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Bhaskara Saptami 2012 date

Author: --- | Last Updated: Tue 6 Sep 2011 8:35:58 PM

Bhaskara Saptami 2012

Bhaskara Saptami 2012 date is 4 of February. Bhaskara Saptami falls on the twenty-second of Magha, seventh day of the light fortnight. Bhsakar Saptami has an especial degree sacred to the sun. Abstinence is to be practised on the day preceding; and in the morning before sunrise, or at the first appearance of dawn, bathing is to be performed until sunrise; a rigid fast is to be observed throughout the day, worship is to be offered to the sun, presents are to be made to the Brahmans, and in the evening the worshipper is to hold a family feast; one of the observances of the Bhaskar Saptami is abstinence from study, neither teacher nor scholar being allowed to open a book.

At the time of bathing, certain prayers are to be mentally recited, during which the bather places upon his head a platter holding seven leaves of the arka plant (calotropis gigantea), or satavari (asparagus racemosus), or the jujube, or a little oil and a lighted wick, and stirs the water around him, according to some, with a piece of sugar-cane; after his prayers, he removes the articles from his head, and sets the lamp afloat on the water. He then makes the usual libations to the Manes, and having gone home, presents food, and money, and clothes, according to his means, to the Brahmans. One of the formulae of meditation given is, " Glory to thee, who art a form of Kudra, to the lord of Sasas, to Varuna, oh Harivasa, be salutation to thee.”

The Kasi Khanda, as quoted in the Kaipa Drurna, gives a different prayer: "Of whatever sin committed by me during seven lives, may this Makari Saptarni remove both the sorrow and the shame, and whatever sin has been committed by me in, this life, through the influence of time, whether in mind, spirit, or body, wittingly or unwittingly, may every such sin, involving the fruit of seven diseases, be effaced by this bathing, oh thou who art identical with the sun, do thou efface it, oh Makari Baptami!" The repetition of this prayer purifies a person from all sin, and the whole rite is considered as securing him from sickness and premature decay.

Observance of Bhaskar Saptami

In northern India, Bhaskara Saptami is also called Achala Saptami, the fixed or immovable seventh; because it is said it is always to be held sacred. In the South Bhaskar Saptami is known as the Ratha Saptami, or Seventh of the Chariot; for it is also the first day of Manwantara, or period of the reign of a Manu, being that of Vivaswat, when the sun comes abroad in a new carriage. Agreeably to the directions given in the Kalpa Taru, for the proper observance of this rite, the sun should be worshipped in his own temple—a temple it would now be difficult to discover in any part of India—with prayers and offerings upon the sixth; during which abstinence is to be practised, and at night the worshipper is to sleep on the ground. He is to bathe and fast on the seventh, as before described, but he is also to construct a car made in gold, or silver, or wood, with horses and driver; and after the mid-day ablutions, to decorate it, and with prayers from the Vedas invite the sun to take his place in it. Worship is then to be addressed to the sun, and the worshipper is to prefer whatever desire he may have formed, which the sun will assuredly grant him. The night is to be spent with music, singing, and rejoicing, and in the morning ablution is to be repeated; presents are to be made to the Brahmans, and the car with all its appurtenances is to be presented to the Guru or spiritual preceptor. This is probably an ancient rite, coeval with the development of the institutions of the Vedas.

Various other appellations are specified as belonging to this same lunar day, as the Jayanti Saptami, the victorious seventh; the Maha Saptami, the great seventh, and others; but the characteristic observance is the same, and whatever the designation, the worship of the sun is the prominent ceremony of the seventh of the light half of Magha.

The same may be said, however, of the seventh lunar day throughout the year, chiefly of one-seventh in each fortnight, that of the moon's increase; but also of the seventh day of the wane. Besides which, there are particular sevenths to which the concurrence of other circumstances, such as its falling on a Sunday, or when the moon enters certain mansions, as Rohini, gives extraordinary sanctity, and renders the worship of the sun more than usually efficacious. The specification of the days of the week by the names of the seven planets is, as it is well known, familiar to the Hindus.

Significance of Seven

Aditya-vara, Bavi-vara, or Babi-bar in the barbarized vernacular, Dies Solis, or Sunday, is one of every seven. This is somewhat different from the seventh Tithi or lunar day, but a sort of sanctity is, or at least was, attached even to Sunday, and fasting on it was considered obligatory or meritorious. But the religious Fasti of the Hindus confine their instructions to the Tithi, and declare, that whoever worships the sun, on the seventh day of the moon's increase, with fasting, and offerings of white oblations, as white flowers and the like, and whoever fasts on the seventh of the moon's wane, and offers to the sun red flowers and articles of a red colour, is purified from all iniquity and goes after death to the solar sphere. The worship of the sun, on the seventh of the dark fortnight, seems to have gone out of use, but that on the seventh of the light fortnight is strongly recommended in various authorities, beginning with this seventh of Magha and continuing throughout the year. In connexion with this observance, different modes of abstinence are enjoined for each succeeding lunar day, such as taking, during the day, small quantities only of milk, or ghee, or water, or acrid leaves; or fasting wholly from sunset on the sixth till after morning ablutions on the eighth; thence this day is also termed Vidhana Saptami—the seventh of observance—as being the first of the series. On all these occasions Arghyas, or offerings, are presented to the Sun; but the arghya, more peculiarly appropriated to him, consists of eight articles. These slightly vary in different specifications, but they are usually water, milk, curds, ghee, sesamum and mustard seeds, grains of rice, and the blossom of the kusa grass. Perfumes and flowers, especially of a white or a red colour, ate also most fit to be presented to the sun, according to some authorities. Gifts of fuel, and the lighting of a large fire on the morning of the seventh lunar day of Magha, are also meritorious acts. The following are two other prayers usual on these occasions, in which it will be noticed that the number "' Seven" makes a noticeable figure.

Upon presenting the Argha, the day itself personified as a goddess is thus addressed; Mother of all creatures, Saptami who art one with the lord of the seven coursers and the seven mystic words glory to thee in the sphere of the sun;" and on prostration before the sun or his' image, the worshipper utters, " Glory to thee, who delights’ in the chariot drawn by seven worlds; glory to thee on the seventh lunar day— the infinite, the creator!" It is impossible to avoid inferring, from the general character of the prayers and observances, and the sanctity evidently attached to a recurring seventh day, some connexion with the Sabbath, or seventh, of the Hebrew Hepta-meron.

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