Saraswati Yoga

Definition

Saraswati Yoga is a Vedic planetary combination read for exceptional learning and eloquence. It is named for Saraswati, the goddess of learning, who presides over knowledge, speech, music and the arts. In the Phaladeepika form it arises when Venus, Jupiter and Mercury all sit in a kendra (an angle), a trikona (a trine) or the 2nd house, with Jupiter also in its exaltation, own or a friend's sign, and strong. deFouw and Svoboda set the same bar: all three strong in a kendra, a kona or the 2nd house.

In Tradition

Phaladeepika and deFouw-Svoboda arrive at the same picture independently: Venus, Jupiter and Mercury placed strongly in a kendra (an angle), a trikona or kona (a trine) or the 2nd house mark someone of outstanding learning and eloquence. Both read the combination as one that can make a savant and lend a gift for speaking well.

In Practice

A jyotishi (Vedic astrologer) reads Saraswati Yoga as marking scholarship and eloquence. Phaladeepika holds the person is highly intelligent, skilled in poetry, prose, drama and exposition of sacred texts, famous over the three worlds, wealthy, and blessed with wife and children. deFouw and Svoboda say it can make a savant and lend skill at oratory; they read it as powerful in Ramakrishna's chart and weaker in Einstein's, mainly because Mercury is debilitated (weak by sign) there. Rath describes a related Sarada (Sharada) Yoga for great learning, writing and scholarship, formed either from the fourth lord joining Mercury and the Moon, or from a Moon-based form needing the Moon in a quadrant from Mercury and in the first decanate of a movable sign (or the second or third drekkana, a third-of-a-sign division, of a fixed or dual sign). He also draws a Sarada (Sarasvati) yoga from a mutual aspect of Moon and Mercury, supporting entry into a learned government office.

Historical Origin

The yoga is attested classically in Mantreswara's Phaladeepika (Ch.6 Sl.26-27, V. Subrahmanya Sastri translation), where Saraswati Yoga is named outright. Later authors restate and extend it: deFouw and Svoboda in Light on Life, Rath in Crux of Vedic Astrology, who gives the Sarada/Sharada form, and Raman in Notable Horoscopes, who glosses Saraswathi as the Goddess of Learning.

Further Reading

• Mantreswara, Phaladeepika
• deFouw & Svoboda, Light on Life
• Rath, Crux of Vedic Astrology
• Raman, Notable Horoscopes