Atmakaraka Calculator - Jaimini Chara Karaka

By degrees alone. Whichever of the seven planets from the Sun to Saturn has travelled furthest into its sign - the highest degree, regardless of which sign - becomes the Atmakaraka. It has nothing to do with strength, dignity or house placement, which is why a debilitated planet can hold the office.

Because this calculator follows the seven-karaka Parashari scheme. There is a variant eight-karaka scheme that includes Rahu, counted in reverse since it moves backwards, and that can change several karaka assignments. Both are in use; results differ between astrologers largely because of this choice.

The soul's central agenda for this life - the deepest desire and the main lesson. Jaimini treats it as the most important planet in the chart, and its condition is read closely. A difficult Atmakaraka is not a bad sign; the tradition holds that the soul deliberately took on that planet's lesson. The Navamsha sign of that planet is the Swamsha - see the Swamsha calculator - and the same sign is the lagna of the Karakamsha Chart.

They fill out the cast of a life in descending order of degrees: Amatyakaraka for mind and career, Bhratrikaraka for siblings and gurus, Matrikaraka for mother, Putrakaraka for children, Gnatikaraka for rivals and sadhana, and Darakaraka for the spouse. They are read alongside the house significations, not instead of them. The Chara Karaka calculator gives every office equal space and compares the eight-karaka scheme.

Less than you might expect for the slower planets, but the Moon moves about half a degree an hour, so it can overtake or fall behind another planet within a single day. Since the whole scheme is an ordering by degree, one swap reshuffles several karakas. An accurate time is worth having.