Exploration of Graha/deities: Part 4: Budhadev
Om Chandra putraya vidmahe ilaa pathaye dheemahi thanno budhah prachodayath
Om vasudevaya vidmahe trivkramaya dheemahi thanno vishnu prachodayath
Om chaturbhujaya vidmahe vanamalaya dheemahi thanno narayanah prachodayath
Om gajadhwajaaya vidmahe
Sukha hastaaya dheemahi
Tanno Budha prachodayath
Om braam breem braum sah Budhaay namah
Namaskar to all. Today we will look into the jolly, friendly, curious scholar Mercury☿
☿In order for me to explain Mercury, I will have to go through the story of Tara and Chandra. This is the most appropriate version of the story I have found:
☿One day, chandradev while healing from an injury and learning from Devaguru Brihaspati, he had finish teach Chandradev and then requested his wife, Tara to look after chandradev and once he is healed, to send him on his way. Chandradev however, due to his insatiable lust began eyeing Tara in an inappropriate way, seduced her and took her away. The result of their union was Budhadev. Brihaspati, disturbed had consulted both Chandradev and Tara. Brihaspati, desiring to curse Chandradev due to him taking advantage of not only Brihaspati's help but also taking away his own Guru's wife. Brihaspati avoided so as him cursing would tarnish his position as a Devaguru. However the curse was already subconscious in his mind and hence it manifested such that chandradev, wisdom and clarity would not manifest effectively. This could be the reason why, in these days, Religion and culture, when exposed to politics and emotion becomes that of a battle. However whether its for Dharma or not depends on the situation. This can also give us a hint on how Gajakeshari works, brihaspati is upset with chandra on the situation and is gutted hence in Gajakeshari yoga, it can only give fame and recognition due to the fact that Chandra is the karaka for Arudha lagna and Brihaspati is the great benefic however the conjunction of these 2 were believed to be the time when the incident took place and it was on Chaturdaśi, when Suryadev was looking in the opposite direction hence, the light of Dharma was not on Brihaspati and Chandradev.
☿The result of such scandal was Budha. Budhadev was born without any blessing of Dharma as his birth was from a scandal. This led many to believe that Brihaspati (who is responsible for legitimizing every beings birth from Dharma in the form of marriage) is enemy to Budha which is simply incorrect and wrong, the scriptures dictate the reason...
☿Upon Budhadev's birth, he was a very active however intelligent boy. He was known to easily outwit and out charm chandradev which quickly made him somewhat friendly with other deva's. However as he grew and when the reason for his birth was revealed to him he was complete disturbed and developed an extreme disdain of Chandradev, promising to give chandradev any emotional or Jala tattva issue to him whenever they were close to each other. This is researched in jyotish as Sharada yoga provided Budhadev is stronger as it shows and represents the destruction of illogical and opinionated emotional reaction to situations and rather, logical, factual and good reasoning to situations. Such people with yogas between Budhadev and Chandradev may also have headache issues particularly on extreme ends of the Moon's paksha's. Moving on, Budhadev, worried and depressed, consulted Brihaspati as he was advised that Brihaspati is responsible for legitimizing the birth, or correcting any Adharma causing the birth, of any individual, this is one of the reasons why Jupiter is the greatest benefic and highest on the rating scale of order and why the Nadi astrologers give importance to him. Brihaspati upon accepting Budhadev, received him kindly however reluctantly but he remembered his duties as a Devaguru. Budhadev then explained his shock and "nervous reaction" to the situation. Brihaspati, realising that Budhadev was a child with good values in him, took him as his student, hence Brihaspati and Budha yuti or mutual aspect or parivartana is a form of Guru-Shishya yoga. Budhadev then rapidly began extremely strong desires for knowledge and learning of all types hence he takes his position as the scholar and researcher among the Graha's and was instilled in the skies. Brihaspati also took Budhadev as his own son! As factually, Chandradev did not want care of Budhadev and had decided to leave him hence Brihaspati, worried about what path Budhadev may take
If he did not have proper guidance, took him in and taught him as much vidya as he needed.
☿This is also the story dictated in many of the upanishads as the process of human Jeeva atma and bondage on this plain as well as our karma's. All Jeeva atma such as us are like Budha's in this situation. Chandradev have caused us to commit karma that binds us and forces us on this material plain. The Janma Nakshatra which is the nakshatra of Chandradev, is not advised to follow if it does not lead to Jupiter, who is the most benefic Guru and leads us to moksha and eventual cleansing of our Jeeva atma through Vidya (which is why Jupiter is Jeeva karaka). This ties together well as in ancient times, Jnana yoga was more prominent alongside Mantra yoga. As time went, yogi's introduced more and more yoga's to help humanity attain moksha. Chandradev represents not only why we were reborn but the 9th from him shows what Bhagya we have brought from past life while the Janma nakshatra of chandra shows what have we sinned in and what karma we have done with society that makes society keep us here and we, now as little Budha's, need to go to Brihaspati or Jupiter and his nakshatra which shows the path toward moksha or mukti and the path to reconciliation with our divinity. The acceptance of Budhadev, despite not being his son and born out or Adharmic means and then eventually teaching him ways of Dharma was Brihaspati's last tapasya needed for him to cleanse all of his Adharmic karma of the past. We as human beings need to learn the meaning of this story and not follow what society and Chandra is asking us to do but to follow what Devaguru Brihaspati is teaching us.
