Shani Dev : God of Justice

SHANI DEV: GOD OF JUSTICE

 According to  Indian Mythology,Shani dev is one of that important deity. He is known as the god of justice or karma, who gives the fruit of our deeds. If our deeds are good then he will be happy with us and if our deeds or karma is bad or we have did things which are not ethical then he punishes us according to our karma. 

    He wards off evil and removes obstacles. He is the well wisher of Righteous. He is one of the nine planets or navagraha.

    He is the personification of planet Saturn or Shani Graha. In the group of 9 planets, they are considered to be the most cruel and angry.

    According to our indian texts, Shani Dev is described as a male deity who is black in colour and having Danda ( which he uses to punish us for our bad deeds),bow and arrow and trident in his hands .

Parents :

    Surya Dev or sun god is father of Shani Dev and his mother is Devi Chhaya which means Shadow.

Abode :

     It is considered that Shani dev resides in this mrityu lok or our earth and his abode is Peepal tree.

Weapon :

    Weapon of Shani Dev is Sceptre or Danda, trident, Bow and Arrow.

Consort ( wife ) & Chidrens :

    Shani Dev has two wives. First wife of shani dev is Neelima who is the goddess of Sapphire or Neelam Stone. Second wife of Shani Dev of Manda who is goddess of Kala. She is also the Gandharva Princess. Shani dev has two sons named as Maandi and kuligna.

Mount or Vehicle :

    Mount of Shani dev is Crow. But at some places he is shown riding a vulture.

Temples :

    There are various temples which are dedicated to Shani Dev in India. But specially Shani shingnapur is famous for his Shani Dev temple . Shingnapur is village situated in Maharashtra, India.

Stories :

   There are various stories related to Shani Dev. Some of these are as follows :

Birth of Shani Dev :

   According to this story, Surya Dev was married to daughter of Daksha whose name was Sanghya. But Devi Sanghaya was not able to bear the extreme intensity and tenacity of Lord Suryadev.

    Devi Sanghya was very upset because of extreme intensity of the Sun God. So she decided to do penance to match that extreme intensity of Surya Dev. 

    So to do penance at a silent place Devi Sanghya created a shadow same as her from her powers who was similar to her in all aspects and she was named as chhaya.

   After that Devi Sanghya gave all responsibilties to her and went to do penance.Devi Chhaya also did hard penance of Lord Shiva to get a child. And as the fruit of Lord Shiva's boon Shani Dev was born from Devi Chhaya and Surya Dev.

Why Shani Dev Asked to Lord Shiva to give him a boon to become more powerful than Surya Dev? 

 When Shani Dev was born his colour was black because his mother Devi Chhaya did the harsh penance of Lord Shiva. Seeing black colour of Shani Dev , Surya dev doubted Devi Chhaya because all other sons and daughters of him are of fair colour. 

    He said to Devi Chhaya that Shani could not be my son. Surya dev started to being stay away from Devi Chhaya and disrespect of her everywhere. 

   From that day Shani Dev started hating his father and became one of his enemy. He wanted to became powerful than his father. So he decided to do penance of Lord Shiva. 

    He did harsh penance of Lord Shiva to became more powerful than his father.Mahadev pleased by his penance decided to gave him a boon. Lord Shiva appeared in front of Shani Dev and asked him to ask for a boon. Shani Dev was happy to see Lord Shiva and told him that he want to became more powerful and venerable than his father. 

    Mahadev said to Shani Dev that ," You will be the best among the Navagrahas. You will be the god of justice. You will give justice and punishment to people according to their deeds.

  

 Why Shani Dev does not hurt the devotees of Lord Hanuman ?

    According to some texts, once Lord Hanuman was engrossed in the name of Lord Ram. Shani Dev was going from that way,seeing Lord hanuman he decided to bother him. So Shani Dev casted his cuved gaze ( vakar drishti ) upon him.But there was not effect of his Gaze on him.

   On this Shani Dev got angry and said him bad words that will hurt Lord Hanuman but again there was not effect of his words on Lord Hanuman as he was lost in name of his Lord Shree Ram.

   Shani dev tried to pull Lord Hanuman by his arm to create disturbance penance of Lord Hanuman. On this Lord Hanuman got angry and hastily freed his hand from him. Shani Dev  again in anger tried to grab Lord Hanuman from his arm but this time he wrapped Shani Dev in his tail. 

   Even after this, Shani Dev did not understand who he was.And he said that I am very powerful, even your Lord Shri Ram cannot harm me.On this, Lord Hanuman's anger increased and holding Shani Dev in his tail, he started tossing him here and there.

   After all this, the condition of Shani Dev got worse. Then he recognized Lord Hanuman and prayed for his forgiveness and he said that after today he will not even be seen around Lord Hanuman.

    Lord Hanuman told him that not only me but also stay away from my devotees. From that day Shani Dev does not harm the devotees of Lord Hanuman.

Shani Dev Mantra:

                       ॐ प्रां प्रीं प्रौं सः शनैश्चराय नमः।

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