THE SUN AND HAPPY DIWALI

It is possible to live modern life in a manner that one stays indoors or in shade for months together in artificially controlled climates. Persons who do that not only develop an unhealthy looking complexion but also actually do become unhealthy. The sunlight falling on a human body produces essential vitamins for life, promotes healthy bacteria in the body and triggers hormonal changes that produce happiness and vitality. Its absence leads to weakness, stress and depression.

The sun has been doing much more for life than many realize. A process that began in the sun created the very elements that creates life. We owe the very air we breathe and the water we drink to sunlight and all of our food besides. In the beginning there was neither water nor oxygen on our planet. There were gases like hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane instead. The arrival of cynobacteria that breathe carbon dioxide and produce oxygen began to change the atmosphere. The early oxygen combined with hydrogen and methane to produce more carbon dioxide and water. Hydrogen combines with oxygen instantly and explosively to produce water and methane too combines with oxygen the moment there is a little heat or a spark of fire to make carbon dioxide and water. Eventually all hydrogen and most methane were consumed and oxygen began to remain in the atmosphere. With that the spores of the other bacteria that breathe oxygen came to life. A gradual evolution of such bacteria has resulted in all life on our planet. How this evolution takes place is described in detail in my other blog – panspermia to pansmeria.

All our energy including wind and geothermal energy is all a result of the sun. Trees that grow from sunlight and buried inside the ground a long time ago have produced our fossil fuels.

Those who believe in this immensely intelligent scheme of creation believe in God. However when a human has got used to comfortable circumstances then they often begin to question God perhaps returning to a belief in him as soon as sorrow prevails once more. Such is human nature. The ancient Saint of India Kabir said that if one could remember God in good times then unhappy times would not come. At the present time it seems that many more persons that live in developed countries do not believe in god as compared to the poorer developing countries. That is only to be expected considering what has been just said in this paragraph.

Personally my definition of god is such that a question does not arise of not believing in God. As described at other places in this blog, I regard the entire universe and everything else beside as God so that as per my definition there is nothing else besides God – La Illah Il Allah - as the Muslims say in Arabic – there is nothing but God.

However when it comes to worship God, one may find it difficult to focus on this vast infinity of time and space and look for a visible symbol or part of God to focus one’s attention on instead, just as we sometimes focus on the face or eyes of another human we are interested in. From ancient times many have chosen the Sun as this point of focus. The ancient Pharaoh Akhimaten and his queen Nefertiti were ardent sun worshippers. A famous ancient temple of the Sun exists at Konarak in eastern India. I too try and direct a brief prayer at the Sun the first time I sight it in the morning.

In my conception of God the universal consciousness runs through everything in the universe including the stars and without doubt if the stars have a soul that becomes inanimate for their periods of starships, then, it would undoubtedly be the soul of some of the most evolved beings of this universe i.e. the highest of angels. There are stories like that in ancient literature. Our sun is the special star of earthlings, neither so far away that it cannot warm us nor so near that it burns us.

One may ask that if everything is a part of God then why not choose a living being as a symbol of divinity rather than an inanimate object howsoever powerful. For sure there is no problem in doing that provided divinity flows strongly through such a living being. After all one would not like to choose the tramp addicted to drugs who lives in a cardboard box in a back alley of London as one’s role model. One may however choose Buddha or Jesus as the point of focus to help direct our finite thoughts to the infinite. If one prefers a mother image then one could choose Mother Mary. On the other hand if one has been turned away from prevailing Christianity because of the acts of a few randy priests or the concepts of original sin, one may find many other representations of the great mother goddess. My favorite is Naini Mata. If you plug those terms in a google search engine then you find many links on the Internet to my booklet on Naini Mata (it is the only one in English) on this gracious goddess including places for free download.

May the Sun and the Mother Goddess in her avatar as Laxmi ever shine graciously, bringing happiness and prosperity to all readers of this blog this Diwali, the festival of lights in India.