Solar Cycles and the Sanskrit Texts

We are all aware that earth’s weather/climate is rapidly changing and scientists have informed us that we are due for an active solar cycle. The variations in the magnetic irradiations, which will be bombarding our planet and generating geomagnetic storms, may affect the electrical grid and leave satellites useless. No one actually seems to know what will in fact occur. However, there are many signs that the immediate future may not be so pleasant.

By writing this, it is not my intention to make any reader fearful. I am only relating what is written in the Sanskrit texts that might pertain to these solar cycles so that if catastrophic events do happen, we may be prepared spiritually and as much as possible materially. Know that our refuge lies within - whatever may come.

The question remains: Are we approaching the end of this Kali Yuga? Or are the dramatic changes on our planet just another cycle-within-a-cycle of the present Kali Yuga? I don’t pretend to know the answer. There are many dates given for the end of this Kali Yuga. But after all, this is the age of Conflict and Confusion, so naturally we should expect a great deal of confusion/delusion in this matter also.

In his most recent book EAARTH, Bill McKibben enumerates some of the ways Earth is already rapidly changing: the Arctic ice cap is melting; the glacier above Greenland is thinning; the oceans are warming, rising and becoming more acid; the inland glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas, and the snowpack of the American west are melting fast; the Amazon rainforest is threatened; the oil beneath the earth’s crust is being used up - and so are the great aquifers.

Everyday we read of some new disaster, floods, wildfires, food shortages, mass starvation and migrations. We have George Orwell’s ‘perpetual war for perpetual peace’ that benefits no one but the military-industrial-complex.

Is our Sun changing? It is not just the Earth that is being affected. We also read reports of changes on other planets in our solar system. The southern ice cap on Mars is melting fast, and there are reports of warming on Saturn, even Pluto!

Are there energies coming from our Sun, or perhaps even from somewhere out in space, energies we know nothing about. Are there high frequency wave forms bombarding our little green planet that remain unknown to us, beyond the ‘sight’ of all our sophisticated instruments. What could the seers who wrote the ancient Sanskrit texts tell us?

The Vayu Purana describes a final dissolution in the Cycles of Time. The ancient Sanskrit text states that “the thousand rays that emanate from the sun (getting combined and concentrated) become seven rays of the sun and each ray (out of those seven rays) becomes a sun.”

Do these verses represent the idea that our sun will eventually become seven times stronger than we normally experience? In other words, was the author saying that the Sun’s heat and the various waves of electromagnetic radiation that are sent out into the solar system via coronal mass ejections, CMEs, or possibly the solar wind streams which flow from coronal holes, would grow seven times in intensity - not that there will actually be seven suns.

What follows is a selection of verses from various Sanskrit texts, with a few of my comments:

Vayu Purana, Chapter 7

Verse 41: While they … stand there as residents of the surface of the earth, at that time the thousand rays that emanate from the sun (getting combined and concentrated) become seven rays of the sun and each ray (out of those seven rays) becomes a sun.

Verse 42: Rising up gradually, they burn the three worlds, mobile and immobile beings, rivers and all mountains.

***

The Mahabharata, translated by J.A.B. van Buitenen; The Book of the Forest, The Session with Markandeya, 3(37)

When the close of the thousand Eons has come and life has been spent, there befalls a drought of many years that drives most of the creatures, of dwindling reserves and starving.

Seven scorching suns drink up all the water in the oceans and rivers … all is turned to ashes. The Fire of Annihilation then invades, with the force of a gale, a world that had already been desiccated by the suns. The fire splits the earth, spreads to the underworld … and all that is found on earth … The ill wind and the Fire of Annihilation burn down hundreds and thousands of twenty-league stretches …

Wondrous-looking huge clouds rise up in the sky, like herds of elephants … In their terrifying shapes, with their horrible echoing blasts, the clouds cover the entire expanse of the sky … they fill up the earth and her mountains with rain … inundate everything. Showering their masses of water and filling up the earth, they douse the evil, gruesome, panic-spreading fire that had been raging.

***

VSF: In fact there are clouds called Pyrocumulus. According to a website called theairlinepilots.com, Pyrocumulus clouds occur in any area where there are wildfires and are caused by the convection created by the fire. These clouds “can generate showers and storms … may develop into cumulonimbus and trigger further fires through lightning strikes.”

Therefore in light of this text, the seven suns - or the sun becoming seven times greater in intensity - would dry everything up and ignite wild fires around the planet (as did happen in Russia 2010). The fires would generate more wind and these Pyrocumulus clouds – which the Sanskrit writer delights in describing in colorful detail. Eventually, the Pyrocumulus clouds would generate rain, something like a Deluge.

