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Question - 45
Is Ratha Saptami
intended to remember the altered time of Uttarayana that forced Bhishma to lie
on the arrow bed for 58 nights?
Answer:
Yes. The tithi-
star alignment changed once for ever at that time and it continues till today. The
first day of the 5-year Yuga, that was supposed to begin on Magha Shukla
Pratipat started on Krishna Ekadasi of Pushya month.
There was no
change in the position of the sun. It continued to turn northward in the star
Uttaradhadha but the moon did not join that on the day after Amavasya as it
used to be. It joined the sun four tithi-s earlier at Krishna Ekadasi.
This change being caused
by a sudden change in the 2nd year, with the new year starting in
Magha Shukla Ashtami, and Uttarayana happening at Magha Shukla Saptami, the sages
decided to immortalize it into memory as an odd date of the Sun turning northward.
That is remembered as Ratha
Saptami – the Sun turning his chariot on an unseasonal date of Shukla
Saptami.
Tithi Dvayam is a
conditional feature of Ratha Saptami indicating similar Tithi Dvayam on the day
Bhishma left. By its presence at sunrise, Saptami was the tithi of the day
marking the change of direction of the chariot of the sun, but Ashtami should
follow sometime soon. This must have been present on the day Bhishma left, for
he cast off his body on the very day of Saptami when the sun’s chariot turned
north with Rohini at sunrise, but Ashtami was running when he left the world.
The Ganesha moment exists in
this context requiring us to find out what caused the unusual extension of a
month when it should not have been. The Adhika Maasa in Magha that caused Bhishma
to wait for the arrival of the Nija Maasa must be probed to identify the root
cause of an anomaly that caused a change in the lunar days. That can be done by
a systematic analysis of the events that unfolded after the end of the exile of
the Pandava-s.
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