Fourth House (Sukha Bhava)

Definition

In Jyotish (Indian astrology) the fourth house is the Sukha — or Bandhu — Bhava, read as the house of happiness and comfort. It governs your inner feelings, private life, and home, along with your general welfare, emotional stability, and affluence. Komilla Sutton calls it a subtle and complex house: the seat of the emotions and of the secret self you keep from others, where the Sanchita karma you carry into this life is reflected. Its karaka — its natural significator — is the Moon, standing for the emotional mind, the mother, and life on Earth.

In Tradition

Across these accounts the fourth house ties together not only home and comfort but the mother and an inner, emotional side of the self. Sutton links it to your mother, your relationship with her, and the emotions; Behari calls it the Mother Principle in Nature and places its meaning beyond mother, property, and vehicles. Both read it as a house of inwardness and maternal connection rather than of outward affairs.

In Practice

As the seat of emotions and private life, Sutton notes, the fourth house often shows in your mother and your relationship with her, and Indian astrologers always study it when weighing potential marriage partners; its karaka, the Moon, carries the meanings of the emotional mind, the mother, and life on Earth. Behari reads it more occultly: he identifies it with the Hiranyagarbha — the cosmic womb or store-house of human potential, the anima mundi (world-soul), and the Great Depth of Cancer — into which the individual's Divine Essence immerses before rising again into outer existence. In his account the fourth house governs the helpful and adverse forces met on that return, while its opposite house, the tenth, reflects the destiny that results.

Historical Origin

These significations come from modern Jyotish authors rather than from cited classical texts. The house-of-happiness, karma, mother, and Moon-karaka material is drawn from Komilla Sutton's The Essentials of Vedic Astrology. The Hiranyagarbha reading, in which the fourth house becomes the cosmic womb and the Great Depth of Cancer, is the author-specific elaboration of Bepin Behari, set out in his Fundamentals of Vedic Astrology and Vedic Astrologer's Handbook Vol. II.

Further Reading

• Sutton, The Essentials of Vedic Astrology
• Behari, Fundamentals of Vedic Astrology
• Behari, Vedic Astrologer's Handbook Vol. II