***

The Mahabharata, translated by M.N. Dutt; Vana Parva, Chapter 190

Verse 76-77: When that age will come, every one will be in want. All directions will be in a blaze: the stars and the constellations will have no brilliancy and the planets and planetary conjunctions will be inauspicious. The curse of the wind will be confused and innumerable meteors will flash through the sky, foreboding great fear.

Verse 78: The sun will appear with six other suns. There will be great noise on every side and everywhere the will be (great) conflagrations.

Verse 79: The sun from his rising to setting will be covered by Rahu.

***

VSF: Rahu is a ‘mythological’ character in the Sanskrit texts. I personally find the word myth not only disrespectful, but also wrong when applied to these ancient texts. We have no idea what life was like in the previous cycles of time. In fact, what we in the west deride and relegate as mere myth are more likely to be the traces of inter-dimensional events that commonly took place before the Kali Yuga descended upon our consciousness and left us trapped in the five senses.

The story of Rahu is the tale of a demon that sought immortality. For this sin, the god Vishnu cut off his head. But Rahu had already drunk enough of the divine elixir to empower his severed head with immortality.

In astrological terms, Rahu is the North Node of the Moon. Ketu is the South Node. These are points of mathematical calculations. In esoteric astrology, the North Node indicates future karma, the ability to create new experiences in a certain area of life. The South Node is the repository of old karma, what one has brought into the current life and might owe to others.

The relation of the Sun and Moon is obviously the source of solar and lunar eclipses. But the idea that Rahu could cover the sun from rising to setting is impossible, at least in third dimensional physics.

However, the most intriguing definition of Rahu is that it is a planet placed in the realm of Brahma. It is said to have a diameter of 12,000 yojanas and can envelope both the sun and the moon. This description is in the Mahabharata and later writers are quick to point out that Rahu is not a planet, but a “mathematical calculation” and an invisible or shadow planet.

Perhaps Rahu’s existence in the realm of Brahma refers to a hyper-dimensional reality we no longer experience? I can only imagine what this might imply, but perhaps it does explain Rahu’s ability to cover the sun from rising to setting during a cyclical dissolution.

Verse 79:: The exalted deity of 1000 eyes, Indra, will increasingly shower rains.

***

VSF: We are now all quite familiar with disastrous flooding that is occurring in many parts of the planet.

***

Verse 80: When this age will come, crops will not grow in (great) abundance.

Verse 83: When this age will come, fire will blaze up in all directions.

Verse 88: Men in great affliction will rove over the (various) countries.

***

VSF: This is already evident and many predict that massive migrations will continue to take place as people become more and more desperate for food. “Climate change is provoking mass human migration … 50 million people worldwide will be displaced this year because of rising sea levels, desertification, dried up aquifers, weather induced flooding, and other severe environmental changes.” – Media Global, 6 August, 2010

***

Vishnu Purana, Book VI, Ch. 3

Verse 14-23: At the end of a thousand periods of four ages [yugas] the earth is for the most part exhausted. A total dearth then ensues, which lasts a hundred years; and, in consequence of the failure of food, all beings become languid and exanimate, and at last entirely perish.

The eternal Vishnu [the metaphysical principle of inner cohesion that pervades and holds the universe together] then assumes the character of Rudra [a name of Shiva, the metaphysical principle of dispersion and annihilation], the destroyer, and descends to reunite all his creatures with himself.

He enters into the seven rays of the sun, drinks up all the waters of the globe, and causes all moisture whatever, in living bodies or in the soil, to evaporate; thus drying up the whole earth.

The seas, the rivers, the mountain torrents, and springs, are all exhaled: and so are all the waters of Patala, the regions below the earth.

Thus fed, through his intervention, with abundant moisture, the seven solar rays dilate to seven suns, whose radiance glows above, below and on every side, and sets the three worlds and Patala on fire.

The three worlds consumed by these suns, become rugged and deformed throughout the whole extent of their mountains, rivers, and seas, and the earth bare of verdure, and destitute of moisture, alone remains, resembling in appearance the back of a tortoise.

***

VSF: Researchers at Stanford and Purdue University say that “the sun might be emitting a previously unknown particle that is meddling with the decay rate of matter” (Discovery.com / 25 August, 2010). “The sun, at 93 million miles away, appears to be influencing the decay of radioactive elements inside the Earth …” (popsci.com / 08.25.2010).

We know so little. The ancient seers who wrote the Sanskrit texts saw the Sun with a different eye – an eye that is beyond the five senses. The ancient seers grokked that we are the sun and connected to everything in this temporal illusory holographic Universe. Perhaps when they worshiped the sun, they understood it as the god-within. In the previous cycles of time, the ancients possessed the wisdom we have lost.

