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💬 Text of the lesson
The chariot of the sun
The remaining verses of the chapter describe the cosmic chariot of the sun and his retinue:
“My dear King, the carriage of the sun-god’s chariot is estimated to be 3,600,000 yojanas [28,800,000 miles] long and one-fourth as wide [900,000 yojanas, or 7,200,000 miles]. The chariot’s horses, which are named after Gāyatrī and other Vedic meters, are harnessed by Aruṇadeva to a yoke that is also 900,000 yojanas wide. This chariot continuously carries the sun-god.
Although Aruṇadeva sits in front of the sun-god and is engaged in driving the chariot and controlling the horses, he looks backward toward the sun-god.
There are sixty thousand saintly persons named Vālikhilyas, each the size of a thumb, who are located in front of the sun-god and who offer him eloquent prayers of glorification.
Similarly, fourteen other saints, Gandharvas, Apsarās, Nāgas, Yakṣas, Rākṣasas and demigods, who are divided into groups of two, assume different names every month and continuously perform different ritualistic ceremonies to worship the Supreme Lord as the most powerful demigod Sūryadeva, who holds many names.
My dear King, in his orbit through Bhū-maṇḍala, the sun-god traverses a distance of 95,100,000 yojanas [760,800,000 miles] at the speed of 2,000 yojanas and two krośas [16,004 miles] in a moment.” (SB 5.21.15-19)
According to the numbers given here, the cosmic chariot of the sun is much larger than the globe we see in the sky. This matches other parts of the description of only parts of Bhū-mandala and the universe itself being visible to us. The cosmic chariot described here is visible in the higher dimensional level of the demigods. The sun globe we see in the sky is a gross section, or gross representation of the way it appears in this higher dimensional reality. This may not appear very believable at first, but in the context of a multidimensional universe, it makes perfect sense. Another similar example is the moon, which is described as being larger than the sun, and being situated further away from our planet. This celestial moon, which is so great and is the abode of Soma, appears in our dimension in a reduced, gross form, as a small rocky sphere that orbits our planet.
As the sun-god moves around the sky, he is saluted and glorified by great sages, as well as demigods, gandharvas, and apsaras, etc., who organize in different groups and take turns in their glorification, maintaining a process of continuous worship. The chariot is driven by Aruṇadeva, the brother of Garuḍa, who somehow drives the chariot on his back, turned towards the sun-god. He is glorified by a retinue of sixty thousand great sages called Vālikhilyas, who appear to be the size of a thumb from his perspective. Accompanying them, there are seven pairs of Ṛṣis, Gandharvas, Apsarās, Nāgas, Yakṣas, Rākṣasas and Devas who continuously perform different types of worship.
This is described in the Viṣṇu Purāṇa: “Worshiping the most powerful demigod Sūrya, the Gandharvas sing in front of him, the Apsarās dance before the chariot, the Niśācaras follow the chariot, the Pannagas decorate the chariot, the Yakṣas guard the chariot, and the saints called the Vālikhilyas surround the sun-god and offer prayers. The seven groups of fourteen associates arrange the proper times for regular snow, heat and rain throughout the universe.”
Life on top of Mount Sumeru
Now, let’s examine the details described on SB 5.21.8 and 5.21.9 we jumped previously:
“The living entities residing on Sumeru Mountain are always very warm, as at midday, because for them the sun is always overhead. Although the sun moves counterclockwise, facing the constellations, with Sumeru Mountain on its left, it also moves clockwise and appears to have the mountain on its right because it is influenced by the dakṣiṇāvarta wind.” (SB 5.21.8)
The top of Sumeru Mountain is a celestial region, where Brahma and the other principal demigods have their administrative cities, from where they can oversee the management of Bhū-mandala performed by the Manus.
Different from other areas of Bhū-mandala, where days and nights can be observed, for the inhabitants of the top of Mount Sumeru, the central pivot, it’s always day. Why the difference? The summit of Mount Sumeru is positioned in such a way that the sun never goes below the horizon. The inhabitants thus see the sun as always circling overhead, similar to what can be observed in our planet in the region of the north-pole during summer.
This verse also corroborates the whole explanation of the sun having two simultaneous movements. As the verse states: “Although the sun moves counterclockwise, facing the constellations, with Sumeru Mountain on its left, it also moves clockwise and appears to have the mountain on its right because it is influenced by the dakṣiṇāvarta wind.”
