Sushumnā (Ray of Sūrya)
Sushumnā, “a ray of Sūrya”
Sushumnā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Sushumnā.
Grammar: feminine noun, the name of a ray.
Meaning: a ray of Bhagavān Sūrya, the one in whose form he entered the womb of Aditi.
In the scriptures: Brahmā tells the munis how Divākara, who is eternal and beyond the guṇas, came to be born in a mother’s womb. Aditi’s sons, the devas, and Diti‘s sons, the daityas, fought each other, and the daityas and dānavas seized the three worlds and took the shares of the yajña for themselves. Grieving, Aditi worshipped Bhagavān Sūrya day and night, taking no food. After a long time he appeared before her; she could not look at his flaming form, and at her prayer he came out of his orb of tejas and gave darśana in a form red like copper heated in fire. Aditi asked him to be born from his own aṃśa as the brother of her sons and to destroy their enemies. Pleased with her tapas, Bhagavān Sūrya said that with a thousandth part of his tejas he would be born as her son, and withdrew. After a year, to fulfil her wish, Sūrya entered Aditi’s womb in the form of the ray named Sushumnā. From that embryo Mārtaṇḍa was born (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 32).
Related terms: Sūrya · Aditi · Mārtaṇḍa · Tejas
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 32