What wisdom can we claim, when we are destroying our own planet?

- VSF August 2010

***

Texts:

The Vayu Purana, Translated & Annotated by G.V. Tagare; Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 2003.

The Mahabharata, The Book of the Forest; Translated & Edited by J.A.B. van Buitenen; The University of Chicago Press, 1975.

Mahabharata, Sanskrit Text & English Translation; Vol.II, Vana Parva; Translation according to M.N. Dutt; Parimal Publications, Delhi, 2004.

Vishnu Purana, Sanskrit Text & English Translation According to H.H. Wilson; Parimal Publications, Delhi, 2005.

***

At the Time of the Great Dissolution of the Universe

Excerpts from the Mahabharata 3[37]186.55-75

SECTION CLXXXVII

Then the virtuous king Yudhishthira in all humility again enquired of the illustrious Markandeya, saying, 'O great Muni , thou hast seen many thousands of ages pass away. In this world there is none so long lived as thou!

… at the time of the great dissolution of the universe, when this world is without sky and without the gods…

… all creatures with soul rapt in meditation and entirely swallowed up in Him!

… thou hast many a time witnessed with thy eyes, the primeval acts of creation…

… When neither the sun, nor the moon, nor fire, nor earth, nor air, nor sky remains, when all the world being destroyed looketh like one vast ocean…

Markandeya replied…

… the Great, the Incomprehensible, the Wonderful and the Immaculate. He is without beginning and without end, pervades all the world, is Unchangeable and Undeteriorating. He is the Creator of all, but is himself uncreate and is the Cause of all power.

… towards the end of those thousands of years constituting the four Yugas and when the lives of men become so short, a drought occurs extending for many years.

… men and creatures endued with small strength and vitality, becoming hungry die by thousands.

… seven blazing Suns, appearing in the firmament, drink up all the waters of the Earth that are in rivers or seas.

… everything of the nature of wood and grass that is wet to dry, is consumed and reduced to ashes.

… the fire called Samvartaka impelled by the winds appeareth on the earth that hath already been dried to cinders by the seven Suns.

And then that fire, penetrating through the Earth and making its appearance, in the nether regions also, begetteth great terror in the hearts of the gods, the Danavas and the Yakshas .

… consuming the nether regions as also everything upon this Earth that fire destroyeth all things in a moment.

And that fire called Samvartaka aided by that inauspicious wind, consumeth this world extending for hundreds and thousands of yojanas .

And that lord of all things, that fire, blazing forth in effulgence consumeth this universe with gods and Asuras and Gandharvas and Yakshas and Snakes and Rakshasas.

And there rise in the sky deep masses of clouds, looking like herds of elephants and decked with wreaths of lightning that are wonderful to behold.

And some of those clouds are of the hue of the blue lotus; and some are of the hue of the water-lily; and some resemble in tint the filaments of the lotus and some are purple and some are yellow as turmeric and some of the hue of the crows' egg.

And some are bright as the petals of the lotus and some red as vermillion.

And some resemble palatial cities in shape and some herds of elephants.

And some are of the form of lizards and some of crocodiles and sharks.

And, O king, the clouds that gather in the sky on the occasion are terrible to behold and wreathed with lightnings, roar frightfully.

And those vapoury masses, charged with rain, soon cover the entire welkin.

And, O king, those masses of vapour then flood with water the whole earth with her mountains and forests and mines.

… urged by the Supreme Lord those clouds roaring frightfully, soon flood over the entire surface of the earth.

And pouring in a great quantity of water and filling the whole earth, they quench that terrible inauspicious fire (of which I have already spoken to thee).

And urged by the illustrious Lord those clouds filling the earth with their downpour shower incessantly for twelve years.

And then… the Ocean oversteps his continents, the mountains sunder in fragments, and the Earth sinks under the increasing flood.

And then moved on a sudden by the impetus of the wind, those clouds wander along the entire expanse of the firmament and disappear from the view.

And then, O ruler of men, the Self-create Lord--the first Cause of everything--having his abode in the lotus, drinketh those terrible winds and goeth to sleep!

Internet Sacred text Archive: The Mahabharata of Krishna-Swaipayana Vyasa; translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli [published between 1883 and 1896]. The Ganguli English translation of the Mahabharata is the only complete one in the public domain.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03187.htm

***

Follow solar activity daily!

http://www.spaceweather.com/

New Solar Cycle Prediction

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/29may_noaaprediction/

Solar Cycles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle

Solar Wind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_wind

Pyrocumulus Clouds

http://www.theairlinepilots.com/met/clouds.htm#Pyrocumulus

The Cycles of Time