Surya Bhagavan: The Chief of Navagrahas
Surya Bhagavan is considered as the Chief of Navagrahas. And all the other 8 Grahams revolve around Suryan. Without his glory, none of the livings can flourish in this world. In Navagrahas, Shani Bhagavan is considered equivalent to Surya Bhagavan (also said Shani is the son of Suryan). He has got a status name – “Saneeswaran” (Shani + Eswaran). None of the graham has got this name. There is also a saying in Tamil which says:-
“Shani Pol Koduppaarum illai ; Shani pol keduppavarum illai”.
This means no one can give like Shani; and no one can take away like Shani. If we are blessed by him, we get all sorts of Bhagyams, and at the same time, if we are not blessed, all the things can also be taken away from us.
In astrological manner, both Suryan and Shani are considered as the enemies. But, both of them are father and son. In spite of this relation, why is there a conflict? Let us know about this through our Puranam.
Suryan was born to Kashyapa Muni and one of the daughters of Dhakshina Prajapathi. He is also called as “Aadhithyan” (or) “Viwasvaan”. Later Suryan got married to Sanjikai, daughter of Thuvashta. Sanjikai could not resist the bright rays of Suryan and as a result she felt very bad that she could not perform any help for her husband. But at the same time, the Tejas of Suryan made her to give birth of two sons and a daughter. One of the sons is Manu, the reflection (or) form of Gnanam. Other son is Yaman, who reflects the Dharmam. (this is why he is called as “Yamadharman”.) The daughter is Yamuna, the river.
After some years, Sanjikai who could not resist the Jwala (the heat) of Suryan, with her tapas shakti, created a form of her own and her name is “Saaya”. Leaving Saaya towards Surya Bhagavan to help her husband, Sanjikai went towards her father.
After hearing what his daughter has done, Muni Thuvashta said that she has performed a great sin of leaving her husband and said to get out the sin; she has to perform tapas for about 41 years in the place (Uthra Guru) after Suryan Dharshan. He also converted her to a horse. Having converted into a female horse, Sanjikai went to Uthra Guru, and performed Surya Dharshan.
In the meantime, Saaya Devi gave birth to two male baby children namely Saavarni Manu and Shani and a female baby named “Paththirai”.
After the birth of her own children, Saaya Devi started to treat her sisters (Sanjikai) children differently. Yaman could not understand why she is treating them in such a manner. Even Suryan thought the same way and suspected that something was wrong.
One day, Yaman who could not resist this, explained about the change of her mother and Surya Bhagavan called Saaya Devi and questions why she is treating the children differently. Knowing that she could not hide the truth any more, she told all the things that had happened.
Having got the truth, Suryan gave the sabham that Saaya will always be a shadow and she hides the truth towards him. After the sabham got to his mother, Shani thought that it was not the fault of her mother as she always wanted to serve him. He made up his mind that he wanted to be more powerful than his father and started to perform tapas towards Shiva Perumaan.
There were so many hurdles for his tapas, but he was very strong enough to attain what he wanted. Indiran came in the form of a crow and tried to strike his eyes; but the Tejas of Shani made him surrender and he took the crow as his Vaghanam (the Vaghanam of Shani is crow).
The tapas of Shani made Shiva Perumaan very happy; he came in front of him and asked for the boon (varam) that he wanted. Shani (Bhagavan) asked that he should be one among the Nava graham; and also he should get greater powers than that of the others.
