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Concept of Retrograde or vakra gati
Yes, indeed this is the most misinterpreted concept of Vedic astrology
In this post, I will try to take you all, to the depth of this concept, so that everyone can catch a fish.
FIRST Few NADI concepts about retro planet (VERY IMPORTANT)
1) A retrograde planet will always aspect the rear sign with half aspect.
2) Retrograde planet will give beneficial results if a friendly planet is placed in 12th sign from retro planet. It will give bad results if an enemy planet is placed in 12th sign from retro planet.
3) If a debilitated planet is in retro motion and if a friendly planet is placed in 12th sign from retro planet it will give beneficial results. Hence, we have to assume that the debilitation is cancelled. If an enemy planet is placed in 12th sign from the retro planet, it will give bad results only.
4) If an exalted planet is in retro motion and an enemy planet is placed in 12th sign from retro planet it will give bad results. If a friendly planet is placed in the 12th sign from retro planet it will give good results only.
NOW in addition to above; my views
Few terms which you can associate with this effect;
1) Delay
2) Introspection
3) Retrospection
4) Unusual behavior of planet
All the above terms need to be explained in detail but let me first take up the fourth point, which talks about unusual Behaviour of the planet.
What do I mean by that?
See, every planet has some qualities associated with it, for example; Jupiter is always associated with knowledge and perseverance, now when I say unusual behavior, It means that retrograde Jupiter will show a decline in knowledge and perseverance of the native or in other words, delay in achieving the goals which has been set by the Jupiter in life for the native.
Now few questions are conditioning our mind like will this happen in all the cases? The answer is NO.
One more important question why this will happen?????
To understand this, we have to concentrate on the motion followed by the planet with respect to earth.
For e.g. during retrogression It will appear to us from earth, that Jupiter is moving backward on its path and covering the same path 3 times But actually Jupiter is always moving forward on its path with respect to sun.
Since in astrology, we have to see everything with respect to earth, as we live on earth, concept of retrograde comes into picture. So Jupiter appears moving backwards, as earth is on the circular path.
Coming back to the question;
So effect of retrogression of Jupiter will depend upon various factors such as;
1) Nature of rashi occupied by Jupiter
2) Nature and strength of planets conjucting Jupiter.
3) Nature and strength of planets aspecting Jupiter.
4) Navamsa and shatyamsa strength of all the planets involved with Jupiter.
and of course dasha under progress.
I will take an example so that you all can understand but firstly we should understand that the planet which is retrograde will not behave according to its usual nature, if it is getting exalted or swarashi, the effect of that exalted placement will NOT come to you. That’s why we say MAHA purush yogs are not applicable to retrograde planets (Hamsa, ruchaka, Malvaya, Bhadra, sasa)
BUT then, in what exact manner the planet will behave will depend on the factors, I have mentioned above.
Placement of planet in a paap bhava or shubh bhava will decide whether that ret. is useful for us or not (after considering those 4 factors mentioned above) and that too, whether that ret. is shubh for us in spiritual world or in materialistic world.
When a planet gets ret. It starts behaving in just an opposite manner and hence will in turn, commands the native to work on its qualities (introspection), for example Jupiter will behave like venus want of knowledge will turn into want of luxuries, fame (so native have to work hard to gain knowledge) extending this further, If ret. Jupiter is placed in Vrish (Taurus) in 11th house and venus is either aspecting Jupiter or conjucting it, simultaneously moon and mars are placed 6th and 8th of Jupiter. This will give a strong Raj yog in the materialistic world.
Reason being, when Jupiter is ret., it will go towards the qualities of Venus
Venus aspecting it, will amplify its qualities given by Jupiter (jup and ven will become friends) and since moon and mars are enemies of venus qualities which are being amplified in this case (their placement in 6th and 8th will function like VRY), on top of this all this is happening in 11th house (which is for desires) again complementing qualities of venus.
Ideally moon and mars are friends of Jupiter, but since Jupiter is behaving more like Venus (being ret)
Jupiter will share a relationship of enemy, with moon and mars.
So placement of moon and mars in 6th and 8th from Jupiter will boost the powers of Jupiter and placement of Saturn, Venus, mercury (friends of Venus) in Kendra and trikond from Jupiter will also boost the powers of Jupiter (ret) but the above scenario is bad for the progress in spiritual world.
Hence for achieving the ultimate motive of life, ret. Jupiter is harmful in above case.
Similarly we have to see which all planets are aspecting, conjucting or influencing it in any way and then reach to a specific conclusion.
If in the above case moon and mars would have aspected Jupiter instead of Venus then that can push the native in the spiritual world but would be bad for materialistic pleasures.
