Lotus-Petal Names of Sūrya

Lotus-Petal Names of Sūrya · sūrya padma-dala nāma, “the names of Sūrya on the lotus petals”

The lotus-petal names of Sūrya are the nine name-mantras with which Bhagavān Sūrya is worshipped on the eight petals and the centre of a lotus in the Mandāra Shashṭhī vrata. Śrī Kṛshṇa gives them to Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa.

The setting

On the śukla pañcamī of Māgha the vratī takes a little food and stays under niyama, eats a mandāra flower and sleeps, and fasts on shashṭhī. On shashṭhī he rises at dawn, bathes, and in a copper vessel makes a lotus of eight petals with black sesame, on which he installs a golden pratimā of Bhagavān Sūrya with a lotus in his hand. With eight golden arka flowers, gandha and other upacāras he worships in the petals, going round from the east, with these name-mantras.

The names

The phala

Then Bhagavān Sūrya is worshipped with white cloth, naivedya, garlands and fruits. The vrata is kept on the śukla shashṭhī of every month, and at the end of the year the mūrti is installed on a kalaśa and given to a brāhmaṇa with cloth, a cow and gold, with the prayer to Mandāranātha to lift us out of the mire of saṃsāra. Whoever keeps the Mandāra Shashṭhī by this rule is freed of all pāpas and dwells happily in svarga for one kalpa; whoever reads or hears this rule is also freed of all pāpas.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 40

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 40