-Those who have yogas such as parivartana, or mutual aspect(Not Conjunction!) are said to be blessed and now we realise what parashara means in this as now people are learning the knowledge of Brihaspati as now he is teaching Chandra or the mind the correct things and is making our minds to Sadhana so we can atone for all our karma's of the past.
-There is however, a unique thing about those whose Janma nakshatreśa(Moons nakshatra lord) as ketu. It is said that those who have such a nakshatra in Krishna paksha is advised to do as much spiritual Sadhana as possible as such births are good for progress towards enlightenment and moksha. The same can apply if Moon is joined Ketu. If in Shukla paksha, it is said teaching or helping others on the spiritual path will be enormous good. The way one should do their Sadhana or teaching is indicated by Jupiter's nakshatra.
☿Link between Narayana and Budhadev
Many do not know and find it difficult to explain as to why Budhadev is linked to Narayan. This is due to Budhadev having a strong inheritance of capabilities of Narayan in him due to strong narayana yoga's formed at the time of Budha's birth which was well after Amavasya, months later. Budhadev and Narayan also share a very strong connection as being associated with Suryadev. After hearing stories of Dharma and Suryadev, Budhadev wanted to serve Suryanarayan. This eventually leads back to the connection of Narada as per Narad puran and stories of Srimad Bhagavatam.
☿According to Srimad Bhagavatam, when Rishi Suka was narrating to maharaj Parakshit, he mentioned of when Narada was explaining his past birth. He was a drunkard, associating with many women but friendly to all. He insulted a group of Rishi's doing a yagya ritual whereby they cursed him to be born from the servant of a rishi and to remain impoverished. I want to take a moment to step out and say that this past life behaviour of Narada is well equated to how scientists and modern "philosophers" and religious "experts" criticize others religion and culture because they think they are clever. These are also the type of people who criticize jyotish without properly learning and applying its principles and only rely to mathematics rather than wisdom of Jupiter and intuition provided from him and Sun. The mathematical stages of jyotish are the only stages of jyotish ruled by Mercury.
After that, the remedies for relieving problems come from Brihaspati (Jupiter), the predictions come from vaksiddhaguru(Venus), the past life analysis and pending karma's from Purvakarmakaraka (Ketu) along with Mokśa Vidya and finally the jyotiśa himself who is Surya (Sun). All the graha's have some place in jyotish. Many may argue Shani as being Purva karma karaka. Nowhere does it say Saturn is a specific type of karma, it is just stated as he is karma karaka, so Shanidev is Karma in general.
Going back to the story of Narada, he was reborn and began taking extreme intetest in Narayana and began his worship. Hence in last creation after all his Sadhana, Narayana granted Narada the blessing of being his most revered devotee in next creation, and so it was done. Hence Narada is linked to Budhadev and Narayan to Suryadev, therefore we also see Budhadev always close to Suryadev and associated with him always, therefore we have proven the connection of Narad to Budha and Narayana to Surya. Shukra also travels close to Suryadev but is known for being more distant than Budhadev, this is Ma Lakshmi. She is known to always roam as Dhanadevi.
☿Upon that story we also see that at one point Mercury can behave very materialistically but also be pivotal in spiritual progress and Vidya as knowledge is what sets one free however so long as you are learning, you can never attain the highest of realms of the divine as when you are learning you are still ignorant of most things. This is why Budha can only grasp Earthly things more and hence is exalted in Chitra in Virgo and the center of the Earth which is where Chitra paksha Lahiri lies which is the base of vedic jyotish ayanamsa. Then he gets debilitated in Meena or pisces which is when one enters the higher spiritual realm and realise that they know nothing at all.
☿Budhadev is the perfect description on how we as Jeeva's are being told lies and lies and being forced to be seen as truth. This is the Chandradev trying to make us execute karma for his satisfaction while Brihaspati is offering the real Vidya but isnt forcing us towards him. Most people succumb to Chandra and ignore Brihaspati and hence begin senselessly bashing and opposing Dharma, jyotish, Atma vidya which is what Brihaspati teaches. So we should learn to give Brihaspati a chance to teach and learn from him. He is feeding us the knowledge. We as Atma have been stolen from God due to Chandra and forced to do karma so we remain on this planet while Jupiter, who is Devaguru, the guru of the Gods, is willing to get us started on our way back to Narayana. When we begin learning this knowledge, the love of bhakti towards Narayana grows as we see how spectacular him and his creation is hence we slowly start to become like Narada in his phase of going from a drunkard trying to insult Rishi's to the point where he becomes a Devarishi which is the highest type of Rishi status.
☿Narada is also the only one who can put Rahu in his place as only he can outspeak and outwit Rahu. Hence conjunctions of Mercury and Rahu whereby Mercury is stronger is auspicious. In D20 and D24, the position of Mercury is seen as extremely important according to esoteric astrology which I have begun learning and is spectacular. The position of Mercury in the Jagannatha drekkana is also very important for spirituality, as is his position in D30 and D60.
We show respect to thee who is the great scholar of graha's, the one who is most favoured by Narayana, the one who is ever joyful, the one who made communication possible, the one who ignites the desire of learning within us.
Om Budhaya Namah
