In Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.
Shukra, also called Shukracharya, is the planetary deity of Venus and the appointed preceptor of the asuras in Puranic cosmology. Son of the sage Bhrigu and Khyati, he alone among the nine grahas is said to hold the mṛtasañjīvanī lore that restores the fallen to life. Jyotiṣa assigns him Friday, the southeast quarter, and the significations of refinement, vehicles, poetry, and the marriage bond. Iconographic texts describe a fair, luminous body, white garments, and a horse as mount. His standing as guru to the daityas, rather than to the devas, sets him apart from Brihaspati and marks him as the necessary counterweight within the cosmic order of counsel and desire.
The Matsya Purāṇa and the Ādi Parvan of the Mahābhārata recount how Shukra obtained from Śiva the secret of mṛtasañjīvanī after prolonged austerity. In the wars that followed, every asura slain by the gods rose again under Shukra’s hand, while the devas had no such remedy. The gods therefore sent Kacha, son of Brihaspati, to serve Shukra as a disciple and learn the formula. The asuras murdered Kacha again and again; each time Shukra, moved by the tears of his daughter Devayānī, restored the youth. At last they reduced Kacha to ash, mixed the ash into wine, and offered the wine to their own preceptor. When Devayānī once more begged for Kacha’s life, Shukra discovered the disciple inside his body. He taught Kacha the mantra so that the youth, once revived and emerged, could restore his teacher in turn. Kacha then refused Devayānī’s hand and carried the knowledge back to the gods. The episode fixes Shukra as the sole planetary lord who commands the boundary between death and return.
The seed mantra, and the form most devotees chant daily. No initiation is required — it is open to anyone, including a parent chanting for a child.
Aim is the mantra, in a sense. The rest is address and salutation; the seed syllable carries the goddess. Where a practitioner has been given a very short practice, it is often Aim alone.
In śukrāya the opening syllable śu carries a short u that speakers almost always lengthen into the prolonged English ‘oo’ of ‘shoe’, producing ‘shoo-krāya’. The u must remain brief and closed, occupying only a single light beat before the conjunct kra begins.
Festival. Shukravāra Vrata observed on Fridays
Chanting is yours to do, and free. But which deity your situation calls for — and whether a mantra alone is the right response — depends on your chart. Sometimes it is; sometimes it is not.
Where a matter carries real weight — an examination that decides a course, a performance, a child whose studies have stalled — devotees sponsor the homa alongside their own practice. Performed individually at our Yagna Ashram in your name and gotra, on a muhurta calculated from your chart, and telecast live so you can watch it done for you.