Pillar article
A Yoga Is a Named Link Between Grahas
In a kundli a yoga is a named pattern: certain lords joined, or all seven grahas in one kind of sign, or the Moon alone beside empty houses. The simplest raja yoga is a kendra lord with a trikona lord. A conjunction that never received a name is not a yoga just because two planets touch.
Named, or it is only a contact
The 9th lord with the 10th lord is dharma-karmadhipati yoga, a raja yoga with a job to do. The 2nd lord with the 11th lord is a dhan yoga. The 6th lord in the 8th or 12th can be Harsha, a viparita raja yoga. Jupiter in a kendra from the Moon is Gaja Kesari. All seven grahas in movable signs are Rajju, a nabhasa yoga. The Moon with empty 2nd and 12th is Kemadruma. These names come from the texts. Sun conjunct Mercury is a common contact and is not, by itself, one of those names. Call it a conjunction until a rule says otherwise.
The lagna decides who the lords are
A yoga of the 9th and 10th is Jupiter and Mars for Cancer, Mercury and the Moon for Libra, Saturn and Saturn for Taurus because Saturn owns both the 9th and the 10th. The geometry is the same sentence and a different graha. That is why a yoga list without a lagna cannot be applied to a person. Exaltation yogas such as the five mahapurusha require own sign or exaltation plus a kendra. An exalted planet in the 2nd fails the kendra test. Always finish the rule. A half rule invents yogas.
Delivery is the dasha
The pattern sits in the birth chart for life. It becomes the chapter when its planets run the mahadasha or antardasha. A raja yoga of lords who are asleep while the 3rd lord runs the decade will not look like a rise yet. A Kemadruma Moon is background during a strong Venus mahadasha of 20 years. Learn the name, the exact condition, and the period. Skip the unnamed conjunctions or read them simply as house contacts. That is the whole method of yogas, and it does not need a second, vaguer list.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a contact a yoga?
A classical rule with conditions: house lords, a kendra, an empty flank of the Moon, or all seven grahas in one sign quality. Touching is not enough.
What is the simplest raja yoga?
A lord of a kendra joined to a lord of a trikona. The 9th and 10th lords are the famous case. Who they are depends on the lagna.
When does a yoga show in life?
In the mahadasha or antardasha of the planets that form it. Outside that period it is a capacity in the chart.
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D1, D9, D10, dashas, yogas, and transits, the same calculations referenced in this article.