Brihaspati, as per ‘Siddha Dharma’ is believed to be a Mahasiddha Brihaspati Nath, who was the Guru of all gods. He was believed to be so powerful that he defeated Indra many times in war. Lesser known fact is that Brihaspati was also a warrior Guru who along with devtas had defeated many daityas and danavas. He was very influential in always keeping the supremacy of gods over demons. He is portrayed as a very soft personality in the public domain by writers but ‘Siddha Dharma’ believes the contrary. He was a warrior guru who had strict adherence to sense of duty and dharma that he never allowed his pashutva to take over his devatva.

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, Brihaspati is from the family lineage of Maharishi Angira Nath. He because of his extraordinary understanding of the smritis and text, agama and nigama, he was able to become the guru of the gods. Furthermore, he was a great devotee of Lord Shiva and Ma Parvati and he had directly received various teachings of agama and nigama directly from them. He also received lots of wisdom from his father too.

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, he is light yellowish in color and he wears saffron cloth symbolizing purity and strict adherence to dharma and furthermore he is believed to reside in his loka called ‘Brihaspati Mandala”.

Etymology

The word ‘Brihaspati’, as per ‘Siddha Dharma’ is made up of two words (briha + pati), where briha means great and pati means lord or master. So the synthesis of the two words infer ‘Brihaspati’ to be the lord or master of great numerous wisdoms.

As per the ‘Siddha Dharma’, ‘Brihaspati’ also mean (briha+pati), where ‘Siddha Dharma’ interprets Brihaspati as the master of all masters. Furthermore, Brihaspati also at the time of his birth, started to recite prayers so his parents named him ‘Brihaspati’.

The ‘Siddha Dharma’ believes that he was anointed the gurus of the god because he had mastery over many great numerous wisdoms. Therefore, he not only had mastery over astika but also nastika system. He was also masters of various yogas like ‘Vrata Yoga’, ‘Vajra Yoga’ which he taught to Indra and other gods.

Brihaspati is also known for his extensive work upon the nastika or ‘ihaloka gyana’ based on sthoola (matter). Even the best among the materialist and hedonist, Maharishi Charvaka Nath was in his discipline lineage succession.

In Jyotish, he also holds a prominent place and symbolizes austerity and good omen but the ‘Siddha Dharma’ doesn’t resonate with how he is portrayed by the modern day jyotisha which shall be explained somewhere below.

Family lineage of Brihaspati

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, Mahasiddha Brihaspati Nath is considered to be the son of Mahasiddha Angiras Nath and Surupa. There are lot of text in the public domain which mentions Smriti and not Surupa to be the mother of Brihaspati but the ‘Siddha Dharma’ believes them to be one. Surupa and Smriti are the same person but in different name. Mahasiddha Angiras Nath was the manasputra of Lord Brahma. Therefore, Mahasiddha Brihaspati Nath is the grandson of Lord Brahma.

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, he had four wives. They were Tara, Subha, Mamta and Suniti. Tara is also known as Taraka in some texts. She had one daughter and seven sons. The foremost son of Brihaspati who is very popular in Jyotisha is Budha or the Budh graha.

Subha and Brihaspati had seven daughters and no son. They were Bhanumati, Raka, Archishmati, Mahamati, Mahismati, Siniwali, Havishmati.

Brihaspati had two sons with his third wife Mamta. They were Maharishi/Mahasiddha Bharadwaja Nath and Mahasiddha/Maharishi Kach Nath. Mahasiddha Bharadwaja is also believed to be one of the saptarishi and he is from the descendent of Maharishi Angiras. He also has a gotra in his name. Mahasiddha Dronacharya and Mahasiddha Aswathama Nath had their gotra as Bharadwaja.

Mahasiddha Kach Nath is mentioned in various religious texts where Brihaspati had sent him to Maharishi Shukracharya to learn the ‘Mrit Sanjeevni Vidhya’. He was able to learn it from Maharishi/Mahasiddha Shukracharya Nath because though he being a guru of the daityas, he could not differentiate anybody when it came to imparting wisdoms. Furthermore, Mahasiddha Brihaspati Nath also believed that Mahasiddha Sukracharya Nath to be the perfect guru for his son Mahasiddha Kach Nath to learn “Mrit Sanjeevni Vidya’. With the aid of this vidya, Mahasiddha Kach Nath helped his father in aiding gods at the time of war against the daityas and danavas.

