Stories associated with Goddess Aditi: the deity of Punarvasu Nakshatra

To understand nakshatras in Vedic astrology, it is important to learn about the deity associated with each nakshatra. Every deity has some stories mentioned in the Hindu pantheon. When it comes to Punarvasu, it is Goddess Aditi, who is the fertile mother goddess of the infinite space, and universe. She was an important figure of worship in the early Vedic period but over time was forgotten. There were 250 mentions of her in Rig Veda, and in several other religious texts like Srimad Bhagavatam. 

Aditi is believed to be the creative potential of the universe. The term in itself means 'a' - 'diti'- which means that which is free, unbound, and undivided. In other words, it represents freedom and unity. She remains in the unmanifest form in the space but when she reincarnates in form of a human being, she is in her manifest form. 

In one of her early births, she was called Prsni, the wife of Prajapati Sutapa. Both of them were instructed to practice intense austerity to produce good progeny. They were successful in their endeavor and pleased with their efforts, lord Vishnu granted a boon that he will bear to them three times in three different lifetimes. He was born to them and was known as Prsnigarbha (son of Prsni). Later Lord Bramha the creator manifested his mind-born son Prajapati Daksha. In her second birth, Prsni was born as the daughter of Daksha. So it is mentioned in the Vedas that Aditi sprang from Daksha and Daksha sprang from Aditi. Here, the concept of the material form of energy or avatars came into existence; the endless conversion of unmanifest into manifest and vice-versa. 

In this birth, she gave birth to lord Vishnu in the form of Upendra which means the younger brother of Indra. In this avatar, he was known as Vamana, or dwarf who was born to teach the king Mahabali a lesson. All sons of Aditi, and her husband sage Kashyap were known as 'Adityas'. In total, Aditi gave birth to 33 gods (12 Adityas, 11 Rudras, 8 Vasus). They were solar gods who controlled different aspects of human life. They along with Aditi resided in heaven. These heavenly sun gods inherited all divine qualities of the mother goddess like maintaining unity, harmony, peace, and balance. 

Her son Indra, one of these sun gods, held the position of king of the heavens. This created a lot of jealousy in her sister, Diti. She was the mother of Daityas (sons of Diti) or demons. Their job was to divide and take away things with force. Diti prayed to get a more powerful son than Indra. This created chaos in heaven which ultimately ended in Indra destroying the foetus of Diti & later both Aditi and Indra were cursed by her.

In her next reincarnation, sage Kashyap, and Aditi were born as Vasudeva, and Devaki. On the day of their marriage, there was a message sent from heaven that the eighth son of the bride will kill king Kamsa, her brother. Due to Diti's curse and the wrath of Kamsa, all six babies of Devaki were destroyed mercilessly. Along with this torment, the distraught couple was jailed for several years and bound to chains. Her seventh son was transported to Rohini's womb who came to be known as Balarama. Lord Krishna was born to her as the eighth son who eventually put an end to everyone's suffering by killing the treacherous brother of Devaki. 

One of the Adityas, Vivasvan was known as Martanda which means dead or undeveloped egg. When Aditi was pregnant with him, due to a curse, her fetus died in her womb. But the curse was reversed by her husband sage Kashyap. Another interesting story that shows the mercy of goddess Aditi is when her earrings were stolen by a demon Narakasura. These earrings had first emerged from Samudra Manthan or the churning of the cosmic sea and were gifted to her. They were no ordinary earrings as they blessed their wearer with protection like a talisman.

Lord Krishna's wife Satyabhama killed and helped him kill the demon and returned them to Aditi. The generous mother goddess blessed Satyabhama with the boon of eternal youth. They were later given to Karna (son of the sun God). Later it was taken back by Indra. These earrings are also the symbol of Jyestha nakshatra. 

It can be seen that goddess Aditi is the epitome of generosity, prosperity, virtues, and unconditional maternal love. She is venerated for protection, food, children, cattle, freedom from sin, and forgiveness. The mother goddess is worshiped not only in Hinduism but also in Buddhism. In her honor, they light twelve yellow candles. Due to her unbound nature, she is often worshiped by those needing to be liberated from some form of bondage in their life. The Vedas have also offered an alternate method to attain Aditi’s blessings, i.e, through listening to a narration of the merits of Punarvasu, the lunar mansion ruled by her.