About Navagrahas.

Hinduism and astrology are still intimately connected. In the past it was common that astrology and religion were related, even within Christianity, but over time astrology became separated and even rejected from many religious cultures, including Judaism and Christianity. In the case of Hinduism, however, this never happened, and to this day astrology has remained a vibrant part of the religion. Even now, most educated Hindus will seek astrological advice at some point in their lives. One of the key components of astrology are the Nava Grahas. Most Hindus think of the Nava Grahas as the nine planets.

The word nava does mean nine, but graha does not directly mean planet. Instead, graha, comes from the Sanskrit root grih which means "to seize" or "to take hold of." Literally, these nine "planets"are nine "seizers," so if we can be seized or taken hold of, we can be influenced. The Nava Grahas are, therefore, the nine influences over our lives. In the early days of Hinduism, the traditions speaks of the enlightened seers, rishis, who looked out across physical reality and saw that life was "influenced" by different forces, and of all the forces that influenced life, nine were the most influential, and so they were called the nava grahas, "the nine influences.

" These nine influences are: the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. This is the Hindu order and it follows the days of the week in most Indian and even many European languages. Sunday, for example, is governed by the sun, hence the name Sunday. Monday is governed by the moon, (add an extra "o" and you get moon-day); Tuesday by Mars (Martes in Spanish); Wednesday by Mercury (Miércoles); Thursday by Jupiter (Jueves, Jovian for Jupiter); Friday by Venus, (Viernes), and Saturday, of course, is governed by Saturn.

In addition, to these seven points of influence, there are two others called Rahu and Ketu that are a little more difficult to understand.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 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.