Prayer to the Devatās at a Grahaṇa
Grahaṇa Devatā Prārthanā · grahaṇa devatā prārthanā, “the prayer to the devatās at an eclipse”
The prayer to the devatās at a grahaṇa is the prayer with which one on whose rāśi an eclipse falls asks the devatās, one by one, to remove the pīḍā, the affliction, of the grahaṇa. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa gives it to Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa, in the rule of the grahaṇa-snāna.
The setting
At a lunar grahaṇa such a man has four brāhmaṇas do svastivācana, sets up four whole kalaśas, conceiving the ocean in them, and puts in them the seven earths, from an elephant-stable, a horse-stable, an anthill, a river confluence, a lake, a cow-shed and the king’s gate, with pearl, gorocana, lotus, sphaṭika, white sandal, tīrtha water, mustard, kumuda, khas and guggulu. He invokes all the oceans, rivers and tīrthas to come and destroy his pāpas, and then prays to the devatās.
The prayer, devatā by devatā
- Indra, master of the devas, thousand-eyed, bearer of the vajra: may he remove my pīḍā born of the grahaṇa.
- Agni, mouth of all the devas, with seven tongues: may he destroy my pīḍā born of the lunar grahaṇa.
- Yama, witness of the karma of all beings, whose vāhana is the buffalo, Dharma in form: may he end my pīḍā.
- Nirṛti, master of the rākshasa hosts, fearsome like the fire of pralaya, bearing the khaḍga: may he remove my pīḍā.
- Varuṇa, bearer of the nāgapāśa, whose vāhana is the makara, master of waters: may he destroy my pīḍā.
- Vāyu, who protects all beings as prāṇa, whose vāhana is the swift black antelope: may he destroy my pīḍā.
- Kubera, master of the nine nidhis, bearer of khaḍga, triśūla and gadā: may he destroy my pāpa arising from the lunar grahaṇa.
- Śaṅkara, Devādhideva, whose forehead shines with the moon, whose vāhana is the vṛshabha, who bears Pināka: may he destroy my pīḍā.
- Brahmā, Vishṇu and Sūrya, with all the moving and unmoving beings of the three worlds: may they all burn my pāpa to ash.
The phala
The vratī bathes with the water of the kalaśas to the sound of the Ṛg, Yajus and Sāma, honours the brāhmaṇas, and the mantras are written on a cloth strip or a lotus petal and placed on his head with the kalaśas while he passes the grahaṇa facing east in pūjā of his ishṭa deva. When it ends he gives a cow and the inscribed strip to a brāhmaṇa. One who bathes for the grahaṇa by this rule suffers no pīḍā from it, his kin do not perish, and he gains the supreme siddhi from which there is no return. At a solar grahaṇa the name of Sūrya is said in the mantras; at both a padmarāga is given for Sūrya and a kapilā cow for Candra. One who daily hears this rite is freed from all pāpas and established in Indraloka.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 125
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 125