Volume I – Lessons 1 to 45

1 Lessons On Vedic Astrology By Narasimha Rao Volume I Lessons 1 to 45 Compiled by The Students of Sri Jagannath Center-Boston Lessons On Vedic Astrology By Narasimha Rao Lessons On Vedic Astrology By Narasimha Rao Volume I ( Lessons 1 45) Compiled by The Students of Sri Jagannath Center-Boston email: iv First Print 2005 Rao, Sri Jagannath Center-Boston Published by the students of Sri Jagannath Center Boston, on the occasion of Guru Purnima: 21 July 2005. v OM SRI MAHAGANAPATHAYE NAMAH Prayer Gananaam twa Ganapatim Havamahey Kavim Kavinamupamasravastamam Jyestharajam Brahmanaam Brahmanaspata Aa Nah Sranavannutibhih Sidda Sadanam Translation: O Ganesha, Lord of all seers, praise be to Thee; Thou art Omniscient and the unmatched wisdom of the wise. Thou art the precursor (OM) of all prayers and the Lord of all souls; we pray for Thy guidance for success in all good actions.

2 Translation: O Great Men! We sing the praise of Brihaspati (the preceptor of the Gods) for the joy of learning and for success in all our good actions. He is the most respectable and the greatest. His wishes are inviolable and we gain in (spiritual) strength by following in His footsteps. vi Dedication We dedicate these efforts at the feet of our Jyotish Guru Sri. Narasimha Rao who is relentlessly working to spread the Vedic Astrology knowledge and selflessly conducting the Vedic Astrology classes in Boston, USA. vii About our Guru Sri. Rao is an engineer by profession. He did his bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. He did his masters from Rice University, Houston, USA. He works as a software engineer near Boston, USA. He is seriously interested in Jyotish and Sanskrit Literature.

3 His academic record includes two diplomas equivalent to bachelor s degree in Sanskrit at a young age: Sanskrita Bhaashaa Kovida diploma from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan at the age of 10 and Sanskrita Bhaashaa Visaarada diploma from board of Baroda at the age of 11. He has learnt Vedic Astrology from his father Subrahmanyachalapathi Rao, and Rath, Founder of Sri Jagannath Center . Narasimha Rao is an ardent student of Jyotish and is designated Jyotish Guru at Sri Jagannath Center . viii ixPREFACE We are very happy to present this work for the rest of the Vedic Astrology student community. We the students of SJC-Boston group are very fortunate to have a Jyotish Guru like Sri. PVR Narasimha Rao, teach us the concepts in Vedic Astrology from ground zero. We have been maintaining the mp3 audio of these Lessons at we hope this book to supplement the mp3 audio. Suddenly we realized that when we wanted to go back and listen to a particular concept, it has been very difficult to track where that concept was talked about and in which lesson .

4 So, it was an idea to provide a summary of each class highlighting the topics covered and the keynotes for each of the classes. That is the purpose of this book. A different student summarized each lesson and we tried to keep the overall format of the structure very similar. But, there would be some differences in the presentation due to individual s style of writing. Each of the classes has several important concepts covered, examples solved along with key points in astrology that were relevant to the topic of discussion but, not really part of the concept that was being talked about. The intention was to capture all those points under key points section. In most cases other than the obvious the name of the person in the example charts is left out in this book so that, the listener of the audio will not be biased while analyzing the chart. In this Volume we are capturing all Lessons from 1 through 45 which were taught between 6 May 2004 and 12 June 2005.

5 Appendix A highlights all the abbreviations used in this book. Appendix B is gives quick reference of all the Lessons with example chart s data. We are extremely thankful to Sri. Narasimha Rao for teaching the classes to benefit all astrology students. We are thankful to Pt. Sanjay Rath for the astrology conferences and allowing us to associate with Sri Jagannath Center for learning of Vedic Astrology. We are extremely thankful to Iyer of Sri Jagannath Center for readily accepting our request to provide the guidance in putting together this material. Our thanks to Master Manasvi Putcha and to Chitra for the graphics on the cover design and the Audio CD preparation. x Our sincere thanks to Sri. Prabhu Hingorani and Smt. Savitri Hingorani of Sadhu Vaswani Center, Dracut, Massachusetts, USA for giving us the premises free of cost for conducting the astrology classes. Any mistakes in this book are totally on that part of us, the students and will rectify them in due course.

