Aaditya – The Many Meanings

Aaditya Hrudaya

Aaditya Hrudaya is the name of a stotra, which on the face of it, means something close to Aaditya’s heart. But, ‘Aadityahrudaya’ is also the name of God himself.

Aditi’s sons

Aaditya is a common word used to refer to the sons of Aditi and Kashyapa.

The Aadityas are 12 in number and are a special class of deities, who function along with the 11 Rudras and the 8 Vasus. There are slight variations in their names but the commonly accepted names of the Aadityas are: Indra (Shakra), Dhata, Parjanya, Tvashtr, Pusha, Aryaman, Bhaga, Vivaswan (Vivasvat), Vishnu, Amshuman, Varuna and Mitra.

Our sun or Surya is the Aaditya by name Vivaswan or Vivasvat. Vaamana who was born as Aditi’s son is the form of Vishnu, among the Aadityas.

The word ‘Aaditya’ brings to mind only Surya, and not Indra or Vishnu etc. This is because of the physical presence of the sun and our exposure to it. The sun is referred to as ‘pratyaksha devatha’ or the visible god. Fixing the inner gaze on the deity one wishes to propitiate requires years of dedication and practice. However, fixing the inner gaze on Surya, the pratyaksha devatha, is decidedly easier. Whether we call him Surya or Aaditya, it is to be borne in mind that that he is the presiding deity or the abhimaani devathe and not the burning ball of fire in the sky.

Aaditya as Vishnu

One of the questions posed by the Yaksha to Yudhishtira, and his answer, in the famous ‘Yaksha Prashne’ episode goes thus...

Yaksha: “Who placed the sun in its place in the sky? Who revolves around the sun?”

Yudhishtira: “The almighty God, the one who has created the sun has placed him in the sky, the very same lord who is present within the sun as Surya-Naarayana. Devathes or celestial beings revolve around the supreme lord and thereby the sun”.

The word Aaditya means one who has been in existence from the very beginning. Therefore Vishnu, who is the one without a beginning and has created Surya, is called Aaditya. He is the cosmic essence within the sun, the Surya- Naarayana seated in the lotus-pose in the Surya-mandala. He is the one who grants ‘tejas’ to the Sun, who is called ‘Tejasvi’, and confers the three powers; to disperse heat, to dispel darkness and to burn.

While Madhwaachaarya has stated that every letter, word and sound in the universe is the lord’s name, the Vishnu Sahasramaama has explicitly mentioned the names Aaditya and Jyotiraaditya as Vishnu’s.

Raama himself

Other than the obvious reason for Raama being Aaditya, as an incarnation of Vishnu, there is another explanation. Raama belonged to the Solar-dynasty or the Surya-Vamsha. In other words the dynasty owed its origin to the Sun-god himself. Therefore Raama is Aaditya himself, and Aaditya Hrudaya is something dear to him. Further into the stotra, Aaditya is referred to as Bhuvaneshvaram- the lord of the world, which is undoubtedly Vishnu himself.

So does Raama worship himself when he chants the Aaditya Hrudaya? Yes, but this is hardly surprising for is it not the lord within us who makes us worship the lord through us?

The lord often humours mortals by praying to various other devathes, chanting mantras, installing idols etc. as he has done in his Raama avataara. Raama worships Aaditya by chanting the stotra because Raama being the ideal man, or Maryaada Purushotthama, carried out all prescribed practices for others to emulate him.

To demonstrate the power of Aaditya Hrudaya and its capability to confer victory, Raama chanted it on the battle-field at the behest of Rishi Agastya.

To be continued...