Raja Yoga Bhanga

Definition

Raja Yoga Bhanga is the cancellation, breaking, or obstruction of a raja yoga — a combination promising kingly rank or power — where bhanga means breaking away, loss, or ruin. Raman lists the factors that cause it: a raja yoga that falls in a dusthana (a difficult 6th, 8th, or 12th house), is eclipsed by the lunar nodes, is loosely-knit, or is harmed by combustion (sitting too close to the Sun) or by a malefic house-lordship attaching to a benefic. When a raja yoga suffers bhanga, you lose the power or rank it promised.

In Tradition

These sources agree that the breaking of a raja yoga need not be final. Raman notes that a sufficiently powerful yoga may be restored in later periods, and Saravali holds that an exalted or benefic-associated planet in the combination can revive an obstructed kingly yoga. So when a raja yoga and its obstruction both sit in a chart, the stronger of the two prevails.

In Practice

A jyotishi (Vedic astrologer) weighs a chart's raja yogas against the factors that would cancel them, rather than reading them at face value. Raman reads loss of power when a raja yoga sits in a dusthana, is eclipsed by the nodes, is loosely-knit, or is hit by combustion or malefic-lordship on a benefic. Saravali adds further cancelling setups: two or more of Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and the Sun in deep fall (debilitation) with one in the ascendant and the Moon in Scorpio; a weak unaspected Moon in critical Navamsa (ninth-divisional-chart) positions; malefics debilitated in the angles while benefics are pushed to the 6th, 8th, and 12th; Aquarius rising with three fallen planets and Jupiter combust or debilitated; and Kemadruma with an unaspected Moon. deFouw and Svoboda warn that a bhanga can quickly collapse a chart read too heavily on its yogas, yet a broken yoga does not strip the grahas (planets) of all power — they keep acting within a narrower arena.

Historical Origin

The doctrine is laid out in the classical Saravali (Chapter 39, Slokas 1-23) by Kalyana Varma, in the chapter on the obstruction of kingly yogas, here in R. Santhanam's translation. It carries into modern practice through B.V. Raman and Gayatri Devi Vasudev in How to Judge a Horoscope, Volume Two, and is treated as Yoga Bhanga by Hart deFouw and Robert Svoboda in Light on Life.

Further Reading

• Kalyana Varma, Saravali Ch.39 Sl.1-23
• B.V. Raman & Gayatri Devi Vasudev, How to Judge a Horoscope, Volume Two (VII to XII Houses)
• Hart deFouw & Robert Svoboda, Light on Life