Note 283 — Chapter I

All planets influence the life of a person, one way or the other, according to their position in the heavens at the time of his birth. A kundali, i.e., a figure like the one shown here, is drawn by astrologers to illustrate the respective positions of the planets. The twelve squares of the diagram represent the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the positions of the planets in different squares influence persons in different ways. Ravi (the Sun), Budha (Mercury) and Shukra (Venus) occupy one rāshi for one month; Chandra (the Moon) occupies a rāshi for 135 ghadis,283 i.e., two days and a quarter; Mangal (Mars) for one month and a half; Guru (Jupiter) for thirteen months; Shani (Saturn) for two years and a half, and Rāhu for a year and a half. This is their normal and ordinary motion. But if they take an abnormal course and move either too fast or too slow, they finish their revolution through a rāshi within a shorter or a longer period.284