The counter-clockwise movement of the sun facing the constellations and with Sumeru on its left is made by the forward movement of the chariot of the sun. This is the annual movement through the zodiac that results in the seasons.
At the same time, however, the sun is forced to move backwards in a circular motion at great speeds, a clockwise motion imposed by the dakṣiṇāvarta wind. In this movement, the sun travels with Sumeru on it’s right.
Because the backwards movement is much faster, it appears that the sun is moving backwards, even though it is constantly traveling forward. To understand that, we could imagine the situation of a person walking through the aisle of a plane, front to back. In this case, the person is walking forward at a speed of maybe 5 or 6 km/h, while the plane is moving in the opposite direction at 900 km/h. For another person inside the plane, the person moves forward, but from the perspective of someone looking from the ground, the person appears to be moving backwards, since the movement of the plane is much faster.
In summary, the daily rotation of the sun is produced by the cosmic kāla-cakra centered on Dhruvaloka, while the motion thorough the zodiac signs belong to the sun’s independent chariot.
“People living in countries at points diametrically opposite to where the sun is first seen rising will see the sun setting, and if a straight line were drawn from a point where the sun is at midday, the people in countries at the opposite end of the line would be experiencing midnight. Similarly, if people residing where the sun is setting were to go to countries diametrically opposite, they would not see the sun in the same condition.” (SB 5.21.9)
This verse confirms the point of the spherical nature of our planet, and explains how this is key for our experience of days and nights due to the daily movement of the sun, different from the experience of the inhabitants of the summit of Mount Sumeru, a flat surface where it’s always day.
This description also supports the point made by Prabhupāda in his conclusions about the model of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, of the other tracts of land described in the model of Bhū-mandala being also separate planets, which are connected by subtle pathways, since the description implies that the nature of days and nights should be consistent in the whole Bhū-mandala, or, in other words, similar to our planet.
He confirms this conclusion in his introduction to chapter 21:
“Sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight occur in all these places because of the movements of the sun. Diametrically opposite the place where the sunrise takes places and the sun is seen by human eyes, the sun will be setting and passing away from human vision. Similarly, the people residing diametrically opposite the point where it is midday will be experiencing midnight. The sun rises and sets with all the other planets, headed by the moon and other luminaries.”
The fact that Śukadeva Goswami connects this with the point about being always day on top of Mount Sumeru is also significant, for it distinguishes the experience of demigods living there from the humans living in the earthly heavens of Bhū-mandala. If the other inhabitants of Bhū-mandala would also live on a flat surface and see the sun constantly circling overhead, there would be no practical difference between them, and the point raised by Śukadeva Goswami would become meaningless.
The Orbits of the Planets
After describing the orbit of the sun as observable from our planet, and explaining the cosmic mechanism behind it, chapter 22 explains the orbits of the visible planets, and the different types of influences they exert over us, as studied in Vedic astrology.
There are millions of stars and planets all over the universe, composing the different planetary systems, but they don’t exert much of a direct influence over us.
Planets such as Mars and Jupiter are the direct instruments of the fulfillment of karma, acting within the frameworks defined by the rāśis and nakṣatras. Their influence over us can be calculated and understood by the study of our birth chart. Vedic astrology is based on the study of the movement of the planets against the background of the nakṣatras and rāśis, as objects of fulfillment of our karma.
The planets, in turn, are ruled by different demigods who oversee our actions and serve as instruments for the fulfillment of our karma. They are not the direct cause of what happens to us, but they are an indicator, a visible sign of how karma is affecting our lives. In other words, the planets are the thermometer, not the fever.
From this study, one can understand, for example, that he or she is suffering as the result of actions performed in a previous life, and learn that this can be mitigated by performing certain austerities or worship connected with the Lord. Nowadays, Vedic astrology is frequently misused, and so-called astrologers use it as a means to earn money by selling all kinds of paraphernalia such as stones and rudrākṣas as “remedies” to correct different undesirable influences, but the original process was to bring one to the worship of the Lord as a means to gradually become free from karma.
