Muhurta for Travel — Choosing the Day and Direction

The choice of a time to set out is the branch called yatra, or prayana. The "Muhurta Chintamani" and the "Kalaprakashika" give it separate chapters, and they take into account something no other branch does: the direction of the road. The same day may suit a journey to the south and not a journey to the east.

The second difference is the moment everything is tied to. In yatra the event is neither the arrival nor the buying of a ticket but the first step across the threshold: the journey begins there and is defined by it. Muhurta is therefore applicable almost always, even when the flight is fixed by a timetable.

Direction and weekday

The disha shula rule connects the points of the compass with the days of the week: on a given day a road in a given direction is held to meet resistance. In the most widespread version the east is closed on Monday and Saturday, the south on Thursday, the west on Sunday and Friday, the north on Tuesday and Wednesday. If a journey on such a day is unavoidable, tradition offers prasthana: in a favourable stretch, in advance, part of the luggage is carried out in the direction of the road — the journey counts as having begun then, not on the day of the actual departure.

Beside disha shula stands the rule of chandra vasa: the direction in which the Moon stands on that day. Going "towards the Moon", or having it on your right, counts as favourable; going against it does not. There is also a rarer rule of nama nakshatra shula that ties the direction to the nakshatra of the day. Schools apply these with different severity, and it is not worth stacking all the prohibitions at once: no usable day would be left in the week.

What is examined in the chart of the moment

The lagna and its lord stand for the traveller, the third house for short journeys and for movement itself, the ninth for the long road and foreign parts, the fourth for the home one leaves and the return to it, the seventh for the destination. The twelfth house answers for the departure and for expenses on the way.

Little is asked of the chart, but definitely: an unafflicted lagna, a strong and non-combust Moon, a third and ninth house free of heavy malefics, an empty eighth house of the moment. A benefic in a kendra is the best confirmation. For the road a movable or dual sign is preferred on the lagna: fixed signs are good where one must stand still, not travel.

Auspicious guidelines

Nakshatras: Ashwini, Mrigashira, Punarvasu, Pushya, Hasta, Anuradha, Shravana, Dhanishta, Revati — their nature is bound up with movement and return. Tithis: 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13. The Moon in the chart of the moment must be strong and must not stand in the eighth or twelfth from the traveller's natal Moon; the third house, of short journeys, and the ninth, of long ones, should be unafflicted.

The weekday depends on the purpose of the journey: Wednesday and Thursday suit business travel, Friday a journey for pleasure, Monday a return to one's own people and journeys connected with home. Tuesday is taken for expeditions and matters needing drive; Saturday is avoided for the road.

The rikta tithis — the 4th, 9th and 14th lunar days — are excluded, as are ashtami and chaturdashi. Of the yogas, Vyatipata, Vaidhriti, Parigha, Vyaghata, Shula, Ganda, Atiganda and Vajra are not used.

What is avoided

One does not set out in the karana vishti, on amavasya, on the days of eclipses, in gandanta, or in the rahu kala of the chosen day. Chaturdashi and ashtami are avoided, as is the time when the Moon passes through the sign opposite the direction of travel in the chandra vasa system. The return home is not bound by the rules of yatra: the strict restrictions apply to the beginning of the road, not to its end.

Rahu kala is checked with particular care for a journey: it is the most tenacious of the practical prohibitions, and in Indian practice a departure in that stretch is put off for an hour and a half even when the rest of the panchanga is not consulted at all. It is reckoned from local sunrise, so it is taken for the city one leaves, not for the destination.

Matching the natal chart

Chandra bala is checked: the transiting Moon must not stand in the fourth, eighth or twelfth from the traveller's natal Moon. Tara bala is checked: the nakshatra of the day must not fall into janma, vipat, pratyari or vadha. For a long journey it is worth looking at the current periods too: a dasha of the lord of the ninth or twelfth house often coincides of itself with a time of travelling and relocation.

Both calculations run from the natal Moon and need a correct birth time. If it is approximate, it makes sense to go through rectification first.

Prasthana: getting round an awkward day

Prasthana is a device invented for exactly the case where the day of departure is fixed from outside. In a favourable stretch an item that will travel with you is carried out of the house and left in the direction of the road — with neighbours, in the car, in a locker. From that moment the journey counts as begun, and the actual departure becomes its continuation, no longer subject to the prohibitions of the day.

The device is not a universal skeleton key: it removes disha shula and an unlucky day, but not eclipses, vishti or a heavy affliction of the Moon. Its point is different — not to let the calendar dictate the schedule where the schedule is dictated by tickets.

Kinds of journey

The rules are common, but the emphasis shifts. For business travel the tenth and eleventh houses of the moment and the state of Mercury become the main things: the journey is for a result, not for the road itself. For a pilgrimage one looks above all at the ninth house and Jupiter. For a journey for treatment — at the sixth house and the Moon, and the day itself is checked against the rules of the medical muhurta. For relocation to another country the twelfth house and its lord matter most, and the date shades into the rules for entering a new home.

The short daily journey — to work, to the shops, on errands — stands apart. Muhurta is not applied to it at all: the branch of yatra speaks of a road that changes something, not of every step out of the door.

Shakuna: the omens of departure

The chapters on yatra in the classical texts almost always end with shakuna, the teaching about the signs met in the first minutes of the road. The logic is the same as in muhurta: the beginning contains the whole, so the first thing that happens on setting out is read as a hint about the journey. A full vessel, fire, grain, the sound of a conch, meeting someone coming towards you with a load counted as favourable; empty vessels, a sneeze behind you, a shout after you, stumbling on the threshold did not.

In modern practice shakuna is used rarely and rather as a reason to gather oneself than as grounds to cancel a journey. What is useful in it is what is useful in the whole of yatra: it teaches one to treat the first minutes of the road attentively instead of running out of the house in a hurry.

The order of work

• establish the direction of the road and check disha shula and chandra vasa for the days available;
• discard vishti, amavasya, eclipses, gandanta, rikta tithis and spoiled yogas;
• check the remaining days against the traveller's chandra bala and tara bala;
• within the day find a stretch with a movable or dual lagna and clean third and ninth houses, outside rahu kala;
• if the day of departure cannot be changed, set a prasthana in a favourable stretch.

In practice

Tickets and timetables rarely leave freedom of choice. If the flight is fixed, the muhurta is applied to the moment of leaving the house or to the prasthana, not to the take-off. For a business trip it is more useful to check the date against the natal chart — the periods and transits — than to insist on a perfect panchanga: the outcome of the journey is determined chiefly by those.

For a short and ordinary road it is enough to get round rahu kala and vishti, and it is sensible to stop there. A full reading of the chart of the moment is warranted where the journey changes a great deal: a move to another country, a long expedition, a road taken for an important meeting or for treatment.

The general rules of date selection are set out in the date selection section, the calendar indicators in the calendar, and the nearest related cases in the texts on moving home and the important meeting.