शनिमाहात्म्य

शनिमाहात्म्यThe story of Shani Mahatmya is a very fascinating story depicting the importance of Shri Shani-deva and how difficult devotion service is required to please him and get his krupa (blessings) on you. The book starts with describing the importance of various planets and their strengths. These are told by the scholars serving king Vikramaditya's court from the city of Ujjain. The description of Shani comes as: He has a dark complexion, his face is beautiful, he is lame (defective feet), his caste is teli (Oil vendors) and he prays Kal-bhairav. After listening to the birth story of Shani, Vikramaditya laughed and ridiculed Shani for what he did. Shani-dev heard the remarks of Vikramaditya and cursed him. The rest of the story is how Vikramaditya faces difficulties and problems worse than the ones he could imagine. He loses his kingdom, he is charged with stealing, his both hands and legs are cut-off by King Chandrasen of Tamlinda town. He is helped by a teli of that town and this oil vendor brings him home. But Vikramaditya still prays Shani-dev without losing his temper or faith in Shani-dev, who eventually is satisfied with Vikramaditya's devotion and brings him back all the lost glory. In fact Shani-dev makes him even better and greater than what he was or had before. The last part of the book describes various experiences faced by various gods, demons and sages, including Brihaspati (the Guru of gods) and Shiva et al. The story esssentially stresses the values such as, perseverance in difficult times, complete devotion and faith in the values one believes in or one follows and never to lose his/her confidence in life in spite of lot of difficulties.

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