Month: February 2019

Mantra Blog Aditya Hrudayam Series Week 25
Shloka Taatparyam Shloka 20

तमोघ्नाय हिमघ्नाय शत्रुघ्नायामितात्मने। 
कृतघ्नघ्नाय देवाय ज्योतिषां पतये नमः ॥ 20॥

tamoGnAya himaGnAya SatruGnAyAmitAtmane ।
krtaGnaGnAya devAya jyotizAM pataye namaH ॥ 20॥

Meaning:

तमोघ्नाय tamoGnAya
Salutations to the destroyer of darkness (ignorance). 
It has been repeatedly reiterated throughout this shloka that Lord Surya not only drives the darkness from the cosmos but also the inner darkness i.e. is all the negativities that are residing in us.

हिमघ्नाय himaGnAya
Salutations to the destroyer of cold, fog and snow (inertness). It is also true that Sun burns out not only the fog but also dormancy, lethargy, sluggishness,etc.

शत्रुघ्नाय SatruGnAya
Salutations to the destroyer of enemies

आमितात्मने AmitAtmane
Salutations to the God whose will power is immeasurable.

कृतघ्नघ्नाय krtaGnaGnAya
Salutations to the destroyer of the ungrateful and

देवाय ज्योतिषां पतये नमः devAya jyotizAM pataye namaH
Salutations to the Lord of all the stellar/heavenly bodies and to the God who showers light on this universe

तमो (तमस) – Darkness
घ्नाय (घ्न+आय) 
घ्न – destroyer, one who negates
आय – to the one (This is caturthi vibakthi/ 4th vibakthi -Dative case )
Ex: Sooryaya namah means Salutations to Surya)
हिम – snow, ice, frost, cold
घ्नाय- to the one who destroys or negates 
शत्रु – enemy
घ्नाय – to the one who destroys or negates
आमित – immeasurable
आत्मने – soul, will power
कृतघ्न – ungrateful
घ्नाय – to the one who destroys or negates
देवाय – to the God, Deity
ज्योतिषां -heavenly/celestial bodies
पतये -to the lord
नमः – Salutations, Prayers

Aditya Hrudayam Series Week 24
Shloka Taatparyam Shloka 19

ब्रह्मेशानाच्युतेशाय सूर्यायादित्यवर्चसे।
भास्वते सर्वभक्षाय रौद्राय वपुषे नमः॥ 19 ॥

Brahmeśānācyuteśāya sūryāyādityavarcase।
bhāsvate sarvabhakṣāya raudrāya vapuṣe namaḥ॥ 19॥

Meaning:

ब्रह्मेशानाच्युतेशाय Brahmeśānācyuteśāya
Salutations to the overlord of brahma, Esh(war)a and Achyuta.

Why does Sage Agastya call Sun the chief of Brahma, Achyuta and Eshwara? 
Simple. It is because he does all their jobs in one form- creating,sustaining and destroying the Universe.

The universe and all the lives in it came to existence only after the ‘Big Bang’ – the gigantic collision of molecular cloud of gas and dust to form the Sun. So in this aspect of creation he is Brahma

He powers all the lives in this universe with his energy in the form of light and heat. Without him nothing survives in this world. So in this aspect he is Vishnu.

In the end, he will eventually consume and destroy the entire universe. So in this aspect he is Rudra.

Here is the science behind how that will happen
Our Sun right now is middle aged. He was born 4.5 billion years ago. He is now in the main sequence phase of his life, fusing hydrogen to helium to produce energy in the form of heat and light. But this process will not go on for ever as there is only finite amount of hydrogen in his core. That is, he has already used half of the store of hydrogen and what is left will last for another 5 billion years. As more hydrogen is fused to helium the core shrinks, outer layers move to the center causing more fusion. The energy output also increases. What it means is in another 3.5 billion years Sun will be 40% more brighter and warmer. This will cause oceans to boil and at that point life will not be possible on earth. Eventually in 5 billion years the Sun will exit the main sequence phase and become a Red Giant and consume all inner planets including earth. After this he will become a cooling star called white dwarf that will no longer produce energy but will still continue to glow in the sky

सूर्यायादित्यवर्चसे sūryāyādityavarcase
Salutatiuons to the brilliance dwelling in Surya, Aditi’s son

भास्वते सर्वभक्षाय रौद्राय वपुषे नमः bhāsvate sarvabhakṣāya raudrāya vapuṣe namaḥ
Salutatuions to the one who shines, one who consumes all (in the end), (and hence) the one who is a wonderfully beautiful form of the fierce Rudra.

