Srinkhala

Over the years of my Jyotish journey, I have realized that Srinkhala is a very important concept and also one of the least understood and least used concepts in Jyotish analysis. I struggled to find any classical references to it or even a small commentary on it over the internet. However, I was disappointed. Over the Yahoo groups, many people have asked me to explain what ‘Srinkhala’ is whenever they see me using this term in my analysis/comments on a chart. Hence, I decided to put together my understanding of this for the benefit of other students of Jyotish.

Unique features of a twin's chart

(published in Saptarishis astro magazine Aug. 2008 issue)

Charts of twins have challenged astrologers since ages. It has been observed that many twins have lived quite different lives over time. People talk about looking into either varga charts or cuspal links to understand the differences in their charts as well as in their lives. However, the focus of this research is not on that but something even more basic. The purpose was to check if the planets leave any specific foot-prints in the charts of twins. Some basic questions that came up were – what are the special characteristics of a twin’s natal chart? Is it possible to know through astrology whether the twins are identical or fraternal? and what the sex of the babies could be? The search for answers began. What was found may not necessarily be the complete blueprint of a twin’s chart. At the same time, it is believed that some clear watermarks could be found in such charts.

Some Basics of Astrology Revisited - I

After I started learning Astrology, I came across many assumptions like twelve signs and what they represent in our lives and their classification, nine planets, their properties and how they affect our lives etc. But, there was no real reference to explain why 12 houses represent what they represent and why these planets affect us the way they affect us. The general belief is that this is the knowledge handed over to us by our sages and we follow them. And, this knowledge was handed over to our sages by none other than Brahma himself. All that is fine. But, my problem was that I could not find the basis for all these assumptions on the physical plane. As these planets affect us on the physical plane, there should be some way to explain their properties on the physical plane. Because, everything that exists in this universe – stars, planets, us, all objects… are all energy forms and energy forms constantly interact with each other in this universe through radiation. Each and every object in this universe emits radiation. There should be a logical method to explain the effect of planets on us. Only, we don’t know it very well today. It is a humungous task to find plausible explanation of each and every assumption that we make in Astrology. It could consume the time of many over many births to find all answers. Nevertheless, I wanted to make a start and see what is that I can discover during my lifetime.

When big age difference with the partner does not matter!

It is very interesting to note that many times people develop a relationship with either people much older than they are or with people much younger than they are. This applies to individuals of either sex. Though this kind of relationship is not very common, we do find such relationships in our society. The question is what drives such alliances? In some poor families where the poor parents almost sell their young daughters for material gains in the guise of a relationship. That is purely exploitation. In some other cases it could be exploitation by muscle power. In other cases it is purely by mutual attraction and consent.

I would like to exclude such cases driven by exploitation and focus on relationships developed between two mature individuals with mutual consent for the current scope of study. Most likely, in such cases, the decisions are likely to be emotionally driven than anything else. Obviously, Moon should play an important role here. Also, such people break the norms of the society, go ahead and demonstrate that they are different. Undoubtedly, one could imagine the influence of Rahu in such situations. I also wanted to look for the combinations for love marriage showing up as these relationships are usually developed between them rather than arranged. Another key player would be Saturn. Saturn is the planet that represents aging.

Small Problem, Big Headache! (Dandruff)

In our life, many a times, we encounter problems which are not of life and death in nature or serious enough to go to a Doctor or even an Astrologer in a hurry. But, they keep on nagging and even become a source of embarrassment at times. Especially, Astrologers who face serious questions of life everyday wouldn’t be bothered by their clients for such ‘silly matters’. I picked up one such issue for study as this nagging problem was troubling my daughter.

Ever wondered what common problem is troubling/troubled these celebrities – Bill Gates, Brad Pitt, Gordon Brown and John Lennon? No, it is nothing to do with Fame, Following or Fortune. It is Dandruff! Yes, all these men suffer(ed) from the same problem. It is not difficult to find someone with dandruff problem even in our own home or in the neighbourhood. Yet, no one has formulated any Astrological Combination for dandruff problem. As I said earlier, probably no one thought this subject is important enough to take up for study. Anyway, people who really suffer from this problem might disagree. According to Proctor and Gamble, it affects more than 50% of the population of the USA! The number could be similar in India as well.

Mahatma Gandhi and Bandhana Yoga

Ever since I stumbled up on Bandhana Yoga (ref: Please read my earlier article from July 2007 for the definition of Bandhana Yoga), I always wondered if it possible to explain this Yoga using Mahatma Gandhi’s chart, as all of us know that Mahatma Gandhi was arrested multiple times through out his life. He was not only arrested by British in India, he was also arrested by South African regime in South Africa. Hence, it is very interesting to view Mahatma Gandhi’s Chart from the angle of Bandhana Yoga. Initially, when I looked at this chart, I failed to recognise the yoga formation. Probably, I didn’t look carefully enough and I might have not looked at both Rasi and Bhava charts. I was also thinking that the birth time of Mahatma Gandhi that we have today is not quite reliable (Refer to details given in Astrodatabank). May be because of this reason I did not look at his chart hard enough. After I wrote my article on Bandhana Yoga, I decided to take a closer look at Mahatma Gandhi’s chart. To my surprise, I found more than one combinations of Bandha Yoga in his chart! His Yoga formation is not very strong (not strictly as per classical definition, unlike that of Nelson Mandela or Suu Kyi) and I attribute this reason for his short stints behind the bars. Astrodabank gives 7:11:48 am LMT as the birth time with the following comments to arrive at the correct birth time of Mahatma Gandhi: