The mantra of Rahu

the Navagraha Stotram verse for Rahu, the north lunar node, recited as mantra

What the tradition reads

The Vedic tradition addresses Rahu, the shadow planet formed from the north lunar node, through the Navagraha Stotram's own verse to him rather than through a separate short mantra, reciting it on Saturday, a day the tradition shares between Rahu and Saturn on the reasoning that both are read as difficult, disciplining influences whose lessons arrive through restriction rather than ease. The verse from the Navagraha Stotram attributed to Vyasa reads Ardha kayam maha viryam chandraditya vimardanam, simhika garbha sambhutam tam rahum pranamamyaham, rendered plainly as a bow to Rahu, half bodied, of great might, who afflicts the Moon and the Sun, born of the womb of Simhika, a description that names Rahu's mythic origin directly in the same breath as its astronomical function, the node that produces eclipses read here as a demon perpetually attacking the two great lights. The tradition prescribes the mantra for whoever stands in a Rahu dasha or antardasha, or whose chart otherwise calls for it, paired with charity of black sesame, blankets given to those in need, or smoke coloured cloth on a Saturday, and, in the wider remedial literature, the reading of the Durga texts, on the reasoning that Rahu's excess is met not with a gentle stone but with a sterner, protective devotion. Where the mantra is recited on a mala, the tradition keeps the same manner as for every other graha, one hundred and eight repetitions, the thumb moving each bead toward the body and never crossing the head bead at the top of the strand.

The story

Rahu's verse names him half bodied, born of the womb of Simhika, a direct reference to the myth of Svarbhanu, a demon who disguised himself among the gods to drink a portion of the freshly churned nectar of immortality; the Sun and Moon recognised the disguise and alerted Vishnu, who severed the demon's head with his discus before the nectar could pass his throat, leaving the head, made immortal by the nectar it had swallowed, and the now separate, equally immortal tail, both hungry and both resentful of the two lights that had exposed him. The head became Rahu, the tail Ketu, and the tradition reads their shared grudge against the Sun and Moon as the mythic explanation for eclipses, moments the old astronomy could not otherwise account for except as an attack renewed. Because Rahu has no body of its own in ordinary reckoning, some later ritual practice reads the point almost as a spirit to be pacified rather than a planet to be praised outright, which is part of why its remedial tradition leans toward protective charity and sterner devotional reading rather than the gentler gemstone prescriptions given more freely to the seven visible grahas. The verse given here follows the text at sanskritdocuments.org, and the Wikipedia Navagraha article confirms Rahu's continued place among the nine grahas worshipped today.

Written from

Corpus key mantra:Rahu.