graha avasthA – the essence of jyotiSa

jyotiSa is all about the grahas and to be more specific all about the graha avasthA or the state of grahas at any given point in time, be it at birth, be it at the current moment or be it somehwhere in the future. So, it would not be an understatement to say that imbibing graha avasthAs, being ever counscious of how the planets are feeling and doing, is the key to the heart of jyotiSa.

There are five types of Graha Avasthās:

1. Bālādi Avasthā
2. Jāgṛatādi Avasthā
3. Dīptādi Avasthā
4. Lajjitādi Avasthā
5. Sayanādi Avasthā

Bālādi Avasthā

The literal translation of Bālādi would be something like “childhood and other”. It aludes to the maturity level a particular Graha is likely to manifest within the life of a Native. The maturity spectrum ranging from “child-like” on one end to “end-of-life” like on the other. One level not necessarily being better than the other but simply showing the maturiy level the native is likely to demonstrate in the areas of life governed by the Graha. e.g. A youthful Jupiter would be full of energy to learn, do good, change the world but at the same time lack the experience and wisdom an elderly Jupiter; and vice-versa.

The Bālādi Avasthā of a planet is determined by its rAzi placement i.e. the type (odd/even) of the rAzi and the longitudinal degree.

Bālādi Avasthā	Odd Sign	Even Sign
Balā (Childhood)	0° to 6°	24° to 30°
Kumāra (Youth)	6° to 12°	18° to 24°
Yuvā (Adult)	12° to 18°	12° to 18°
Vṛiddha (Elderly)	18° to 24°	6° to 12°
Mṛta (End of life)	24° to 30°	0° to 6°

We could hypothesize that each Graha has a particular affinity to a Bālādi Avasthā based on the Naisargika Dasha and associated planetary rulership.

The Dasha simply divides the 120-year life-span into 7 age-groups and assigns each age-group to a particular Graha (as shown below). The Naisargika Dasha is simply indiciative of an underlying current of planetary engery that every living being is likely to experience as part of their life’s journey.

We then map each age-group to a Bālādi Avasthā based on generally accepted definitions of the phases of life and associated maturity levels. This in turn gives us Bālādi Avasthā that a Graha is most likely to feel like “in own’s skin”. So, a native’s experience of Naisargika Dasha periods with Grahas in their “preferred” Bālādi Avasthās is likely to be much more fufilling than periods of Grahas that are not in their “preferred” Avasthās.

e.g. A native who runs his Jupiter dasha between ages 32 to 50 is likely to have a much more fruitful Jupiter dasha than the person who ran it during their childhood years.

Naisargika Dasha	Age / Ayu	Balādi Avasthā
Chandra / Moon	0 to 1	Balā (Childhood)
Mangal / Mars	1 to 3	Balā (Childhood)
Buddha / Mecury	3 to 12	Balā (Childhood)
Shukra / Venus	12 to 32	Kumāra (Youth)
Guru / Jupiter	32 to 50	Yuvā (Adult life)
Surya / Sun	50 to 70	Vṛiddha (Olg age)
Shani / Saturn	70 to 120	Mṛta (Nearing death)

One shouldn’t forget that although critical, avasthAs are one of many facets of chart evaluation.

In addition to the core avasthAs there are other indicative positions / states that affect the behavior of a graha.

maraNa kAraka sthAna

The maraNa kAraka sthAna is the bhava where a graha feels completely out of place and out of sorts so much so that it would figuratively rather die than be in that bhava.

Listed below are the respective maraNa kAraka sthAna for the grahas. These hold true irrespective of the type of chart (jAtaka, prazna, muhUrta) and bhava rAzi.

• Sun – 12th house
• Moon – 8th house
• Mars – 7th house
• Mercury – 7th house
• Jupiter – 3rd house
• Venus – 6th house
• Saturn – 1st house