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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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