At the oldest level of Hindu spirituality, the Sun is one of the three most important deities. The world’s source of warmth and light, whether physical, mental, or spiritual, the Sun is thought of as the source and sustainer of life on Earth. But it also destroys the world at the end of its life cycle.
The Sun is at the center of creation, at the point where the manifest and unmanifest worlds come together. So it’s the gate to the unmanifest aspects of divinity, the “path to the gods.” The Sun is “visible divinity, the eye of the world, the maker of the day ... The planets, the stars ... the lord of the wind and the lord of fire, and all the other gods are but parts of him” (Bhavishya Purana).
The Sun is the “soul of the world,” the selfsame soul that dwells in and animates each of us, realized in our heart as a prodigious source of light. Because of this, the Sun is “deserving of adoration” and “worthy of praise.”
In ancient times, expressions of adoration and praise directed at the Sun were a regular part of Hindu worship. These expressions always included a mantra, which was often accompanied with offerings such as water, flowers, and rice. With this, the petitioner might simply be praising the Sun, making an appeal for its forgiveness for wrongdoing, or asking for deliverance from troubles.
The form of Sun Salute we know so well has only been around for 80 years or so. It was first described in a book titled, The Ten Point Way to Health, by the Rajah or Aundh to benefit the health of his population. The Rajah’s son, Apa Pant, also wrote a book on the same subject, titled Surya Namaskars, first published in 1970.
The Nest Yoga 108 Sun Salute Challenge 2021 will extend over the entire year. Around each equinox and solstice, we’ll gather to perform 27 repetitions, so that at the end of this year, at the Winter equinox, we’ll have completed 108 rounds.
We all have a vague sense that 108 is a “spiritual” number, and it’s believed to be so not only in India, but in many other traditional cultures.2 One theory suggests 108 is a member of a family of numbers based on 18, a highly charged number in Hindu myth and spirituality. All we need do is insert a zero between the 1 and 8. The Sanskrit word for zero, shunya, is another name for the Absolute (Brahman).
One of the strangest theories involves calculations based on the diameters of Earth (7,917 miles), Sun (864,337 miles), and Moon (2154 miles), and the distances between them (Earth to Sun, 92,955,807 miles, Earth to Moon, 238,900 miles). There are three versions.
a. First calculation involves the distance between Earth and the Sun.
This distance is supposed to be 108 times the diameter of the Sun.
Check: 92,955,807 divided by 864,337 = 107.5, not a bad approximation.
b. The second calculation involves the distance from Earth to the Moon.
This distance is supposed to be 108 times the Moon’s diameter. Check:
multiply 2154 by 108 = 232,632 (actual distance 238,900). Not bad, about
6,000 miles shy.
When we divide the actual distance by the diameter, we get 110.9, still in
the ballpark.
c. The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of Earth. Check:
864,337 divided by 7917 = 109.1, again very close.
Whatever the reason that makes 108 special, we hope you’ll join Nest Yoga’s year-long 108 Sun Salute Challenge. If you do, there just might be something waiting for you around the time of the Winter equinox, just in time for Christmas.
- Richard Rosen
For references see The Ten-Point Way to Health: Surya Namaskars by Shrimant Balasahib Pandit Pratinidhi, B.A. RAJAH OF AUNDH