Shani Jayanti is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Shani Dev. Shani Dev is considered to be the son of Sun God and Devi Chaya. Shani Dev is considered to be the god of karma, it is said that Shani gives the fruits of a person’s deeds during the lifetime of that person only.
The grace of Shani Dev can fill a person’s life with happiness, whereas if Shani Dev’s evil light falls on someone, then that person’s work gets spoiled.
There are many stories related to Shani, such as
- The story of his Saadhe Sati
- Why he disliked his father Sun God
We have told both these stories in our old articles
Today on the occasion of Shani Jayanti, let us know the story of Hanuman ji and Shani Dev or say the story of how Hanuman ji freed Shani from Ravana’s captivity, so let’s start
All the planets in Ravana’s captivity
The story is something like this that when Ravana received the boon of being invincible from Brahmaji, then he started thinking about subjugating the three worlds. Now since Ravana himself was a great scholar of Vedas and was also an astrologer, he knew that only the movement of planets can stop him from completing his task and so he imprisoned all the planets and brought them to Lanka and whenever he sat on his throne, he kept the planets under his feet.
Once when Ravana was about to have a son, Ravana thought that he would let his son be born in the best planetary position and so he started controlling the direction of the planets according to his wish. When the Gods saw that this Ravana has already conquered the three worlds, now if his son also becomes so powerful, then the Gods will have to remain under him too. So all the Gods started requesting the planets not to change their direction according to Ravana. All the planets tried to escape from Ravana’s captivity but they could not succeed
Shani Dev casts evil eye on Ravana
On this, Shani said that Gods, I can help you accomplish your task but for that it is necessary that my sight falls on Ravana’s face, and that is not possible if I keep lying under Ravana’s feet. Hearing this, Indra asked for help from Devraj Narada. Narada Muni reached Ravana’s court and said that O Ravana, I will consider you superior only when you wear these planets around your neck, not under your feet. Ravana got trapped in Narada’s words and as soon as he removed the planets from under his feet, Shani Dev’s evil eye fell on Ravana.
When Ravana realized this, he freed all the other planets, but he imprisoned Shani by hanging him upside down in a prison.
It is said that Ravana kept Shani captive for a very long time and as long as Shani was in his captivity, Ravana remained invincible. But everything changed the day when Shri Hanuman Ji reached Lanka in search of Mata Sita.
Hanuman Ji freeing Shani from captivity
Due to his anger and arrogance, Ravana talked about giving death penalty to Hanuman Ji, but on the persuasion of his younger brother Vibhishan, Ravana asked his soldiers to set fire to Hanuman Ji’s tail.
When Hanuman Ji’s tail was set on fire, Hanuman Ji set fire to the whole Lanka with the same burnt tail and thus when the whole Lanka started burning, that fire also reached the place where Shani Dev was held captive.
Due to the heat of the fire, Shani Dev started having trouble and when Hanuman came there, not only did he free Shani Dev from Ravana’s captivity, but to cool Shani Dev’s body, Hanuman Ji also applied mustard oil on Shani Dev’s body.
Shani was very pleased with this altruistic gesture of Hanuman Ji and he said that in future whoever takes your name or becomes your devotee, I will never harm him.
That is why it is believed that whoever takes the name of Hanuman Ji, Shani Dev cannot harm them. And this is also the story associated with why mustard oil is offered to Shani Dev every Saturday.
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