Light on Yogas: Assessing the Quality of Planetary Combinations

The essence of Jyotisha, the ancient astrological science of India, is yogas and dashas. Yogas, or planetary combinations, show the potential for different life experiences resulting from the soul's karma or the fruits of their past actions in previous lives, while dashes, or planetary periods, show when in their life time an individual will experience these fruits. From this standpoint, the analysis of a birth chart in this system of astrology is largely a matter of identifying the yogas. In these modern times, this is not difficult since there are computer programs that will do this. However, the real skill in Jyotisha lies much more in the ability to assess both the magnitude and the quality of effect that a planetary combination will give, or whether it will even give any result at all. Using the well-known Gaja Kesari Yoga, or "Elephant-Lion" combination, the author initiates students into a step by step methodology for assessing yogas in a birth chart and then illustrates this method with 12 sample birth charts.