Bhrigu, the father of Astrology is one of the Saptarishis. In the modern era he is known by the book Bhrigu Samhita, a book on astrology compiling his sutras on vedic astrology. A bundle of palm leaves encoded by Bhrigu giving details about the future of every living mortal on this planet. People curious to know their future check with the families some where in the remote village of Tamilnadu who possess these palm leaves bundles to decode their future events. One would argue, what’s the use of knowing the future if one can’t change it. To answer this dejected lament, I would say Astrology is like a Torch light. If you passing through a jungle in a pitch dark night what would you prefer -Going with the torch or Without it? The answer is clear everyone would prefer going with a Torch.

Bhrigu is known as the father of fortune and Lakshmi as goddess of fortune. Lakshmi is the daughter of Bhrigu also known as Bhargavi. Bhrigu was the master of the divine science called Astrology. Hindu scriptures are full of stories about Bhrigu Maharaj. Today we will dwell into some of the interesting ones.

Bhrigu was the one who brought fire (Agni) from the heavens down to the earth. One day, a demon abducted Puloma, one of the wives of Bhrigu. When she was abducted her son Chyavana slipped out of her womb. The just born son was very powerful and with his mystic powers the demon was killed. With this incident, Bhrigu got angry with Agni. Bhrigu had entrusted the task of safety of his pregnant wife to Agni. Yes, you guessed it right, Bhrigu gave a curse to Agni. He cursed Agni that it would consume everything whether pious or not.

Chyavana and his wife, Arushi had a son called Aurava. Once their hut was attacked by Kshatriyas (the warrior class). Aurava slipped out of the womb of his mother and appeared out of her thigh. Even Aurava was powerful enough to destroy the Khatriyas but Bhrigu stopped him from doing so. Aurava turned his anger into a fire spewing horse. This horse plunged into the ocean. It is believed that the sweat of this horse is what makes the ocean salty. The fire from the horse’s mouth creates mists over the ocean.

Through another wife Khyati, Bhrigu had a son called Mrikanda. Mrikanda is believed to have woven the first cloth in the world. He used the stem of lotus to do this. All the weaving community respect him as the lord of their profession.

Bhrigu had one more wife, Kavyamata. Though Kavyamata, he had a son called Shukracharya (known as the leader of demons). One day all the demons hid behind Kavyamata. To kill the demons, lord Vishnu beheaded Kavyamata. At this, Shukracharya was enraged and he cursed Lord Vishnu that he will have take birth as human on earth three times. These three avatars were Parashuram, Ram and Krishna.

All the descendants of Bhrigu are known as Bhargavas. Bhargavas had enmity with Kshatriyas. Parshuram was born in Bhargava community and was called Bhargava -Rama and was responsible for wiping out many Kshatriyas and filling up lakes with their blood. After meeting Lord Ram, Parshuram gave up this violent activity.

The most famous story about Bhrigu is that he wanted to know the greatest God in the universe. To confirm, this he visited Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh one by one. On visiting Brahma, Bhrigu found him too engrossed in meditation. Bhrigu cursed Brahma that he will not have any temples and no human would worship him. When Bhrigu visited Mahesh (Shiva), he found him busy with his wife. Again Bhrigu cursed him that Shiva would be worshipped only in his symbolic form (Linga form). Vishnu was fast asleep when Bhrigu arrived. Bhrigu was enraged and he kicked him on the right side of his chest to wake him up. Once Vishnu woke up, he apologized to Bhrigu and Bhrigu told him to take avatar on Earth to replace anarchy with Dharma.

Bhrigu rishi is credited with bringing both Vishnu and Lakshmi on earth. Even today if you visit Vishnu temples in the south you can see the footprint on right side of Vishnu’s chest which is also known as Bhrigupada.