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The 9 Grahas
We just mentioned nine planets, even though not
all of them are actual planets. Only five of
them are planets, one is a star, one is a moon,
and the remaining two are special mathematical
points. Everyone is familiar with the Sun, the
Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. The other two elements included into the
group are Rahu and Ketu, known as the North and
South Lunar nodes.
Rahu and Ketu do not have physical substance;
they are two mathematical points that mark the
point of intersection of the plane of the Moon's
orbit around the Earth with the ecliptic plane.
Lunar or solar eclipses occur when the Sun
and the Moon are close to one of the nodes. From
now on, we shall refer to this group of
"planets" with a proper Sanskrit term Grahas.
Each graha (planet) represents certain facets of
human life. Traditional Vedic astrology does
not consider the influences of Neptune, Uranus,
and Pluto. Here are the names of the Grahas in
Sanskrit: SUN is SURYA MOON is CHANDRA MARS is
MANGALA MERCURY is BUDHA JUPITER is GURU VENUS
is SHUKRA SATURN is SHANI The NORTH NODE is
RAHU, THE SOUTH NODE is KETU Grahas have primary
and secondary significations.
Here is the list of the primary graha
significations assigned by the sage Parashara
(the author of Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra):
SURYA (Sun) signifies the soul. CHANDRA (Moon)
signifies the mind. MANGALA (Mars) signifies
energy. BUDHA (Mercury) signifies speech. GURU
(Jupiter) signifies knowledge. SHUKRA (Venus)
signifies reproduction.SHANI (Saturn) signifies
grief. |
