Jaimini On Blindness

Om Namah Sivaya


Dear friends,

Wish you a Happy New Year 2010 to all (Of course, belated).

The following is a small write-up written almost a year back, 17th December 2008 to be exact. Now, it’s been updated with some more info.

The other day I was told that there is a specific sutra in Jaimini, which gives a combination for blindness. Yesterday, I searched for that sutra and found it in 1st chapter, 3rd Pada. The relevant sutra is given below.

शुक्रात् गौण पदस्थो राहुः सूर्य दृष्टो नेत्रहा निः

śukrāt gauṇa padastho rāhuḥ sūrya dṛṣṭo netrahā (niḥ)


Let us see what our commentators dealt with this sutra.

Sri Rangacharya (adopted from Telugu commentary): If Panchama Arudha (A5) is occupied by Rahu and aspects by Sun, and then there will be loss of eyesight.

Sri Sanjay (JMUS): Venus and Gaunapada aspected by or conjoined by Rahu and Sun cause blindness.

Update:

Somanatha - Kalpalatha : If Rahu occupies the Arudha of 5th house of Lagna and aspected by Sun, there will be loss to eyesight. Gaunapada means Panchama Arudha (A5).

Now, I will explain how to come to the above interpretations.

शुक्र --> श(5), र (2) , 25 divided by 12  1 , that is lagna.

गौण --> ग (3) ण (5), 53 divided by 12  5, that is 5th.

पद --> Arudha

So, according to Somanatha and Sri Rangacharya, gounapada means Panchama Arudha.

But, Sri Sanjay takes shukra as the planet Venus, and gounapada as Arudha of 12th house, and interprets accordingly.

Yet, it was clearly mentioned in the sutra śukrāt meaning that from śukra. Now, I am giving my interpretation and please read on.

The Sage Jaimini as I always put it that He is very cryptic and puts a lot into small words. When He says śukrāt, literally he means to count from Lagna as per katapayadi system. Next he says gounapastho, meaning either from A5 or UL since Gounapada is another name for Upapada according to BPHS. But houses are counted from lagna only unless otherwise stated; hence Sage need not verbatim instruct us to count from Lagna. Instead, He can safely say गौण पदस्थो राहुः सूर्य दृष्टो नेत्रहा निः (gauṇa padastho rāhuḥ sūrya dṛṣṭo netrahā (niḥ) which suffices the above interpretations.

Hence, interpreting śukrāt as from Lagna may not suffice to convey the Sage intention. If we see the other sutras, Sage never said shukaat for Lagna. He used Leya, Pitri etc for Lagna. It is well known fact that Venus and Sun are taken as Karaka for eyesight in different systems. If we take the katapayadi value for Pada also then, प - pa(1), द - da(8),  9.

So, I interpret in the following way.

The 5th or/and 9th house from Venus/Lagna are aspected or conjoined by Rahu and Sun causes blindness.

One can argue that Sage can simply say त्रिकोणे (trikoṇe), instead of गौण पदस्थो (gauṇa padastho). Well, that’s also possible, yet I am giving below some of the example charts where the above interpretation worked and request the readers to ponder.

Chart 1: Page 63, Jyotish Digest Jul-Sep 2006, March 28, 1999, 09:07:35 1.00 East, 19E51, 45N46

In this chart, the Asc is Gemini and Venus is in Aries. The 9th from Venus, Sagittarius is aspected by Sun from Pisces, and 9th from Lagna – Aquarius is aspected by Rahu from Cancer. The eyesight improved with the help of medical intervention. Look at benefic aspect of Jupiter from Pisces.

Chart 2: Page 63, Jyotish Digest Jul-Sep 2006, June 9, 1965, (1:00 East), 14E36, 45N06

In the chart 2, Venus occupies Ascendant Gemini. The 5th from Asc and Venus is aspected by Sun and Rahu from Taurus. In fact, the 5th house is aspected by all malefic planets viz, Sun Rahu, Mars, Saturn and Mercury excepting aspect of Jupiter.


Chart 3: Page 104, COVA by Sri Sanjay

In the above chart, 5th from Venus is aspected by Rahu from Libra and occupied by Saturn, and 9th from Venus is aspected by Sun from Pisces. 5th from Lagna is again aspected by Merc, Mars and Saturn.

Chart 4: Page 104, COVA by Sri Sanjay Rath.

In the above chart, neither 5th nor 9th from Venus is aspected by either Rahu or Sun. But as an extension of the above principle, we can take aspect/ conjunction of Rahu and Sun with Venus/Lagna also. Since Lagna is also one trine sign. See, the aspect of Rahu on Venus from Pisces and the aspect of Sun on Lagna from Gemini.

Chart 5: Page 105, COVA by Sri Sanjay Rath

Rahu conjoined Venus in Aquarius. 5th from Venus and Lagna both are aspected by Sun and Saturn. The 9th from Venus is aspected by Rahu and Ketu, occupied by Mars.

Chart 6: Page 105, COVA by Sri Sanjay

The 5th from Lagna is aspected by Sun, the 5th from Venus aspected by Rahu and Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter. The native is having one eye blind, but can see from the other eye. See the exalted aspect of Jupiter from Cancer to the concerned houses.

Chart 7: Page 106, COVA by Sri Sanjay Rath

The 5th house (9th house from Venus) is aspected by Rahu and Sun. Sun conjoined Venus in Leo and aspect by Jupiter on the above combination. The native went surgery in his 7th year and emerged successful.

So, from the above examples, we can infer that my interpretation may be a necessary condition, but not sufficient condition. We have to test on a number of charts to see how it works. It can be seen from the above examples that the combinations works more so from Venus. And I think that we will have to focus more on Venus.

The word sukraat might be the key here. It is just redundant if Sage intends to say from Lagna as I explained above. Remember Sage Jaimini never wastes a letter, forget a word. But, Lagna can be taken Upalakshana and it can be observed in Mandooka dasa interpretation also, where sthoola has been interpreted to mean both Lagna and Seventh house.

I just tried on seven charts. I request you all to work on this sutra. Let’s see how it works.

*********************************** Update**********************************

Today, I was referring to BPHS (Telugu commentary) and found to my surprise, that the views expressed by me were also endorsed by BPHS. In fact, the verse of BPHS mentions as follows.

BPHS: If Rahu occupied in any of the trines from either from Venus or Karaka or Arudha Lagna and aspected by Sun leads to blindness.

So, here the available verse of BPHS doesn’t mention about either Panchama Arudha or the Upapada. It clearly mentions the trines which is the Katapayadi numeric of Gauna and Pada. Further, the Telugu commentator wants us to take the stronger fifth house from the Venus, AK and AL and the Arudha of that particular house obtains the given combination of Rahu and Sun leads to blindness.

Seeking Blessings,
Shanmukha