Life giving sun, is always worshipped even if the sunlight is just too brilliant to bear.
When scorching sun is overhead, what does celestial imagery say? It tells you of a beautiful story and stretches out charming similes. In the Rig Veda 2.38.4 the sun is compared to a woman. As the one who envelopes the world like a woman weaving a garment. The rays of the sun makes the yarn that has been woven together in the sunlight spread across half the world at a time.
The sun is visualised in mythology as Chaksho Suryo Ajayath, Sun as the eyes of Purusha or the cosmic being.
As the sun moved higher and higher above the horizon, his brilliance was just a bit too dazzling. His wife Samjna could not bear it any longer. She could not open her eyes, her body remained scorched. do what she may. Says the Shiva Purana: Sarvatulam thu tadupam drishtva Samina vivasthaha, Asahathi tatashchaayoat manaha saasrjchchumam.
On seeing the brilliance of the sun as unbearable, as the fire at final dissolution, she created Chaya. Chaya was created from within Samjna. She created her as her sister. Chaya means shadow. Leaving Chaya to cope with her husband, Samjna ran away to hide from her husband's brilliance!
The dazzling sun can prompt such actions because of his very impossible heat and light and subsequent literature has many a reference to how even enemies forget their fight when they have to face the midday sun.
Says Kalidasa, the great Sanskrit poet and dramatist: even frogs which are otherwise scared of being eaten up by the snake, come and take shelter under the snake's hood. The shade is so important that all enmity is forgotten, even life is not of value as compared to the need for shade.
And yet, in spite of the sun's brilliance, the sun too, has a heart. He loves his wife Samjna, and is not able to see the difference in Chaya. One day, however, he finds her ill treating his children. Chaya was not so kind to her sister's children. Sun gets worried. Why this discrimination, he wonders.
He goes into meditation. In his penance he seeks more pleasing brilliance. When his light is slightly subdued. he sees with his yogic powers, Samjna in hiding. He follows her and finds out why she ran away!
This motif again appears in the Panchatantra when a sage wants his daughter to marry the most qualified person with unparalleled brilliance. Naturally the first choice is the sun. As the sun appears as the suitor, his daughter refuses for she says "he is too brilliant for me. I will never be able to keep my eyes open!"
Chaksho: A beacon of sight, a cosmic eye that gazes upon the universe. Perhaps you are the stargazer, the one who seeks hidden constellations in the night sky.
Suryo: The sun, the radiant heart of our solar system. You are the warmth that bathes the world, the giver of life. Your name carries the promise of dawn and the golden hues of twilight.
Ajayath: Unconquered, undefeated. A warrior’s anthem, a hymn sung by the undying spirit. You stride through existence, unyielding, leaving footprints in the sands of time.
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