Mahasiddha Brihaspati Nath had no children with his fourth wife, Suniti.

He has two brothers, Samvarta and Uttatthya. He didn’t get along with his brother Samvarta.

Teachings and Schools of Brihaspati

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, the name ‘Brihaspati’ itself signifies that he is the master of numerous wisdoms. He has authored various texts like nitisastra, dharamsastra, vastusastra and vrihaspati smriti. He also propounded many wisdom forms for the betterment of the gods and the society. He is very influential in propounding the ‘Astika School’ of thoughts as well as the ‘Nastika School’ of thought i.e. ‘lokayata’. His most important two schools of thoughts are explained below.

Nastika school of brihaspati

As per the legends of ‘Siddha Dharma’, when once daityas were more powerful then the gods because of the penance and direction of Mahaguru Shukracharya, the gods and their guru, Mahasiddha Brihaspati Nath had to come up with a solution to solve the issue permanently. Every time the daityas and danavas were killed in the battle, Mahaguru Sukracharya through his penance power would utilize the ‘Mrit Sanjeevni Vidya’ and resurrect the daityas and danavas. They were virtually impossible to beat because they were guided to penances by their guru Mahaguru Shukracharya. They would please Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma and then receive boons so as to defeat the gods and conquer swarga or heaven. The gods had a hard time fighting every daityas and danavas. Therefore, Mahasiddha Brihaspati came up with the idea of ‘Nastika School of thought’ for the permanent solution of the problem.

The legend of ‘Siddha Dharma’ says that when Mahaguru Sukracharya went to the Himalayas to perform penance, Mahaguru of the gods, Brihaspati Nath took the form of his bitter rival Mahaguru Sukracharya and went to the daityas and danavas to initiate them into the wisdom of ‘lokayata’ to delude them from the real knowledge of the self and they would only be indulged into the empirical knowledge and would not perform penances to receive the boons from Lord Shiva. Since, empirical knowledge is the knowledge obtained through the senses and they believe that the only valid knowledge of reality is the empirical knowledge because it can be known through the senses, the daityas and danavas would be indulged in the gratification of the senses and then would not perform penances and also not be able to achieve spiritual powers to combat the gods.

The empirical knowledge about sthula or matter was the ultimate conspiracy against the daityas and danavas because Brihaspati designed all the wisdoms in such a way that they wouldn’t go for the real knowledge and acquire the powers to conquer heaven. They would then be indulged in sense pleasure and then it would ultimately lead them to their destruction.

Twelve forms of Brihaspati

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, Brihaspati to forward the propaganda of empirical knowledge and wisdom, he created twelve Brihaspati from his body and they all propounded their respective wisdoms. Out of the twelve, five were Satwa Brihaspati and Rajas Brihaspati and the remaining two were Tamas Brihaspati.

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, the names of twelve Brihaspati were Loukya Brihaspati, Angiras Brihaspati, Dev Guru Brihaspati, Arthagya Brihaspati, Kamagya Brihaspati, Avedik Brihaspati, Satark Brihaspati, Prapanchashil Brihaspati, Duruha Brihaspati, Rajadrohi Brihaspati, Adrista Brihaspati and Amokshi Brihaspati.

The five satwika Brihaspati propounded wisdoms related to buddhi (intellect), dharma, bala (strength and power), swasthya (health), dhana (wealth) and gyana (wisdoms) and laid down vital percepts for it. He said ‘Ishwara’ neither rewards anyone nor punishes anyone. It is humans own action that creates the karma. It is the karma that rewards or punishes an individual. He further said that the Ishwara that we look up to is nothing but our own selves. Therefore, the Brihaspati had put existence before Ishwara. He laid more emphasis of the existence of a human or a being then on the unseen, unknown and unknowable entity called ‘Ishwara’.

