Whenever I return to the opening chapters of Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra, I feel that many students begin studying the book from the wrong place. We are impatient to reach Graha Dṛṣṭi, Bhāva results, Yogas, Daśās, Vargas and longevity, but … Read the rest

One of the most interesting connections between Pranayam and Jyotish begins with a simple observation: Yoga speaks repeatedly about Chandra and Surya inside the movement of Prana, while Jyotish speaks about Chandra and Surya as two of the most fundamental … Read the rest

One of the biggest mistakes I see while teaching Bhrigu Nandi Nadi is that students learn ten planetary combinations and immediately start predicting. Sun + Mercury means this. Venus + Saturn means that. Jupiter + Mars means something else. Very … Read the rest

Sometimes I imagine one horoscope being placed before Maharishi Parāśara, Maharishi Jaimini, Satyācārya, Varāhamihira, the Bhrigu tradition and the Siddhar tradition connected with Agastya. Would all of them begin by looking at the same thing? I don’t think so. And … Read the rest

There is one famous rule from Phaladeepika which almost every Jyotish student has heard: “A retrograde planet gives results like an exalted planet.”*l Then slowly this becomes, “Vakri means Uchcha.” Then someone sees debilitated Jupiter retrograde and immediately says, “Congratulations, … Read the rest

The more I study Viṣṇu Sahasranāma with Jyotish, meditation and Mantra Śāstra, the less comfortable I become with calling it simply a “remedy.” A remedy usually means, “I have a problem, please remove it.” But Viṣṇu Sahasranāma begins from a … Read the rest

Whenever I see Daśa Mahāvidyā explained on social media, I usually find one convenient table: Kālī for this planet, Tārā for that planet, Bagalāmukhī for enemies, Kamalā for money, and within five minutes one of the deepest Tantric traditions has … Read the rest

The deeper I go into Jyotish, the more one uncomfortable point keeps returning: sometimes the real error is not in the horoscope at all. It is in the mind of the astrologer who is reading it. Two astrologers may see … Read the rest

Over time, while chanting, teaching and contemplating Gaṇapati Atharvaśīrṣa, especially while working with its Vedic Svara, meaning, Phalaśruti and Abhiṣeka, one thing has slowly changed in my Jyotish: I no longer look at a difficult Graha only as something that … Read the rest

Most Jyotish students look at a difficult Saturn, Rahu, Ketu or 8th lord and immediately say, “Past-life karma.” But this sentence explains almost nothing.

What karma? Why this particular result? Why through marriage and not money? Why through the father … Read the rest