Vesi Yoga: a planet in the 2nd from the Sun, where Saravali and BPHS disagree, and a worked chart

Vesi is the first of the three solar yogas - rules built on the same plan as the Moon's Sunapha and Anapha, but counted from the Sun. A planet in the sign after the Sun gives Vesi. The rule is simple and the two classical texts state it in the same words; their readings of what it means, however, contradict each other on two points, and this page sets both out. What any yoga is worth in general is the subject of what a yoga in your chart means.

The rule: how Vesi Yoga forms

Count signs from the Sun's sign as the 1st, using whole signs. The engine reports Vesi when all three conditions hold:

1. 1.At least one of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn occupies the 2nd sign from the Sun.
2. 2.The Moon, Rahu and Ketu do not count. Saravali Ch. 14 Sl. 1 says "excluding the Moon (and nodes)"; BPHS Ch. 38 Sl. 1 says "barring Candr" and names the causing grahas as "Mangal etc." The nodes are excluded by Saravali in so many words.
3. 3.The 12th sign from the Sun holds none of the same five planets. If it holds one, the Sun is flanked and the engine reports Ubhayachari Yoga instead.

Planets in the Sun's own sign play no part. Mercury and Venus very often share the Sun's sign; when they do, they neither form Vesi nor block it. Degrees inside the sign do not matter either - it is the sign count alone.

A correction worth knowing about

The names Vesi and Vasi are one letter apart, and the engine's own source comment records that an earlier version of this app had them the wrong way round: every chart with a planet in the 2nd from the Sun was told it had Vasi, and the reverse. Both texts are explicit - Saravali Ch. 14 Sl. 1 puts Vasi in the 12th and Vesi in the 2nd, and BPHS Ch. 38 Sl. 1 puts "Vesi" in the 2nd and "Vosi" (its spelling of Vasi) in the 12th - and the engine now follows them. If you saw the other label for your chart in the past, or see it in another app, this is the likely reason. The mirror rule is on the Vasi Yoga page.

What the classical texts say

On the formation, Saravali and BPHS agree. On the result, they diverge in a way that is unusual for a yoga this simple.

Read side by side, the texts agree that the Vesi native keeps their word (firm in word, truthful), but disagree twice: Saravali says weak-sighted where BPHS says even-sighted, and Saravali says hard working where BPHS says indolent. Saravali attributes its line to the Yavanas rather than stating it in its own voice. The engine keeps the point on which the texts agree and Saravali's "hard working": "Classically read as a hard-working, tenacious streak - someone who keeps their word even when it takes real effort." That is a choice between sources, and this page names it so you can weigh it.

Benefic or malefic cause: BPHS Sl. 4

BPHS adds a condition that changes the reading entirely. Ch. 38 Sl. 4: benefics causing Vesi, Vosi or Ubhayachari give the stated effects, "while malefics will produce contrary effects". Of the five planets that can form Vesi, Mars and Saturn are malefics and Jupiter, Venus and Mercury benefics. The engine does not apply Sl. 4: it reports the yoga with one line whatever the causing planet. A reader following BPHS strictly would reverse that line when Mars or Saturn alone forms the yoga, as in the worked example below.

Saravali Sl. 3-5 handles the same point differently, with a line for each planet. Jupiter forming Vesi is read as accumulating money, learning and good-heartedness; Venus as timidity and obstacles; Mercury as modesty and service; Mars as using low means while helping others; Saturn as a harsh character who nonetheless has wealth. Sl. 10 then asks that the strength of the Sun and of the causing planet, and the signs they occupy, be weighed before results are declared. The engine names the causing planet and leaves that weighing to the reader.

How rare it is

In the engine's sample Vesi fired in 820 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060, or 27.3 percent. Vasi fired 843 times and Ubhayachari 1,020 times in the same sample. Together, then, the three solar yogas covered 2,683 of the 3,000 moments: only about one chart in nine had both neighbours of the Sun empty of the five planets.

The solar yogas are more common than the lunar ones for a reason that is pure astronomy. Mercury and Venus never move far from the Sun, so they are often in the sign just before or just after it. The Moon, by contrast, has no such companions. That is also why Ubhayachari, which needs both sides occupied, is the most common of the three here, while Durudhura, its lunar counterpart, is the rarest of the lunar three.

Which planets form it

The same 3,000-moment walk can be asked which planets the engine named as the cause each time Vesi fired. The answer shows how lopsided this yoga is, and it puts a number on how often BPHS Sl. 4's "contrary effects" case arises.

