Planet Strength: Ṣaḍbala, Iṣṭa and Kaṣṭa, and the Avasthās

Why strength matters

Every reading on this site says what a planet promises — a career theme, a relationship pattern. Strength answers the next question: how much of that promise can the planet actually deliver? The classical texts give several meters for this. They measure different things, so a planet can score high on one and low on another. This article walks through the three the site uses: Ṣaḍbala, iṣṭa and kaṣṭa, and the avasthās (states).

Ṣaḍbala: six sources of strength

Ṣaḍbala means "six-fold strength" (BPHS 27–28). Each of the seven visible planets collects points from six sources:

Sthāna bala, positional strength: closeness to exaltation, dignity across seven divisional charts, sign and house type.

Dig bala, directional strength: each planet is strongest in one angle of the chart (Jupiter and Mercury in the 1st, the Sun and Mars in the 10th, Saturn in the 7th, the Moon and Venus in the 4th).

Kāla bala, temporal strength: day or night birth, the Moon's phase, the lords of the year, month, day and hour, and more.

Cheṣṭā bala, motional strength, tied to a planet's speed and retrograde motion.

Naisargika bala, natural strength: a fixed ranking from the Sun (brightest) down to Saturn.

Dṛk bala, aspectual strength: aspects received from benefics add, from malefics subtract.

The points are counted in virūpas; 60 virūpas make one rūpa. BPHS 28.32–33 sets a minimum total for each planet: Sun 6.5 rūpas, Moon 6, Mars 5, Mercury 7, Jupiter 6.5, Venus 5.5, Saturn 5. A planet at or above its minimum is called strong.

On top of the yes/no test, the site grades how much of its results a planet can give, using the ratio of its total to its minimum: 1.25 or more full, 1 or more three-quarters, 0.75 or more half, below that a quarter. That grading is the site's mapping of the graded shares in BPHS 48.3.

Iṣṭa and kaṣṭa: the good and the hard share

BPHS 29 adds a second meter, out of 60. Iṣṭa ("desired") is the average of two figures: how close the planet is to its exaltation point, and how strong its motion is. Kaṣṭa ("painful") is the rest: 60 minus iṣṭa. A planet with high iṣṭa leans towards giving its good results; one with high kaṣṭa leans towards its hard ones. On the site, the good readings of a planet are weighted by its iṣṭa and its difficult readings by its kaṣṭa.

The avasthās: what "infant" or "dreaming" means

Avasthā means "state". BPHS 46.3–6 describes two simple sets.

The age states (bālādi)

Each sign is cut into five parts of 6°. In odd signs (Aries, Gemini, Leo…) the parts run in order; in even signs (Taurus, Cancer, Virgo…) in reverse. A planet's part gives its "age" and the share of its results (BPHS 46.3–4):

The last label sounds alarming, so let us be clear: mṛta means only that the planet gives no results by this measure — it is a strength label, not a prediction about the person or anyone in their life. It says the planet sits at the very edge of its sign, where this particular meter reads it as spent. The site never lets one meter silence a planet: its weighting keeps a floor of a quarter even for this state, and Ṣaḍbala often tells a different story.

The wakefulness states (jāgradādi)

The second set looks at the sign the planet occupies (BPHS 46.5–6):

Awake (jāgrat): in its own sign or exalted — gives its results fully;

Dreaming (svapna): in the sign of a friend or a neutral — gives them in part;

Asleep (suṣupti): in the sign of an enemy or debilitated — gives little.

Natural and compound relationships

"Friend" and "enemy" come in two kinds. The natural relationship is fixed by BPHS 3: the Sun counts the Moon, Mars and Jupiter as friends, and so on. The temporary relationship depends on your chart: planets in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th from each other are temporary friends, the others temporary enemies. Adding the two gives the compound relationship: great friend, friend, neutral, enemy or great enemy.

The site uses the natural relationship (with own sign, mūlatrikoṇa and exaltation) for the awake / dreaming / asleep states, and the compound relationship for the divisional-chart points in Ṣaḍbala and Viṁśopaka. Take the Sun in the sample chart: it sits in Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter, a natural friend — so the Sun is "dreaming". But Jupiter is in the 8th from the Sun, a temporary enemy, so the compound relationship is only neutral.

A worked example

Here is the site's sample chart (25 December 1990, 03:20, Paris):

Three things stand out:

Jupiter is the cleanest: exalted in Cancer (awake), well above its minimum, with an iṣṭa of 52 out of 60. Its good results flow easily.

The Sun is the only planet below its Ṣaḍbala minimum (0.89, a half share), with a low iṣṭa.

Mars and Saturn are both in the mṛta part of their signs (Mars at 4° of Taurus, Saturn at 1° of Capricorn — even signs, where the order runs backwards). Yet both pass their Ṣaḍbala minimum comfortably, and Saturn is awake in its own sign. The meters disagree, which is exactly why the site reads them together instead of trusting any one label.

In your own chart

Each planet card in your report shows its Ṣaḍbala against its minimum, its share grade, iṣṭa and kaṣṭa, and both avasthās in plain words. Calculate your chart.

Related articles

Divisional charts (vargas) and Viṁśopaka

Chara kārakas: your soul planet and its ministers

Two clocks: Vimśottarī and chara daśā