One of the sources of strength of a planet is the state of exaltation or “uchcha”. In this state of exaltation, a planet is said to get a lot strength to do good – even naturally inimical planets like Saturn do not cause harm to the traits of a horoscope when in exalted state. The planet gives lot of beneficial results when it is a ruler of a good house but on the other hand it does not do a lot of harm even if it is a lord of a difficult house like the 8th or 12th.
In the seventh sign from the “uchcha”, the planet is devoid of all the strength – also known the state of debilitation, i.e. “neecha”. The planet becomes weak and can also cause hindrances. However, loss of strength is not the important point here, the loss of “dignity” is. That is why our learned gurus chose the word “neecha” for such a state. They did not use the word “ashakta”, which is really the Sanskrit word for powerless.
There was a brief discussion in one of the posts about Neechabhanga and some very interesting points were raised. I would like to summarize it for the benefit of readers and also add my comments. There are some conditions under which there is a cancellation (bhang) of debility (neecha) of the planets that are in neecha state. Under these following conditions, the position of planet from Moon or lagna is important and is automatically implied unless stated otherwise. It would be best if the conditions are satisfied from both. The debility is canceled when –
Conditions 1, 2, 5, 6 are explicitly mentioned as a rajyogas in Dr B.V. Raman’s book “Three hundred important combinations”. Along with these, conditions 3 and 4 are additionally called as rajyogas by J.N. Bhasin in his book “Art of Prediction”.
To illustrate the point, let us consider a horoscope where Saturn is in Aries and hence debilitated. As per the rules, Saturn’s debilitation would be canceled when –
In the context of debilitation of planets, other yogas that are worth mentioning are –
Does mere cancellation of debility mean that the planet has become a rajyoga karaka? It is a matter of debate. Condition 1, which states that the planet just needs to be away from Sun and not situated in 3 out of 12 houses in a horoscope would apply to a majority of charts. This would mean that the debilitation would cancel for little less than 75% of all individuals. In my humble opinion, this condition is too generic to cause rajyoga.
A rajyoga should be caused only when such a planet getting the neechabhanga is situated in a kendra and is strong in Navamsha as well. It should also simultaneously be a lord of houses 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th and not the rest of the houses in the chart. My opinion on ownership of kendra and trine houses is based on a simple reasoning – a planet becomes a yoga karaka by by the virtue of lordship of certain houses and not by its position in horoscope, e.g. Saturn is a rajyoga karaka for Libra lagna by becoming ruler of houses 4 and 5, and for Taurus by being the ruler of houses 9 and 10. Unlike a planet which is exalted, a planet getting Neechabhanga would still be naturally inclined to do harm when it is lord of dusthanas – just like other planets in the chart. We must remember that Neechabhanga is really a cancellation of debility, it is not exaltation.