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Shanaiswara - The Saturn

Sani Bhagavan

In Vedic astrology the planet Saturn is called Shanaiswara. In Sanskrit Shanaiswara comes from SANISCHARA, which means, "slow mover". From Shanaiswara we get the word "shun", which means to ignore, or lose awareness of something. Thus, Saturn represents a loss of awareness, or ignorance. This loss of awareness can also mean the diminishing awareness of the material world of manifestation.

Here Saturn indicates the ascetic, rich with inner spirituality, and lost to this material plane of existence. Saturn is a malefic graha. He rules over the two sidereal signs of Capricorn and Aquarius. He is exalted in Libra, and fallen in the opposite sign of Aries.

Saturn is a karaka, or indicator, of longevity, misery, sorrow, old age and death, discipline, restriction, responsibility, delays, ambition, leadership and authority, humility, integrity, wisdom born of experience. Saturn also indicates asceticism, denial, non-attachment, spirituality, hard work, organization, reality and time itself.

Saturn's most powerful place in the chart is in the 7th House and the Kendra's, or Angles. He is a particularly beneficial planet for Taurus and Libra Ascendants. Saturn's nature is Vata, or Airy. His gem is Blue Sapphire and all black stones and his metal is Lead. Saturn's direction is west and his day is Saturday. He reaches full maturity at age 36. In Vedic myth Saturn is the son of the Sun, born to his shadow wife, Chaya. Saturn is lame because one of the Sun's first wife Sanjana's children became angered with him and struck him in the foot. Thus Saturn walks with a limp, which accounts why he is the slowest of the Grahas.

The graha SANISCHARA (Saturn), also known as Manda, is generally known to affect one adversely on occasions when he occupies certain positions in one's horoscope like Saade Sati (7 1/2 years) Ashtama Shanaiswara (Saturn in 8th house - 2 1/2 years) etc. He is the Lord of Makaram and Kumbam. He is the slowest moving planet taking 2 1/2 years in each Rasi, completing one cycle every 30 years. A prayer to this Devata, especially on Saturdays, is said to mitigate the hardships one will have to face during these periods. Sanischara bestows all benefits to the devotees who pray sincerely to him.

Saneeswaran resides in each Rasi for a period of 2 1/2 years. When Saneeswaran resides in the 12th, 1st and 2nd house, it is 7 1/2 Naatu Sani ; when in the 4th house, it is Arthashtama Sani; when in the 8th house, it is Ashtama Sani. During these periods, he troubles the native.

Problems from Govt., peers, wife, children, slowdown in business, loss of property, leprosy are caused by transit of Sani.

In a person's life, 7 1/2 Naatu Sani aspects thrice, the first called Mangu Sani, the second called Pongu Sani and the third called Marana Sani.

Saneeswaran is reputed to be both, a giver and destroyer. A person who prays to Saneeswaran will be blessed with not only riddance from the problems and worries faced, but a life that one desires.

His wives are Neela Devi and Manga Devi. The presiding deities are Dharbaranyeswarar (Swaymbumurti) and his consort Bogamartha Poon Mulayal. He is the Lord of Maharam and Kumba Rasis and faces the West direction. The Adi Devatha is Yaman and the Prathyathi Devatha is Prajapathi. His colour is black; his vahana the crow; the grain associated with him is gingelley; the flower - vanni and black kuvalai; fabric - black cloth; gem - neelam (blue saphire); food - rice mixed with gingelley powder.

In Vedic astrology the planet Saturn is called Sani. In Sanskrit Sani comes from sanaiscara, which means, "slow mover".From Sani we get the word "shun", which means to ignore, or lose awareness of something. Thus, Saturn represents a loss of awareness, or ignorance. This loss of awareness can also mean the diminishing awareness of the material world of manifestation. Here Saturn indicates the ascetic, rich with inner spirituality, and lost to this material plane of existence. 

