Ṣaḍbala · avasthā · the condition of a graha

बल

Six strengths, measured — and the states a graha can be found in

Every other document in this set asks what a graha signifies. This one asks whether it is in any condition to deliver. Ṣaḍbala is the classical attempt to make that quantitative: six independent sources of strength, each scored, summed into a total, and compared against a published minimum for that graha. It is the closest thing in the tradition to a measurement.

Treat the number as a summary rather than a verdict. A graha can clear its minimum on temporal and natural strength while sitting in a duḥsthāna owning the 8th, and the arithmetic will not tell you that. What ṣaḍbala does well is settle comparisons — which of two candidates for a yoga is actually the stronger, which of two malefics will dominate — and flag a graha whose apparent dignity is not supported underneath.

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Natural strength, and the minimum required

Naisargika bala is fixed for all charts — the grahas rank by brightness, in sevenths of a rūpa. The required minimum is what a graha's total ṣaḍbala must reach to be counted strong; note that Budha needs the most and is given the second-least naturally, which is why a strong Mercury is less common than it appears.

Units. Strength is measured in rūpas, each of sixty virūpas or ṣaṣṭiāṃśas. Individual components are usually quoted in virūpas and the total in rūpas, which is a frequent source of confusion when comparing outputs from different software. Sixty virūpas is one rūpa; a total of 390 virūpas is 6.5 rūpas.

On computing it by hand. You will not, and should not. Ayana bala alone requires the graha's declination, and cheṣṭā bala requires its mean and true longitudes. Every serious package computes ṣaḍbala; what matters is knowing which six components produced the number, so that when two packages disagree you can see where. They disagree most often on ayana bala and on the treatment of the nodes, which classical ṣaḍbala does not score at all.

The nodes are not included. Rāhu and Ketu receive no ṣaḍbala in the classical scheme. Some modern implementations assign them values by analogy; those values are inventions, however reasonable, and should not be compared against the classical minimums.

On the avasthās. Four separate schemes are given below and they are genuinely independent — a graha is simultaneously in a bālādi state, a jāgradādi state, a dīptādi state and a lajjitādi state. The dīptādi and lajjitādi schemes overlap in substance with dignity and with conjunction, so they add most where they disagree with the obvious reading rather than where they confirm it.