Solar Eclipse and the Supreme God

Solar Eclipse

 You may or may not have noticed and did not happen in your part of the world. Recently there was a Solar Eclipse on March 8^th and here are some of the photos from the wonderful cosmic event. Unfortunately it could not be seen from Melbourne.

Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse

          

Solar Eclipse

Since  childhood, I have a great passion for eclipses and especially the solar eclipse because, it is more volatile or happening on your face, during the day than a lunar eclipse which happens when you are in bed or indoors. And it is an astrological marvel and a wonderful event to see it, taking place right in front of our eyes. As a child this used to evoke a bit of thought process, about the universe, the planets, Sun called as Surya Narayana.In Hindu tradition actually, the time of eclipse is a big thing. Means, there are so many do’s and don’ts observed during the time of eclipse. For example, pregnant women are not allowed to be exposed to the Sun or Moon light depending on what eclipse it is.Infact they are not even allowed to move out of their bed, sleep in a straight position (except for emergency). Not allowed to cut any vegetables and close any doors and so on. It is believed that the harmful rays during the eclipse cause Congenital defects and harm to the foetus. And then, during the period of eclipse we are not allowed to eat anything, nothing is cooked in the kitchen and if something is cooked, that is consumed and thrown away. For some long life products like Milk, Yoghurt and pickles, Kusa grass (a type of grass found in India) is placed on the food containers. It is said that, once you keep the kusa grass, the items can be consumed afterwards. Recently, I read somewhere that Kusa Grass has this property of absorbing the harmful ultraviolet rays released during the time of eclipse. Then lot of people take a dip or bath in the rivers and pray to the gods for Moksha or liberation. It is believed that whoever takes bath during an eclipse in a holy river like Ganges gets moksha or liberation. So does everyone – thousands of people who take bath get liberation? This was a question asked by Mother Parvathi to Lord Shiva. And Shiva answered that, not everyone who takes bath gets liberation but, one who takes bath with devotion and pious mind will get Moksha and that will be about 10 or 15 out of thousands.   

Here is an interesting excerpt from Srila Prabhupad’s Lecture on Bhagavad-gita 16.8 - Tokyo, January 28, 1975.

“So this is called jagat. Everything is going on. But it is going in such a way... Just like these cars are moving with high speed, but they are very careful to pass within the lane. Otherwise there will be collision. Similarly, all these planets, they have got their own speed for rotating, and there are hundreds and thousands and millions. They are rotating, but there is no collision. Now, how it is made? Who has made this lane? A car is moving in sixty miles, seventy miles speed, but they are ordered just to remain within the lane, the marking line. Who has made it? The police department, the government. So how can you say there is no control? We have to... This is called upamā, analogy, the points of similarity.

Analogy means the points of similarity. Then you can conclude some idea.

Now, as we see in the street that the cars are moving in high speed but they are within the orbit, within the line, demarcation of line, white line or yellow line, so there is some brain, there is some management, everything is there, Similarly, all these planets, they are rotating with high speed. Just like this planet. It is rotating 25,000 miles in twelve hours. Is it not? The circumference of this earth is 25,000 miles and... Yes, day and night, twenty-four hours. Almost one thousand miles per hour it is... Now the car is moving seventy miles per hours. It appears very with good speed running. But the earth is running at one thousand miles per hour, but we cannot understand. The arrangement is so nice. The perfection that it is... We cannot understand it. It is practical. We see the morning, day, coming. That means earth is moving. When the aeroplane moves also, there are so many jerking, those sound. They're all imperfect. But here you see that such perfect arrangement, it is moving one thousand miles per hour, and there is no jerking. There is nothing of the sort. We are thinking, "We are sitting in the same place."

And there is no brain? Here it requires so much brain to move the car orderly on the street. So many police has made, so many government, scientist, this, that, so many, and this not only one planet, but many millions: yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-anda-koti [Bs. 5.40]. First of all there are many millions of universes, jagad-anḍa-koti. Koṭi means unlimited. Or 100,000 times 100,000. So yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-anḍa-koṭi-kotisu [Bs. 5.40]. And each universe... Kotisu asesa- vasudhadi. Vasudha means planet. Just like this is one planet. Asesa. Asesa means you cannot count, so many. That's a fact. You are seeing every day. Asesa-vasudhādi-vibhūti. And each planet has got different climate, different varieties, not that every planet is of the same. Now they are studying that the moon planet is also planet, but it is differently situated. Differently situated, as they are studying, that is different from the śāstras, but there is difference from this planet to that planet”.