dosha.
There are 12 houses in a horoscope and as Mars in 6 houses causes Kuja Dosha, it simply means that 50% of the people born have Kuja Dosha of some degree with varying strength. Therefore it goes without saying that this Dosha is not something which will ruin a person, because it is not the intention of God to condemn half of mankind. The most prevalent belief is that those with Mars afflictions will not get along well with in laws and there are possibilities that they will cause the death of their husbands or wives.
Mars generally gives aggressive tendencies to either the person or the spouse particulary in the respective houses in which they are placed. In certain cases if Mars is malefic to the native, it can cause danger to life, provided that other bad combinations are also present. In the olden days the ideal wife was regarded as one who is meek, obedient and submissive. Hence a girl with the so called Martian afflictions, who is likely to have courage and fighting spirit, was considered by our male chauvanistic society as a girl with Afflictions. The second possible reason is that during the war torn middle ages when a lot of the sastras were written, a “Martian person”, who is normally well built, courageous, aggressive and has fighting qualities, was a prime candidate to be recruited by the king for his army and hence the chances of his death or serious injury were quite strong. In the present changed circumstances it is foolishness of the highest order to be scared simply because one has Kuja Dosha or a Manglik.
However, Kuja Dosha is not something that can be ignored. It does cause marital discord. Before marriage it is very essential to match horoscopes for Kuja Dosha. If a person has Kuja Dosha in the horoscope the spouse must also have Kuja Dosha. This way the Dosha is cancelled. Otherwise both should be without any Dosha. Various “authorities and experts” have given a lot of exceptions and cancellations for the Dosha. They are so many that almost everything is cancelled! The truth is that in majority of the cases the so called exceptions and cancellations do not work.
Under the circumstances, I would consider matching of horoscopes should be done using different algorithms as is illustrated in my article on this site “Marriage Failures – How Astrology can Help”
Rakshasagana (Asuragana)
The second major misgiving while matching horoscopes for marriage is Rakshasagana. Once again this becomes a highly objectionable thing in case of a girl. Just because humans are classed into Deva, Manushya or Asura gana, it does not mean that they inherit the qualities of such words. It is similar to the ABC classifications in Inventory control system or the days of week attributed to the planets. Sunday does not have all the qualities of Sun, nor Monday has all the qualities of Moon etc.
While matching horoscopes for a marriage under the Koota matching system, the birth stars in which the Moon is placed at the time of birth, called Janma Nakshatra, in which the bride and bridegroom are born, are analyzed and matched for various compatibility factors. One of them is the Ganas of the nakshatra. All the 27 Nakshatras come under 3 groups. They are Deva Gana, Manushyagana and Asuragana. If both bride and bridegroom are born in the same Gana then the matching is supposed to be the best. So the best combination is Deva-Deva, Manushya – Manushya and Asura-Asura. In the Gana matching this combination gets 4 out of 4 points. The next best is between Deva-Manushya and Manushya-Asura. This gets a score of 2 out of 4 points. The last and worst combination is Deva-Asura which gets a score of 0 out of 4 points. This is as per the detailed South Indian Dasha Koota matching system. In the North Indian Ashtakoota Matching system the Gana matching is allotted 6 points and you get either 6, 3 or 0.
Unfortunately too much importance is given to this Gana matching because of two reasons. Firstly as in case of Kuja Dosha, the person born under Asuragana has more confident and aggressive tendencies and hence this becomes a major disqualification for a girl. Secondly a good Gana matching enhances prosperity. However, what the average public and even a lot of astrologers fail to take into account is the fact that, out of the total 35 point Koota matching, the Gana matching carries only 3 points. What is even more important is the fact that out of the 9 planets we are only taking into account the Ganas of the stars in which the Moon is placed at birth and totally ignoring the Ganas of the stars in which the balance 8 planets are placed.
Hence it is meaningless to attach too much importance to Gana dosha. Needless to say, different algorithms must be used for horoscope matching.
