Brihaspati Vaar Vrat

Sage Brihaspati is the Guru of gods and represented by planet Jupiter in our solar system and Thursday in weekdays.On this day wearing of yellow colour clothes is very important to harness the positive energies of the environment.As per Shiv Puraan, Sage Brihaspati is the son of Angira rishi. He performed tapasya at the Prabhaas Kshetra and Lord Shiva granted him prestigious place in the nav grah(9 plantes) as planet Jupiter.
Even in astrology, the aspect of planet Jupiter is considered too auspicious. he is the significator planet of Dharm,children and knowledge. Fasting is begins from the sunrise and ends at the next day(after sunrise).Worshipping of banana tree is observed and yellow colored offerings are made to banana tree. Eating of banana and salt is strictly prohibited on this day.


The legend associated with thursday fast is as follows-

Once there was a King who was very devotee but his wife was exactly opposite in nature. One day a sage visited his palace for alms. At that time the king was not present.  The Queen said that she had become fed up from giving charity and she wanted to get rid off the money so that she could live happily.Sage suggested that for this she had to follow certain things which included getting up late on Thursday,not cleaning the kitchen before preparing meals,washing her hairs and clothes and to tell her husband to shave on Thursday.

 The sadhu disappeared and the queen  followed his instructions. The king’s  family became poorer and poorer. They could hardly afford meals for one time. To earn the livelihood the king went to the neighbouring country. There he started earning money by selling the wood cut from the forest to the city. One day queen had nothing to eat so she send her maid to the village where her sister lived to beg for some food.As per command the maid went to her sister’s house where she was doing Brihaspati vaar pooja when she visited. Since she was busy in pooja so she did not answered the maid’s call.Maid returned to queen and complained about her sister. At the same time the queen’s sister followed and visited queen and said that it is prohibited to speak at the time of Brihaspati pooja so that was the reason she did not reply. She also said that today is Thursday and due to her vrat , Brihaspati would surly fulfill her wises. She suggested to check her house so that perhaps she might found some pot full of grains. Queen was shocked to see one pot of grain lying on one corner of the house. From that day she started keeping Thursday fast.Over the passage of time all the wealth was restored. On the other hand King in the neighbouring city forgot to keep Thursday fast one day. In a sudden development he was charged with stealing the necklace of the queen of that city.He was sentenced to jail. In his dream Brihaspati appeared and told the reason for this mishappening. Next Thursday he kept the fast in jail and the very next day he was released by the king’s order as it was confirmed he was not the culprit. The king returned to the village and amazed to see the dramatic turn around of the financial conditions of his queen. On asking she narrated the magic of Brihaspati vaar fasting.Since then they lived happily.