Venus and Mercury dominate, as their closeness to the Sun predicts. In 558 of the 820 Vesi moments every causing planet was a benefic (Mercury, Jupiter or Venus); in 100 the causes were Mars or Saturn only - the case BPHS reads as contrary; the remaining 162 had a mix. In 482 moments a single planet formed the yoga. So under a strict BPHS reading roughly one Vesi in eight would carry the reversed result, which the engine does not show. Under Saravali's per-planet approach every one of the five has its own line and none is simply reversed.

Worked example: a 1985 New Delhi chart

The engine's search found this chart: 15 March 1985 at 02:56 IST in New Delhi, which you can re-enter in the birth chart calculator. The ascendant is Sagittarius at 23.1 degrees.

1. 1.The Sun is in Pisces. The 2nd from it is Aries; the 12th is Aquarius.
2. 2.Aries holds Mars, one of the five. Rahu is there too, but it does not count. Condition one holds.
3. 3.Aquarius holds nothing. Condition three holds, so the yoga is Vesi, not Ubhayachari.
4. 4.Mercury and Venus are both in Pisces with the Sun - the 1st from it - and take no part.

The engine reports Vesi Yoga with the planets Mars and the Sun and the sentence "The 2nd sign from your Sun holds Mars." Now apply the classical refinements. Mars is a malefic, so under BPHS Ch. 38 Sl. 4 this is the "contrary effects" case. Saravali gives the Mars variety its own reading (low means, helpfulness to others) and asks in Sl. 10 for Mars's strength - and here Mars is in Aries, its moolatrikona sign, as strong by sign as it can be. Three readers using the three approaches would describe this one configuration in three different ways, which is the clearest argument for knowing exactly which rule an app applies.

The engine returns five other yogas for this chart, among them Malavya (Venus exalted in a kendra) and Durudhura (the Moon in Sagittarius has Jupiter in the 2nd from it and Saturn in the 12th). Each is a separate rule.

Vesi beside its neighbouring yogas

Vesi, Vasi and Ubhayachari are the Sun's versions of Sunapha, Anapha and Durudhura. Two differences matter. The Sun family excludes the Moon, where the Moon family excludes the Sun; and the Sun family has no equivalent of Kemadruma - the engine comment notes that Saravali names no "unsupported Sun". A Sun with both neighbours empty simply has none of the three.

Because the 2nd from the Sun can fall in any house from the ascendant, Vesi has no fixed house meaning; in the example it is the 5th house. What the causing planet brings in its own right is on its page - here Mars.

What the rule does and does not establish

Vesi establishes one fact: a planet other than the Moon or a node stands in the sign after the Sun, with the sign before it empty. The texts agree on that and on little else about it - they differ on eyesight, on industry, and BPHS reverses the reading for a malefic cause. Neither gives a timing rule. A yoga is a named rule about positions, not a promise, and a chart without Vesi lacks nothing the texts guarantee elsewhere.

To see whether your chart has Vesi, Vasi or Ubhayachari, and which planet forms it, run the yoga calculator.

Questions about Vesi Yoga

Is Vesi the 2nd from the Sun or the 12th?

The 2nd. Saravali Ch. 14 Sl. 1 and BPHS Ch. 38 Sl. 1 both say so. Vasi (BPHS: Vosi) is the 12th. An earlier version of this app had the two swapped; it has been corrected.

Does the Moon in the 2nd from the Sun form Vesi?

No. Both texts exclude the Moon, and Saravali excludes the nodes too. Only Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn count.

Does Mercury or Venus with the Sun form Vesi?

No. A planet in the same sign as the Sun is the 1st from it, not the 2nd. Mercury or Venus forms Vesi only when it is in the sign after the Sun.

Is Vesi good or bad?

The texts disagree. Saravali reads it as firm in word and hard working; BPHS as truthful but indolent, and BPHS Sl. 4 reverses the reading when a malefic causes it. The engine keeps one line, based on Saravali, and does not apply Sl. 4.

How common is Vesi Yoga?

It fired in 820 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060 in this engine, or 27.3 percent.

Why does my chart show Ubhayachari instead of Vesi?

Because the 12th from your Sun also holds one of the five planets. The engine reports only one of the three solar yogas per chart.

Which planet most often forms Vesi Yoga?

Venus, then Mercury. In the 820 Vesi moments of the engine's 3,000-moment sample, Venus took part in 462 and Mercury in 355, because both stay close to the Sun. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn each took part in fewer than 170.

Does the house the 2nd-from-Sun sign falls in matter?

Not to the rule. Vesi is counted from the Sun, so the sign can be any house from the ascendant. Neither Saravali nor BPHS grades Vesi by house; what that house means is a separate question for the house pages.

Should I do anything about Vesi Yoga?

No. It is a named rule about positions. This app does not prescribe remedies.