Story Of Brihaspati (Planet Jupiter) - The Sixth Navagraha

Navagraha are the nine heavenly bodies and deities that influence the human life on earth according to Hinduism and Hindu astrology. This video will narrate to you the various aspects and stories associated with the sixth of the Navagraha, Brihaspati. To know more about the other planets of Navagraha, watch the playlist linked in the comments The sage Brihaspati is the Navagraha deity representing the giant planet Jupiter. He is a wise god who is considered to be the lord of sacred speech. Due to his immense wisdom, he was appointed as the mentor of all the Devas, and thus, he is also known as Guru Brihaspati. Hence, Thursday is called both Brihaspati var and Guru var, which is the day associated with this deity. When Lord Brahma began creating the universe, he created the seven Saptarishis and instructed them to aid him in his creation by engaging in procreation. The seven Rishis were Vashishtha, Marichi, Ullasthya, Ullaha, Atri, Angiras and Kratu. Brihaspati or Jupiter was born to sage Angiras. Brihaspati grew up learning all the four Vedas and mastered them. He then performed severe penance to Lord Shiva on the banks of Prabhas, and the Lord granted him a significant planetary position and appointed him as the Devaguru. Thus, Brihaspati also came to be known as Guru and was concerned with the spiritual welfare of the Devas in the heavens. Brihaspati being the official Guru of the Devas, was concerned with the consistent war between the Devas and the Asuras. Although the Devas had consumed the amrit from the Samudra Manthan, the Asuras, with the help of their Guru Shukracharya, would rise from the dead with his Mrityusanjivani mantra. This resulted in constant tiring out for the Devas, who went pleading to their Devaguru for a permanent solution to stop the demons from harassing the heavens. Eventually, Brihaspati found out that this mantra, when instructed to a Sishya, the teacher would lose his power of using this mantra. So Brihaspati once sent his son Katcha to learn the secret of the Mrityusanjivani mantra from Shukracharya. The idea was to help the Devas with the knowledge of the secret who were about to lose the war. Brihaspati also advised his son to first impress Devyani in order to impress Shukracharya, who was very fond of his daughter. Katcha followed his advice and unknown to him, Devyani fell in love with him. In the meantime, the Asuras wanted to kill Katcha, as they feared that he might be dangerous if he learns the mantra. Every time they tried to kill him, Shukracharya, on the insistence of Devyani, revived him from the dead. The Asuras finally killed him, burnt his body and mixed his ashes in the alcohol. Shukracharya learnt of this via his meditation and rushed to the court of the Asuras and consumed all the alcohol. Later he tried to revive Katcha, who was now in his stomach. He teaches Katcha the mantra and tells him to come out. Katcha comes out by tearing his guru's stomach open and brings his life back with the help of the mantra. Katcha then started his journey back to Devalok when Devyani expressed her love for him and asks him to marry her. Katcha told her that she was like a sister to him as she was the daughter of his guru. This infuriated Devyani, whereby she cursed him that he will not remember the mantra and would never get to use the Mrityasanjivani mantra during the time he needs it the most. There is also a story of how Brihaspati left the Devas to teach them a lesson. When things were seemingly fine in the lives of the Devas, Indra began taking his guru for granted and eventually disrespected him several times. He thought they no longer needed a guru, so Brihaspati left the side of the Devas. Once when required the assistance of a teacher, Indra appointed the Devas a new guru named Vishwaroopa. Vishwaroopa was related to the Asuras from his maternal side and therefore out of his affection would secretly perform yagya and penance that increased the power of the Asuras. This kept the Asuras satisfied and they were attaining greater powers. The Devas became suspicious of Vishwaroopa's intentions and when the truth was out, an infuriated Indra beheaded Vishwaroopa. Vishwaroopa's father learnt about his son's death and in anger performed a yagya and out emerged a powerful demon named Ritrasura. Ritrasura was created with a lot of powers and his only goal was to vanquish Indra. Ritrasura came to Indra's court to kill him. Indra escaped from there and surrendered to Lord Brahma to protect him. Brahma advised Indra to approach Devaguru Brihaspati and ask for his forgiveness and a solution. It was then Brihaspati accepted Indra's plea and joined the Devas again. He gave Indra the solution that only the bones of Sage Dadhichi could make a weapon that could save his life from Ritrasura. To know this full story in detail, watch the video linked above. Brihaspati is often depicted with a glorious golden complexion with four arms carrying a lotus, kamandala and a rosary. This celestial god is said to embody qualities like spirituality, wisdom, dignity, morality and luck. The golden complexioned god is offered articles that are yellow in colour like gram pulse or flower, yellow flowers and turmeric.