IMG_8565ac Strange Experience Around Planets Idols

This has been one of the most impressive experience we had in a Hindu temple! Before entering this specail area where is presented a square group of 9 planets ( not the planets of modern astrology as sun, moon, and two fictive planets of bad influence, Rahu and Ketu are present); We saw first a tall old man turning around them as a ghost or an automate with a strange empty look and the guide asked us to worship them by a walk of nine tours; At the end I felt quite tipsy! A very strange experience for Occidental men! From wikipedia: These planets are thought to influence deeply our lifes and are called Nava Grahas; It is common to see the Nava Grahas installed as murtis in Hindu temples and people will perform pujas to these grahas in order to propitiate these influences; It is often the case that a Hindu will consult an astrologer and be told that one of the grahas is exerting a negative influence over his life and that he should perform a puja (the many turns around) in order to diminish the negative influence; Occasionally, even the reverse is true, someone may be told that a particular graha is exerting a positive influence and so the person may perform a puja to increase the positive influence; There is a popular puja called “Graha Shanti” to make peace with the grahas (shanti means peace) that is often performed before weddings and other important times; You can think of a Nava Graha puja as paying the cosmic “utility bill” ; Indeed, the Nava Grahas still play an important role in Hinduism; From an astrological perspective here is how these nine grahas are understood in Hindu astrology; The sun represents the soul, the heart, the father, authority, heat, power and ambition; The moon is the mind, mother, water, coolness, emotions, memory and common sense; Mars is courage, bravery, sports, competition, maleness, passion, action, war, cuts and burns; Mercury is intelligence, learning, teaching, speech, expression, communication and writing; Jupiter is fortune, expansion, wealth, children, religion, philosophy and wisdom; Venus is marriage, love, romance, luxuries, prosperity, femininity, artistic expression, grace, and beauty; Saturn is slowness, struggle, discipline, dryness, labor, asceticism, accidents, and chronic disease; Rahu is material desire, dullness, ignorance, laziness, sleep and addictions and ancestral karma; Ketu is asceticism, spirituality, psychic ability, ghosts, eccentricity and occultism; For more details see the section entitled, Hindu Astrology; South India Tamil Nadu Kanchipuram Hindu Sacred Town Ekambareswarar Shiva Temple. -------------------------------------------------------------- ------- -----------------

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