An Ode to the Sun

An ode to the Sun

Rg Veda 3.59 

मित्रस्य चर्षणीघृतः श्रवो देवस्य सानसिम् । 

सत्यं चित्रं श्रवस्तमम् ॥ 
Ah! The Sun — radiant with the ghee of men’s devotion —  
his fame, his gold, his truth — all gleam with bewitching splendor. 
His honesty itself is wealth; his brilliance, divine popularity. 

मित्रो जनान् यातयति प्रजानन् मित्रो दाधार पृथिवीम् उत द्याम् । मित्रः कृष्टीर् अनिमिषाभिचष्टे सत्याय हव्यम् घृतवद् विधेम ॥ 
The Sun, our friend Mitra, moves beings in ceaseless rhythm, 
knowing that he upholds both earth and heaven. 
Unblinking, he watches over all creation —  
for Truth’s sake we offer him this ghee-fed oblation. 
The hymn’s paradox is striking — Mitra, “the friend,” also “torments” life through motion, heat, and time. His torment is his gift: for without movement, there is no life. 

प्र स मित्र मर्तो अस्तु प्रयस्वान् यस्त आदित्य शिक्षति व्रतेन । 

न हन्यते न जीयते पोतो नैनम् अंहो अश्नोत्यन्तितो न दूरात् ॥ 
O Sun! O child of Aditi — the mortal who learns your discipline 
and walks by your vow becomes your student indeed. 
He neither lives nor dies; he transcends both defeat and decay. 
Sin cannot reach him — not from near, not from far. 
The disciplined mortal becomes the Sun’s ship — unassailable, 
sailing the sea of dualities untouched by life or death. 

उद्यान् मित्र मह आरोहन् उत्तराम् दिवम् । 

हृद् रोगम् मम सूर्य हरिमाणं च नाशय ॥ 
Rising Mitra, mighty traveller of the northern sky, 
destroy my heart’s disease — my hṛdroga —  
and cleanse me of jaundice, O radiant Sun! 

शुकेषु मे हरिमाणं रोपणाकासु दध्मसि । 

अथो हारिद्रवेषु मे हरिमाणं नि दध्मसि ॥ 
Cast my jaundice into the parrots, 
and into the Ropaṇaka birds; 
transfer my sickness into turmeric —  
let that golden root hold what was mine. 
An ancient proto-psychosomatic medicine — transference of illness into nature’s yellow essence: haridra, the purifier. 

 

उदगाद् अयम् आदित्यो विश्वेन सहसा सह । 

द्विषन्तं मह्यं रन्धयन् मो अहम् द्विषतेर् अघम् ॥ 
Behold! The Sun has risen —  
and with him, the whole world. 
He strikes with sin those who hate me —  
and shields me from the hatred I bear. 
Here the Sun becomes moral equilibrium itself —  
absorbing vengeance into light, 
and returning darkness to where it came from. 

Mitra, in these hymns, is not just the physical Sun. 
He is the law of relationship — the binding warmth of existence —  
simultaneously nourisher and tormentor, friend and witness. His “ghee” is devotion; his “disease-curing rays” are truth; his “fame” is honesty that never tires of burning. The Vedic seer’s wisdom is simple yet unfathomable: 
the Sun is not worshipped because he shines, 
but because he never stops shining. 

Reference

https://sri-aurobindo.co.in/workings/matherials/rigveda/03/03-059.htm