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yajvan
22 November 2007, 12:56 PM
Hari Om
~~~~~

Namaste,

Have you noticed that some people look a lot like others? As I have aged I see more people that look like someone I know... alot! Why is that? How many different types of humans can this creation create? From A Jyotish perspective lets take a look.

The Base-line
WE know there are 12 signs in Bha Chakra i.e. the zodiac for Bhu Loka. We have reviewed why there is 12 signs and not 15 or 10 or 35.

So one could say, well there can be 12 types or groups of folks. Then the cocktail party typical conversation of 'what's your sign?' stays pretty much standard issue as a conversation piece. Yet this thinking can be much more advanced. Lets take a look at the potential number of charts that are possible.

Lets start here... simple first.
12 sun signs ( Aries, Taurus, etc) + 9 planets (graha's) + 12 possible lagna (Ascendant) positions. The math is straight forward: 12 (Sun) X 12 (Lagna) X 12 (Moon) X 12 (Jupiter) X 12 (Mars) X12 (Saturn) X 3 (Mercury) X 5 (Venus) X 12 (Rahu) X 1 (Ketu) X = 44,789,760 Rasi Charts.

This says, there are possible 12 positions the sun can be in as can the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu, and Lagna (or ascendant) and this delivers 44.7 million different charts or different types of people.

Why doesn't every graha have 12 different positions? Mercury is so close to the sun, it only can have 3 possible rasi (sign) locations, as can Venus have only 5 possible sign locations. That is , the inner planets are always hovering close to the sun. Where the sun goes, that is where they go whether in front, back, or with the sun in the same sign.

Note Rahu has 12 locations but ketu only has 1. That is because where-ever Rahu resides, ketu is 180° away and can not wander (the root word for planet is planētai, or wanderers) on its own like the other grahas.

Lets click down another level
The 44,789,760 rasi charts are driven by the 12 signs as mentioned e.g. Aries, Taurus… Capricorn, Pisces, etc. Yet what if we use Nakshatra's, the star constellations the moon visits each month?

There are 27 Nakshatras in the 360° zodiac. The calculation for the number of charts would be 27x27x27x... etc etc. = 794,333,071,352 possible combinations. Can this get more refined? Sure. Each Nakshatra is divided into 4 pada ( feet as they say) and there are 4 X 27 or 108 pada in the 360° zodiac. This gives you 208,229,648,656,712,000 potential charts. Can one go more refined then this? We can, but lets stop here as you can see the number is substantial.

There is a school of thought that says the grahas (cosmic impulses in this universe) manage all births, not just humans. Hence not every birth chart then is for the human species. According to Ishvara Nadi about 1/3rd of births here on earth are human¹.

So if we take 1/3rd of the number from above we get 69,409,882,885,570,500 possible a human charts that can be male , female or eunuch [yoo'nek].

Some say , should you not multiply This number by 3 for the 3 gunas? (Rajas, Tamas, Sattva). A reasonable question, yet the Nakshtra and the grahas have these qualities as part of their nature so it has been considered in the numbers.

A distinctive side note worth mentioning
There is an approach to reconcile ones birth chart to increase the accuracy of ones birth time. This uses janma vighati rectification calculations. Why is it relevant to this conversation?
As the grahas influence all births, they influence gender: a human birth can be male , female or eunuch [yoo'nek] as mentioned earlier. By doing this technique one can adjust the birth time by 1 vigati and see if the birth is then correct.

What do I mean correct? If the Joytishi gets A birth time of 15:22 ( 3:22 PM) and a male is asking for this information. The vigati calculation will show this person to be a female, hence the birth time is inaccurate and can be adjusted to get the right time. This is only one technique of many.

What is Vigati?
How much is one vigati then in terms of adjustment? We talked of ghatika's or ghati's being 1/60th of the day = 24 minutes. A vigati = 1/60th of a ghati² and = 24 seconds. So the Jyotishi can resolve a birth chart with this technique to within 24 seconds of birth.

I did this for my chart in 3 ways. One , I did it myself and came up with 15:22:30 ( or 3:22 PM and 30 seconds) as the adjusted birth time. I had a Jyotishi do this for me w/o telling him of my adjusted number and he came up with the same adjustment.
I did it a 3rd way by timing a specific event in my life, and to came out to be 3:22:21PM. So I have a high confidence my birth time is spot on ( with a 9 second margin of error).

Why would one care about this? When you start looking at higher amsa ( divisional ) charts , the time slices get smaller and smaller. The smallest division recommended by Parashara muni is the shashtyamsa or 1/60th chart.

Each 30° rasi is sub-divided into 60 parts or 00°30'00' ( 30 minutes of an arc) and then analyzed. This gives clues of past karma and the 'audit trail' to this life. If ones birth time is not correct, then one will not have accurate information and the results will be incomplete.

Can charts go more refined then 1/60th of a degree? Sure, I have read of 1/150th of a division or 00°12'00" , yet am not sure of its application.

Now to answer my question
I am sure I can see another person that looks like some one I know…that is operating out of the 44.7 million pool of astrological charts. Why so?Ones physical characteristics i.e. looks are governed by the 44.7 million pool. Yet would that person be like the person I am familur with? Not just looks, but manners, likes and dislikes, personalities, all that. Most likely not. We are then operating out of the 69,409,882,885,570,500 possible pool of human charts.

Fun stuff eh?


1. Jyotish T.S. Vasan - contributing editor to Astrological Magazine
2. 60 Ghatika [written as ghati] in one day = 24 hrs. 1/60th of the day is 24 min. 1/60th of a ghati = vighati = 24 seconds ( or 1/60 X 24 min)

pranams