Saturn is a malefic graha.He rules over the two sidereal signs of Capricorn and Aquarius. He is exalted in Libra, and fallen in the opposite sign of Aries. Saturn is a karaka, or indicator, of longevity, misery, sorrow, old age and death, discipline, restriction, responsibility, delays, ambition, leadership and authority, humility, integrity, wisdom born of experience. Saturn also indicates asceticism, denial, non-attachment, spirituality, hard work, organization, reality and time itself. The great sage Parasara says of Saturn, "Saturn has an emaciated and long physique, has tawny eyes, is windy in temperament, has big teeth, is indolent and lame and has coarse hair". Saturn's most powerful place in the chart is in the 7th House and the Kendras, or Angles. He is a particularly beneficial planet for Taurus and Libra Ascendants. Saturn's nature is Vata, or Airy.  

His gem is Blue Sapphire and all black stones and his metal is Lead. Saturn's direction is West and his day is Saturday.He reaches full maturity at age 36. In Vedic myth Saturn is the son of the Sun, born to his shadow wife, Chaya, as mentioned in the previous myths. Saturn is lame because one of the Sun's legitimate children became angered with him and struck him in the foot. Thus Saturn walks with a limp, which accounts why he is the slowest of the grahas!

As Jupiter indicates the process of creation and expansion, Saturn brings about contraction and destruction. Jupiter is the positive teacher of the soul and the Saturn is the negative guide.

The influence of Saturn is to delay, to withhold. As the slowest moving of the planets he retards things, holds back their development. Saturn indicates property, land and fixed assets. Those who obtain wealth through a well- disposed Saturn may become misers, and will carefully hold on to what has with such difficulty been acquired.

Its negative side comes out particularly in association with Mars, another cruel planet. As the power of darkness and obstruction, Saturn is the enemy of the Sun and the Moon, and has an eclipse like affect upon them. Only Jupiter has the power to really subdue or to balance out his influence, though Venus and Mercury can refine it to a great degree. In this respect the power of Shiva, the lord of the yogis, the god of death and transcendence may work through Saturn.

SATURN YANTRA: This is the yantra for Saturn based on the number seven. Each column equals 33, and the total equals 99. 

DEITY: Shani dev seated on a vulture, dark-colour. Saturn has a strong presence, around face, big powerful eyes, & double chin. His moustache makes him terrified. He has four hands. One of his hand he holds a sword, in the other trident. In his third hand he holds club and the fourth hand he holds the reins of the vulture. Well armed with weapons, Saturn should be mediated on as smiling granting fearlessness.

Saturn is a planet of darkness, rules over the dark side of human nature, such as the conscience (or awareness of right and wrong). the sight of Saturn is inauspicious. 

When strong: in the chart it brings wisdom and awareness of the right and wrong in the people.

When weak: This makes the person greedy, morbid, gloomy. They continuously suffer from losses and psychosomatic problems caused by disturbance in their body chemistry. this is due to aggravation of wind element humour. ( a disturbance of in the flow of the gases in the body). They do not like discipline, they are rebellious and law breakers they behave like an old man and appear older. 

EXALTATIONS: SATURN WHEN STRONG:  The period of 20 Sept and 25th Oct and between Jan 20 and Feb 20.  These are the best times to start new ventures, complete all the pending jobs and projects for travel and business. 

Retrograde and Weak: The number 8 people will generally have a weak period during the first 20 days of days of Jan, and the last weak of Feb, and the months of Dec, March and April. During these times they suffer losses, get blamed and humiliated and suffer separations from loved ones. They should avoid new undertakings, signing legal papers. 

HEALTH AND DISEASES: They may suffer from paralysis rheumatism, gout, deafness, mutes, depression, anxiety and asthma troubles. Their main problems are due to aggravation of the humour of wind - gas in the intestine, constipation and blood pressure and heart trouble and the also suffer from anaemia, impurities of the blood, weakness or numbness of the limbs, weakness of kidneys and lose of hair. They should take mornings walks in a open area. They should increase their vitamins like A, D, E, CALCIUM AND IRON IN TAKE.

