Saṅkrānti Arghya Mantra

Saṅkrānti Arghya Mantra, “the arghya mantra of the saṅkrānti”

The Saṅkrānti Arghya Mantra is the prayer with which the vratī offers arghya to Bhagavān Sūrya at the saṅkrānti, in the Saṅkrānti vrata and its udyāpana. Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches it to Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa.

The setting

The vrata begins on the day of Sūrya‘s uttarāyaṇa or dakshiṇāyana, or at the vishuva. The day before, the vratī eats once. On the saṅkrānti he bathes in water mixed with sesame, draws with sandal an eight-petalled lotus with its pericarp, and invokes Sūrya on it: sūryāya namaḥ at the centre, and Āditya, Saptārci, Ṛṅmaṇḍala, Savitṛ, Varuṇa, Saptasapti, Mārtaṇḍa and Vishṇu on the petals from the east. He worships Sūrya with sandal, garlands, fruit and food, gives a golden lotus with a vessel of ghee and a kalaśa to a brāhmaṇa, and offers arghya on the ground with water mixed with sandal and flowers.

The mantra

In its meaning: “Ananta, you are the universe, and the universe is your form. You are the most radiant in the universe, self-born, the Dhātā, the master of the Ṛgveda, the Sāmaveda and the Yajurveda. Salutation to you again and again.”

The phala

This is done every month, or, if one cannot, twelve times on the last day of the year, with the same fruit. At the end of the year Agni and the brāhmaṇas are satisfied with kheer and ghee, and twelve cows, gems, a golden lotus and an image of Pṛthvī with Śesha Nāga are given. As long as the earth, the mountains and the seven oceans stand, the hosts of gandharvas in svarga honour that vratī; when his puṇya is spent, he is born in a noble family and rules the seven dvīpas. Whoever reads or hears this rule with bhakti, or approves its doing, is honoured by the devas in Indraloka.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 115–116

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 115–116