Pasa Yoga: seven grahas in five signs, the most common Sankhya yoga

Pasa is the noose or tether, and Pasa Yoga is the classical name for a chart in which the seven visible grahas occupy five different signs. It is one of the Sankhya ("counting") yogas, the part of the Nabhasa family that only asks how many signs the planets are spread across. Every chart has exactly one Sankhya yoga, and five signs is the count the sky produces most often - in the engine's sample, more than four charts in ten. That makes Pasa an instructive yoga to study, because it shows plainly how little a very common yoga can distinguish one chart from another. The wider question is taken up in what a yoga in your chart means.

The rule: the five-sign condition

BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 16-17 states it in five words - "if in 5, Paash Yog is formed" - and Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 19 the same. The engine reads it in three steps:

1. 1.Take the seven classical grahas: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. The shadow grahas Rahu and Ketu are not counted.
2. 2.Read the sidereal sign of each.
3. 3.Count the distinct signs. Exactly five gives Pasa Yoga, reported as "Your 7 classical grahas (Sun through Saturn) occupy exactly 5 distinct signs".

Five signs for seven grahas leaves only two ways to divide them: two pairs and three singles, or one group of three and four singles. The rule does not care which, nor which signs are used, nor what is rising. The ascendant decides which houses the five signs become, and that matters to other yogas, but the Pasa count is fixed by the planets alone.

The precedence clause, which Pasa almost never meets

BPHS adds that a Sankhya yoga is not "operable, if another Nabhash Yog is derivable". The engine records that clause in its source comment and does not apply it; it reports every Nabhasa yoga that forms. For several of Pasa's siblings the clause is triggered automatically by a shape yoga - Gada always makes Yuga, Kamala and Yupa always make Kedara, Chakra and Samudra always make Damini. No shape yoga uses five houses. The twenty Akriti rules of BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 9-15 occupy two, three, four, six or seven houses, never five, so no shape can sit on a Pasa chart at all.

What can join Pasa is limited to an Asraya yoga (if all five signs shared a modality, which five signs drawn from three modalities cannot do - so in fact never), one of the Dala yogas, Maala or Sarpa, or the benefic-malefic group yogas Vajra and Yava. In the sample that happened 18 times in 1,300: Maala 8, Vajra 6, Yava 4. In the other 1,282 Pasa charts the precedence clause has nothing to act on.

The modality point deserves its one line of arithmetic. There are three modalities - movable, fixed and dual - and each has only four signs. Five distinct signs therefore cannot all be of one modality, so Rajju, Musala and Nala can never form on a Pasa chart. The same is true of every count above four.

What the classical texts say about Pasa Yoga

• BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 3-6 lists the yoga as "Paash"; Sl. 16-17 gives the count of five.
• BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 45: one born in Paash Yog is liable to be imprisoned, skilful in work, deceiving in disposition, talks much, is bereft of good qualities and has many servants.
• Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 19 gives the same rule under the name Pasa, and Sl. 50 a parallel reading: bonded, attached to work, worldly in disposition, talking too much, without good qualities, with many servants.
• Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 8-10 adds a single reading for all Sankhya yogas - happy only with others' wealth, living through others' help.
• BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 50 says the results of Nabhasa yogas are felt throughout all dasha periods.

The two readings track each other line by line and differ in strength at two points. Where BPHS has "liable to be imprisoned", Saravali has the milder "bonded"; where BPHS has "deceiving in disposition", Saravali has "worldly in disposition". Both are working from the image in the name - a noose, a tie - and both pair it with skill at work, much talk and many servants. Advanced Predictive Astrology and the Bhrigu Sutras do not mention Pasa Yoga.

How common Pasa Yoga is, and what that implies

Pasa fired in 1,300 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060 - 43.3 percent. Across the engine's longer walk of 20,000 moments to the year 2483, 8,804 had five signs, a similar share. No other Sankhya count comes close: Kedara (four signs) had 785 in the sample and Damini (six) 669. Five is simply the most likely number of signs for seven moving bodies, three of which - the Sun, Mercury and Venus - travel as a loose group.

A yoga that more than four charts in ten carry cannot separate one life from another very sharply. That is not a criticism of the texts - Saravali's own group reading for all seven Sankhya yogas shows how broadly they were meant - but it is a reason to read Pasa as background rather than as a headline.

The table also shows how a Pasa chart is usually assembled. In 901 of the 1,300 the Sun, Mercury and Venus used two signs between them, and the Moon stood alone in its sign in 870. A common Pasa chart, then, is one where the inner trio forms a pair and a single, the Moon keeps a sign to itself, and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn fill the remaining places, often sharing a sign with someone. None of that is part of the rule; it is simply what five signs most often looks like.

