Om priyangu kalika shyamam
roopena prathimam budham
soumyam soumya guno bedham
tham budham pranamam yaham
Budha's Bija Mantra
The Bija mantra is most powerful and potent, ensure physical and mental cleanup and purity before chanting this mantra.
The Bija mantra is most powerful and potent, ensure physical and mental cleanup and purity before chanting this mantra.
Om bhraam bhreem bhroum saha budhaaya namaha
About Budha:
Budha (Mercury) is the lord of the intellect, fine arts, humor and wit. Budha influences one's wit to gain prowess in mathematics and astrology. Budha's skin colour is known to be yellow, according to puranas, and he rides a white chariot driven by horses.
The story of MERCURY god
Budha was born as son of Lord Chandra and Taara. For details of Budha's birth, I refer my readers to view my previous post - The story of MOON God.
Budha grew up to a small boy and one day learned how he was born. He realized that he was not a legitimate child of Lord Chandra and grieved for a while about his misfortune. He then decided to leave home and went to the himalaya mountains to meditate and live. Budha meditated upon Lord Narayana and did severe penance and received his blessings. As there was no guru (teacher) for Budha, Lord Narayana himself taught him all the divine skills and vedas.
Thus, Budha was leading a life of an ascetic, having established an ashram (hermitage) under the foothills of the himalayas, a place known as Gowri Thadaka.
Budha, never received his mother's love and care, eventhough his father Chandra was very caring and loving, and so, did Krittika and Rohini, Budha felt that the world would mock at his birth story and he would never be able to rule as a great king of the Lunar Dynasty and hence, he continued his life as an ascetic.
Having blessed by Lord Narayana, Budha has now become learned, filled with radiance and has grown into a good looking young man. One day, an apsara descended from the heavens and spotted Budha and fell in love with him. She proposed Budha that he marry her and they go live together in the Heavens (Devalok), Budha, realized that moment, his own birth story and how such indulgences results in illegitimate children and was very firm in his mind that he will not commit the same mistake that his father Chandra committed, so, he turned down the apsaras proposal. This angered the apsara and she cursed Budha that he be transformed into an Eunach.
Budha grieved that eventhough he wanted to uphold certain morals in his life, he is still facing a curse and approached Lord Narayana and begged the Lord to relieve him from the curse. Lord Narayana knows that Budha is his own Amsam (a form of incarnation or lineage), and hence, asked Budha to appease Lord Shiva,
as he is the only one who has the powers to remove any curse.
Budha did severe penance and Lord Shiva was so pleased with Budha's sincere life goals and penance that he blessed Budha with divine knowledge. To remove the effects of the curse, Lord Shiva asked Budha to undertake the ritual of bathing in the Chola kingdom's Thiruvenkaadu (close to Pumpuhar in TamilNadu) water pond - Surya, Chandra and Agni pond and then perform puja for Lord Shiva and Parvathi. Budha religiously performed the rituals and as he was performing, he slowly attained his original form, from the eunach and got completely relieved from the curse.
Lord Shiva assured Budha of a spot in the Navagraha Mandala for his achievements. Lord Surya's son, Vaivashvata Manu did not have a child since a long time and as per Sage Vasishta's advise performed 'Putra Kaameshti Yagna' and obtained 10 sons, the eldest was named Elan, who became the king of Solar Dynasty.
Elan, once, performed a Digvijaya (an ordinance to establish his supremacy of his kingdom), and Budha's Ashram was within Elan's boundaries of the kingdom, so, he came near the Ashram and went to bathe in a pond called 'Parvati Thadaka'. As he finished his bath and got out of the pond he got transformed into a women. Elan was shocked at his new women form and came into Budha's ashram and narrated the incident to Budha.
Budha explained the story of this pond to Elan, Lord Shiva and Parvati bathe in this pond, when the sages go to visit Lord Shiva and Parvati to Kailasa for a darshan, they come back to this pond in search of the Lord and hence, Parvati devi wanting to establish privacy in the pond, cursed that anyone coming close in the pond within certain perimeters would automatically get transformed into a women, and this is what happened to Elan. So, saying, Budha explained that since Parvati's curse to the pond, has affected Elan, nothing can be done to relieve the curse.
Elan was shocked, grieved for a while and then decided that if he were to get back to his kingdom, no one would recognize and believe him to be the king in a women form, and would only mock at him and may instead become a danger for his life, requested that he be allowed to stay with Budha in his ashram.
Budha sympathized with Elan, and allowed him to live in his ashram. Over a period of time, Elan, now, in a women form, wanted to marry Budha, as he has no other scope in his life now, and Budha too agreed to this request and they got married.
In the meantime, Elan's family approached Sage Vasishta and apprised him of Elan's no return from DigVijaya. Vasishta learned through his divine powers at that moment about what happened to Elan and went to Budha's ashram and told Elan to undertake penance and meditate upon Lord Shiva to relieve himself from this curse.
Elan received the blessings of Lord Shiva, and Shiva said, since the curse was given by none other than his wife Parvati, the curse can only be modified. The effect of the curse of Parvati and blessings of Lord Shiva, is that, for one year Elan would remain a women, the next year, Elan would become a man, and next year after, he would again be transformed into a women.
Elan gladly accepted the Lord's commands and continued to live with Budha as his wife and a women. In the one year, Elan gave birth to a son called Pururava, who became a great king of the Lunar Dynasty having blessed by Lord Shiva, and also due to his own efforts, penance and yagnas.
Thus came into being the great kings of the Lunar Dynasty, the sons and grandsons of Pururava, Yayati, KaarthaVeeryarjuna, the Gauravas and the Pandavas.
Budha performed severe penance further and obtained blessings of Lord Shiva, who gave him the knowledge and mastery of 64 divine arts and skills and Budha in his Navagraha Mandala (Planetary position) came to be known as Vidya Kaaraka.