Why does such a system exist? The point is that life in this material world is not possible without forgetfulness of not only our previous lives, but of our eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa. As long as one remembers he is a pure soul, full of bliss and knowledge, it is not possible to enjoy in this material world. Similarly, if we would vividly remembered our previous lives, it would be impossible for us to properly connect with our current reality, not to mention that it would be very painful. Imagine remembering sons, daughters, wives and husbands from many previous lives, people who we loved but will never be able to see again? It would not be possible to live.
Therefore, to make material life possible, and to give effective free will to the souls for performing material actions according to their desire, Kṛṣṇa has to create a system of forgetfulness, in which we don’t remember anything apart from our current lives. At the same time, however, He gives us a system in which we can understand our karma and previous activities through the study of the position of the planets according to our birth chart, and thus find our way back to Him. Thus, just like everything else in the Vedas, Vedic astrology has the goal of putting one in contact with brāhmaṇas and being gradually guided by them back home, back to Godhead. It is just that it has been misused and abused by unqualified people in modern times.
The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam does not enter into details on the interpretation of astrological charts, but it gives an introduction to the topic, explaining the orbits of the planets and the general influences they exert over us in chapter 5.22. It starts with the iconic question of Maharaja Parīkṣit about the previous explanation of the orbit of the sun and the answer of Śukadeva Goswami:
“King Parīkṣit inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī: My dear lord, you have already affirmed the truth that the supremely powerful sun-god travels around Dhruvaloka with both Dhruvaloka and Mount Sumeru on his right. Yet at the same time the sun-god faces the signs of the zodiac and keeps Sumeru and Dhruvaloka on his left. How can we reasonably accept that the sun-god proceeds with Sumeru and Dhruvaloka on both his left and right simultaneously?
Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī clearly answered: When a potter’s wheel is moving and small ants located on that big wheel are moving with it, one can see that their motion is different from that of the wheel because they appear sometimes on one part of the wheel and sometimes on another. Similarly, the signs and constellations, with Sumeru and Dhruvaloka on their right, move with the wheel of time, and the antlike sun and other planets move with them. The sun and planets, however, are seen in different signs and constellations at different times. This indicates that their motion is different from that of the zodiac and the wheel of time itself.” (SB 5.22.1-2)
The dual movement of the sun we just studied is not easy to understand. It’s easy for us to understand a single circular or elliptical movement, but it is harder to imagine two independent movements happening simultaneously, like in the case of the sun in the Vedic model.
Recapping:
a) The sun moves clockwise with Sumeru and Dhruvaloka on its right. This is the daily motion produced by the kāla-cakra through the dakṣiṇāvarta wind. On our planet, this movement is perceived as the sun rising on the east and setting on the west daily, producing day and night. This movement of the kāla-cakra makes not only the sun, but the whole sky rotate, including all the stars and constellations, as well as the other planets.
b) Simultaneously, the sun also moves counterclockwise facing the zodiac, with Sumeru on its left. This is the independent annual course of the chariot of the sun. Different from the daily movement, however, this is not a purely horizontal motion. As explained, this movement makes the sun move to the north and south of the equator of Bhū-mandala, following the path of the ecliptic. The practical result of this motion is that it makes the days become longer or shorter as we go through the seasons.
The idea of a clockwise and a counterclockwise movement going on simultaneously may appear contradictory at first, but only until we realize the independent nature of these movements. The daily movement is along a fixed circular plane, while the annual movement has a vertical dimension to it. When the two are combined, the practical result is that the sun continuously circles around Bhū-mandala, but goes gradually north and south of the equator, in something that resembles a spiral movement. This perfectly describes what we see when we look to the sky.
The example of the potter’s wheel
To make this clear, Śukadeva Goswami gives a practical example. Imagine a potter’s wheel (the rotating platform used to make ceramics). Now imagine a few ants moving on top of it as the wheel turns. In this situation, we have the wheel moving at great speed, and the ants on top of it moving together with it. At the same time, however, each ant has its independent movement. There is thus the movement of the ants relative to each other, and the rotation of the wheel, which is visible to an external observer, and both go on simultaneously. From the perspective of an observer, the ants are all moving in circles, but sometimes an ant appears closer to the border of the wheel, sometimes closer to the center, sometimes an ant is closer to another, sometimes distant, and so on.