Sadesati
One of the most terrible periods, according to the believers in astrology, is the dreaded 7-1/2 years of Saturn transit called “Sadesati” in North India and “Elinatishani” in South India. When the transiting Saturn transits the 12th, 1st and 2nd houses from one’s Rasi, i.e., where one’s Moon is placed in the birth chart, it is called Sadesati. ( Saturn takes 30 years to make one round of the zodiac hence 2-1/2 years in each sign multiplied by 3 = 7-1/2 years). Why Moon is taken as the base is still not clear at all. If at all some base should be taken, it should be the Lagna or the Ascendant.
While it is true that during this 7-1/2 years Saturn transit period people do experience some tensions and troubles, it is nothing to be scared of. On an average every man has to go through at least 2 sadesatis during his life time. The results of the sadesati transit vary considerably from person to person depending on the planetary configurations in one’s birth chart. Even while giving some troubles and tensions, it does not deny you success. For example when Mrs. Indira Gandhi became a Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting in 1964, she was going through her Sadesati! In January 1966 when she became Prime Minister she was still going through her Sadesati!! There are thousands of people who not only got away scot-free during sadesati, but actually prospered during it. You always have some prosperity in respect of some houses and some adversity in respect of some other houses. This is a universal phenomenon.
All kinds of dreadful results are forecast by the astrologers to scare the people and apart from living under fear, people spend a lot of money quite unnecessarily on all kinds of remedies. Actually the pundits love Saturn, Mangal, Rahu and Ketu, the fearsome four names in Indian astrology, as they have given more money to them by way of remedies than the benefic like Jupiter, Venus or the Sun!
There are plenty of remedies for sadesati, the most effective being the daily reciting of Hanuman Chalisa or the Sani mantra, it is believed.
Saturn, which according to Hindu mythology is the son of Sun God, is an excellent planet. No other planet can give what Saturn can. In fact having a well placed Saturn in one’s chart is one of the best things to hope for! When Mrs. Indira Gandhi re-elected PM, she was going through the mahadasa of Saturn. When Amitab Bacchan was at his peak, he was also going through Saturn mahadasa. Unfortunately people and the pundits ignore the positive side of Saturn and project it only as an evil planet.
Kaalasarpa dosha:
This is another highly feared combination. Ancient classics of astrology have not even mentioned it! Yet it has become one of the most feared doshas, because Kaal means death and Sarpa means snake. When all planets are sandwiched between Rahu and Ketu, Kaalasarpa Dosha is supposed to be caused. This is considered a very bad yoga which gives rise to misfortunes and is supposed to be a major obstruction to ones progress. This dosha is said to be severe when all planets are within the arc from Rahu to Ketu in their natural direction of motion which is retrograde in nature.
There are supposed to be 12 types of Kalasarpa doshas, based on the placement of rahu from the lagna to the 12th house. These 12 have been named after 12 fearful sounding snakes: Anant, Kulik, Vasuki, Shankhapal, Padma, Mahapadma, Takshak, Karkataka, Shankhanaad, Patak, Vishakata and Sheshanag. It is not known who invented all these, but rest assured that it is none of the Rishis from Parashara to Varahamihira. The latest astro-stunt by the “Pundits” is the introduction of “partial kalasarpa dosha”. The basics parameters of this are undefined, so anyone may have it!! A lot of unscrupulous astrologers are scaring people about this dosha and extracting money for the so called remedies. The remedy of course depends and varies according to the financial status of the innocent victim!
From practical point of view this is not found to be anything which will mar your march to progress. I know of horoscopes of a lot of people who have this so called dosha and are doing quite well in life. One of the most notable exceptions is the horoscope of Jawaharlal Nehru, the late prime minister of India. If someone can rise to that level with Kaalasarpa yoga, then it’s not a really bad one altogether.