6 Students of Narasimha SJC-Boston 21 July 2005. xiCONTENTS lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # lesson # xii Appendix A: Glossary: .. 212 Appendix B: Quick Reference .. 214 lesson #1 Compiled by Palanivelu Topics Covered: 1. Mantras for learning astrology. 2. Introduction to Vedic astrology (basic concepts). Key Points: 1. Lord Ganesha/Ganapathi is the deity for learning astrology. The associated mantra is "Om sri mahaganapataye namah". 2. Recite the parampara mantra "Hare Rama Krishna". [This is the moola mantra for the "Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare; Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare" maha mantra.]

7 ] This moola mantra tells you that, you have to analyze a horoscope from three different standpoints, namely, Lagna (Hari), Su (Rama), Mo (Krishna). Su represents atma, Mo represents the mind and Lagna (ASC) represents the physical body. These three form the tripod of life. 3. Another mantra to recite regularly is "Om Shleem Dhleem Jjyotirbraahmaaya Namah", which will make the derivation of knowledge from the universal light. 4. Another mantra is "Om Shreem Dhleem Medhadakshinamurthaye Namah" to remove the confusion in the mind of astrologers. 5. Recite these mantras 108 times (or 11 times, if 108 times if not possible). If you want you can also add "Om" in front of it, to safeguard from the mistakes. 6. There are 12 Rasis (signs) and 9 planets. The planets are Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Ju and Sa. Two more planets, Ra and Ke are used, which are not physical objects. These are points where the Moon s orbit around the earth intersects the plane of the earth s orbit around the Su.

8 They are also called chaya grahas as these are formed of shadows. 7. The entire zodiac is divided into 12 equal parts (each of 30 degrees) and each such part is called a rasi (sign). The first sign is Ar (Ar) and is also called Mesha in Sanskrit. Mesha spans 0 to 30 degrees. The next part is Taurus (Ta) or Vrishabha from 30 to 60 degrees. The subsequent Rasis in order are Gemini (Ge) or Mithuna, Cancer or Karkataka, Leo (Le) or Simha, Virgo (Vi) or Kanya, Libra (Li) or Tula, Scorpio (Sc) or Vrishchika, Sagittarius (Sg) or Dhanush, Capricorn (Cp) or Makara, Aquarius (Aq) or Kumbha and Pisces (Pi) or Meena. These divisions are based on real stars in the sky. 8. The book Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra (BHPS) is like a bible of astrology. Lessons on Vedic Astrology 2 9. ASC is a very important point and it shows you, self. All the other planets show other people or circumstances that are influencing you. So positions of the nine planets (in their respective signs) around the Lagna at the time of birth of a person, constitutes a rasi Chart.

9 Similarly, rasi charts can be drawn for a group of people or a country. For example, the moment when certain persons got together and declared the formation of a party is the moment of the birth of the party and will determine the fortunes of it. 10. Lagna takes approximately 1 whole day to go around the zodiac and come back to the same point. For Mo it is about 29 days, for Su about 365 days (1 year), for Ma about years, for Me and Ve about 1 year, for Ju about 12 years and finally for Sa approximately 30 years. Ra and Ke each take 18 years to go around the zodiac once, approximately. 11. The periods when transit Sa is posited in three signs , the sign behind the Moon, the sign of the Mo and the sign ahead of the Mo are called Sade-Sati period. This period is important because Mo is the significator of the mind and Saturn s placement in these signs may cause much trouble to mind. So each Sade-sati period is for years and the total is years for one full rotation of the zodiac.

10 12. From the earth, if a planet appears to go backward, it is called Vakri or retrograde. The process of retrogression is called vakra-gamanam. 13. According to the shastras, the whole universe is made of a material called Narayana. Out of it, only 1/8th part is perceivable by us and it is called Vasudeva. The rest of Narayana cannot be perceived by ordinary mortals. 14. Jupiter, the Brihaspati, is the teacher of gods, represents our intelligence and power of discretion. Venus, Sukracharya, the teacher of the demons, represents the demonic / Rajasik qualities in us. The Su represents the atma / soul, the Mo represents the mind 15. In Vedic astrology, there are so-called Varga chakras or divisional charts that we create for a person in addition to the rasi Chart, and in these charts the ASC changes in few minutes. According to maharshis of our tradition, the rasi chart shows our physical existence and health ( physical manifestation) and each of the Varga chakras represents a specific area of our lives education, career, marriage etc.