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Just as timing is important in the material world, it's important in the world of spirituality too. The efficacy of one's spiritual practices can be increased greatly by timing it according to Siddha injunctions. The Siddhas say that he who wants to transcend time must know the connection between timing and karma completely.

One of the best method, to choose proper intra-day timings for reciting a particular planetary mantra, is using "Planetary-Hora" (also called "Planetary Hours") table. (Note: This table can be created through freely downloadable "Vjyotish-exl" program.)

The planets rule over the days of the week. Saturn rules Saturday, the Sun rules Sunday, the Moon rules Monday, Mars rules Tuesday, Mercury rules Wednesday, Jupiter rules Thursday, and Venus rules Friday. In addition to their rulership over the days of the week, the planets have dominion in turn over the "Hora" (approx. one hour) of the day.

Just like each day reflects the characteristics of the lord who rules the day, each hora also reflects the characteristics of the lord who rules the hora. Thus we have Sun hora, Moon hora, Mars hora, Mercury hora, Jupiter hora, Venus hora and Saturn hora times during each day. Each planet will respond better to the recitation of it's own mantra during certain hours of the day which are governed by themselves.

The characteristics of each of the seven lords are most prevalent during his hora times on the day ruled by him. For example, Mercury's characteristics are most prevalent during the Mercury hora times on Wednesday. and hence these are the best time periods for conducting activities governed by Mercury.

How can we make sure that we get the maximum spiritual benefit during every hour of the day. There is a simple hora based worship program devised by the Siddhas. All a spiritual aspirant has to do is to meditate on the governing hora lord 108 times during each hora.

For example, during Sun's hora times meditate thus: 'Om Sooryaaya Namaha' or Salutations to Sun. Likewise 'Om Chandraaya Namaha', 'Om Angaarakaaya Namaha', 'Om Budhaaya Namaha', 'Om Guruve Namaha', 'Om Shukraaya Namaha', 'Om Shaneeshcharaaya Namaha' during their respective hora periods. Observe that this is a very simple worship procedure; it takes only about two minutes and so it's very easy to do even when you are at your place of work. This is yet another way in which the Siddhas help us conform to the Will of the Universal Lord for maximum spiritual benefit.

Note:
When we speak of planetary  "Horas" (or "Hours"), you must understand that these hours are not 60 minutes in length, but vary in a wide measure, with the time of the year, and the place of your residence. Near the equator the divergence is least; and it increases the further North we go in latitude because a planetary hour is 1/12th part of the time between sunset on a particular day and sunrise the next morning, or it is 1/12th part of a particular day beginning at sunrise and ending at sunset.)

Use the free "Vjyotish-exl" program to see what planetary hour you are in and when the next hour starts. Also, notice which planet rules the current and next 'hour'.