Neechabhanga Raja yoga

This article is about Indian Astrology. For only Raja yoga, see Raja yoga (Hindu astrology).

Neechabhanga Raja yoga improves the significance of the neecha graha i.e. planet which is in debilitation. Generally coming into operation after the age of thirty-six years Neechbanga Raja yoga indicates cancellation of debilitation of a debilitated planet which then does not tend to produce adverse results during the course of its own dasha but produces exceptionally good results.

Neecha grahas

The Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu become debilitated in Libra, Scorpio, Pisces, Virgo, Cancer, Capricorn, Aries, Scorpio and Taurus signs respectively. A neecha planet is too weak to produce good results signified by it. If a planet is neecha (in debilitation) it gives malefic results. Neecha planets, because of their inherent weakness, give adverse results during the course of their dashas, only when their neechbhanga occurs that their debilitation simultaneously giving rise to a benefic situation gives good results. By associating with other benefic yoga-causing planets neecha grahas i.e. debilitated planets, even spoil the impact of these yogas caused by those planets. Thus, if lords of the 9th and the 10th house from the lagna conjoin and if any one of them is in in its debilitation sign or associates with a planet occupying its debilitation sign or the lord of the 8th, there will be Rajayoga bhanga, which means there will be Raja yoga in the beginning but which effect will soon wear out.

Neechabhanga

The term Neechabhanga indicates cancellation of debilitation. This composite word is a combination of two Sanskrit words – neecha, meaning "debilitated", and bhanga, meaning "annulled".

The debilitation of a planet gets cancelled if its dispositor or the lord of its sign of exaltation occupies a kendra from the lagna (ascendant) or the (Natal) Moon or if it is aspected by either its dispositor or its exaltation lord or it exchanges sign with its dispositor or if it is aspected by another planet in debilitation. It is an enigmatic situation which according to Vaidyanatha Dikshita of Jataka Parijata comes into being i.e. debilitation gets cancelled if at the time of birth

• If the lord of the house occupied by a debilitated planet is in a kendra or in a trikona from the Lagna or the Chandra-lagna.
• If the planet that gets exalted in the sign where a planet is debilitated is in a kendra from the Lagna or the Chandra-lagna, or
• If a planet is debilitated and is aspected by its exaltation lord.
• If the lord of the exaltation house of the debilitated planet is in a kendra from the Lagna or the Chandra-lagna.
• The debilitated planet is exalted in the navamsa.
• If a debilitated planet is aspected by another debilitated planet or by its own dispositor.
• The lord of the navamsa occupied by the debilitated planet is in a kendra or a trikona from the Lagna which rises in a movable sign or the lord of the Lagna is in a movable sign.
• If the lord of the sign that gets exalted in the sign occupied by the debilitated planet is in a trikona from the lord of the exaltation sign of the debilitated planet. or
• If the lords of the debilitation and exaltation houses of the debilitated planet are in mutual kendras or in trikonas from the Lagna or the Chandra-lagna. Raja yoga occurs only if the debilitated planet owning a benefic bhava occupies a kendra in a benefic and friendly sign otherwise its debility is removed and regains its strength.

Neechabhanga Raja yoga

Mantreswara in his Phaladeepika states that the Neechabhanga Raja yoga occurs when the dispositor and the lord of exaltation sign of planet in debilitation, both, happen to occupy a kendra from lagna or the Moon or both are in mutual kendras in the kendras from the lagna or the Moon. Thus, causation of this yoga is attributed to these two lords i.e. the dispositor or the lord of the sign of debilitation of the planet in debilitation and the lord of the sign of exaltation of the planet in debilitation. The primary role of this yoga is to counterbalance the neecha i.e. debilitation, results and not to confer kingship etc.; to the native.

The planet in debilitation if found occupying its exaltation navamsa is also deemed to have attained Neechbhanga status but a study has revealed that in most cases of Neechabhanga neither Raja yoga results nor favourable results had accrued. When Albert Einstein was born Mercury was in Pisces sign in which sign it becomes debilitated. But because Mercury's dipositor, Jupiter, was in a kendra from the Moon, Mercury is itself the lord of its sign of exaltation, Venus that gets exalted in the sign of debilitation of Mercury was also exalted in a kendra, that Mercury’s debilitation got cancelled. Einstein was not blessed with Neechabhanga Raja yoga because Mercury even though occupying a kendra from the lagna in a benefic sign was itself combust. The neecha Moon gaining neechabhanga also did not give rise to Raja yoga. In the case of Lord Krishna the 9th house is formed by Capricorn, which is a bad sign owned by Saturn, a natural malefic, and the 9th house receives the combined aspect of Saturn, Mars, Venus and Rahu, denoting a miserable bhagya, but an exalted Moon aspects Saturn and Mars, Mars has gained neechbhanga, and its dipositor, the exalted Moon, also occupies the Lagna-kendra which situation has given rise to Neechabhanga Raja yoga. In the case of Barack Obama born in Capricorn lagna occupied by Jupiter and Saturn, Jupiter gains neechabhanga and causes Neechabhanga Raja yoga; because the debilitated Jupiter occupying Capricorn, its sign of debilitation, is in the Lagna-kendra in conjunction with Saturn, the lord of Capricorn sign, wherein situated Jupiter becomes debilitated. Vaidyanatha Dikshita in his Jataka Parijata in its Chapter VII Sloka 15 describes two unique Neechabhanga Raja yoga, he states that if Jupiter be depressed in the lagna, and the 8th bhava be occupied by a malefic planet, and if the navamsa of the 8th bhava (64th navamsa) be that of a rasi owned by that planet a king of kings is born, and in the latter Sloka 20 he states that if three or four planets in depression occupy benefic Shashtiamsas or navamsas of their several exaltation signs at the time of birth of a person, he will be the lord of the earth, eminently just and virtuous.

If the debilitated planet gaining neechbhanga is in the 6th, the 8th or in the 12th it would not be a strong Raja yoga, only in good houses there will be strong Raja yoga (Phaladeepika). Cancelled debility does not become equal to exaltation, neechabhanga simply removes debility, results produced by a debilitated planet whose dispositor is also debilitated will be the worst possible.