Bandhana Yoga
Bandhana yoga in Vedic astrology chiefly indicates that a person is placed under restraint, arrest, seizure, detention, imprisonment, confinement, bondage and the like because of circumstances beyond anyone’s control, by opponents or by the interested authorities without cause, or on criminal charges for a breach of the law, or by a restriction of freedom on political grounds.
A weak ruler of the Lagna (the ascendant) and a weak Saturn, together or separately, cause suffering and difficulties in life, including imprisonment or confinement. Rahu is the karaka of one who has been sent to prison.
Mahadeva, in his Jataka Tattva XI.35-42, states that Papa grahas, that is, harmful planets placed in the 12th, 2nd, 5th and 12th, indicate bandhana, that is, restraint. An equal number of planets placed in the 2nd and the 12th, or in the 5th and the 9th, or in the 6th and the 12th, or in the 3rd and the 11th, or in the 4th and the 10th, give rise to Bandhana yoga.
Bandhana yoga also arises if at the time of birth harmful planets occupy the 2nd, 5th, 9th and 12th houses and the Lagna falls in the sign of Aries, Taurus or Sagittarius, when the person will be bound with a rope or a cord; or in Gemini, Libra, Aries or Virgo, when the person will be handcuffed or fettered with iron chains; or in Pisces, Cancer or Capricorn, when the person, unbound, will be shut up in a castle or a fortress or in a strictly guarded prison; or in the sign of Scorpio, when the person will be confined in an underground cellar.
Bandhana yoga also arises if at the time of birth the rulers of the Lagna and of the 6th house occupy a kendra or a trikona in conjunction with Saturn. If the beneficent aspects of the bandhana yoga described in detail above are temporary, then the troubles are temporary; but if the harmful factors are manifested, then the person will probably be subjected to very harsh treatment.
The Lagna, or the ruler of the lagna, and the Moon afflicted by a cruel harmful influence or by malefics; the 4th house and its lord, or the 9th house and its lord, or the 10th house and its lord, afflicted in a similar way, make a person commit evil deeds, become a criminal and suffer punishment from the authorities. A person enters upon a criminal career if at the time of birth Rahu afflicts the Moon and the lord of the 10th house. Ketu placed in the 10th house makes a person commit vile acts and be impure in his decisions.
In the case of Mahatma Gandhi, born with the lagna in Libra, Saturn occupied the 2nd house in the sign of Scorpio and the Sun was in the 12th house in Virgo, while Ketu was in the 4th and Rahu in the 10th; for this reason he was often kept under house arrest or held in prison by the British authorities on political grounds. In just the same way Jawaharlal Nehru, born with the lagna in Cancer, had Saturn in the 2nd house and Rahu in the 12th house, and he too suffered imprisonment like Gandhi. Ramkrishna Dalmia, born with the lagna in Gemini, had the Sun occupying the 3rd house and Rahu the 11th; he ended up in prison, punished for his misdeeds and unlawful activity. Aung San Suu Kyi, born with the Lagna in Virgo, has Ketu occupying the 4th and the Sun joined with Saturn and Rahu in the 10th house; she went through a long period of confinement because of her political convictions. And Sanjay Dutt, born with the Lagna in Scorpio, not only has Saturn in the 2nd and Jupiter in the 12th, but also has Ketu placed in the 5th and the Sun in the 9th house.
Mars placed in the 8th or the 12th house, if it is not connected with benefics, leads to hospitalisation, to life abroad or to imprisonment. Mars, Rahu and Saturn, all three occupying kendrasthanas, indicate confinement.
B.V. Raman states that a bandhana yoga arises when the rulers of the lagna and of the 6th house are in a trine or a quadrant in conjunction with Saturn, Rahu or Ketu. Mercury and/or Saturn placed in the 8th house from the Lagna indicate death in prison on the gallows.
Source: https://ru.abcdef.wiki/wiki/Bandhana_yoga
271. Bandhana Yoga
Definition.—If the lord of the Lagna and the 6th join a kendra or thrikona with Saturn, Rahu or Kethu, the above yoga is given rise to.
Results.—The native will be incarcerated.