FASTING: They should fast on Saturday. In the evening, following their Sunset mediations, their should eat Khichari - a dish prepared from a mixture of split urad beans (split black beans with peels) and rice. Candies made from black sesame seeds and jaggery (raw sugar cane). 

MEDITATION: An idol made of five metals should be acquired and worshipped or on a blue sapphire.

DHYANAM: Nilanjana samabhasam Ravi putram yamagrajam  I

chaya mrttanda sambhutam tam namami sanai scaram  II

MOOL MANTRA: Aum hrim shrim graha sakravartime Sanaischaraya klim aim sauh svaha  I

GAYATRI:Aum Sanaischaraya vidhamhe, Sooryaputraya dhimahi, tanno manda prachodayat.

JAPA MANTRAS: REPETITION OF the mantra of any planet should be completed with the ascending cycle of the Moon and should be repeated and prescribed umber of times. THIS MANTRA MAY BE RECITED FOR 24000 TIMES WITHIN 40 DAYS AND PUJA PERFORMED WITH BLUE FLOWERS AND CHANDAN. "AUM AING HRING SHRING SHUNG SHANAISHCHARAYE NAMAH: AUM"

PLANT SAMIT: Vanni. (Prosopis spicgrea)

COLOURS: Black, dark blue grey, and purple are good colours for the Saturn people.

METAL: IRON

The Saturn And The Astronomy

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun. It is the second largest planet in our solar system, only Jupiter is larger. Composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, Saturn is also the second largest of the "gas giant" planets, which include Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus. Saturn is so large that at least 740 planets the size of Earth could fit inside of it. The diameter at its equator is almost 10 times that of our planet and its mass is about 95 times greater than the Earth's. Saturn's magnetic field is 1000 times stronger than the Earth's.

Saturn is the lightest planet per unit of volume. In fact, like Jupiter, if there were a swimming pool big enough, Saturn would float in it. This is because it's made of materials that are lighter than water.

One of the brightest objects in the sky at night, Saturn appears yellowish from our planet. Saturn is famous for its beautiful rings, which can easily be seen through binoculars. In 1610, Galileo became the first person to see the planet's rings. He used a primitive telescope. He mistakenly thought they were attached to the planet, so he called them handles.

However, Galileo was wrong about Saturn's rings; tens of thousands of rings surround the planet, but do not actually touch it. They occur in groups and extend from about 4,300 miles to as far as 46,000 miles from the planet's atmosphere. Gaps between the groups of rings are called Cassini Divisions. The rings appear to be solid, but they are really made of dust and pieces of rock and ice that range in size from small dust-sized particles to house-sized particles. Saturn's rings are thousands of miles wide, but in places are no wider than a school playground.

A dense layer of cloud bands covers Saturn and an atmospheric haze covers the clouds. Differences in temperature and altitude probably cause the bands. Helium, a heavier element, slowly sinks through the planet's hydrogen towards its center. As this happens, friction is created. This and heat from when the planet was formed cause Saturn to give off twice as much heat as it receives from the Sun.

Saturn has at least 18 moons. Titan, one of the planet's moons, is larger than the planet Mercury. It is the only moon in our solar system that has a substantial atmosphere. Titan's atmosphere is made of nitrogen and methane and exerts about 1-1/2 times as much surface pressure as our planet's atmosphere. Titan is about half rock and half ice.

Saturn orbits the Sun at an average distance of 886 million miles. It takes about 10,759 Earth days for Saturn to travel one time around the Sun - that's about 29 1/2 Earth-years! However, Saturn is the second fastest rotating planet. Only Jupiter rotates faster. In fact, Saturn rotates once every 10 hours 39 minutes. Because its axis is tilted, Saturn experiences seasons. However, one season on Saturn is equivalent to about 7 1/2 years on our planet. Saturn's temperature is colder than the Earth's because it is farther from the Sun.

The United States has sent three spacecraft to Saturn. Pioneer 11 visited the planet in September 1979, Voyager visited in November 1980, and Voyager 2 visited in August 1981. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 gave us more information about the planet's rings.