Decoding the Navgrahas - A Dummy’s Guide
If the navgrahas are not planets who are they in vedic astrology & what do they do? Here’s the tea!
A point to remember that these space energies are not bad or good all the time - they’re just moody folks & a legitimate expert will tell you some good deeds or simple non-expensive practices you can do to keep them chill, like some folks suggest that feeding oily stuff to poor people on Saturdays can help you develop a rapport with Shani Dev, who we’ll meet soon.
Also, although these forces have their own specializations, they often intereact with each other to create positive or negative chemistry so its a bit complex.
Starting with the most misunderstood ones, Rahu & Ketu. We know that the Earth revolves around the Sun in one circle & the moon around the Earth in another circle. The two points where these circles meet to cause an eclipse are called Rahu for the north intersection point & Ketu for the south one.
Rahu symbolizes obsession & desire so in its up phase, it’ll give you innovation & growth but in its down phase it can cause sudden changes or confusion.
Ketu’s the opposite & it symbolizes detachment, spirituality & liberation by learning through lessons, so while it can cause obstacles, it can also help you grow spiritually.
- - - - - -
Understanding the Navgrahas through memes part 2!
Say hello to Surya Dev - he manifests as our Sun & represents the confident state of mind, dealing with our confidence & leadership.
A simple way to be in his good books is to say the Gayatri Mantra in the morning & donate wheat & jaggery because they kinda go with his qualities to provide strength & sweetness.
Second, we have Chandra, the physical form being our Moon, and it stands for the emotional state of mind, focusing on intuition, feelings, nurturing & public life.
Like for Surya, donating white items like milk, rice & white cloth to the needy works well here.
Third, we have Managal, God of War, sitting on top of Mars. This guy’s all about physical energy, strength, courage, and interestingly, property or siblings.
So donating blood on Tuesdays & going to the gym is a good way to channelize the energy. Interestingly, since Hanuman shares the same job description, saying the Hanuman Chalisa can help you calm down not just him but all the grahas.
Lastly, we have Budha or Mercury governing intellect, communication & analytical thinking. Donating green gram & green cloth can help you make friends.
- - - - - -
Understanding the Navgrahas through memes part 3!
Meet Shukra, a deity form of the famous Rishi Shukracharya who is the coach of the Daitya clan of beings famously called as Asuras & Danavas.
He’s embodied in Venus & looks after your relationships, sex life, luxury, artistic flair & creativity.
Like the famous book title, “Women are from Venus,” Shukra symbolises feminine powers & so being kind & respectful to the women around you, as well as donating white food like rice or sugar to poor women & also feeding cows since they’re considered gau mata or the divine feminine form, can help you placate Shukra.
Shani, embodying Saturn, is misunderstood as being evil but he’s actually just like a bitter detox pill to cleanse your bad karma by forcing you to pay the fines for it so you can move on & in fact, if you do good karma, he’ll reward you a lot, too.
Shani cares about your hard work & discipline so as long as you do that, you’ll be fine.
Shani also has a connection to Hanuma n so saying the Chalisa helps & feeding the poor is the ultimate remedy.
Lastly, Guru, sitting on Jupiter, stands for higher education, wisdom, spiritual learning, teachers (as the name suggests) so he looks after how much you learn in life.
Being nice to your teachers & donating yellow stuff like turmeric or chickpeas can help you make friends with him.