Choosing an auspicious day to start sadhana: Vedic astrology advice

Hari Aum.

In this post I will share my understanding on how to select an auspicious day as per vedic astrology for starting any sadhana including purascharana.

Why use vedic astrology to select an auspicious day? Well, as per the rishis of ancient times, some days naturally have divine energies that support the starting of divine practices. Whereas other days have inauspicious energies that create obstacles in one's work. Starting a sadhana on an auspicious day gives one a good start and increases one's chances of completing it successfully. Starting on an inauspicious day may result in more obstacles and perhaps even being unable to complete the sadhana.

It's like a fisherman going fishing. If he is wise, he will check the weather forecast and select a pleasant sunny day with favourable winds and no rain. That maximises his chances of success. If he is foolish, he may go out fishing in gale-force winds after ignoring the weather forecast that there will be bad weather and end up in serious trouble.

Vedic astrology provides a 'weather forecast' of auspicious and inauspicous energies for different tasks including starting sadhana.

I will share with you some tips to help you start your sadhana on an auspicious day. This will help maximise success in completing it and in achieving the desired goal, while reducing the chance of obstacles as far as possible.

I will divide this advice into two parts:

1) For those with no knowledge of vedic astrology
2) For those who have some knowledge of vedic astrology

1) Let us start with those who have no knowledge of vedic astrology.

Basically, I would advice checking the link below and selecting a day with an 'auspicious yoga' (or combination of astrological factors) such as

i) Sarvartha siddhi yoga
ii) Amrita yoga
iii) Guru pushya yoga
iv) Ravi pushya yoga
v) Dwipushkar yoga
vi) Tripushkar yoga
vii) Ravi yoga
viii) Ravi pushya yoga

http://www.drikpanchang.com/yoga/yoga.html

Check the location on the website is set to the place where you are starting your sadhana. And that is simply it- you have a suitable day to start your sadhana. If you use this or a similar website to find a day with one of the above auspicious yogas, this will be adequate in giving you a good start to your sadhana. Then of course it is up to you to keep it up. For extra reassurance, you may also wish to consult an astrologer.

2) Now I will add some additional advice for those with some knowledge of vedic astrology to help fine-tune the muhurtha for commencing sadhana.

Firstly, check out this book by the famous vedic astrologer BV Raman on 'Muhurtha'- see link below. I find this book very helpful in selecting muhurthas generally.

astrologerjolly.tripod.com/muhurtha.htm

Read some key sections in this book carefully regarding the general principles of a good muhurtha including the requirements of lagna, position of the moon, chandra bala, tarabala,  auspicious yogas and factors that nullify adverse yogas.

I cannot summarise the whole book here obviously, but I will point out some key features for the muhurtha as per this book:

-Lagna and lagna lord should be strong and favourable for sadhana
-Moon should be strong and auspicious
-Benefic planets should be in kendras as far as possible
-Malefic planets should occupy houses 3, 6, 10, 11 if possible
-No planet should occupy the 8th house if possible
-Ensure a good tithi/lunar day and weekday
-Ensure a suitable nakshatra which is good for sadhana and favourable to your birth nakshatra
-Select a day which has one of the auspicious yogas mentioned above such as sarvartha siddhi yoga. This is described in chapter six of this book.
-Remember a completely perfect muhurtha cannot be had, so look for protective factors that nullify any imperfections in the muhurtha chart- these are described in chapter five of this book.
-The presence of a benefic Jupiter or other benefic planet in lagna would be excellent and will greatly strengthen the chart and nullify adverse combinations
-When choosing a muhurtha for mantra sadhana in particular, I like to ensure that 5th house of mantra and 9th house of spirituality are strong
-Check the above for both rasi and navamsa charts. You may also want to check this for the vimsamsa chart of spirituality.

To check if a particular day's nakshatra is favourable to your birth nakshatra, check the 'Tara bala' table below:

http://www.mypanchang.com/tarabalamchakra.php

Finally, I would like to mention that each day of the week is associated with a particular deity. Along with choosing a day with an auspicious yoga of planets as described above, it would be good to start the sadhana on the day of the week of the deity (but I feel this is less essential than the auspicious yoga).

 I have posted some information on deities ruling each weekday in this previous post: http://mantrayoga.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/days-for-worship-and-maha-lakshmi.html

I would also like to mention that some lunar days are sacred to certain deities:
E.g. Ekadasi (11th day of lunar fortnight) is sacred to Vishnu
Trayodashi (13th day) is sacred to Shiva
Ashtami (8th day) is sacred to Durga

So, for example, when starting a sadhana for Durga, it would be nice to choose a day with an auspicious yoga such as sarvartha siddhi yoga, which falls on Ashtami and on Friday (weekday ruled by the Goddess). On such a day, one would find a good muhurtha as described above.

If nothing else, I suggest finding a day with an auspicious yoga and that should suffice.

If the above points are followed, there is good chance of finding a good day to start sadhana which will be a great support in ensuring its successful completion. I hope this is helpful to those readers who would like to select an auspicious day to commence their sadhana.


Om Shri Gurave Namah

Hari Aum Tat Sat