Om Isaya namaha, Salutations to the Sun who is verily the embodiment of the Supreme Lord and ruling power over all.
glossary
īsh Hin. īsh, īsha San. m. (from īsh – to possess, be master of, rule) lord, master; God, the supreme spirit; king, ruler, especially Shiva.
īshān Hin. īshāna San. m. sovereign, master, ruler; the supreme God, lord, manifestation of godhead – vedic epithet of Rudra-Shiva; epithet of Vishnu.
īśāya — unto the Supreme Lord
īśāya — who is the supreme controller
guṇa-īśāya — unto You, who control the three modes of material nature
mahā-īśāya — unto the supreme controller
para-īśāya — who is supreme, transcendental and worship-able for such exalted persons as Brahmā and Śiva
īśvaraḥ—the supreme controller
īśvaraḥ—the Supreme Lord
īśvaraḥ—the controller
īśvaraḥ—the lord
īśvaraḥ—the Lord.
īśvaraḥ—controller
īśvaraḥ—the Supreme Personality of Godhead
We honour the Sun as the visible embodiment of the Supreme Ruler of All; sunlight and heat go in all directions – as the Bible tells – on the just and the unjust; the Sun does not discriminate where the Self-effulgence flows. We experience the light, the heat, the warmth and the seasons of the Sun as it goes on its Northwards (Uttaranaya) and Southwards (Dakshinayana) paths. The Sun illuminates everything, everywhere, in all times and places.
We may have night and day, we may have darkness and light, we may have passing clouds that cover the Sun from time to time. The Earth follows its path of dharma and rotates on its axis; the Sun also follows its path of dharma – right action – indeed, the Sun is the great exemplar and sacrifice of dharma as it never varies from its path. There is much to be learned from the Sun. We all experience the fruits of the Sun, and all know this experience. The Sun is important for just as we experience light and dark, hot and cold from the Sun, religion means experience. As we experience and may rely on the presence and the right action of the Sun, so also, we rely on the presence and the witness of the Soul within, the Atma, which is a spark of the Divine without.
The ancient belief was that Ishwara (God) ruled over the World, with Himself being outside it; this, the Indian (Bharathiya) seekers put to test through spiritual practice and revealed that God was and is in the world and of it. This is the first contribution of Indians (Bharathiya) to the spiritual world – that God is not external to man, but his very inner core. They declared that it is impossible to remove him from the heart where He has installed Himself. He is the very Atma of our atma, the soul of our soul; He is the inner Reality of each.
Sun and Lord Shiva
Shiva has a group of eight primary names from the Shiva Mahimatma Stotra. Among the names are Bhava, Sharva, Rudra, Mahadeva, Pashupati, Bhima, Ugra and Ishana – the supreme Lord and ruling power over all.
Panchamukhi is the five faces of Shiva; the faces are named Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Aghora, Tatpurusha and Ishana. Ishana indicates the Northeast direction, the cosmic process of liberation, the ether element, the Chit shakti and of the limbs, it indicates the head.
Each name has its own significance. Ishana is related to Ishvara as the ruling power. He is a deity of the northeastern direction in all directional formulations. Northeast is regarded as the most auspicious direction to face and is the region of a dwelling given to the altar or puja room or the main deity in a temple. Northeast is the direction of Shiva.
Download 108 Names of Surya, the Sun
