Ishtadevata is the personal Deity who will guide the soul to its real home - Moksha.

The
key role in revealing one's Ishta Devata plays the Atma Karaka. Atmakarak is the most
personal planet in the chart. It is the king of the horoscope. Being the most personal
planet, it has the strongest say over moksha (final emancipation) and for that reason, the
Atma Karaka is the planet that has the highest longitude. To find one's Ishta Devata we
have to look at the Atma Karaka in Navamsa, since the Navamsa shows blessings of God
onto the native and the way in which the native communicates with God.
Navamsa is also known as the dharma-amsa, since it is the 9th division (ninth house
signifies dharma). Therefore we should look for Ishta Devata in this Varga. Atma Karaka
in Navamsa is called the karakamsa. The 12th from the Karakamsa determines the Istha
Devata. The twelfth house from the karakamsa is called the jivanmuktamsa. This is the
house signifying the emancipation of the soul and we have to examine this house in order
to find one's Ishta Devata. If there is a graha in the jivanmuktamsa, it signifies the
Devata. If there are more grahas than one, we choose the strongest. If there is no graha in
the jivanmuktamsa, you can see whether any Grahas are aspecting the 12th. If no Grahas
aspect it, you can take the 12th Lord as Ishta Devata.
In the chapter called "kaarakaamsa phala" in BPHS, Parasara mentioned the deities
worshipped based on the planets in the 12th from kaarakaamsha. For example, Sun in
12th from AK shows a worshipper of Shiva and Moon in 12th from AK shows a
worshipper of Gouri.
Here are the presiding deities for each planet who will be your Ishta Devata as per your
horoscope.
Surya - Shiva/Vishnu/Rama
Chandra- Krishna/Parvati
Mangala - Hanuman/ Subramanya/ Sri Narasimha
Budha - Vishnu
Guru - Dattatreya/ Dakshinamurthy/ Sai Baba /Vishnu / Sri Vamana
Sukra Parashurama/Mahalakshmi/Gowri
Sani - Kurma /Hanuman/Shiva/Vishnu/Krishna
Rahu Durga/ Varaha
Ketu Ganesh/ Matsya
Ascendent (Lagna) ------Kalki
Everyone is eligible for the worship of one's Ishta Devata and everyone at least should
know their Ishta Devata. The process of worship is simple and is based on the chanting of
the dvadakshari mantra for the appropriate Devata. An examplary Dvadakshari Mantra
for Lord Vishnu as Ishta Devata is given by the Parashara Muni in his Vishnu Purana as
follows: om namo bhagavate vasudevaya.
In the given example chart Mercury is the AK. Its is placed in Pisces in Navamsa chart.
12th from AK is Aquarius. As no planet is placed in Aquarius take the lord Shani. So his
Ishta Devata would be Shani Dev. This native is a great devotee of Shani dev and Lord
Hanuman. Saturn is with mars and mars also aspecting 12th from Karakamsa.

OM TAT SAT
.
Astrologer Dr. Anjna Agarwal
Anu0562@yahoo.com