The two tamasic Brihaspati were the creators of “tarka and kutarka” (logics and sophism) and also the propounded of empirical science. He then imparted the ‘kamasutra’ wisdom to Mahasiddha Vatsyana Nath and then Vatsyana worked extensively on it and then infused the wisdom of ‘kamasutra’ to the society.

The five rajasic Brihaspati created and propounded various wisdoms like artha sastra (economics), nyaya sastra (justice system), niti sastra (ethics, moral) and propounded the knowledge to the society.

The ‘Siddha Dharma’ believes that one of the Tamas Brihaspati attacked Gayatri devi on her head and rejected her and the wisdoms related to her. The Brihaspati then started to create his own system of knowledge known as the ‘Loukya system’.

Laukika System of thought

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’ there are two systems of knowledge and they are laukika or vigyana also known as Nastika School. It is also known as empirical modern day science. The other system is the alaukika or paravigyana which is somehow similar to metaphysics. It is also the Astika School.

Loukika science was propounded by ‘Loukya Brihaspati’. It is also famously known as ‘Lokayata’ of Brihaspati. The Loukika system out rightly rejected Vedas as the source of knowledge and denied the existence of the soul. According to its principles, Loukika science only accepts ‘matter’ to be the ultimate reality. Therefore, this system is known as ‘materialist’ thought or the Nastika School because it doesn’t believe anything except the empirical matter. What is not experience by the senses is not believed. The ultimate form of any evidence can only be verified by the senses and not through the contemplation of things beyond matter.

Lokayata of Mahasiddha Charvaka Nath (Hedonism of Mahasiddha Charvaka Nath)

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, Mahasiddha Charvaka Nath was the disciple of Loukika Brihaspati and he was quite influential in taking the ‘Brihaspati’s Lokayata’ to an extreme level of sthoola vigyana (materialism) and as well as to an extreme hedonism. He has an Upanishada attributed to his name and it is called as “Charvaka Upanishada”.

His philosophy of materialism is such popular that it is taken as one of the five heterodox system of Indian philosophy. The five heterodox system of Indian philosophy are “Jain, Buddhist, Ajivika, Ajnana, and Charvaka”.

He has a famous line in his hedonistic sutra called “Charvaka Upanishada” which is the ultimate text for reference for materialism. It says,

।।यावज्जीवेत्सुखं जीवेत्, ऋणं कृत्वा घृतं पिबेत्

भस्मीभूतस्य देहस्य पुनरागमनं कुतः

त्रयोवेदस्य कर्तारौ भण्डधूर्तनिशाचराः ।।

(The literal interpretation of the above precepts is, ‘When you live, live life full of pleasure. Borrow money and consume ghee (clarified butter) as when the body dies and becomes ashes, it is the end of life because there is no reincarnation. The three Vedas were created by false people who wanted to delude the society from the true knowledge of empirical matter.’)

As per “Siddha Dharma’, Mahasiddha Charvaka Nath was such hedonist and lokayata who took the wisdom of “Brihaspati’s Lokayata” forward, that according to him, the pleasure of the body is the heaven and the pain to the body is hell. His philosophy was all about pursuit of bodily pleasure and condemnation of bodily pain.

He said that one should live such a life full of pleasure that one should even borrow money to consume ghee (clarified butter). The ghee is the purpose of the milk. When milk is reduced and saturated to the extreme indivisible point then it becomes ghee. Ghee is the finest refinement of milk. Ghee is the most rajasic substance and he advocates consuming ghee even by borrowing money.

The modern day ‘credit card’ system is also the outcome of Charvaka hedonism. People get credit card for simple collaterals like proof of pay slip. People use the money of the bank to live a pleasurable life to enjoy the finest substance in the earth. Many people die without paying the debt of the bank because the bank cannot claim the money from the dead unless there is some physical collateral from where the debt could be recovered.

Astika school of Brihaspati

Although Brihaspati was the main propagator of the Nastika School to delude the society, he was also very influential in propounding the Astika School of thoughts. He was the guru of the gods; therefore his prowess lied in the ultimate Astika School of thought which he imparted to the gods.

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, the Astika School of thought is also known as ‘Paravigyana” or “Alaukika”. It is somehow similar to ‘Metaphysics’ which means ‘beyond physics’. Since, physics deals with matter, metaphysics is transcending matter to go to the abstraction of anything. ‘Metaphysics’ is the antonym of ‘empirical science’ because metaphysics deals with topics which transcend sense experiences.

