INTRODUCTION: 
Chaya Devi is the shadow goddess, and the consort of Lord Surya and the mother of the Justice god Lord Shani Bhagawan. She is formed from the shadow of Goddess Saranyu, the first wife of Lord Surya. Since Saranyu was unable to bear the heat of his consort Lord Surya, she kept Chaya in her place, and left surya loka and went to the earth for doing penance.
Both Shani Dev and Mata Chaya are sincere devotees of Lord Shiva. She is mentioned in the Rigveda, Vishnu Purana and in Markandeya Purana. Mata Chaya contained very great good qualities and treated the children of saranyu as her own children, and didn’t showed any partiality bet ween her own children and Saranyu’s children. Saranyu’s children are Yama, Yamuna, Revanta and Ashwin Kumaras, whereas Chaya’s children are Shani, Tapti and Bhadra.
Her appearance is described in various puranas as “beautiful and good looking lady with charming face and contains the features of her creator Saranyu”. She was worshiped as the mother of Lord Shani Dev. She is a good nature goddess and served her husband Lord Surya in a proper manner and acted as a dutiful wife to Lord Surya. Some temples dedicated to her are worshiped mainly by the people of south india such as:
1. Chaya Putra Shani Temple, Gandi, Andhra Pradesh,
2. Sri Chaya Someshwara temple, Nalgonda, Telangana,
3. Chaya Malleswara Swamy Temple, konakondla, Andhra Pradesh.
IMPORTANCE
By worshiping Ma Chaya, we can please Lord Shani and get favours from him. Lord Shani was very much attached with his mother Chaya than that of his father Lord Surya Dev. He was brought up by his mother Chaya in a good manner, and she took care of him in every stage of his life. Though she was considered as a shadow of Saranyu, she contained very good features and pleasing manners, and was worshiped by the demi gods in the heaven. And since her son occupies a very important place in judging the karmic deeds of the people in the earth, she cannot be avoided or forgotten by us.
Hence it is advisable to worship her along with Lord Shani Dev for getting better prospects in our life, and also to reduce the bad karmic deeds to some extent. By worshipping Mata Chaya we can get relieved from several dreaded diseases, confusions, tensions in our daily life, and our several mentally related problems will also be relieved through her grace. She shows motherly affection to us and blesses us from the Surya Loka.
Let us worship the divine mother Mata Chaya Devi and be blessed.
“OM SREE CHAYA DEVIYE NAMAHA”
“OM SREE SHANI BHAGAWANE NAMAHA”
“OM SREE SURYA BHAGAWANE NAMAHA”
SENT BY
R.HARISHANKAR