Worked example: 15 February 1985, New Delhi

The first Pasa moment in the engine's walk is 15 February 1985 at 19:05 IST, New Delhi. You can re-enter it in the birth chart calculator. The ascendant is Leo at 15.68 degrees.

Five signs - Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces - split two, two, one, one, one: the commoner of the two Pasa patterns. The engine reports Pasa Yoga. Notice that the five signs happen to be consecutive, so the grahas fill the 4th to the 8th houses without a gap. That looks like a shape, but BPHS has no shape for five continuous houses - its "continuous" shapes need four houses (Yupa and its kin) or seven (Nauka and its kin) - so it remains a plain Pasa chart.

Now the precedence check, by hand. No Asraya yoga is possible with five signs. For Maala, benefics would need three kendras and no malefic in any; here the 1st and 10th are empty, Saturn holds the 4th and the Sun the 7th, so no. Sarpa would need malefics in three kendras with no benefic, but only two kendras are occupied and Mercury, a benefic, is in the 7th. The benefics - Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus - are spread over the 5th to the 8th, so they fill neither the 1st and 7th (Vajra) nor the 4th and 10th (Yava); the malefics, in the 4th, 7th and 8th, fill neither pair either. The engine's list has no other Nabhasa yoga, so this Pasa would stand under BPHS as well.

The chart also illustrates how separate the count is from dignity. Venus is exalted in Pisces, but in the 8th house, not a kendra, so it does not make Malavya Yoga. Jupiter is debilitated in Capricorn in the 6th. And Jupiter, as lord of Pisces, the 8th sign from Leo, sits in the 6th house - a placement the engine reports as Sarala Yoga. None of these alters the count of five.

Pasa between Kedara and Damini

On the Sankhya ladder Pasa is the middle-upper rung. One fewer sign gives Kedara; one more gives Damini; at the far ends are Sula, Yuga and Gola below and Veena above. In the worked chart, splitting the Mars-Venus pair or the Sun-Mercury pair across two signs would make it Damini; moving the Moon into Scorpio or Capricorn would make it Kedara. Because the Moon changes sign every couple of days, neighbouring births can sit on different rungs.

What Pasa Yoga does not tell you

Pasa states how many signs the seven grahas use, and nothing else. It does not weigh any graha, any house or any Mahadasha; this app gives it no dasha window of its own, since it is a whole-chart pattern, which agrees with BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 50. The classical reading - noose, servants, much talk - is the texts' claim, reported and reframed here. Given how many charts share it, it is better treated as context than as a statement about you.

To see your own Sankhya count, and any Maala, Vajra or Yava yoga beside it, run the yoga calculator.

Questions about Pasa Yoga

What is Pasa Yoga?

It is the Nabhasa Sankhya yoga for a chart whose seven classical grahas, Sun to Saturn, occupy exactly five signs. BPHS calls it Paash Yog (Ch. 35 Sl. 16-17) and Saravali Pasa (Ch. 21 Sl. 19).

Why is Pasa Yoga so common?

Five is the most likely number of signs for seven planets, three of which (Sun, Mercury, Venus) stay near each other. It fired in 1,300 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060, or 43.3 percent.

Is Pasa Yoga a bad yoga?

BPHS and Saravali read it with the image of a noose or bond and some harsh words. This app paraphrases it as a very sociable nature, prone to overcommitting to others' expectations, and treats it as a named rule about positions rather than a verdict.

Can Pasa Yoga occur with Rajju, Musala or Nala Yoga?

No. Those need all seven grahas in signs of one modality, and each modality has only four signs, so five distinct signs can never qualify.

Does BPHS cancel Pasa Yoga when another Nabhasa yoga forms?

BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 16-17 says a Sankhya yoga is not operable then. No shape yoga can coexist with Pasa, so only Maala, Sarpa, Vajra or Yava could trigger it; in the sample that happened 18 times in 1,300. This app reports both and leaves the clause to the reader.

Does it matter which planets share a sign in Pasa Yoga?

Not for the yoga. Two pairs and three singles was the commoner split in the sample (809 of 1,300), one group of three and four singles the other (491). Which planets sit together matters for conjunctions, combustion and other rules, but Pasa counts signs only.

Does the ascendant change Pasa Yoga?

No. The ascendant decides which houses the five signs become, so it matters for Maala, Vajra and Yava, but the five-sign count, and so Pasa itself, is the same from any rising sign.

Does Pasa Yoga have a dasha period?

No. BPHS says Nabhasa results run through all periods, and this app gives whole-chart patterns no Mahadasha window.