By doing the daily rituals like sandhyavandanam atleast twice a day, can anyone come out of the bad placement of planets in horoscope or the so called peyarchi's of Guru or sani.
Please clarify.
Reg,
G.Kannan
Shri Kannan,
The traditional reply to your query will be "NO", because sandhyaAvandanam is a duty which is to be performed by every brahmin (kshatriya and vaisya also, according to the smritis).
The nine planets or, rather, the planets and their "dosham" were unknown in the times of the vedas. This is a later import into our belief system. As one who has spent some time in understanding astrology and its relevance, my view is that the (nine) planets by themselves are innocent of any crime for our sufferings. It is like holding the hands of a clock as the culprits for our morning rush to the office; the hands of the clock just indicate and it is we ourselves who are to be blamed for all the problems. But because of the gullibility of the masses and the psychology of people which gives them some self-confidence to face the difficulties with the feeling of assurance gained from doing various 'parihAram', the navagraha bhakti industry is now growing to unprecedented heights.
One very popular TV astrologer once told frankly that good times as well as bad times have their duration, sometimes very short, sometimes quite long; these will come and go as per their law. But during bad periods, when an astrologer prescribes some pooja or temple visit for a certain period, it only means that the bad time is likely to last for that long, and nothing more.
Peyarchis have now become yet another very great money-making theme for various vested interests. Peyarchis also forbode ill or well for different people. Since nobody wants to face any difficulty in life, people are willing to shell out huge amounts for prropitiating Guru, Sani, Rahu/Ketu, so that they won't have to suffer any problem at all. In actual life they may yet face troubles. But the psychology of having done parihAram gives them the courage to bear with the troubles.
One story is relevant here. A devout person got into a serious car accident. He escaped death but the entire body, save the little finger in one hand, was in bandages. When he regained his consciousness and understood his position he remarked, "God is great and merciful. See he has saved this little finger unhurt, so that I may be able to indicate when I want to pass urine!!"