Yogas or Combinations
Most astrologers pacify their customers telling them that they have Yogas in their horoscope. There are more than 300 combinations in Astrology. Some of the best yogas are Gaja Kesary Yoga, Rajayoga, Vipareetha Rajayoga and Pancha mahapurusha yogas and Neecha bhanga rajayoga. These yogas manifest when planets are placed in certain quardrants or trines, while in exaltation or debilitation or having some particular positioning in the horoscopes which are well founded by mathematical logic.
Unfortunately astrologers hardly tell their customers the strength of these yogas in their horoscope and they are generally led to believe that it has 100% strength. But in most cases, it is not so and astrologers do not bother to calculate or are unaware of how to calculate the strength of these yogas. But to the clients, it is soothening to hear that they have Yogas in their horoscopes and are well pleased on hearing it. Most of the yogas are a myth if it does not have at least some 35% strength.
Is Death an Unpleasant Experience
Anything which goes out from your body like Phlegm, Pus, Gas, vomiting etc. produces relief which is something which creates happiness. You feel relieved after such throwing outs from the body. How a mother is relieved and be happy when the baby is delivered! And similarly sweating when it is very hot gives you relief when the sweat comes out through the pores of the skin. And while your bladder is full, urine, when it goes out, you enjoy it and the same is true while defecating. While having sex when the semen is ejaculated, you have the height of happiness associated with some ecstatic movements of your body. And logic says that anything which goes out from the body, you are provided with happiness to accompany it and Death is your life going out of your body, in other words Life gets a release from the bondage of human body and that is the most ecstatic of all happiness. So never worry about Death. That is the most pleasant experience one could have in his life.
Wearing Navaratna Ring for propitiating Planets.
I have found thousands of people wearing a Navaratna ring with all the nine precious stones embedded in it thinking that all the nine planets will bless them simultaneously and they can rise in life and live happily thereafter. Wearing a gem if at all it is useful to make a planet potent, wearing all of the gems to make all planet potent is tantamount to taking multivitamin tablets little realising that if you have satisfactory levels of any vitamin, the body has to exert too much to throw out the excess of vitamins through your kidney thus adding pressure to the human system and this makes the body weaker and it will have the opposite effect of what you expect to happen. So is wearing a Navaratna Ring which will be counter productive in all cases.
Human beings generally tend to emulate celebrities who are either people holding high positions or laurels to their credit. It does not mean that all celebrities have excellent horoscopes. Many of the successful politicians have a weak horoscope and what they excel in is only in one of the fields or astrologically telling one of the houses. Many of the politicians have a weak moral, some very corrupt and some rather illiterate but have the inherent capacity to lead people. Many of the celebrities have a weak marital bliss or a poor heath or a very unsatisfactory family life.
Beware Astrology is only good for evaluating yourselves and you cannot improve upon it by doing anything. You are just being forewarned about your life and you have to tune it accordingly to accept both defeat and success with the same ease. After all you live only for 33 seconds as per the Cosmic Clock when you say the average life span is about 75 years of earthly life.
Wishing all the readers of this article the best of health and wealth and whatever they wish for.
I am a retired Software architect with more than 57 years of experience in Software development, EDP Management and MIS starting from 1964 and belong to the first batch of computer professionals in India. Astrological research is my hobby. I am 77+ years young.
I have devised a scientific and mathematical method of evaluating a horoscope similar to a Mark Sheet you receive from Board of Schools or Universities after you complete a degree or diploma course of study, using which you will know where you stand among your peers.
I do not believe in remedies to propitiate the planets or Gods by shortcut means like wearing a Gemstone, or doing Poojas and Homa using a middleman like a priest or pundit or anyone who has made it a profession. Nor do I believe in penance or sacrifices done by hurting yourself or someone else. I believe that Prayers to God by the self is the only means of getting His blessings which can ease our problems of mind and body and help us in happy living. Brokers are never entertained by God in this regard.
You can contact me on Whatsapp +91 9847823847 to get my book on “Astrology – A new Version” which contains details of Scientific Evaluation of a Horoscope and related articles.