As per the ‘Siddha Dharma’, the ‘Astika School’ is believed to be more complicated and difficult than that of the ‘Nastika School’. Nastika School believes in empirical knowledge because it is the easiest form of knowledge because it needs no penance and austerity to know the things of the world but when a person intends to know the things beyond the empirical knowledge then ‘penance’ comes into play. To transcend the senses, one should perform penances because it is not a child’s play to transcend the ‘panchkoshas’ of the body.

Furthermore, the empirical knowledge is self evident because it is visible. The alaukika is something which has to be figured out and inferred from the depth of penances. The concept of ‘soul’, ‘reincarnation’ can only be known through ‘Alaukika ’or ‘Astika School’ because one has to transcend the senses first, then the body and then the mind. When mind is transcended, then soul is known.

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, the main aspects of the ‘Astika School’ of thoughts are as follows,

1. One should be a believer in the existence of the ‘Ishwara’.
2. One should first transcend logic because logic is the outcome of mind. To transcend logic is the first step to transcend the mind. Furthermore, logic stops one from being a believer because the extreme reasoning always creates skepticism and ‘skepticism’ is what astika school do not advocate
3. It rejects ‘matter’ to be the ultimate reality and embraces the concept of ‘soul’. It rejects materialism in the pursuit of the adhyatma (knowledge of the self). It puts oriental metaphysics before the empirical knowledge.
4. Astika School is also the school which embraces eternity. Since, soul is considered to be eternal and only the body dies. Therefore, the essence and existence of any human beings is eternal. It is the soul that is eternal. It is the body that changes it shapes and forms.
5. They are hardcore believer in reincarnation. It is the body that dies and not the soul. Therefore, the Astika School believes that the concept of ‘avatara’ is possible because it is consciousness that finds the body to be reborn again as human.

Relationship with Maharishi Shukracharya

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, ‘Mahasiddha Brihaspati Nath’ and ‘Mahasiddha Shukracharya Nath’ were bitter rivals. The former the Guru of the gods while the latter, the Guru of the daityas and danavas. They never went along their whole life except for some instances.

Brihaspati was an astika and he had put ‘Ishwara’ before anything in this universe. He adhered strictly to both the Vedas and the ‘Agama-Nigama’ of Lord Shiva and Ma Parvati. He being the grandson of Lord Brahma strictly worshipped Gayatri to transcend the Prajapatis. It was only to delude and fool the daityas and danavas he orchestrated an attack on Gayatri to make it more believable for the daityas and danavas. He played a masterstroke which caused the ultimate downfall of the daityas and danvas in the long run.

Mahasiddha Shukracharya Nath, the son of Maharishi Bhrigu Nath was no less than Brihaspati. He was rejected by the gods therefore out of agony; he became the guru of the daityas and danavas. It was because of him the daityas and danavas became very powerful and always gave constant threats to the gods. His disciple ‘Mahasiddha Jalandhara Nath’ was so powerful that he is believed to have even defeated Lord Shiva in the battle because of the power of his shakti, Vrinda.

They were bitter rivals but they both agreed and worked together when Brihaspati rejected the astika and propounded the nastika. When Brihaspati attacked the Veda mata Gayatri, Mahasiddha Shukracharya Nath became very pleased and happy, they both then worked together to form a new sastra called ‘Prawanchan Sastra’.

Furthermore, Brihaspati also sent his son Mahasiddha Kach Nath to Shukracharya to learn ‘Mrit Sanjeevni Vidhya’. Shukracharya taught Kach the vidhya and then he used it to help his father to fight against the daityas and danavas.

Misconception in jyotish sashtra

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, there is a great misconception about Mahasiddha Brihaspati Nath and his son Mahasiddh Buddh Nath. The jyotishacharya have wrongly presented the story of the relationship of the moon god with his guru’s consort Tara.

The ‘Siddha Dharma’ doesn’t believe that Mahasiddha Buddh Nath, was the son of moon god, Chandrama and Tara. Buddh was the son of Mahasiddha Brihaspati himself.

