Dharma-Karma-Adhipati Yogas

Dharma-karma-adhipati yogas are a particular case of the Raja yogas — combinations that promise success, well-being, influence and renown. A strong dharma-karma-adhipati yoga allows a person to take up a high position in society.

Such a yoga is formed if, in the horoscope, the rulers of the houses of dharma (trikona) and of karma (kendra) interact by aspect or conjunction. «Karma» means action, while «dharma» means good fortune in the sense that people who follow their personal dharma selflessly discover that fortune begins to accompany them everywhere. Real success in life comes when the effort undertaken enters into a happy resonance with fortune. Effort by itself may not lead to success, but one cannot rely on fortune alone either. Yet if they are together, they form a whole that truly becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

The source of the benefactions bestowed by fate is the Law of Karma: the sum of your past karmas determines what kind of assistance the world will render you. The kendras, in a certain sense, represent your deeds in the present, your kriyamana and agama karmas, while the trikonas, on the whole, signify your past deeds, with a plus or a minus, your prarabdha and sanchita karmas. Parashara explains («Brihat Parashara Hora» 41:28) that the kendras are the bhavas of Vishnu — the Overcomer of Difficulties — while the konas are the bhavas of Lakshmi, His wife, the Goddess of Prosperity. The Lagna is especially important, since it is at once both a kona and a kendra. Whenever the lord of a kendra (the husband) and the lady of a trikona (the wife) come together, a happy chance falls into step with fortune, and this is the pledge of a lasting, durable happiness — of a raja yoga.

One can look at this combination from another point of view — the kendras are sometimes called the houses of surroundings (the external setting that surrounds you), and the trikonas the houses of abilities (your inner qualities). If the external, objective and the internal, subjective factors of the horoscope combine harmoniously, then together they create powerful support, since in that case conscious (subjective) aspirations coincide with unconscious moods in the social environment (the objective level). If on the subjective level you are mentally gifted and love to study, while objectively you happen to live two steps from Harvard, then — voilà! — the external and internal circumstances have resonated, and success, one may say, is assured.

Especially valuable is the dharma-karma-adhipati yoga formed by the lords of the 9th and 10th or of the 4th and 5th houses. The combination of the lords of the 9th and 10th houses is the best dharma-karma-adhipati yoga, since the 9th house is the strongest of the konas and the 10th the strongest of the kendras. Although the dharma-karma-adhipati yoga is defined as a combination formed by the conjunction or mutual aspect of the rulers of a kona and a kendra, it is also held to occur if: (a) the lord of the 9th house is placed in the 9th and the lord of the 10th in the 10th; or the lord of the 4th is in the 4th and the lord of the 5th in the 5th. (In these cases two pancha mahapurusha yogas are often formed), (b) the lord of the 9th house occupies the 10th and the lord of the 10th the 9th; or the lord of the 4th is in the 5th and the lord of the 5th in the 4th (this is the case of a parivartana yoga).

With certain Lagnas one and the same graha owns both a kendra and a kona. Such a graha becomes a raja-yoga-karaka (an indicator of raja yoga) — a graha that forms a dharma-karma-adhipati yoga single-handed. If it is strongly placed, it will bring exceptionally good results. Note that the raja-yoga-karaka is always friendly to the lord of the lagna for which it turns out to be the ruler of a kendra and a kona:

• Mars is the raja-yoga-karaka for the rising signs of Leo (lord of the 4th and the 9th) and Cancer (lord of the 5th and the 10th)
• Venus is the raja-yoga-karaka for rising Capricorn (lord of the 5th and the 10th) and Aquarius (lord of the 4th and the 9th)
• Saturn is the raja-yoga-karaka for rising Taurus (lord of the 9th and the 10th) and Libra (lord of the 4th and the 5th).

Although raja-yoga-karakas can form a raja yoga single-handed when they are well placed, in the ideal case they should be supported by beneficent planets or by the rulers of good houses. This applies especially to the lagna Cancer, since Mars, the raja-yoga-karaka, suffers its fall in the 1st house. It is sometimes said that Mars, with the ascendant in Cancer, forms a raja yoga only if it is supported by benefics. Saturn acts as a raja-yoga-karaka for ascendants in the rashis of Venus, and Venus answers Saturn in kind. In just the same way the Moon and the Sun, the lords of Cancer and Leo respectively, when in conjunction, form a raja yoga for the martian ascendants (in Aries, for which the luminaries own the 4th and 5th houses respectively, and in Scorpio, for which they rule the 9th and 10th houses). Since whenever the Sun and the Moon are placed in one house the Moon is exceedingly dark, the raja yoga formed by the mutual aspect of the Sun and the Moon (which occurs at the full Moon or close to it) is far stronger than the yoga formed by their conjunction at the time of the new Moon.

Like any other beneficent yoga, a raja yoga gives good results if it is placed in a good house and is free of afflicting factors.

These and other yogas are met with quite often, but they all possess entirely different strengths. Hold to the axiom of Mantreshvara, which states that good yogas will bring the promised results if the grahas taking part in them are strong and if a concurrence of positive factors applies to them.

We must also look at whether the dharma-karma-adhipati yogas are repeated from the lunar and solar lagnas. Recall the five levels of the human being: the physical body, the etheric body, the subtle body, the causal body and the supracausal body. The ascendant (the lagna of birth) represents the physical body, the lunar lagna the subtle body (and consequently the embodiment of desires), and the solar lagna the causal body (and consequently the embodiment of thoughts). The alignment of thoughts and desires with actions, which makes the latter meaningful, occurs if the yogas and planetary combinations are repeated from all three lagnas. This too can be regarded as a special kind of concurrence of factors.