When a planet gets ret. their is a transformation in their qualities
For example:
Jupiter qualities gets transformed into the qualities of Venus, mercury to mars, mars to mercury
Venus to sun and qualities of Saturn changes into the qualities of mars (though sun is the vedhak of Saturn)
(as above pairs are vedhak to each other), hence if mars and Mercury are conjucting and if any one of them is ret. ,they will not behave in an inimical manner but will become friends but if both are ret. they would remain inimical to each other.
Similarly if sun is conjucting with Venus and if Venus is ret. they would behave as friends.
Taking an example;
Ret sat. Alone (without any conjunction or aspect) is very strong in 3rd, 6th and 10th.
Ret. Saturn starts behaving like its vedhak that is mars.
Now the above saying is general which will vary with rashi in which Saturn is placed. For example: in mesh, Scorpio, Leo, dhanu, cancer and pieces.
(Rashi’s of the friends of mars i.e. is Jupiter, sun, moon)
Ret sat will do well when placed alone in 3rd, 6th and 10th houses.
Generally saying Saturn gives very auspicious results in 12th house (only when there are no malefic influences)
Extending the above example; If this ret sat is sitting with Jupiter, sun, moon, mars (friends of mars) in above specified rashi’s and houses will prove auspicious (considering no aspect) but Jupiter and mars should not be retrograde in above scenario.
If this ret sat is sitting with mercury, Rahu and ketu will prove very inauspicious but if mercury is also retrograde then it will be auspicious (as vedhak of mercury is mars, it will behave like mars after retro).
If this ret sat is sitting with venus, will increase sexual urge drastically in 6th,3rd and 11th house and will simultaneously increase money aspects in 3rd and 11th houses. If Jupiter is very strong in the chart then sexual urge would be controlled.
Extending this example further, All the above points have to be seen in navamsa and shatyamsa before reaching to a final conclusion. So. We can say few concepts;
1) Retrograde planets loose their abilities to make an impact (or their qualities show a decline) so they go in the phase of introspection.
2) They will behave as a student, and will try to learn things from the planet aspecting or conjucting them (as those planets will act as a teacher for retrograde planet)
3) The qualities of a ret. planet will show a inherent inclination towards its vedhak.
(As vedhak is a planet who obstructs (or who will act as enemy), If you are getting weak, your enemy would be the first one to use your weakness in his favor).
4) If retro planet is conjucting with strong or exalted planets, It will also become very strong (this applies to navamsa too)
If you see Rahu and ketu they are always retrograde hence they always gives the effect of planets conjucting and aspecting them, So basically they are acting as a student, hence their auspiciousness would depend on their teachers (Planets aspecting or conjucting them)
If Rahu is conjucting with Saturn and mars, then their teachers are paapi. So being (ret) a student, they will also learn paap.
If planets like Jupiter, mercury are influencing Rahu. Rahu would become auspicious by learning good things from them, Now suppose an example, assume mercury, venus, and Jupiter are sitting in pieces in 5th house and moon is aspecting 5th house from 11th house.
Now mercury is retrograde, what will happen is, since mercury is not behaving as mercury (being retro), It will not make any impact but this mercury has now the ability to learn and grasp things from others.
This mercury will now start taking auspiciousness from swarashi Jupiter, uchh Venus and aspecting moon.
It will take the auspiciousness from Jupiter, Venus and moon VERY ENERGETICALLY as Its vedhak is mars and therefore its inherent qualities will show an inclination towards mars (who is very energetic).
Thus this mercury would become very powerful (In its dasha antardasha etc)
If you see the chart of bhagwan swaminarayan; this is exactly what is happening. Mercury with Venus, sun in pieces in 5th house, In lagan Jupiter is present with Saturn (so here Jupiter is aspecting 5th house) mars is present in 2nd house (Jupiter and mars are in paraivartan) This mars is also aspecting 5th house, moon is present in 9th house in cancer. Now here, though mercury is getting neech but Since retro, it is not behaving as mercury and since it is not mercury , pieces will not act as mercury’s neech rashi.(on top of this neech bhang)
Mercury is taking the qualities of Uchh Venus, sun, aspecting Jupiter and aspecting mars simultaneously.
(Here in this case, since the vedhak of mercury, mars is also aspecting 5th, its giving further boost to the energetic learning abilities of mercury)
As a result the dasha of mercury alone was enough to make him a LORD.
Birth details of bhagwan swaminarayan for your reference.
02’nd April 1781
10:10 pm.
Ayodhya, India
You will also see that there is a further influence of Jupiter, Venus and mars on this retro mercury in NAVAMSA CHART, Adding to the learning strength of the retro mercury.
Now suppose another scenario.