ब्रह्म Brahme – Brahma
ईशाना eśānā – Eshwara
अच्युत ācyute – Achyutha
ईशाय eśāya – Lord
सूर्याय sūryāya – Surya
आदित्य āditya –coming from Aditi
वर्चसे varcase – brilliance
भास्वते bhāsvate – one who shines
सर्व sarva – All
भक्षाय bhakṣāya – eating
रौद्राय raudrāya – fierce, worshipper of rudra
वपुषे vapuṣe – wonderfully beautiful
नमः namaḥ – Pray, Salute

ब्रह्म Brahme – Brahma
ईशाना eśānā – Eshwara
अच्युत ācyute – Achyutha
ईशाय eśāya – Lord
सूर्याय sūryāya – Surya
आदित्य āditya –coming from Aditi
वर्चसे varcase – brilliance
भास्वते bhāsvate – one who shines
सर्व sarva – All
भक्षाय bhakṣāya – eating
रौद्राय raudrāya – fierce, worshipper of rudra
वपुषे vapuṣe – wonderfully beautiful
नमः namaḥ – Pray, Salute4You, Ravishankar Palanivelu and 2 others4 CommentsLikeShow more reactionsComment

Aditya Hrudayam Series Week 23
Shloka Taatparyam Shloka 18

नम उग्राय वीराय सारङ्गाय नमो नमः। 
नमः पद्मप्रबोधाय मार्ताण्डाय नमो नमः॥ 18 ॥

Nama ugrāya vīrāya sāraṅgāya namo namaḥ । 
namaḥ padmaprabodhāya mārtāṇḍāya namo namaḥ ॥ 18 ॥

Meaning:
नम उग्राय वीराय (Nama ugrāya vīrāya)
Salutations to Him who is fierce and terrible (to the sinners) and who is brave and eminent.

सारङ्गाय नमो नमः (sāraṅgāya namo namaḥ)
Salutations again and again to the one who is polychromatic (made of all colors).

Wait…. what?? Is he not yellow or orange??
No. He is not. Here is a very interesting scientific correlation to prove what the Sage said is right. 
It is a common misconception that Sun is yellow or Red. He appears yellow/orange/Red at sunrise or sunset when he is closer to the horizon. But Sun is essentially all colors mixed together. The Sun emits a lot of energy in the visible range. In wavelength scale it is from 390 nm to 700 nm, and when you translate it to colors, you get all colors from violet to red, just as we see them in the rainbow. When you mix all those colors together you get white, and that is why white is the true color of the Sun. But seen from the Earth, the Sun can have many colors: from whitish-yellowish when it is high above the horizon, to red when it sets or rises. This is because the shortest wavelengths (that we see as different shades of blue) are being scattered by the Earth’s atmosphere, coloring the sky blue. And when our eyes combine all those rainbow colors, except the blue ones, the Sun’s color our eyes see is yellowish. The lower toward horizon the Sun is, the more blue is scattered and the Sun’s color shifts to red. To further illustrate this I have posted two pictures of the Sun taken from Space. The first one is a Space Selfie taken by astronaut Aki Hoshide with the Sun to his left. The second is the picture of Sun as seen from the International Space Station photographed by Terry W. Virts (NASA Astronaut). In both these pictures look how the Sun appears white.

नमः पद्मप्रबोधाय (namaḥ padmaprabodhāya)
Salutations again and again to the one who makes the lotus flowers bloom

Thought it would be interesting to add this scientific note here:

Do you know how the flowers know when to bloom??
Flowers know when to bloom because of a gene named Apetala1. Plants blossom at different times because several factors, including the weather, temperature and the amount of sunlight. Information about these conditions is relayed to Apetala1, which activates when it senses that the timing is right to commence flowering!!

मार्ताण्डाय नमो नमः (mārtāṇḍāya namo namaḥ)
Salutations again and again to Martanda. Martanda is another name for Sun. We can also interpret this to be the huge bird in the sky.

नम – Nama – salutations
उग्राय – ugrāya – fierce, furious
वीराय – vīrāya – heroic, courageous
सारङ्गाय – sāraṅgāya – of variegated colors, polychromatic
नमो नमः – namo namaḥ – Salutations again and again
नमः – namaḥ – Salutations
पद्म – Padma – Lotus
प्रबोधाय – prabodhāya – who causes to blossom
मार्ताण्डाय – mārtāṇḍāya – bird in the sky, Sun God
नमो नमः – namo namaḥ – Salutations again and again