I got this question from someone that if the route to the Self is as simple as sitting in one place and mentally reciting Soham 108 times with 108 breaths then why doesn’t everyone immediately gain Moksh?

There are several answers to this question. From karma balance from past lives to regular practice to the final deciding blessings of the Parmeshwar. But as this is an astrology post let’s check out some the astrological combinations which lead to Mantra Siddhi.

Mantra is a Sanskrit word which has several meanings, it is a secret knowledge, secret advise, a consultation, something which trains the mind, cleans the mind, stabilises/anchors the mind, gives you what you desire, etc. I have written about the 6 types of mantra here. Soham also obviously is a Mantra but a class apart as it is an Ajapa Mantra. And when you achieve Siddhi over the Soham Mantra you will gain the Self.

If you do a particular Using the Akshar, Mantra and Sanskrit Sadhana or do its Tapa, you will achieve a particular objective. eg Reciting a mantra again and again produces Taposiddhi. Then each mantra has is own speciality. Eg you cannot use a vidveshana mantra for ucchatan. And every mantra Sadhana has a specific procedure which has to be followed, if you make errors here, you can mess up with your internal energy and suffer. But if done properly you will gain Tapo-Siddhi/ Mantra-siddhi ie your Sadhana or Tapa will give the desired result. Mantra Siddhi means that you have achieved complete control over the mantra and now can use it in the way it was intended consciously. This also means that you can be considered as a ‘Guru’ for that mantra and you can give initiation/ diksha of this mantra to others.

For a mantra to be successful ie siddh, first you need to have got it/diksha from a Guru who has achieved Siddhi over it and follow his directions, pray to the presiding deity of that mantra and get the blessings. Second, you should have a powerful and auspicious Dharma trikon. And third, the 5^th house, its occupants and its lord have to be capable of beneficial results. Only then can you achieve Mantra siddhi in your current life.

The 5^th house is the house of the Mantra. Some of these are with you from your past lives. All the hard work you do today on your Soham is going to be always a part of you and will be reflected in the 5^th house of your future birth’s charts. Soham Sadhana is also called Sushumna Yog and is never completely destroyed by death. Whatever you have done, till whatever level you had reached before physical death, is carried onwards with you.

This also means that the 5^th house is linked to your poorva-janma-punya, the auspicious actions which you had performed in your past lives. That’s the precise reason why the ascendant lord in the 5^th house is considered to be a type of Raj-yog. This combination gives the current personality a direct link to the fruits of the sadhanas of the past lives. You can consciously use these assets for your benefit now. The 9th house is slightly different as it is not in your conscious control, you receive your punya as divine blessings or luck in the 9th house.

Wherever the 5^th lord is located in your chart is also significant as you can use your poorva-janma-punya to achieve things connected to that house too. But this ability to consciously tap into the 5th house will depend on the power of the 1^st house, ie your personality and the 9^th house, the divine blessings. So overall a strong Dharma trikon is necessary.

Look for these indicators in the horoscope to know if you can make your Mantra-s siddh. More the patterns seen, more powerful the results. 

• If the 5^th lord is exalted in the birth chart and further aspected by benefics.
• If the ascendant lord is placed in the 5th house.
• If the 5^th and 9^th lord are both powerful and in some auspicious yog with each other.
• The three owners of the 1^st 5^th 9^th houses are placed in only these three houses.
• Check the strengths Shad-bala Vimshopaka of the 1st, 5th and 9th lords. They should be strong and capable of auspicious results. .
• And if you are an advanced student, open the divisional charts/DC. You have to locate the ruler of the 5^th house in each of the 10 DC which make up the Dasha varga (post here). Check in how many DC the 5^th lord is shifting to a sign he owns or his sign of exaltation or his mool-trikon sign or stays vargottam. The more deep are the roots of his power in the DC, the more power he gets to grant you Mantra siddhi.

I had mentioned this earlier, once you start your Sadhana in earnest, you should avoid looking directly into other people’s eyes. You might accidentally hypnotise the other person. Best look at his nose or mouth instead. Or if you are angry you can cause him harm in several ways. And then it would be a negative karma for you too. A Sadhak’s anger is always fuelled by his tapo-siddhi.

eg. There is this incident from the Mahabharat. The Pandav-s had lost the game of dice. Of the 5 brothers, 4 were sitting with their eyes lowered. Only Bhim was looking straight at the Kaurav assembly. The other 4 Pandav-s were not scared or humiliated. They had lowered their eyes because if they would look up directly, the anger in their eyes would burn the entire assembly. Bhim was the son of Vayu, ie he was the only one who had his Pran and Nadi network in his full control. So due to this tremendous control on himself, he was able to look at the others without harming them. All the 5-Pandavs and their 100-Kaurav cousins were Sadhak-s of the highest levels and had mastery over several mantras etc. But at that point of time, the rage of the Pandav-s was fuelled by their Tapo-siddhi as well as Dharma was on their side, making their gaze more potent.

Back to the chart. If you are a Sadhak, there is one particular time where you must remain alert. Whenever Saturn in transit, enters the house counted 5^th from the birth Moon, your power of judgement will fail. However intelligent you ordinarily may be or however powerful the rest of the chart may be. During this period you will face obstacles to your mantra-sadhana. Also avoid using your siddh-mantras in this transit period as you will invariably commit some error in the process.

The 5^th house is again very important as it also indicates your sanchit karma. (The store house of karma that you have with you is called sanchit karma. The small portion from this which you are enduring/enjoying in this life is called prarabdha karma. The karma which you will create in this life and which will be added to your prarabdha or sanchit is called the agaami karma). If your 9^th house lord and 5^th house lord are in some powerful mutual combination/ yog or connected in some way, then you can do this. You can alter your karma of the 5^th house by the divine blessings of the 9^th house. Eg if in this life you are unable to get something because of the planetary combinations and if you have this rare 9^th and 5^th house lord’s connect then you can ‘borrow’ this ability from your sanchit karma if you have it there. Or if you realise that in this life you are going to die a horrible death you can postpone this prarabdha to a future life. This is also a part of mantra-siddhi (5^th house item) and requires blessings from the Para-Brahma (9^th house item). For the rare few who have this blessing, this event will happen in dasha and antar-dasha periods related to the 1^st 5^th 9^th lords. And the exact timing will be when Jupiter or the Yogkarak planet for the chart just resumes his direct motion after being retrograde.

This is also a reason why I was stressing in an earlier post that this period till 20^th Nov is going to give significant opportunities to some of us. Recently Jupiter turned direct. Today Saturn has come out of retrogression. Mars will go direct on 14^th Nov. These are very significant times.