Shadbala and its Conceptual details Part IV

4. CHESTA BALA
Planets which are relatively slow (among them retrograde planets) get a high Chesta Bala value. Planets which are relatively fast get a low chesta bala value. The reasoning is, the slow moving planets are able to focus their energy more because they stay at one place. The maximum amount of Shashtiamsas to be earned is 60, with respect to the relative speed and the average speed of a planet. Therefore it is possible that a relatively fast moving Saturn gets a low Chesta Bala, while a relatively slow moving Mercury gets a high Chesta Bala. The Sun and Moon do not get Chesta Bala values. They move in a fairly regular pattern and do not go retrograde ever.
5. NAISARGIKA BALA
Each planet gets a certain amount of Shashtiamsas according to the luminosity it has. Because the Sun is the brightest planet it is given 60 Shashtiamsas. Saturn is the faintest and gets 8.57 Shashtiamsas. This means that the amount of Shashtiamsas a planet receives according to Naisargika Bala is same in every chart.
6. DRIK BALA
Drik Bala is called aspect strength. If a planet is aspected by benefics the planet receives a positive Shashtiamsa value. If a planet is aspected by malefics than it gets negativeDrik Bala points. The calculation of the Drik Bala value is a bit complicated because we also take partial aspects in account i.e. 25% , 50% and 75% aspects. We know that the Sun, Moon, Venus and Mercury aspect the planet in the seventh sign from it. Now forthis purpose we say that these planet aspect the zodiacal degree in opposition (180 degrees from it). The point which is 120 degrees from these planets get a partial aspect of 50%, the point which is 90 degrees from the planet gets a 75% aspect, the point which is 60 degrees gets a 25% aspect and the point which is 30 or 150 degrees from the planet gets no aspect at all. Most Astrologers/Jyotishis only work with full (100%) aspects, but for thispurpose we work with partial aspects (that means aspects which are weaker than full aspects). This makes the calculation of Drik Bala quite cumbersome. What is important to know is that if a certain planet has a negative Drig Bala value than it is mainly under the influence of malefics and if it has a positive Drig Bala value it is under the influence of benefics. Therefore the Drig Bala value is very interesting. By looking at the Shadbala printout we can immediately see if a planet is mainly under the influence of benefics or malefics and how strong that influence is.
7. TOTAL SHADBALA
Finally, the Shashtiamsas are added up. We get the Shadbala value in Shashtiamsas. Next they are divided by 60. Then we get the Shadbala values in Rupas. It is important to realize that the influence of certain Shadbala factors is much greater than others. Simply because the amount of Shashtiamsas to be gained by certain Shadbala factors is much greater than by others. For example, the amount of Shashtiamsas which can be gained by the Sthana Bala is a lot more than, that can be gained by Dig Bala. Therefore the six Shadbala factors are not equally important. According to the Shadbala rules every planet needs a certain amount of Rupas to be strong. According to these rules Mercury needs 7 Rupas, Jupiter needs 6 ½ Rupas, The Moon needs 6 Rupas, Venus needs 5 ½ Rupas, Saturn, the Sun and Mars need 5 Rupas. These values are seen as the minimum requirement for a certain planet to be strong. There has been no explanation of this anywhere. The total Shad Bala in Rupas is divided by this minimum requirement and then we get the Shad Bala ratio. The most interesting about this Shad Bala ratio is to see whether a planet has more or less than the minimum requirement and how much that is. In general most astrologers attach more value to the total Shad Bala.