Venus is in close proximity to mars (in 6th house, bad house for initiating negative qualities of Venus)
Now we say that aspect of Jupiter will prevent the Initiation of bad qualities of Venus or in other words Jupiter puts a check on Venus mars yog. Now if I say this aspecting Jupiter (on Venus mars yog) is retrograde, will it help in controlling Venus. The answer would be BIG NO, Because of the simple reason. This Jupiter Is not capable of making an Impact (Its inclined towards learning, introspection) and since venus is the enemy of Jupiter, Weakness of Jupiter (being retro) will add to the strength of venus only as vedhak of Jupiter is venus.
So you all can see how the concept of retro. Will turn the final conclusion by 180 degrees.
Neech planet also behave somewhat like retrograde planet which seemed very logical to me, Imagine a scenario where venus and mercury are sitting in pieces or venus and mercury are sitting in Virgo or Jupiter and mars in cancer or Capricorn or sun and Saturn in Aries or in tula.
In all the above cases; we say that Neech bhang has occurred for the deliberated planet.
The reason lies in the above concept only, This is because, When a uchh planet is sitting with a deliberated planet, That deliberated planet tends to take all the strength (with qualities of that planet) from the powerful planet (uchh) sitting with him.
[Just like a retrograde planet, who tries to take the qualities of the planet sitting/aspecting him….learning/grasping/introspection)]
If neech mars is sitting with Jupiter and aspected by moon.
It will take the qualities Jupiter and moon (just like ret planet) that’s why we say mars has got neechbhang (especially because of Jupiter)
It’s like, If suppose you have some negative qualities (like mars)
Then In what circumstances, you will do less negative (Minimized).
1) Your parents may teach you positive qualities.
2) Your teachers may teach you.
3) Your friends may teach you.
4) You may learn it from Internet or book (by reading some article).
5) You may learn from television.
Idea is, your negative qualities cannot be minimized in the absence some positive source.
When positive qualities increase, a negative quality minimizes.
Mars is taking the help of Jupiter and moon to minimize its negative qualities.
The long living aspect of ret Saturn in 8th house can also be explained with the help of the Saturn -mars vedhak concept.
1) When ret Saturn is present in 8th house in Aries or Scorpio rashi (with no malefic influence on it) and simultaneously mars is gaining strength in the lagan and navamsa chart.
2) When ret Saturn is present in 8th house in dhanu or pieces rashi (with no malefic influence on it) and simultaneously mars and Jupiter are gaining strength in the lagan and navamsa chart.
3) When ret Saturn is present in 8th house in cancer rashi (with no malefic influence on it) and simultaneously mars and moon are gaining strength in the lagan and navamsa chart.
4) When ret Saturn is present in 8th house in Leo rashi (with no malefic influence on it) and simultaneously mars and sun are gaining strength in the lagan and navamsa chart.
In short If you notice that when ret Saturn would start behaving as mars (Its vedhak), this Saturn would turn auspicious in the mitr rashi’s of mars(that is rashi’s of Jupiter, moon and sun) on the condition that :-
1) Mitr (friend) of mars should be in strength in lagan and navamsa charts.
2) Mars itself should be in strength in lagan and navamsa chart.
3) There should be no malefic influence on this ret Saturn (AS RET PLANETS could easily take the effect of planet conjucting and aspecting it)
Now two things should be remembered for the above condition.
1) When I say that Saturn would behave as mars (Its vedhak), IT DOESNT MEAN THAT SATURN WOULD BECOME MARS, What it means that – AN OLD MAN WANTS TO PLAY LIKE A CHILD and in the process could hurt him.
(The conditions which I have mentioned above will even PREVENT the ret Saturn or will even PREVENT that Old man from accident during play—and THATS WHY LONG LIFE)
2) When I say That ret Saturn would start behaving as mars, it also means that THIS WOULD ONLY HAPPEN WHEN this ret sat is NOT ASPECTED OR CONJUCTED by any other planet as if that happen then we always assume that ret planet will try to capture all the qualities of those planets and HENCE WILL NOT behave like mars ALONE (his Behaviour would be mixed depending on the kind of planets aspecting or conjuncting)
Therefore keeping the above conditions in mind;
we can say that if ret Saturn (when placed in Vrish or tula or Mithun or kanya or Makar or kumbh rashi in 8th house) is conjuncted or aspected by Venus, mercury (Its friends) then this ret Saturn would again prove out to be auspicious -hence will again give the native long life (provided no other malefic influences in present on the planets involved in lagan And navamsa CHARTS)
THE ABOVE CONDITIONS ARE TAKING PLACE since in the above cases the Saturn will not behave like mars ALONE but will give its mixed fal (which includes the results of Venus or mercury-that is the lord of rashi’s in which it is placed)
Therefore in all the cases ret Saturn could prove beneficial for long life in 8th house from Saturn-mars vedhak concept
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