Marga - Choosing The Path
|| Om Gurave Namaha ||
In today’s age of (mis)information, there are seemingly endless choices for spiritual paths and practices for people to explore. The once hidden and occult are now a mere click away. We can debate whether this is a positive or a negative development for humanity but one thing is certain; these choices create confusion.
Even those that start their journey down one path, tend to window shop or jump from one flower to another. Part of this is stemming from the fundamental lack of understanding of one’s own proclivities and potential. We must first seek to answer a few questions.
What is it that we really want in this lifetime?
What is it that our gross, mental and energy bodies find as the natural current to swim along with.
An introspection into ourselves is the ideal approach as you can get the answer directly from the source. However, for those that find it difficult to do so, thankfully, there are methods available.
The Margas
There are 4 main categories that we can group the types of margas or paths under
Raja
Bhakti
Jnana
Karma
Raja yogas deal with working with the energy body and are also known today as the various Kriya Yoga traditions
Karaka
Let us explore how we can understand the natural current for the individual based on their Rashi chart. First, we need to understand who the karakas are for these categories.
In today’s time, we have lost the means of propriating Lord Brahma and instead we can worship Lord Surya deva as the giver of the vedas and keeper of the knowledge of Energy.
The karaka Grahas must be well placed in the chart for the category to fructify else they will need to be remedied before meaningful progress can be made along the path. This is also why, most traditions tend have a specific boot camp approach before imparting the true sadhana to uplift the Grahas and work with the respective tattvas and gunas that are needed to support the task at hand.
Is it any surprise then that the feminine, that strengthens its Moon through nurture, care, food, healing, thus purifying the jala tattva, finds bhakti a very natural current to flow with?
Blessings
The opportunity to pursue any of these categories is given to us from the blessings from the divine in various forms. For each individual, we need to understand if there is a strong karmic potential for a specific category. Even with a natural path, we need to potential energy to traverse it. Have we gained sufficient merit and thus the blessings to walk that path?
Raja Yogas
To understand an individual’s potential and blessings, we need to understand the Raja yogas of the kendras and konas and the blessing of the presiding deities. The konas (Primary 5th and 9th houses, secondary 1st) are referred to as Lakshmi sthanas and the Kendras (1st, 4th, 7th & 10th) are Purusha or Narayana sthanas. The Yoga of Grahas lording the kendras and konas give us the Lakshmi-Narayana yogas that show is the potential for the individual in a specific category.
Of these, the highest reverence is given to the Yoga of the 10th and 9th lords as the Dharma-Karmadhipati yoga, Devi’s blessing. The yoga of the 7th and 9th lords is a blessing from Lord Shiva to that gives an insatiable desire to gain knowledge of all things in a specific path. The yoga of the 4th and the 5th lords is a blessing from Lord Vishnu that gives a deep reverence and understanding of people across faiths and cultures. The yoga of Lagna Lord and 9th lord give a powerful potential to harness one’s energy body to bring forth transformation.
The upasanas are something private between the Jivatama and the Paramatama, however if we need to understand whether society at large recognizes it and is impacted by the individual’s upasana, then we need to observe these yogas from the Arudha Lagna as well. The yogas forming through Parivartana will be active from childhood whereas those from conjunction or drishti will be activated during the corresponding dashas.
For each Marga, we can look into the details by analysing the varga charts. For example, for an individual pursuing the Bhakti Marga, the D20 chart can tell us if the individual would gain most benefit from activities such Satsang, Kirtans, Worship in temples or seva? Similarly, the D24 can tell us about the para-vidya potential for an individual on JnanaMarga and so on.
Remedial measures for issues stemming from planets in dushthanas can be seen from the kendra that is in trines to it. For example, if there are shadripus from a planet in the 6th house, the 10th house of Karma Yoga is the ideal way to dissolve those blockages with the blessings from Devi. For karmic debt from planets in the 8th house, bhakti upasanas and for the sangarsh from planets in the 3rd house, Jnana marga upasanas.
When we wonder why some people progress faster or slower on a particular path, we should seek to understand and appreciate the karmic structure at play, and for ourselves, try to find the stream that we can swim along with. Going flower to flower only increases the time it takes to make progress and we have the potential to keep starting all over again and end up frustrated with the process. Lets make use of the tools we have been given to clear the thicket and uncover the path that suits us best.
|| Om tat sat ||
