Vimshottari Dasha Durations I

The next question, why are the durations of the MahaDashas of these planets so? (Ketu = 7, Venus = 20, Sun = 6, Moon = 10, Mars = 7, Rahu = 18, Jupiter = 16, Saturn = 19, Mercury = 17)

To answer this, we must look deeper into the ‘qualitative’ aspects of these celestial bodies. This is where the Gunas and Tattvas come into play.

The first rule we must apply is the inner planets and the outer planets split the results in half. It is a tale of two halves where the inner planets compose and enliven the body and spirit and the outer planets equally sustain and decay it. Thus, the inner and outer planets contribute 60 years each as a group. This is one of the reasons why in traditional Vedic culture, the 60th birthday is celebrated as an important milestone as one phase of life is coming to an end and a second phase is beginning.

The Rahu and Ketu locations based on previous computation helps us here but placing Ketu as an Inner planet and Rahu as an outer planet.

Thus, we get the following groupings:

• Inner Planets: Mercury, Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon = 60 Years

• Outer Planers: Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn = 60 Years

As we understood earlier, the Vimshottari Dasha is looking at time from the mind’s perspective, thus the governor of this Dasha is the Moon. With a base 10 system of counting, the Moon is assigned the first value to root the system at 10.

Moon = 10

The inner planets are involved in using energy to create ‘movement’. Once created, the outer planets are involved in sustenance and destruction of that through entropy. The physical principles of Conservation of Energy and Momentum are a good parallel here to better understand how the inner planets and the outer planets and dancing with each other.

The conservation of Energy states that, the amount of energy remains constant; energy is neither created nor destroyed, but only changed through the action of forces.

Moon as the Processor

The Governor of the Dasha System

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We can apply the principle to the way that physical reality manifests through our minds. The generator of the tattva and the corresponding processing of the tattvas though the mind manifests the physical reality that is experienced and enjoyed by the consumer or dispenser of the tattva.

To describe this interplay, we can use the following equation as a parallel to the conservation of energy applied to the Tattvas:

Creation [Generator + Processor] = Destruction [Consumer] 

The processor here is the Moon.

Let’s first look at the Jala tattva, as this is 70% of our physical body. The Generator of the Jala Tattva is the Moon. The consumer of Jala Tattva is Venus. Thus, the equation resolves to

Generator [Jala] + Processor [Moon] = Consumer [Jala]

Or

Moon + Moon = Venus

Or

10+10 = 20 Years = Venus

Next, let’s look at the Prithvi Tattva as this is 25% of our physical body. The generator of the Prithvi tattva is Ketu and the consumer is Mercury.

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Thus, we get the equation:

Generator [Prithvi] + Processor [Moon] = Consumer [Prithvi]

Or

Ketu + Moon = Mercury

Or

Ketu + 10 = Mercury

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Next, we have the remaining inner planet of Sun. If we were to now write down the full equation of the inner planets we get

Sun + Moon + Venus + Mercury + Ketu = 60

Or

Sun + 10 + 20 + [Ketu + 10] + Ketu = 60

Or

Sun + 40 + 2 x Ketu = 60

Or

Sun + 2 x Ketu = 20

The integer resolution of like integers of that equation gives us Sun = 6 and Ketu = 7.

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This now also gives us the duration for Mercury as

Mercury = Ketu +10

Or

Mercury = 7 + 10 = 17.

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Thus, giving us the solve for the MahaDasha durations of the inner planets as

• Sun = 6

• Moon = 10

• Venus = 20

• Mercury = 17

• Ketu = 7

No longer a mystery to us! The Antardashas use the the same values as a ratio of the MahaDasha to distribute the years to each planet.

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Complete the Vimshottari Series