Sukarma yoga is the seventh nitya yoga, the yoga of good deeds. It is in force while the sidereal Sun and Moon add up to between 80 degrees and 93 degrees 20 minutes, roughly one sampled birth in twenty-seven fell in it, and panchangs class it among the favourable yogas. Its deity is Indra, its yogi planet Mars and its avayogi Ketu, and its yogi point falls in Chitra, the nakshatra whose star fixes the Lahiri ayanamsa itself. That makes Sukarma the natural place to look at a practical question: how much the choice of ayanamsa changes the yoga that a panchang or a kundali calculator shows. The article also covers the meaning of the name, what the texts say about someone born in Sukarma yoga, and the planets the tradition attaches to it, with a table of six ayanamsas measured against Lahiri.
Sukarma follows Atiganda yoga and comes before Dhriti yoga, the yoga of steadiness.
Conventions used. Sun plus Moon in sidereal longitude, counted in twenty-seven equal parts, with Lahiri unless stated otherwise. The ayanamsa comparison uses each ayanamsa’s value around 1980 and 40,000 random birth moments from 1950 to 2010; birth shares come from a larger sample over the same years, all from the Swiss Ephemeris.
Born in Sukarma yoga? See what your chart says about your work.
A consultation reads Mars, Ketu, the Moon and the lagna, the houses they rule and the dasha you are running, and shows where your chart points your effort.
In this article
- Sukarma yoga, the seventh nitya yoga
- Good deeds: the name
- The Sukarma native in the texts
- Indra, king of the gods
- Mars, the yogi planet
- Mercury or Venus: the duplicate yogi
- Ketu, the avayogi
- Chitra and the Lahiri ayanamsa
- How other ayanamsas move the yoga
- Sukarma and KP
- Two Sukarma births
- Frequently asked questions
Sukarma yoga, the seventh nitya yoga
Sukarma is the seventh division of the Sun and Moon total, from 80 degrees to 93 degrees 20 minutes, and the first favourable yoga after Atiganda. It follows the rhythm of all the yogas, returning a few days earlier each lunar month and lasting somewhere between twenty and twenty-five hours. As with every yoga, about a third of Sukarma births fall on a date whose printed panchang shows another yoga at sunrise, so the chart rather than the calendar should settle it. The geometry also fixes where it meets the lunar month: Sukarma coincides with the new moon when the Sun is in the middle of Taurus or Scorpio, and with the full moon when the Sun is in the middle of Leo or Aquarius.
Good deeds: the name
Sukarma, sometimes written Sukarman yoga, joins su, good, with karman, action or deed. In the older Vedic sense karman meant above all the ritual act, the sacrifice performed correctly, and only later the wider moral idea of deeds and their consequences. The sukarma yoga meaning in the panchang carries both senses: work done well, and acts that do good. The tradition likes it for religious observances, charitable undertakings and the start of honest work, and it is favourable in every standard list.
The Sukarma native in the texts
The texts describe the Sukarma native as virtuous, generous and accomplished, someone who finishes what they start and whose work benefits other people, with a streak of magnanimity and a liking for good company. Some add that such a person gains wealth through their own effort rather than by inheritance or luck. Muhurta lists favour the yoga for religious rites, acts of charity and the beginning of honest work, the kinds of undertaking its name describes. As with every yoga, that is a tendency of the moment. The tenth house, its lord and the planets that signify work say far more about what a particular person actually does with their life.
Indra, king of the gods
Indra, king of the gods and lord of the sky, the rain and the thunderbolt, is the deity of Sukarma. In the Vedic hymns he is above all the god for whom the great sacrifices were performed, and the one who defeats the forces that hold back the rains, which ties him closely to karman in its old ritual sense. His most famous deed, slaying the serpent Vritra to release the waters it had imprisoned, is the model of a good act done forcefully for everyone’s benefit. As the deity of a birth yoga, Indra suggests leadership exercised through action, physical and moral courage, and a talent for organising other people around a task worth doing.
Mars, the yogi planet
Move 93 degrees 20 minutes on from a Sukarma birth’s Sun and Moon total and the yogi point comes to rest in Chitra, the nakshatra of the divine craftsman Vishvakarma, ruled by Mars. So Mars is Sukarma’s yogi planet. A yoga of good deeds with the planet of action as its support makes intuitive sense, since Mars supplies the energy, courage and practical drive that turn intentions into finished work. In a Sukarma chart the dignity, house and aspects of Mars deserve close attention, and a Mars in its own sign, exalted, or strong in the tenth house gives the yoga’s promise its fullest expression.
Mercury or Venus: the duplicate yogi
Chitra is split evenly between Virgo and Libra. As the yogi point moves through it during the yoga, it sits in Virgo for the first half of Sukarma and in Libra for the second, so the duplicate yogi is Mercury for births in the first half and Venus for births in the second. The sample divided almost exactly, 50 percent each way. A Sukarma native from the first half has Mercury’s skill and precision as a second support, and one from the second half has Venus’s taste and diplomacy.
Ketu, the avayogi
Six nakshatras on from Chitra, counting Chitra as the first, is Mula, ruled by Ketu, which makes Ketu the avayogi of Sukarma. Where Mars pushes forward, Ketu withdraws, and the obstacles the tradition associates with Ketu in this role are of that kind: a sudden loss of interest, an abrupt exit, a detachment that leaves good work unfinished. In a Sukarma chart the periods of Ketu are the ones in which to guard against walking away from something worthwhile too quickly, and Ketu’s placement shows where that pull is strongest.
