Surya

Every morning, every Devá salutes the highest light’s rise from his golden palace. His daughter-rays are the seven bay mares who draw his chariot, beating their hooves in time with the seven meters of prosody. His son-rays are the banners that flutter like flames. He is purifying Varuna’s eye looking upon the one who makes the sacrifice. He is wise Agni’s luminosity, both the firelight shining across all of space and the enlightenment awakening every generation of humankind. Let the banisher of impurities and ill health be a friend to us as he is friend to Agni and Varuna. Jains and Buddhists point to him to represent understanding’s triumph over ignorance, good’s triumph over evil. His temples, famous and high, tower over all India; and the other Gods recognize his comradeship with images on their fanes’ walls.

With Princess Kunthi, Surya fathered King Karna of Anga, the Mahabharata’s most honorable warrior, born with golden earrings on his ears and armor on his skin. Always denigrated for his mixed-caste parentage, Karna inherited Surya’s love of friendship, staying true to the villain Prince Duryodhana even through his destructive battle with the Pandavas. Even the noble Prince Arjuna had to resort to dishonorable tactics to defeat mighty Karna.

Surya is the driver on the race course, the doctor who goes unflinching into the heart of a plague, the Blue Helmet who rides into the warzone, the teacher in the neglected public school, the speed of light. He is all the sun’s hope and triumph. But his Scions could probably use a little more hands-on support from the lotus-handed one. Surya tutored Hanuman, but only after extensive supplication. Karna lived out his life in disappointment and confusion because of what he did not understand about himself, what Surya could have prepared him for. But perhaps it is right that he relied on his strength and honor, which carry Surya across the sky every day. If only they could have saved him from Arjuna’s arrow.