Om tarunaya namaha, Salutations to the Sun who is the ever-youthful embodiment of tenderness.
glossary
tarun Hin. taruna San. adj. young; youthful; fresh.
tarunam – youthful SB 4.8.46
tarunim – youthful Madhya 24.348
The Sun as ever youthful is significator of the Atma principle, the spark of the divine within the human. The spark of the divine exists both beyond time and space and encompasses the entire universe within; yet is is ever tender, soft and newly born. this is because the spark of the divine separates itself from itself so it may love itself. Love is what makes the Atmic principle and its significator, the Sun, ever youthful and tender.
Atma is the only entity that is eternal. It is beyond birth and death. It is changeless. There is a beginning and end for everything else in this universe, except the Atma. Hence, one has to develop firm faith in this Atma Tatwa.
Unfortunately, today we tend to forget this true and eternal Atma Tatwa and develop faith in the ephemeral world. We weave a web of imagination around the pleasures that this transient world would offer. Ultimately, we land ourselves in sorrow and difficulties. The Atma Tatwa is the only entity that is true, eternal, and changeless. Everything else undergoes change from time to time. Even the human body passes through different stages like childhood, adolescence, youth and old age, but the individual remains the same through all these changes.
Man has been blessed with body, mind, intellect, and mind-stuff (chitta). Youth are endowed with a healthy body, a strong mind, and a sharp intellect capable of deep thinking. Youth and youthfulness are a form of Prashna, and Prashna is the science of asking questions. The key issue is that questions have to be the right questions or the human continues to be bound with maya, illusion that this world is real and all there is. This is not the case, the world is reaction – reflection – resound of what is within the individual, the jivi.
The human journey is the journey of eternal return to the tenderness of the Divine. The world and the Universe can be depicted as a harsh, hard, unyielding place. Humans have innate needs of tenderness in the form of affection, succourance and nurturance, that which we need and are given at different stages of life. Detachment is the function of maturity and true humanness: one acknowledges the Divine is all this and not this, beyond form and attributes. Hence, the Sun is the significator, both this eternal youthfulness and significator of tenderness, and beyond, the eternal order of the universe, dharmaswaroop (embodiment of dharma, right action).
God is beyond all attributes and feelings. It is rather strange that man attributes qualities and feelings to Him. It is most essential for every individual to know the infinite love, truth and compassion of God. Though man is essentially divine, he is conducting himself like a demon as he has forgotten his innate divinity. Every man is endowed with the qualities of deeksha (determination) and dakshata (dexterity). One who makes use of these virtues for noble causes alone is a true human being.
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