Remarks.—The cause of the imprisonment is not made clear in this yoga. Imprisonment may be due to political or criminal offences. The lords of Lagna and the 6th should occupy a kendra or thrikona in association with Saturn or Rahu or Kethu. If the lord of Lagna happens to be Saturn, by implication the evil is either lessened or completely neutralised. Benefic aspects lessen the evil.
B.V. Raman — «Three Hundred Important Combinations»
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Bandhana yoga is the name given to the combustion of the Lagnesha by a debilitated Sun. Such a combination harms the health, chains a person to his bed and may even send him to prison.
Sri Govind Swarup Agarwal — «Vedic Astrology»
BANDHANA YOGA — IMPRISONMENT, ISOLATION
— What is going on?? I do not understand what has happened… Everything is falling apart, not one of my affairs works out, I beat against what feels like a blank wall — and silence. The feeling is that I have been blocked off, walled up in concrete. I try to establish contacts with new partners — no chance! — even communication with the old ones is difficult! People simply ignore me, and everything I send out seems to evaporate, to melt away in a fog! Even my wife — even she seems not to hear!! What is happening?!? Everything was fine — and now this… Is it going to be like this from now on? Should I wind up the business and drop everything??! Will this ever end!??
(From a client’s monologue at a consultation)
And here is what is happening. Analysis revealed that at this time the person is passing through a period plus two sub-periods of planets that activate a strong and afflicted Bandhana yoga in the horoscope.
The classics of Jyotish describe a planetary combination in which, if any planet has an equal number of planets in houses 2 and 12, or 5 and 9, or 6 and 8 from it, this forms a Bandhana yoga — imprisonment, isolation. Other sources also mention houses 3 and 11, and 4 and 10.
If such a yoga is formed from the lagna, then the confinement may be physical (here it must be noted that it is not necessarily prison; it may also be hospital, for example; for actual imprisonment other factors are needed in the chart as well).
If, however, the yoga is formed from the Arudha lagna, then the person’s reputation will suffer, his name will be disgraced or stained, his image will undergo a crisis, those around him may turn away from him, and communication will be hampered or reduced to nothing. You are, as it were, plunged into communicative «isolation».
A still more difficult situation arises if the planet that is the Atma Karaka in the horoscope also takes part in such a yoga. Here the person is guaranteed mental, emotional and even social suffering; he will feel himself locked up (as described above — walled up in concrete) in a prison without being in that prison physically; there will be difficulties in communicating with those around him, and his actions will not reach their goal at all, or almost not at all.
How far the situation will be aggravated or, on the contrary, eased, and also THROUGH WHOM OR WHAT the difficulties will come and the «confinement» be activated — this will be shown by the particular planets taking part in the yoga and by the aspects, which must be analysed concretely and individually. Sometimes it may be realised as voluntary isolation from one’s surroundings, sometimes as forced isolation, against one’s will.
The sphere in which this «imprisonment» will manifest is likewise connected with the indications of the planet that stands in the Bandhana yoga, and with the houses it rules in the horoscope.
For example, Mercury as the indicator of communication, money, business, connections and communications will fully realise problems in these spheres (as, indeed, in the example described above). And if Mercury also rules the 7th house of the horoscope, then problems with business partners, and with partners in general, are assured.
If it is Venus, then the problems will manifest as isolation from the partner, or of the partner himself (up to and including a break-up), as difficulties with the car (for example a serious breakdown that makes it impossible to drive it), as an absence of journeys or as problems during trips, or, for example, a trip may fall through at the last moment, and so on.
If it is the Sun, then problems with the body are possible, which may land one in hospital; or estrangement from the father as a result of a quarrel or for some other reason; and also problems in settling matters with the authorities, with official structures and with representatives of power. Actual imprisonment of the father may also occur (if, of course, there are other confirmations of it in the horoscope).
As a rule, when the period changes to a more favourable one, the problems are either resolved or reduced to a minimum. To ease the situation one must resort to certain means of correction (upayas), which are prescribed individually on the basis of the particular indications of the horoscope and of the planets taking part in the yoga. Or else accept everything as it is, living through this part of one’s karma as a necessary period, one of great significance for the purification of the soul.
