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Surya
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- Worship
of the sun is one of mankind's oldest beliefs and perhaps in many ways one
of the most sensible too. For the sun is the literal source of life.
All energy conversions - whether in plants, animal or in fuel sources - are,
after all, utilizing the rays of the sun at a few removes. Life would come
to an end without photosynthesis and what is that but drawing nourishment
for the world from the sun? 400 million years from now we are slated to fall
back into the decaying star that our planet had burst out of eons ago,
though by then mankind will have to learn to find another source of life,
perhaps under other stars. Till now the sun is indispensable and has been
instinctively reverenced as such. The Pueblo Hopi Indians have a daily
ritual which they claim nourishes the sun and keeps it, and by implication,
the world alive. Anthropologists have indulgently regarded it as a charming
oddity, instead of the intrinsically wise awareness that it manifests. They
know where Life comes from only too well; they merely focus on a preliminary
stage in its unfolding sequence.
- In
India, the Sun is still worshipped on a daily basis by at least tens of
millions of people and that would be a conservative estimate. The chanting
of mantras to greet the sun at dawn is one of the really genuine ancient
living traditions of the world. The sun god, called Surya, has risen and
fallen in prominence over the centuries, but his worship has not dwindled
even though his stature has. From Vedic times onwards Surya has always
been worshipped. In the Vedas, he is the chief source of light and warmth
and wisdom, though he is often co-mingled with Aditya and Savitri in a
manner that does not resolve itself until many centuries later. As mythology
developed, the great Vedic gods were declared to be sons of Aditi, wife of
Kashyapa, and they were collectively known as the Adityas. It is a name that
is applied almost exclusively to Surya today and is a very popular name for
males. Savitri has now become an exclusively female name, though in the
Vedas it originally meant the invisible, hence spiritual aspect, of the sun.
This is analogous to the concept of Helios, the invisible sun in Greek myth.
Others say Savitri is the sun at full blaze and Surya the sun which rises
and sets. Clearly this interpretation has fallen out of favor.
The most sacred mantra in all Hinduism, the Gayatri, is addressed to the
Sun, Vivifier, "the one who enlightens and stimulates the
understanding." There is no great body of myth as such associated with
the sun, it is almost as if Surya is such a visible and even hotly tangible
presence that there was no need to nourish the imagination with word
pictures and long tales. The Vedic hymns are full of descriptions of his
appearance, but they are more enthusiastic exclamations at the brilliant
beauty of the sun than anything else. It is as though they were not
blinded but drunk on light, bedazzled with illumination.
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