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Shani Seva Personalised Shani Dev Puja

Shani Vajra Panjar Kavach

शनिवज्रपंजरकवचम्

कवच अर्थात् रक्षा। इस स्तोत्र में शनि देव के भिन्न-भिन्न नामों से शरीर के भिन्न-भिन्न अंगों की रक्षा की प्रार्थना की गई है, सिर से लेकर चरणों तक। यह ब्रह्माण्ड पुराण में ब्रह्मा और नारद के संवाद में आया है।

A kavach is armour, and this one is made of words. Verse by verse it asks a different name of Shani Dev to guard a different part of the body, from the head down to the feet. It comes from the Brahmanda Purana, in the dialogue between Brahma and Narada.

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The twelve shlokas

About these verses

The first three shlokas are the dhyana and Brahma's introduction. Verses 4 to 8 are the kavach proper, naming the body part by part. Verses 9 to 12 are the phalashruti, the text's own account of what its recitation does, which we publish as the tradition states it and add nothing to.

  1. 1

    नीलाम्बरो नीलवपुः किरीटी गृध्रस्थितस्त्रासकरो धनुष्मान् । चतुर्भुजः सूर्यसुतः प्रसन्नः सदा मम स्याद् वरदः प्रशान्तः ॥ १॥

  2. 2

    शृणुध्वमृषयः सर्वे शनिपीडाहरं महत् । कवचं शनिराजस्य सौरेरिदमनुत्तमम् ॥ २॥

  3. 3

    कवचं देवतावासं वज्रपंजरसंज्ञकम् । शनैश्चरप्रीतिकरं सर्वसौभाग्यदायकम् ॥ ३॥

  4. 4

    ॐ श्रीशनैश्चरः पातु भालं मे सूर्यनन्दनः । नेत्रे छायात्मजः पातु पातु कर्णौ यमानुजः ॥ ४॥

  5. 5

    नासां वैवस्वतः पातु मुखं मे भास्करः सदा । स्निग्धकण्ठश्च मे कण्ठं भुजौ पातु महाभुजः ॥ ५॥

  6. 6

    स्कन्धौ पातु शनिश्चैव करौ पातु शुभप्रदः । वक्षः पातु यमभ्राता कुक्षिं पात्वसितस्तथा ॥ ६॥

  7. 7

    नाभिं ग्रहपतिः पातु मन्दः पातु कटिं तथा । ऊरू ममान्तकः पातु यमो जानुयुगं तथा ॥ ७॥

  8. 8

    पदौ मन्दगतिः पातु सर्वांगं पातु पिप्पलः । अंगोपांगानि सर्वाणि रक्षेन् मे सूर्यनन्दनः ॥ ८॥

  9. 9

    इत्येतत् कवचं दिव्यं पठेत् सूर्यसुतस्य यः । न तस्य जायते पीडा प्रीतो भवति सूर्यजः ॥ ९॥

  10. 10

    व्यय-जन्म-द्वितीयस्थो मृत्युस्थानगतोऽपि वा । कलत्रस्थो गतो वाऽपि सुप्रीतस्तु सदा शनिः ॥ १०॥

    Kaikeyi's judgement, and Rama's exile

    Ayodhya was decorated for a coronation. Kaikeyi, who had raised Rama and loved him, spent two old boons instead on Bharata being crowned and Rama sent to the forest for fourteen years. The verse says Shani Dev took away her mati, her discernment. Not her love and not her memory, only the capacity to judge rightly. Every other disaster in the Ramayana follows from that one hour.

    In Valmiki's Ramayana, Kaikeyi is turned by her maid Manthara and there is no planetary cause. Shani appears nowhere in the entire Valmiki text. This attribution belongs to the devotional tradition rather than the epic.

  11. 11

    अष्टमस्थे सूर्यसुते व्यये जन्मद्वितीयगे । कवचं पठते नित्यं न पीडा जायते क्वचित् ॥ ११॥

    The golden deer, and Sita's abduction

    In exile, a deer of impossible gold appeared at the door of their hut. Sita asked for it. Rama followed it, then Lakshmana followed Rama, and in the moment the hut stood unguarded Ravana came for her. The deer was Maricha, a rakshasa wearing a shape, and the verse names the whole thing kapat, a deception.

  12. 12

    इत्येतत्कवचं दिव्यं सौरेर्यन्निर्मितं पुरा । द्वादशाऽष्टमजन्मस्थदोषान्नाशयते सदा । जन्मलग्नस्थितान् दोषान् सर्वान्नाशयते प्रभुः ॥ १२॥

    Lakshmana and the shakti

    In the war at Lanka, Indrajit struck Lakshmana with the shakti and he fell as though dead. The verse says a cry of anguish went through the whole army. He was saved only because Hanuman carried a mountain of herbs from the Himalaya before dawn.

The Kavach has been recited in countless households and printed in many editions. If the words you keep differ a little from these, your reading is not wrong - it is another line of the same living tradition.

About this text and where it comes from

The twelve shlokas as published by sanskritdocuments.org from the Brahmanda Purana. Printed editions differ in small spellings and some open with the viniyoga and the nyasa, which are the ritual preface rather than the kavach itself. If your edition carries those, nothing here contradicts it.

Primary
sanskritdocuments.org, file shanaivajrakavach.itx, attributed to the Brahmanda Purana in the dialogue of Brahma and Narada. The same publisher as our Shani Chalisa text.
A note on the word
Kavach means armour, and this kavach is a text. Amulets, lockets and yantras sold under the same name are a separate market product; the tradition here is something you recite, and it costs nothing.

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