from Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time
- ch. 2: A Profile of Guru's Life


Swami Paramananda Saraswati

Early Childhood
Young Mrinal Kanti, as was his name before he got his Sannyas (monk) name, was born with a Moon so dangerously placed* and aspected by Saturn and Mars, that if he survived that difficult period, it must have been because of the presense of Jupiter in the 8th house (longevity), vargottama± Sun, and vargottama 9th lord Mars. His father, Nadia Bihari Das, had once taken the ailing child, whom no one was able to cure, to the sacred river Ganga, dipped him thrice and prayed, "Mother, you decide either to save him or kill him." Thereafter, the child Mrinal recovered but a damaged liver became his lifelong companion. Karakamsha† in Mithuna (Gemini) with one malefic and two benefics aspected by Jupiter‡ saved him without allowing him to have a normal liver.

Natal chart

Navamsha chart

- K.N. Rao
reprinted with permission

Notes by Vaughn Paul Manley:

* The Moon is at 0 degrees 6 minutes of Leo. This is gandanta, which is either 29+ degrees of a water sign or 1 degrees or less of a fire sign. It is the junction between not only two signs (water and fire) but 2 sets of nine nakshatras (lunar constellations). This is an unstable placement for a planet. In this case, K.N. Rao is pointing out that not only is the Moon aspected by two malefics, Saturn and Mars, but it is dangerously placed in gandanta. This is a dangerous arishta yoga, or combination for ill health.

± Vargottama literally means the "best division." When a planet is vargottama it means that it is placed in the same sign in both the natal chart and the navamsha chart (9th division). However, a planet can be called vargottama relative to any divisional chart. For instance, it could be said that a planet is vargottama in the dashamsa chart (10th division).

† The karakamsha is an important technique used the Jaimini system. Jaimini is another system in Vedic astrology with different rules than the Parashari system, which is the most commonly used system. The karakamsha is the sign where the atmakaraka (planet with the highest degrees) is placed in the navamsha chart. A common use of the karakamsha, that K.N. Rao recommends, is to place the karakamsha back in the natal chart. In this case, the atmakaraka is the Sun, at 28 degrees 51 minutes of Gemini. The Sun is placed in Gemini in the Navamsha chart so Gemini becomes the karakamsha. The Sun happens to be vargottama so the Sun is in the karakamsha in both the navamsha chart and the natal chart. In this case, the Sun is not only the ruler of the ascendant, it is also the atmakaraka and is located in the karakamsha. The Sun is also the karaka or significator of health in general in any chart. This gives four reasons why the Sun is so important for health in Swami Paramananda Saraswati's chart.

‡Jupiter's aspect is a Jaimini aspect. Planets in mutable signs aspect to other mutable signs. Jupiter in Pisces (mutable sign) aspects to Gemini (mutable sign).

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