In the analogy, the rotation of the potter’s wheel equals the movement of the whole sky caused by the kāla-cakra, to which all luminaries, including all the stars, constellations, the sun and other planets, etc. are all subjected. The sun, is like an ant on top of this wheel, moving very fast together with the wheel (the daily movement), and at the same time having it’s own, independent annual movement north and south of the equator. Just as the sun, the other planets, like Mercury, Venus, Mars, etc. all rotate with this cosmic wheel, while simultaneously performing their own independent movements around the sky over the background of the stars and constellations.
The study of the movements of the sun, moon, and planets against the background of the stars is important in Vedic culture because it is used to make the astrological calculations that help us to understand our position on the wheel of saṁsāra and find our way out.
In modern cosmology, it is accepted that the stars also have their independent movement, but it is very slow compared to the movements of the sun and planets, becoming noticeable only over thousands of years. Vedic cosmology (Sūrya-siddhānta, Āryabhaṭa, etc.) also studies these movements, but they are not mentioned in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, which focuses on describing the motion of the planets. To make it simple, the text takes the background of stars and constellations as fixed, subjected only to the movement of the whole sky, and focuses on describing the movements of the planets on this background.
On the analogy of the potter’s wheel, we can treat the stars and constellations as dots and other marks on the wheel that serve as points of reference for the movement of the ants.
The purpose of the movement of the universe
The example of the potter’s wheel helps us to understand the relative motions of the sun, planets and stars over the surface of our planet, and of Bhū-mandala in general. Understanding the model is, however, only part of it. The main question is to understand the purpose of it. Understanding how a car moves is not so useful as the practical knowledge of how to drive and use a car in our daily lives. This practical knowledge of the purpose of the system is given in the next two verses:
“The original cause of the cosmic manifestation is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa. When great saintly persons, fully aware of the Vedic knowledge, offered prayers to the Supreme Person, He descended to this material world in the form of the sun to benefit all the planets and purify fruitive activities. He divided Himself into twelve parts and created seasonal forms, beginning with spring. In this way He created the seasonal qualities, such as heat, cold and so on.
According to the system of four varṇas and four āśramas, people generally worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, who is situated as the sun-god. With great faith they worship the Supreme Personality as the Supersoul according to ritualistic ceremonies handed down in the three Vedas, such as agnihotra and similar higher and lower fruitive acts, and according to the process of mystic yoga. In this way they very easily attain the ultimate goal of life.” (SB 5.22.3-4)
One mistake we commonly make when studying Vedic cosmology is to see this study as a mere tool to understand the universe in which we live. That’s the same mistake modern researchers make when studying the cosmos. In text three, Śukadeva Goswami puts us back into the correct framework, stating that like all other luminaries, the sun is not an autonomous astronomical body. The all-important sun is a manifestation of Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The sun performs several essential functions, such as sustaining life, serving as a purificatory agent, regulating the performance of activities, and so on.
The words dvādaśadhā vibhajya ṣaṭsu vasantādiṣv ṛtuṣu (He divided Himself into twelve parts and created seasonal forms, beginning with spring) indicate that not only the sun, but also the twelve months and the six Vedic seasons are also direct manifestations of the Lord. All these arrangements are intentional, created to facilitate people’s lives in this world and gradually find their path back home, back to Godhead.
When we just study the structure of the universe and orbits of the planets without this context, it appears that the arrangement is accidental, which leads us on the opposite direction, failing to see the purpose of everything. We can see that this is precisely the mistake in modern science. Although they more or less understand the phenomenal manifestation, they conclude that the arrangement is accidental, which leads to atheism.
Other scriptures, such as the Bible and Quran, in turn fail to offer a consistent theistic explanation. This is offered only in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.
Three different calendars
“The sun-god, who is Nārāyaṇa, or Viṣṇu, the soul of all the worlds, is situated in outer space between the upper and lower portions of the universe. Passing through twelve months on the wheel of time, the sun comes in touch with twelve different signs of the zodiac and assumes twelve different names according to those signs. The aggregate of those twelve months is called a saṁvatsara, or an entire year. According to lunar calculations, two fortnights — one of the waxing moon and the other of the waning — form one month. That same period is one day and night for the planet Pitṛloka. According to stellar calculations, a month equals two and one quarter constellations. When the sun travels for two months, a season passes, and therefore the seasonal changes are considered parts of the body of the year.Thus the time the sun takes to rotate through half of outer space is called an ayana, or its period of movement [in the north or in the south].
