Solar Eclipse: 26-12-2019
Lunar Eclipse: 11-1-2020
Get ready to make the most of most fortunate natural events
Both falling within a duration of 30 days
A sizable portion of the 35th chapter of the Bhagvata Purana is devoted to narrating an incident as to why Rahu and Ketu are responsible for all the solar and lunar eclipses. Initially, at some stage, the Gods and the demons were engaged in a great war over a very long period. Lord Vishnu persuaded both the gods and demons for a temporary peace so that the ocean in its entirety could be churned and both devas and the asuras could benefit from what the sea had to offer. The Gods under the leadership of Indra grabbed the tail of the king of snakes, Vasuki, who was used as a rope for churning the ocean, while the demons under the leadership of Vali held the mouth of Vasuki. The great mountain Mandara acted as the churner.
As a result of this churning, the first to come out was the terrible poison, Halahala. It was voluntarily sucked in by the Lord Shiva, but he held it in his throat, the reason why Siva is also known as Nilakantha, Then out came Surabhi, Kaustubha, Parijata, Laksmi, the Moon, Varuni (the goddess of wine). And finally emerged Dhanvanatari, the originator of medicine, with a pot of Elixir, the nectar. The demons ran away with the pot. Lord Visnu acting in the interest of the Gods transformed himself into Mohini, a beautiful woman. Dazzled by her beauty, the demons offered the pot to Mohini and asked her to distribute the nectar amongst themselves as she was found to be an appropriate person. Of course, she gave all the nectar to the Gods.
One of the demons, Rahu, saw through the trick and sat in the line in disguise, where the nectar was being distributed. But before he could swallow the divine nectar, the Sun and the Moon detected his act and reported it to Lord Visnu, who then chopped off Rahu’s head with his Sudarsan Chakra. Because Rahu had already drunk the nectar, he remained alive in spite of his being reduced to a trunk-less body. Since then Rahu has not forgiven the Sun and the Moon. And this is the reason why, as has been depicted in the style of Pauranik description, every once in a while Rahu gobbles up the Sun or the Moon and we witness the solar and the lunar eclipses. Of course, being trunk-less he cannot hold either the Sun or the Moon for long, and they come out safely after a while. With time the headless trunk of the demon came to be known as Ketu, and the earlier version of Ketu gracefully turned into what is known as Dhumketu.
Since then, Rahu has become acceptable as the eighth planet, and in the astrological formulations, we find it in the Astottari dasa system. Later on, another dasa system, called the Vimsottai dasa system, was introduced which referred to nine ruling planets, the ninth being Ketu. Sometime in the third century A.D., the era of Siddhantas was ushered in. The Surya Siddhanta gives detailed methods for making ecliptic calculations. It was around this time that Rahu and Ketu were astronomically defined to be the ascending and the descending nodes of the lunar orbit, intersecting the plane of the Earth’s orbit. The astronomical significance of Rahu and Ketu was reduced to mere imaginary points of intersection between the lunar orbit and the plane of the ecliptic.
As we have noted earlier, evidence for observation of eclipses is found in the ancient Indian texts. A solar eclipse finds mention in the Mahabharata, where Lord Krisna skillfully uses his knowledge of eclipse predictions to save the life of Arjuna, the great warrior. The accuracy with which eclipses have been predicted is incredible. In the Indian almanacs, the time at which an eclipse begins, at which it peaks, and when its ends have all been given. This entire period of an eclipse is called the Parvakala. Thorough prescriptions of the customs which an orthodox Hindu is supposed to observe on the eclipse days are given in the Manusmriti, Grahalaghava, Nirnaya Sindhu, and a number of similar textbooks including Atharvaveda.
It is believed that during an eclipse all the water becomes as pure as the water of the holy river Ganga. Any surging water (say, waterfall or a fountain) or water in the lakes, river and the seas is regarded as a good omen, its auspiciousness increasing in the above sequence. The more pious may go to some sacred place or to the nearest seashore for taking a holy bath. There is a strong belief that any donation given during the eclipse hours is most auspicious and valuables such as money, clothes, cows, horses, land and gold are to be gifted away.
However, performing sadhanas and mantra recitation has the most positive outcome when performed during eclipse. One can gain thousand times the positive results of the sadhana performed during eclipse as compared to performing the same sadhana on any other day. We are in an era where stress and suffering is a part of our daily life. Without doing any wrong to others, we see that we are gaining more and more enemies as compared to friends. Thus, a wise person is one who grabs such opportunities of life and makes the most out of it.
The positive effect of a Mantra sadhana increases multifold if it is performed at the right time. It is due to this reason only that various texts associated with Mantra and Tantra sadhanas have mentioned the importance of such days and have laid special emphasis on them. Maharatri (Shiva Ratri), Kroor Ratri (Holi), Moh Ratri (Janamashtmi) and Kal Ratri (Diwali) are few such special days which are unparalleled time to perform any sadhana. Every Yogi, Mantrik and Tantrik understand the importance of such days and eagerly wait for these days to get success in their sadhanas.
Our ancient texts have also highly praised two other times to perform any sadhana and they are the duration of Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse. Eclipse duration has gained so much importance because there exists a special positive energy at that time which increases the success ratio of a sadhana multiple times. One mantra chanting done during eclipse duration is equivalent to one lakh chanting during any normal day. A single offering into holy fire is equivalent to thousand times the same offering done during any other day.
A foolish person considers eclipse as an inauspicious time. Our society has made us consider that eclipse is useless and this duration must be avoided and nothing should be done during this time. Due to this reason only people are afraid to carry out any task during this period. However, it is just a myth and every person must take full advantage of the eclipse duration for the betterment of their life.
It is mandatory to obtain Guru Diksha from Revered Gurudev before performing any Sadhana or taking any other Diksha. Please contact Kailash Siddhashram, Jodhpur through Email , Whatsapp, Phone or Submit Request to obtain consecrated-energized and mantra-sanctified Sadhana material and further guidance,
