Magha Shuddha Saptami, the seventh day of the ascending part of the month of Magha, is celebrated in the honour of Surya, the Sun God. This is two days away. Celebrating the festivals knowing the significance shall improve the engagement, provide the insights, and help the tradition carried forward to the nextgen.
Heliocentric theories originated in the western world may be 500 years old but in Sanatana dharma Surya is seen as the centre of life. Inferring the relative motion, the full year is classified as north bound and the south bound viz uttarayana and dakshinayana. Physical implication and context is clear. The warmer Sun’s presence is uttarayana and is deemed to be more auspicious. This is the time for which Bhishma the son of Shantanu and Ganga waited for his final departure. Sun is honoured, respected, and worshipped on the day of Saptami as “living’s thanksgiving”. On that day early morning open spaced worship, cooking happens with more and more exposure to the Sun who is just out of the winter in many parts of our country.
Aditya is the form of Sun and sage Agastya initiated Sri Rama in the Yuddha kanda (war-portion of Ramayana) in Sun worship. Surya is treated as the Narayana himself. The tejas present in the Surya is said to be that of Narayana. Of the metals, the copper is attributed to Sun. Of the colours orangish red is mapped to Surya. A combination of ha, ra, and ma letters give us the bijas for the Surya’s energy. In every week, very first day across cultures is named after Sun is not very surprising as the root source of the ‘wisdom of life’ is the same, and was shared to all cultures on the planets.
Worshipping Surya gives one health in the physical and mental sense, and tradition avers ‘Arogyam Bhaskaradichhet’. Health is controlled and governed by Surya, is the meaning. This health mentioned is both physical in terms of strength, assimilation process etc and psychological. Modern practices advise that exposure to Sun is desirable for vitamin D absorption which itself boosts other processes. Secondly, depression is dispelled by exposure to Surya. Surya is the remover of darkness, and this includes dark clouds and cob-webs in our minds too.
Prof S Ainavolu is a Mumbai-based teacher of tradition and management. He is with VPSM. Views are personal. https://www.ainavolu.in/blog
