Arudha Use and Definition

Arudha Use and Definition
Namaste friends,

There has been a lot of discussion today on Pt Sanjay Rath's teachings on arudhas. The "maya" or illusion thing in his teachings is a subtle point that may have been misunderstood by some . As Pt Rath does not seem to read this yahoogroup, I will try to clarify his views as understood by me, as one of his students.

Let me explain this with an example. The 5th house is supposed to show one's abilities. If you look at the 5th house in a person's D-10, for example, it can show the person's abilities. But, how do we define the abilities? How do we measure them? Are the awards won by an actor supposed to show his abilities? Is the promotion somebody got at work supposed to show one's abilities?

Similarly, the 4th house in D-24 shows learning. But, how do we define and identify learning? What exactly is learning? Does it mean going to school or college? Does it mean taking a course? Can learning take place without school or college or course?

Basically, the idea is that one's true abilities and true learning are hidden inside one and not visible to the world. The houses from lagna show various qualities of true self that is hidden inside the person. However, there are tangible and often meaurable ways in which these qualities manigest and these manifestations can be seen by the world.

The world cannot see, touch, feel and perceive one's true abilities or true intelligence or communication skills or happiness or learning etc. They are all "intangibles". And the world judges those things by observing certain tangibles that can be seen, touched, felt or perceived. For example, the awards, prizes and promotions one gets are tangible, observable and measurable. World associates them with one's abilities. The school one fgoes to, the course one takes etc are tangibles and often associated with learning. One's happiness from vehicle is intangible, but the vehicle itself one has is a tangible. World tries to judge the vehicular happiness from the vehicle. In reality, someone owning a scooter may be far happier with his vehicle than someone owning a BMW car.

Thus, qualities of true self that is hidden inside one are shown by houses from lagna and tangible things based on which the world gets a measure or sense of those qualities are shown by the corresponding arudhas.

Arudha literally means "the risen one". While one's true qualities are hidden inside one, the associated tangibles rise materially and become visible. Arudhas are not necessarily people's perceptions. They are tangible articles that form people's perceptions.

I'll try to give some examples later.

This is the way we use arudhas in our tradition. Of course, you may take it or leave it! As there is no clear dictum anywhere regarding the use of arudhas, I cannot debate this with anyone. I can only clarify how we use them.

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The exceptions in arudha calculation are not Sanjay's creation as someone said. Several popular versions of BPHS contain them. Some commentaries on Jaimini Sutras also contain them.

The corresponding sutras are Jamini are 1.1.30-32: (1) yaavadeesaasrayam padamrikshaanaam (2) swasthe daaraah, and, (3) sutasthe janma.

There is no controversy in the first sutra. The 2nd and 3rd sutras are interpreted differently by scholars.

Swastha daarah means "if in swa, then daraah". Sutasthe janma means "if in suta, then janma".

The literal meanings of swa, daaraah, suta and janma are 1st, 7th, 5th and 1st. The coded meanings using katapayaadi coding are 4th, 4th, 7th, 10th.

Jaimini commentators like the great Neelakantha and Dr PS Sastri have mixed the literal meanings and coded meanings. They took the 4 words to mean 4th, 7th, 7th and 1st. In other words, 1.1.31 means that the arudha is in 7th if lord is in 4th and 1.1.32 means that the arudha is in 1st if lord is in 7th.

With due respect to Jaimini commentators who took this position, I find two big problems in this view:

(1) Jaimini said at the beginning of his classic that he would code all the numbers, rasis and houses in his sutras. To take some house numbers as coded and some as literal does not look logical.

(2) As per this interpretation, rules 1.1.31 and 1.1.32 add nothing new to what is said 1.1.30. They merely illustrate a couple of sub-cases. I find it absurd to think that Jaimini would waste two aphorisms to illustrate another aphorism. Jaimini is very terse with words. Jaimini uses a new sutra only to add some information.

For these two reasons, I reject the interpretation by Neelakantha and Dr Sastri.

Pt. Sanjay Rath's interpretation comes from our tradition. It uses the coded meanings of all the 4 words and does not mix coded and literal meanings. Moreover, his interpretation matches what was much more clearly taught by Parasara in the most popular versions of BPHS. So it is a very logical interpretation and I accept it.

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Arudhas of various houses from various planets are allowed in our tradition, though they were not explicitly granted by classics. For example, 4th from Venus shows a certain thing and its arudha shows a tangible manifestation of that. The 10th from Moon shows a certain thing and its arudha shows a tangible manifestation of that. Especially, arudhas of various houses from Moon and Sun are popular along with arudhas of various houses from lagna. However, these are very subtle concepts and could easily be misunderstood. So we often do not talk about them and stick to arudhas of houses from lagna.

If someone says that he saw arudha of chandra lagna mentioned somewhere, I am not at all surprised.

May Jupiter's light shine on us,
Narasimha