सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

Surya is the pratyaksha devata — the god who requires no image because he is visible to all, impartial witness of every deed on earth. In the Vedas he is the eye of Mitra and Varuna, and as Savitr, the inspirer, he receives the Gayatri — the most sacred of all mantras, asking that his light awaken our understanding. His chariot of seven horses (the seven metres, the seven colours, the seven days) is driven by Aruna, the glow of dawn. He is the source of health and vitality — “ārogyaṃ bhāskarād icchet”: from the Sun, seek health — and the father of a stern family: Yama who judges, Shani who tests, Yamuna who purifies, and Karna the tragic gift-giver of the Mahabharata.

The Ramayana gives Surya worship its most famous moment: on the battlefield, facing Ravana, Rama is taught the Aditya Hridayam by the sage Agastya — the hymn to the heart of the Sun that dissolves anxiety and grants victory — and rises to win. The Bhavishya Purana tells of Samba, Krishna's son, cured of illness by Surya worship, founding the great sun temples. Surya's own household carries a lesson in endurance: his wife Sanjna, unable to bear his blaze, left her shadow Chhaya in her place; Vishvakarma later trimmed an eighth of his radiance to reunite them — the trimmings becoming the weapons of the gods, including Shiva's trishul and Vishnu's chakra. Hanuman took him for a fruit as a child and later took him for a guru, learning the scriptures while pacing before his moving chariot.

Surya's worship is the most ancient still performed daily: the sunrise arghya — water poured to the rising sun from folded or cupped hands, with the Gayatri — and the Surya Namaskar sequence, twelve postures with his twelve names. Sundays are his day, kept with a single meal and offerings of red flowers, wheat and gur. His great public festival is Chhath in Kartik — the four-day Bihari vrat of nirjala fasting and evening-then-morning arghya, standing in rivers, honouring both setting and rising sun (and Chhathi Maiya). Every Sankranti — the Sun's monthly entry into a new rashi — is his tithi, with Makar Sankranti the greatest: the northward turn (Uttarayana) of khichdi, til-gur and kite skies. Ratha Saptami in Magha celebrates his chariot turning fully north.