Analyzing the birth chart of Shakuntala Devi- The human computer

This blog will discuss the birth chart of Smt Shakuntala Devi who was a world renowned mathematician also called famously as a human computer for her ability to mentally calculate extremely complex calculations with accurate results delivered faster than the computers of those times. For this her name got entered in the Guinness book of world record. Here is  her birth chart…

The lord of first and second house that is Saturn is posted in her 12th  house signifying that she must have had a bitter childhood which pushed her becoming a spiritual and detached personality (from her family), which was true on ground. She had a very difficult childhood when right from the age of three she was made to display her mathematical abilities in public forums by her father with the aim to earn money. So right from the childhood she had become the sole bread winner of her family robbing her of her innocence and formal education. However, there was a silver lining to these bitter experiences, which was that this exposure of her ability in the public spread like fire which was instrumental in subsequently making her a world famous personality.

First and second lord in 12th will also mean that she will spend a significant amount of time in foreign land. A look at her trine (1,5,9), the houses of Dharma/objective, with Jupiter posted in fifth house and lord of fifth house i.e. Venus posted in Virgo in 9th house, shows that by early 20s, her objective will become to do something big (Jupiter) and subsequently enjoy luxuries of life with total indulgence (Venus in 6th zodiac of Budhi/mercury). A retro Jupiter in Rohini’s nakshatra in fifth house in Taurus zodiac indicates that her wisdom or expansion of horizon will be deep seated, inwards and with a stubborn approach. Moon is nutritional fluid in the body and an inward Jupiter gets help from moon’s nakshatra by feeding rasa (nutrition) to expanding consciousness. 2nd zodiac’s lord i.e. Venus  in ninth house also means that this consciousness will also store the luxury/indulgence of Venus.

What gave her exceptional Mathematical Abilities…

Lets look at her tenth house first of all which represents native’s father’s deepest constitution and thus the native’s final values which will decide his/her profession. This is  because father is Sun  in the family who decides the discipline of the family which includes way of  thinking, outer psyche, outer strength or say outer projection and thus way of earning too. Since 10th house represents father’s economical aspect (house of Arth/economy), 9th house represents (objective) Dharma of the father. On the other hand, mother represents moon who provides food, comfort, inner psyche, inner strength and nourishment to the family.

Now, we see that 9th and 10th house have debilitated planets sitting in it, however there is a complex Neech bhang yoga (yoga cancelling debilitation) created in between these two houses. This is  because 9th house lord is sitting in 10th house with a debilitated planet and 10th house lord is  debilitated in 9th. Lets understand it a deeper level.  Venus becomes debilitated in Virgo, the zodiac of mercury because then the intellect (mercury) remains busy in indulgence (Venus) only. Venus is a planet with such a dense atmosphere and it doesn’t allow sunlight to pass through it. We also know that Sun and mercury should be closely placed (of courses not too close) as Sun provides power (electricity) to our nervous system (mercury) to expand our wisdom. But when Venus sits too close to mercury or in mercury’s main zodiac i.e. Virgo, it blocks light/electricity thereby keeping the native’s brain busy in luxuries only (Venus) without expanding wisdom/horizon.

In other words, Venus apart from getting debilitated, also debilitates the Virgo zodiac, thereby denting the house where it is posted (and this goes true for all cases that a debilitated planet also debilitates the zodiac where it is posted thereby denting that house and its signification). A debilitated Venus in first house can even lead to issues like epilepsy as  electricity runs erratically in the brain due to excess density of Venus.

Now, Sun in 7th zodiac i.e. Libra becomes weak as Venus’s main zodiac weakens ability of Sunlight to move properly through this dense zodiac. However, in this case, not only mercury is getting strong Sunlight in the 10th house, but Sun is also getting a strong push from Mars (sitting close it Sun) to provide strength or electricity to mercury (which otherwise had gone weak due to debilitation to its zodiac).  This strength to mercury provides strength to its zodiac too in 9th house and weakens debilitation of self and Venus. Also Sun, Mars are closely located to debilitated Venus (just a house away) thereby directly providing strength not only to mercury but also ability for strong Sunlight (aided by Mars) to penetrate through Venus.

Even mercury is sitting very close to its exultation point thereby negating the effect of debilitated Venus. All in all, its creating a Neech bhang Yoga in between a kendra house and dharma house which creates Neech bhang Raaj yoga. This is because natives Dharma signified by trikone houses and native’s constitution signified by kendra house speak the same language which in simple words means that native’s will do exactly that which her/his constitution (i.e. Prakriti) is also saying. This helped the native attain great heights especially after the age of around 35-40 when 9th house and upward houses became more active.

*** Neech bhang raaj yoga can be understood as a loop where one’s weaknesses become one’s strengths. Depending from case to case, such a yoga can give material and/or spiritual prosperity. In this case,  her father’s weakness of being too focused, obsessive and passionate about money and calculations signified by ketu (focused and possessive), Sun (focus and power) and mars (passion), and mercury (calculations), created the wiring of  her  brain i.e. constitution, like this only (as 10th house creates the wiring of the native in line with fathers ways of working), which helped her achieve her objective of enjoying luxuries right till the end of her life. Even her mother’s objective was in line with her father, as fourth house (signifying mother) has Rahu (desire) and Aries whose lord i.e. Mars is parked in the tenth house which is why the native had a difficult childhood when she was used as a tool by her family to earn money which carried on in later stages of life also and remained as bitter memories. The deep seated wiring of tenth house in her also created a rift in between her and her daughter and husband, as the native used to measure everything in terms of money and due to the signatures of tenth house she was too possessive (ketu) about her mathematical abilities, however Saturn in 12th being the lord  of first house helped her to overcome her possessiveness off and on. A debilitated lord of 7th house i.e. Moon was also instrumental in this rift.