The Renouncer's Path

Chapter 15 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

Some lives turn away from the world. In ancient India, a person might leave home and family to take up the life of a wandering ascetic, a monk, or a forest hermit. This step is called pravrajyā, "going forth". This short chapter of four verses describes the combinations in a chart that point to such a life, and even the kind of spiritual path the person will follow.

When the planets gather

The main sign of renunciation is a crowd of planets in one place. When four or more strong planets stand together in a single sign, the person is drawn to the ascetic life. The strongest planet in the group decides which kind (15.1):

एकस्थैश्चतुरादिभिर्बलयुतैर्जाताः पृथग्वीर्यगैः शाक्याजीविकभिक्षुवृद्धचरका निर्ग्रन्थवन्याशनाः । माहेयज्ञगुरुक्षपाकरसितप्राभाकरीनैः क्रमात्प्रव्रज्या बलिभिः समा परजितैस्तत्स्वामिभिः प्रच्युतिः ॥

ekasthaiś caturādibhir balayutair jātāḥ pṛthag vīryagaiḥ śākyājīvikabhikṣuvṛddhacarakā nirgranthavanyāśanāḥ | māheyajñagurukṣapākarasitaprābhākarīnaiḥ kramāt pravrajyā balibhiḥ samā parajitais tatsvāmibhiḥ pracyutiḥ ||

When four or more strong planets stand in one sign, those born become, according to the strongest among them, Shakya, Ajivika, Bhikshu, Vriddha, Charaka, Nirgrantha, or one who lives on forest food: by Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, the Moon, Venus, Saturn and the Sun, in that order. The renunciation follows the strong planet. If that planet is defeated, the person falls away from it.

This verse is a window onto the religious world of sixth-century India. Buddhist monks, Jain monks, Brahmin mendicants, wandering ascetics and forest hermits all lived side by side. The Ajivikas, followers of the teacher Makkhali Gosala, a contemporary of the Buddha and of Mahavira, were still active enough in Varahamihira's time to be named. The commentators identify some of these orders differently, but the picture of a rich and varied spiritual landscape is clear.

The pairing is also telling in its own way. The Sun, the soul and the king, gives the most solitary path, the forest hermit. Saturn, the planet of austerity and bareness, gives the Nirgrantha, the monk who has given up every possession. Jupiter, the teacher, gives the mendicant who lives by the gifts of others.

The last line adds a condition. A planet can lose a planetary war, as we saw in Article 4. If the planet that leads the group is defeated in this way, the person takes up the path but later leaves it.

Devotion without initiation

The next verse describes those who are drawn to the path without fully taking it (15.2):

रविलुप्तकरैरदीक्षिता बलिभिस्तद्गतभक्तयो नराः । अभियाचितमात्रदीक्षिता निहतैरन्यनिरीक्षितैरपि ॥

raviluptakarair adīkṣitā balibhis tadgatabhaktayo narāḥ | abhiyācitamātradīkṣitā nihatair anyanirīkṣitair api ||

When the strong planets have their light swallowed by the Sun, people are not initiated, but are devoted to those who are. When those planets are defeated and looked upon by others, people only ask for initiation.

Dīkṣā is initiation, the formal entry into a spiritual order. When the leading planet is hidden in the Sun's glare, the person does not take initiation, but becomes a devotee of those who have. When it has been defeated in war and other planets look at it, the person longs for initiation and asks for it, but does not truly receive it.

These are finely drawn shades of a spiritual life: the one who goes forth fully, the one who goes forth and returns, the devoted layperson, and the one who only longs.

Saturn and the Moon

The third verse gives other signs of initiation, built around Saturn, the planet of austerity, and the Moon, the mind (15.3). The ruler of the sign the Moon occupies is the "lord of the birth". When this lord looks at Saturn and no other planet looks at it, or when Saturn looks at a weak lord of the birth, the person takes initiation. The same happens when the Moon stands in a drekkana of Saturn and a navamsha of Mars or Saturn, and Saturn looks at her.

The idea is simple. When the mind falls under the steady gaze of Saturn, the person is drawn to renounce.

The king who renounces

The last verse describes two extraordinary lives, in which renunciation meets greatness (15.4):

सुरगुरुशशिहोरास्वार्किदृष्टासु धर्मे गुरुरथ नृपतीनां योगजस्तीर्थकृत्स्यात् । नवमभवनसंस्थे मन्दगेऽन्यैरदृष्टे भवति नरपयोगे दीक्षितः पार्थिवेन्द्रः ॥

suraguruśaśihorāsv ārkidṛṣṭāsu dharme gurur atha nṛpatīnāṃ yogajas tīrthakṛt syāt | navamabhavanasaṃsthe mandage 'nyair adṛṣṭe bhavati narapayoge dīkṣitaḥ pārthivendraḥ ||

When Jupiter, the Moon and the rising sign are looked upon by Saturn, and Jupiter stands in the ninth, one born under a royal yoga becomes a maker of a sacred path. When Saturn stands in the ninth, looked upon by no other planet, one born under a royal yoga becomes an initiated king.

The ninth house is the house of dharma, fortune and the teacher. When Jupiter, the teacher of the gods, stands there under Saturn's gaze, and the chart also holds a royal yoga, the person becomes a tīrthakṛt. The word means "one who makes a crossing", a builder of the ford by which others cross the river of life. It is the title the Jains give to their great teachers, and here it means the founder of a spiritual path or a great teacher of the sacred sciences.

When Saturn alone stands in the ninth, looked upon by no other planet, and the chart holds a royal yoga, the person becomes a king who has taken initiation. India's tradition remembers such figures, like King Janaka of Mithila, who ruled a kingdom while remaining inwardly free.

The commentators drew an important lesson from this verse. When a chart holds both a royal yoga and a sign of renunciation, the renunciation does not simply cancel the power. Instead, power and renunciation combine. The result is greatness of the spirit: the teacher, the founder, the sage-king.

Reading this chapter

This small chapter treats the spiritual life with real subtlety. It does not divide people simply into worldly and renouncing. It describes many shades between them: those who go forth for good, those who go forth and return, those who stay at home but devote themselves to the renouncers, those who long for initiation but never take it, and those rare souls in whom worldly greatness and inner freedom meet.

The chart, in this view, does not decide whether a person is spiritual. It describes the shape that a person's spiritual life is likely to take.

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapter 15. English renderings are our own, made from the Sanskrit and checked against the public-domain translation by N. Chidambaram Aiyar (1885; second edition 1905) and against the word-by-word analysis in Michael D. Neely's edition.