The Greatness of Saturn : Shani Mahatmya

OM SHANI SHANISCHARAYA NAMAH:

The Greatness of Saturn by Robert E. Svaboda

Robert Svaboda was a researcher who spent considerable time in India exploring Vedic literature, Yoga and Ayurveda. He came in touch with Swami Vimalananda and was inspired to translate the Shani Mahatmya which was previously published in Gujarati and Marathi. The book is divided into 3 parts namely: 

1. Purvakarma : stage where one prepares oneself for experience 
2. Pradhankarma : the experience 
3. Paschatkarma: stage at which rejuvenation and integration occurs.

You get the feel of the book from introduction itself as it introduces unique concept of Living wisdom. A living story is born when living wisdom incarnates in the subtle matter of a human consciousness. Real music, real verse, real stories have an innate power to teach, to heal and to inducs mystical experiences. 

It then delves into knowledge as commodity of commerce and the symbols of internal reality which he states are dead from inside. The pathology of the symbol and its disconnect with sacred which has been removed from almost all walks of the life especially in the West. The author discusses how slowly the concept of living myth has been removed from life which was most effective protection against ideo-pathogens. It adds that "sincere prayers could save us, but most of us in these days have come to doubt that prayer can change things, for we no longer think of nature as living beiing who can be requested to show us her compassion. The western civilisation lost the concept of living myths with the decimation of ancient Greeks and it made easy for them to reject the myths as illogical." 

There is a interesting observation wherein it states that, "the demythicization and desacralization of our society have been accelarated by the liberal application  of that pecculiarly-modern fancy that progress must be linear. Thi posture, which assumes the new to be always superiror to the old, grows logicallly out of the western preference for the linear thought. the doctrine of linear progress forbids ancient wisdom to enter into modernity, mandating that new and different reality forms must supplant and replace all older models." 

The author proposes that the civilisation which are dead or their myths are lost should borrow from those who have civilisational continuity. He adds that "All traditions are not worthy of revival; the Aztec tradition and its hunger for human sacrifice, should be dead and buried... just as flora and fauna of one continent canoften be naturalised in an alien land, myths which originated inother cultures can be transported to faraway places and interbred with local tales to form unpredictably expressive hybrids." He proposes India as such source civilisation as Indian myths are equipped to convey cosmological data, archetypal material, cultural and social taboos, spiritual and mystical matters to anyone who knows how to access it. 

Writing on the concept of therapeutic myth, "Intellectualising the experience of a myth may be superficially therapeutic by providing some calmness and reassurance which can penetrate the consciousness...When you can learn how to let go of yourself, the universe itself can become your teacher." 

As mentioned earlier, in the second part of the book titled Pradhankarma, the discussion on story of Raja Vikramaditya who ruled from Ujjayini is elaborated. The King calls for  a discussion on the utility and greatness of different planets and each planet's greatness is told in form of story by pundits in Sabha. On every single day, the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu and their mahima is discussed. Each of the chapter is beautifullly written that it introduces and mesmerises with knowledge and insights which we have heard in bits and pieces but for the book which offers it with clarity and factual knwoledge. 

The king Vikramaditya goes through sadhe sati which is 7.5 years of tormenting period under Saturn's gaze which are elaborated in rest of the chapters. 

The last part of the book "Paschatkarma" discusses the dieties, seizures and remedies. The author states that the English word "Planet" does not exactly represent Grahas. Graha comes from root word in Sanskrit meaning "to grasp or get hold of" and can be hand or sensory organs. Anugraha - grace of God and Vigraha - an iconic image (form which enables the mind to grasp the nature of God). 

The concept of Upaya is given prominent place in this part and for each Gruha there is elaborate discussion on kind of Upaya relevant to each Gruha. The book states that the 9 gruhas have corresponding 9 rays of light which are 7 colours of rainbow and 2 are ultraviolet and infrared rays. The nine rays are pure when they imanate but recombine and interefere with each other as they spread throughout the universe and become weaker. Further it states that mantras are very excellent upayas as they are deity incarnate in verbal form. Mantras are superior remedies, but they are not always easy to obtain or perfect. Hence, the role of guru is very important in pursuit through mantras. 

 The book is very interesting read for me personally as it is my first read where there is organised introduction to certain concepts of Indian knowledge system. The author is an authority on Indian knowledge sytem and has authored some highly acclaimed books on the topics. Even if you have no interest or belief in astrology or Jyotish vidya, still it can be engaging as it'll help you discover some oft misunderstood concepts.