The sun-god has three speeds — slow, fast and moderate. The time he takes to travel entirely around the spheres of heaven, earth and space at these three speeds is referred to, by learned scholars, by the five names Saṁvatsara, Parivatsara, Iḍāvatsara, Anuvatsara and Vatsara.” (SB 5.22.5-7)
After explaining the orbit of the sun and establishing that the sun is a manifestation of the Lord, Śukadeva Goswami explains how the movements of the sun influence a passage of time, as well as explains the difference between the Vedic calendar, the solar calendar and the lunar calendar.
The solar year is called saṁvatsara, the time the year takes to go through the twelve signs of the zodiac. The solar year is, however, different from the lunar month, which is the combination of the two phases of the moon. This lunar month equals the duration of a day and night in Pitṛloka. This shows how the passage of time is relative. What is a day and night in different parts of the cosmos is a month, an year, or a thousand ages for us.
In his purport to text seven, Prabhupāda states: “According to solar astronomical calculations, each year extends six days beyond the calendar year, and according to lunar calculations, each year is six days shorter. Therefore, because of the movements of the sun and moon, there is a difference of twelve days between the solar and lunar years. As the Saṁvatsara, Parivatsara, Iḍāvatsara, Anuvatsara and Vatsara pass by, two extra months are added within each five years. This makes a sixth saṁvatsara, but because that saṁvatsara is extra, the solar system is calculated according to the above five names.”
What exactly does it mean?
In Vedic culture, people follow three different calendars:
a) The Vedic cosmological calendar, which is divided into 12 months of 30 days each. This is the normative calendar for cosmic cycles. Kali-yuga is composed of 432,000 of these years of 360 days, for example. This Vedic calendar is anchored on the rotation on the kāla-cakra and is thus the same all over the cosmos. The length of the day vary from one planetary system to the other (one day for the demigods is one year for us, one day for Brahmā is 8.64 billion years for us, etc.), but everywhere people use calendars of 12 months of 30 days, according to the length of their days.
The difficulty with this 360-day calendar in our case is that it does not precisely reflect the movements of the sun and the moon. As described, the astronomical bodies have their own independent counterclockwise movements, and thus their own natural cycles. This leads to the other two calendars:
b) The solar year corresponds to the orbit of the sun. It has approximately 365¼ days. The solar year is important because it governs the seasons, climatic cycles and so on. It is thus essential in agriculture, since the right time to plant and harvest is determined by the seasons, and not a normative calendar.
c) The lunar year has about 354 days. It is important because it governs religious dates, such as festivals, vratas (such as ekādaśī), the calculations of auspicious and inauspicious dates, and so on. The Vaiṣnava calendar we follow is an example of the application of the lunar calendar.
Each lunar month is divided into 30 tithis, divided into two halves. The Kṛṣṇa-pakṣa (the waning phase of the moon) starts after Pūrṇimā and ends at Amāvāsyā, while the Śukla-pakṣa (the waxing phase) begins after Amāvāsyā and ends at the next Pūrṇimā (you can see that these two are usually mentioned in the Vaiṣnava calendar). There are two ekādaśīs on a lunar month, at the 11th tithi of each phase.
The difficulty is that the tithis don’t match the solar days. They are calculated based on the angular separation of the sun and moon, and range from 19 to 26 hours. A tithi can thus start at any time of the day and night. That’s why sometimes ekādaśīs and other dates often fall into different days in different parts of the world, due to the difference in the time of the local sunrise.
This is the discrepancy Prabhupāda mentions in his purport. The lunar calendar has 6 days less than the Vedic normative calendar, and the solar calendar has about 6 days more. In this way, there is a difference of 12 days between the lunar and solar calendars.
In Vedic societies, people would usually follow the lunar calendar. To keep it in synchrony with the solar calendar, they would use the five-year saṁvatsara system, in which two extra months were added to the lunar calendar every five years, creating a functional sixth year to correct the accumulated lunar–solar discrepancy. Nowadays, it is more common to add an extra month every two or three years (the Pūruṣottama Māsa), but in any case the underlying principle is the same.
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