Lord Budha Dev (Lord Mercury)

Lord Budha Dev

When the father of a baby is Som Dev, also known as Chandra Dev (the Moon Lord) and the mother is known as Tara (meaning “star”), the baby is bound to be a beautiful and luminescent one. And that is exactly how people and the Gods would describe God Budha dev (Lord Mercury) when he was born. It is said that Lord Chandra, being flirtatious of nature, had lured Tara, the wife of Brihaspati (represented by the planet Jupiter) and had an affair with her. The result of this affair was Budha Dev. Because of the way he was conceived, Budha Dev felt a lot of remorse, guilt, and anger towards his biological father. But before we get to that, let’s look at what happened to the rest of the world of devas and asuras because of the affair between Tara and Chandra.

Lord Budha Dev (Lord Mercury)

Brishapati was angered because of the way Chandra behaved with his wife and waged a war against him. He was joined by Lord Indra and the rest of the devtas while Lord Chandra was supported by Guru Shukracharya, the guru of asuraas. The war went on for a long time, and Lord Brahma became concerned that this war, also known as Tarakamaayam, would result in the destruction of the entire universe. He stepped in and managed to separate the two key fighters, admonished Lord Chandra for his behaviour and packed off Tara along with Brihaspati back to the place where she belonged. The child Budha Dev was brought up, by large accounts, by Lord Chandra. But there are certain versions, which refer to the bringing up of Budha Dev by his adoptive father, Brihaspati.

As mentioned earlier, BudhaDev was in a turmoil of emotions because of the stigma that was attached to the events before and after his birth. Although a beautiful child, who inherited a part of his radiant beauty from his father Lord Chandra, he was not happy with the way his life was proceeding and instead chose to do penance in the form of rigorous meditation for a number of years. Lord Vishnu was very pleased with the dedication and purity of the devotee’s feelings and made an appearance before him. He bestowed upon BudhaDev the gift of knowledge – that of all the Vedas and arts. However, in the versions in which Brihaspati is said to have raised BudhaDev, it is mentioned that it was he who imparted all the knowledge to his son, and thus, be became a learned God, who is of great importance to traders or merchants, teachers, consultants, writers, lawyers, and to those involved in various forms of arts and sports. Budha Dev’s influence on a person is evident in his/her speech pattern, agility in communication and humour and thinking process. The mantra one can chant praising BudhaDev, the Lord of “buddhi”, 108 times is:

“Om Braam Breem Braum Sah: Budhay Namah”

This mantra is said to help those people who are suffering from a malefic effect of the Budha graha, which is caused when the gentle Budha is under the influence of other malefic planets.