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| Significance of Makar Sankranti and Cosmic Connect | | | Ravinder Jalali | 1/15/2019 10:41:16 PM |
| Makar Sankranti is famous for its sesame sweets and kite flying. But there is much more to this festival that is a celebration of the Winter Solstice. It is the only Indian festival celebrated on a fixed calendric day of the solar calendar. All other Indian festivals are celebrated as per the lunar calendar, which make their days of celebration on the solar calendar vary every year.
In India, we follow a lunar calendar; the moon goes from Purinam (full moon) to Purniman or Amavasya (New Moon) to Amavasya in 29.5 days. We get 12 full moons in 354 days, making a lunar calendar year 354 days long. However, the Sun returns to the same spot in the sky every 365.25 days. So, there is a difference of 11.25 days between the solar and lunar years. Every 2.5 years, therefore, an additional month (the Adhik Maas) is added to the lunar calendar to roughly synchronise the two. This is crucial because weather patterns follow the solar calendar, not the lunar. On the other hand, accurate 'mahurat' calculations are better done with the relatively faster moving moon. In fact, to make such calculations more accurate, the path of the moon, which is slightly off from the path of the sun, is divided into 27 'nakshatras' while the path of the sun is divided into 12 'rashis'.
The significance of the Makar Sankranti festival is that it marks the day when there is a significant movement in the zodiac - the arrangement of the earth's dial around the sun - and this movement brings about a new change in the way we experience the planet itself. There are many sankrantis through the year; the two significant ones being Makar Sankranti, and right opposite, after summer solstice is Karka Sankranti. In between, there are many Sankrantis - every time the zodiac sign changes, it is called a Sankranti to suggest the movement of the planet, to understand that our life is sustained and nourished by this movement. If this movement ceases, everything about us will cease. On the 22nd of December, the solstice happened, that means in relation to the sun, the movement or the tilt of the planet reaches its maximum. Now, from this day onwards, the northern movement is strong. Things really start changing upon the earth. From Makar Sankranti onwards, winter is being relieved step by step.
There was a time when human beings could eat only what the earth offered. So this is a day when we remind ourselves that everything that we are is what we take from this planet. I see everywhere in the world, people are talking about giving. I don't know from where they give. We can only take - either we take gently or we grab. Did we come with our own property from somewhere? What is there to give? We can only take. Everything is offered. Let us take sensibly, that is all there is.
The Makar Sankranti festival is also known as the harvest festival because this is the time when harvesting is complete and there are big celebrations. This is the day we acknowledge all those who assisted in making the harvest.. But there are celestial and spiritual connotations to it as well. It arose from certain yogic practices that common people took up in ways that were relevant to them. This time is most important for yogis to make a new, fresh effort in their spiritual process. Accordingly, people who have family also make a fresh attempt in whatever they do in their lives. These festivals are a reminder that we need to craft our present and our future in a conscious manner. Right now, we have harvested the previous year's crop. How to create the next one is being consciously planned
For example, the number 108 is significant in many ways in the construction of the human system and the larger solar system. Traditionally, if you wear a mala, it has 108 beads. If you chant a mantra or go around an energy space, it is 108 times. This is because there are 108 things that one needs to do if one wants to have a complete mastery over the human mechanism. In the human body, there are 114 points where the energy channels meet in the body. Of these 114, 2 are outside the physiological framework. Of the 112 points that are within the physiological framework, actual work needs to be done on 108. If you manage to activate these 108, the remaining 4 will naturally open up. The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth. The distance between Sun and Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Sun. The distance between Moon and Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Moon. And there are 108 padas (steps) in one lunar year. Planet Earth takes 13 ½ lunar revolutions or one solar year to complete its orbit around the Sun. In this orbit it arranges itself in 27 nakshatras or 108 padas, almost like the beads of a mala. Makar Sankranti marks the completion of and the beginning of a new cycle.
So Makar Sankranti is a festival to recognize the movement, movement being celebration, movement being life, movement being the process of life and the beginning and the end of life. Though all the other planets are moving, the most important one is not moving. If the sun also takes a walk, then we are in trouble. He hangs there not moving. That is why everybody else's movement is okay. But his stillness is relative because the whole solar system may be moving; the whole galaxy may be moving. So beyond that, the space which holds all this is absolute stillness.
When a human being makes the necessary effort to touch the stillness within himself, only then he knows the joy of movement. Otherwise, people are bewildered by the movement of life. Every change that happens in their life they suffer. Every stage of life is a problem because people have a problem with movement, not understanding that the very nature of life is movement. We can only enjoy and celebrate movement if we have one leg stuck in stillness. If we know what stillness is then movement would be a pleasure. If we do not know what stillness is, if we have no contact with stillness, movement is bewildering. People are trying to track the movement. If there was a taste of stillness in you, movement would not disturb you. Every movement has a beginning and an end. Movement means that which is in transition. Stillness means that which always is. Movement means compulsiveness, stillness means consciousness. |
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