LEGENDS OF SURYA & SANI

LEGENDS OF SURYA AND SANI

Surya and Sani by relationship are father and Son. Surya is the father and Sani is the son, However their relationship is not very friendly.

SURYA -

Surya is born of to Kashyapa Prajapati and Aditi the mother . Since he is Aditis son he is called Aditya

Sun moves in a chariot pulled by seven horses which  represent seven rays of the Sun.

           The other name of Surya is Savitru which means brilliance.

           Surya has two wives, Sanjana and Chayya. Sanjana is the daughter of Vishwakarma.

           Surya has several children. The lawgiver Manu, the Lord of death Yama  and river Yamuna and Ashwini kumars were born of Sanjana.

It is said the first wife Sanjana could not bear the heat of the Sun God and she made Chayya , in her own form and made her live with Sun God. From Chayya are born Sanieeswaran and two daughters Saavarni and Tapti.

To decrease Suryas heat Brhma made Vishnu chara, Shiva’s shoola and conches of Ashtavasus are made.

However Surya came to know of this after a while and went in search of Sanjana who had taken by then a form of horse and was grazing in the meadows. Surya too then takes the form of horse to get united with his wife, from which union are born Ashwini kumars , the celestial physicians  

The other children of Surya are Karna from Kunti and Sugriva , the Vanaraa king .

As per Markandeya purana Surya is considered the creator of Brahma from whom the whole universe emerged.     

Surya is worshipped on Ratha saptami day.The 12 spokes of his chariot wheel sgnify twleve months. It is believed 60,000 Vala Khilya sages walk behind the chariot chanting Swasthi vachanas.

THE LEGEND OF SURYA AND SANI

The legend of Lord Shani and Surya goes like this.

Lord Shani was in the womb of his mother Godess Chayya , wife of Lord Surya.

Chayya devi dedicated all the time to intense prayers to Lord Shiva during her nfinement.Finally when Lord Shani was born it was dark and emancipated. Seeing his son thus Lord Sun suspeccted it to bee his son and ousted both son and mother from his pace.

Lord Shani then grew up with out the nurture of his father. This created enemity beween father and son.

Later Lord Shani devoted his time to penance to Lord Shiva who gave him the boon of becoming a planet and diety and gained the power of 1 wicked sight’ to all evil doers. He could serve reward for good deeds and  punishment of all including Gods, asuras, nagas and humans.

However in due course of time because of these powers Shanidev grew in self importance . He even punished his father with his brutal vision.

Then there is another legend as how Hanuman became savior to help people to tide over the harsh punishment from Lord Shani. Hanuman then decides to teach Lord Shani a lesson.

He wraps Lord Shani in his tail and start squeezing him. Lord Shani cries for forgiveness. He leaves him after evicting the promise to forgive Suryadeva and never misuse his  power.

However Lord Shani’s entire body was bruised and wailed in pain. Lord Hanuman brought him some `Til and `oil to soothe his pain , ever since every saturday , devotees offer `oil and `til to Lord Shani to get over their difficulties.