Chitra and the Lahiri ayanamsa
Chitra matters for a second reason. Its brightest star, known in the West as Spica, is the reference point of the Lahiri ayanamsa, the standard adopted on the recommendation of the Indian government’s Calendar Reform Committee in the 1950s and the default in most Indian software. The sidereal zodiac is fixed so that Spica sits at, or within a minute or so of, the start of Libra. Chitra means bright, and the star is one of the most brilliant close to the paths of the Sun and Moon, lying only about two degrees south of the ecliptic, which is what made it such a convenient anchor. The nakshatra that supplies Sukarma’s yogi planet is therefore also the one that anchors the zodiac from which every yoga, Sukarma included, is calculated. The True Chitra ayanamsa follows the star exactly and differs from Lahiri by about a minute of arc.
How other ayanamsas move the yoga
Because a yoga adds the Sun’s and Moon’s longitudes together, any difference between two ayanamsas counts twice. The table sets six common alternatives against Lahiri: how far each one differs around 1980, a fair midpoint for births in this range since the ayanamsas drift slowly apart over the centuries, how much that moves the moment a yoga changes, and what share of random births between 1950 and 2010 come out with a different yoga as a result.
| Ayanamsa | Difference from Lahiri | The yoga changes | Births given a different yoga |
|---|---|---|---|
| KP (Krishnamurti) | About 6 minutes of arc smaller | About 20 minutes earlier | 1.4 percent |
| True Chitra | About 1 minute of arc smaller | About 3 minutes earlier | 0.2 percent |
| Raman | About 1 degree 27 minutes smaller | About 4.9 hours earlier | 21.7 percent |
| Sri Yukteshwar | About 1 degree 23 minutes smaller | About 4.7 hours earlier | 20.7 percent |
| Fagan-Bradley | About 53 minutes of arc larger | About 3 hours later | 13.3 percent |
| Tropical, no ayanamsa | About 23.6 degrees smaller | About 3.3 days earlier | 100 percent |
For a KP practitioner, the gap from a Lahiri panchang is small and matters only for births close to a change of yoga. Raman and Yukteshwar move the boundary by most of a working day, and a Western tropical program cannot be compared with a panchang at all. Before relying on anyone’s birth yoga, it is worth knowing which ayanamsa produced it.
Sukarma and KP
KP does not use the nitya yoga, but it takes the ayanamsa very seriously. Krishnamurti’s own ayanamsa, and the later KP New ayanamsa, differ slightly from Lahiri, as the site’s article on the KP new ayanamsa explains, and those few minutes of arc can change the sub-lord of a cusp even where they are far too small to matter for most yogas. The planets attached to Sukarma, Mars and Ketu, are judged in KP as significators through their stars and sub-lords, and the yoga itself stays in the panchang.
Two Sukarma births
First, a man whose details have been altered, born toward noon under an Aries ascendant, with Mars, his lagna lord and the yogi planet, exalted in Capricorn in the tenth. His Sun is at 20 degrees Sagittarius in the ninth, his Moon a little past 10 degrees of Libra in the seventh, and the two make 90 degrees: Sukarma yoga in its second half, on a Krishna Dashami, so his duplicate yogi is Venus. The page on Mars in Capricorn describes the disciplined energy of that placement. He coaches kabaddi for his district, most of his players from families that could never pay for private coaching, and three of them now play professionally.
Second, a woman, particulars changed, born with Sagittarius on the ascendant a few hours after sunrise, the Sun at 5 degrees Leo in the ninth and the Moon at 20 degrees Aquarius in the third, a total of 85 degrees: Sukarma yoga in its first half, with Mercury as duplicate yogi, on a Krishna Dwitiya. Ketu, the avayogi, sits in the twelfth, a placement discussed on the page for Ketu in the 12th house. She founded a charity that runs evening schools for the children of construction workers. In her Ketu antardasha, exhausted and disillusioned, she stepped away for almost two years and the charity nearly closed. She came back to run a smaller version, three schools instead of eleven, and it has been stable ever since. Ketu’s period is where the pull to walk away showed itself, and the decision to return was hers.
Frequently asked questions
What is Sukarma yoga?
Yoga number seven of the twenty-seven, spanning Sun and Moon totals of 80 degrees to 93 degrees 20 minutes, and one of the favourable ones.
Is Sukarma a good yoga to be born in?
Its associations are with good work, generosity and accomplishment. Mars, the tenth house and the rest of the chart decide how far those qualities show in a particular life.
What does Sukarma mean?
Su means good and karman means action or deed, so Sukarma is good deeds or work well done. It is sometimes written Sukarman.
Which deity and planet rule Sukarma yoga?
Indra is its deity. Its planet is Mars, because the yogi point of every Sukarma birth falls in Chitra, which Mars rules.
Why is the duplicate yogi different for different Sukarma births?
Chitra spans Virgo and Libra, so the yogi point starts the yoga under Mercury’s sign and finishes it under Venus’s. Each half therefore has its own duplicate yogi.
Why does my birth yoga change with the ayanamsa?
The yoga adds the Sun and Moon together, so any ayanamsa difference counts twice. KP and Lahiri rarely disagree; Raman, Yukteshwar and tropical software often do.
Does KP use Sukarma yoga?
No. A KP judgment rests on cusps, sub-lords and dashas. KP’s interest in the ayanamsa comes from its effect on sub-lords, and the yoga plays no part.
Good deeds in the yoga. Direction in the chart.
A consultation reads Mars, Ketu, the tenth house and the lagna, and the dasha you are running, and shows where your chart points your work and your effort.