Sumantu’s Salutation to Sūrya
Sumantu Sūrya Namaskāra, “Sumantu’s salutation to Sūrya”
Sumantu‘s salutation to Sūrya is the bow with which Sumantu Muni opens his account of the glory of Sūrya Yoga to King Śatānīka. He bows to Sūrya Deva, who is avyaya (imperishable), beyond sat and asat (being and non-being), abiding in forms both of bheda and abheda (difference and non-difference), the best of all who have tejas. The Brahma Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa gives it.
What it opens
Having bowed, Sumantu says he will tell what the great Brahmā once told the ṛshis, and asks the king to listen with attention. Brahmā taught the maharshis the yoga of the restraint of all movements of the mind for the worship of Sūrya. The ṛshis answered that such yoga is reached only after many births, for the senses and the restless mind are hard to conquer and life is short, and asked for an easier raft across the ocean of saṃsāra. Then Brahmā taught them Kriyā Yoga: to worship Divākara, master of all, with śraddhā, by yajña, pūjā, namaskāra, service, vratas, fasts and the feeding of brāhmaṇas, with sole devotion and sole refuge in him. One who worships Sūrya Bhagavān so becomes freed.
Sumantu closes: for those sunk in the ocean of saṃsāra there is no other refuge than the boat called Sūrya. Rising, walking, eating and lying down, remember Sūrya Bhagavān alone, and you will cross the ocean of repeated birth and death.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 61
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 61