As per the legends of ‘Siddha Dharma’, in the ‘Vitala Loka’, a daitya called ‘Tikshna Hasta’ performed penance of Lord Shiva and then when Lord Shiva manifested before him; he asked the boon to defeat ‘Brihaspati’. He was then granted the boon to defeat Brihaspati. His main intention behind such penance was to publicly humiliate and defame Brihaspati such that he dies the death of a fallen man. He wanted Brihaspati to become such humiliated that the whole triloka shall despise Brihaspati.

He then went to war with Brihaspati and when Brihaspati realized that the daitya was blessed by Lord Shiva, he didn’t raise any arms and he surrendered. When Brihaspati was captured and taken into custody, his consort Tara was pregnant and had Buddh in her womb. The moon god, Chandrama was also present with her. Chandrama knew about the boon of ‘Hasta Tikshna’ and he had an enormous love for both his guru, Brihaspati and his Guru’s consort, Ma Tara. He had enormous love for his gurumata, Tara.

Chandrama then devised a plan to delude ‘Hasta Tikshna’ so he convinced gurumata to follow his plan to delude the daitya. He then created a false propaganda that when Brihaspati was captured and taken into the custody, the gurumata Tara had eloped with Chandrama. He hyped it to such extent that it reached the ears of ‘Hasta Tikshna’ in no second. Hearing it, the daitya became very happy because his whole purpose was served. He wanted to defame Brihaspati to such great extent and insult him but he was happier that Chandrama’s action was the best revenge. Lesser did he know that it was ploy set up by Chandrama to delude him.

Brihaspati knew about it and he had full trust on his consort Tara as well as his disciple Chandrama. But even he kept quiet and along him all the gods kept quiet. He was then released by the daitya to face the wrath of the divine world. He then went to Buddh and accepted him as a son and for the daityas they felt, it was his act of saving his dignity to which they laughed it away. Mahasiddha Brihaspati then adviced his son Buddh for penances for two reasons. First for the purpose of self development and secondly to delude the daityas that Buddh was performing the penances to relieve himself from the sins of being an illegitimate child.

The whole act was done with such great planning and excellence that the daityas never inferred the truth. They were very happy with their own delusion. As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, it was the daityas that were eventually deluded in the long run.

Therefore, the ‘Siddha Dharma’ believes that the whole story of Buddh being the son of Chandrama and his gurumata Tara is completely hoax and false. It was only done to delude the demons and with the demons the society also became deluded.

The whole narrative in the sastra as well as the jyotish text is nothing but misinterpreted facts.

Iconography

As per ‘Siddha Dharma’, Brihaspati is not only a scholar but also a warrior guru. He is considered to be the lord of buddhi (intellect) and gyana (wisdom). He is portrayed in three different forms.

The Satwa form

The first form is his satwik form where he is depicted as light yellow saffron color complexion and attire. He is portrayed with four hands which hold danda, rudraksha rosary, kamandalu and a hand performs vara mudra. His satwik form depicts him to be an ascetic who performs penance, he can give boons out of his penances and he can also punish and maintain justice.

The Rajasic form

His second form is the rajasic form where he is portrayed with four hands. The four hands holds bow and arrows, golden axe and the last hand is depicted with vara mudra. He is pictured in padmasana wearing golden ornaments. The ornaments are meticulously worked upon.

The rajasic form depicts him to be a warrior guru who is warrior in nature plus he is the guru of the gods so his ornaments are meticulously worked upon. It symbolizes the peak of rajas. He is also able to bestow boons based on his penance.

The Brihaspati in public domain is pictured as holding conch shell, disk, vara and abhaya mudra is not as par as the Brihaspati of ‘Siddha Dharma’ because he has been portrayed as a very simple deity devoid of the very essence of him.

The Tamasic form

His third form is the tamasic form where he is depicted as a warrior with golden color chariot that is pulled by eight light red horses. With his one hand he holds the strings of the horses, the second hand holds a golden axe, another hand holds a bow and the other hand holds an arrows.

This form denotes his warrior form ready for war. This form denotes that he is warrior to protect dharma from intruders. The golden chariot is as effulgent as the sun itself.