The twelve aspects of happiness of Surya, your Inner Sun

Surya, your Inner Sun

The Surya Namaskar, the “Salutation to the Sun,” is a greeting to the most important celestial body that makes this life here on earth possible for you, the sun. This greeting symbolizes a greeting to the most inner, valuable aspect of you as a human being, that which makes your life valuable, your inner sun, your soul.

The Surya Namaskar is therefore a sacred greeting, a deep bow of respect from your personality to the twelve aspects of the soul, to befriend them, to be reunited with them, to be whole with them, to be healed and sanctified. Then being human suddenly means something completely different, and the actions and fruits that come from such a human being will serve life in its fullest and most valuable meaning.

To honor and celebrate the spiritual value of Surya, your Inner Sun, I have created various Surya exercises and Surya mantras to support you in deeply meeting the 12 aspects of your soul. The Surya exercises and mantras guide you to the deepest values of your spiritual happiness, whether you do the Surya Namaskar with reverence, the Surya Puja with praying gestures to express your gratitude, the Surya Prabhana Pranayama with your breath, giving space to the different energies of your inner sun, or a Surya mantra that listens to or sings the twelve aspects of happiness of Surya, your Inner Sun, bringing you into contact with those qualities that are most auspicious.

Below I will explain how the value of happiness is related to honoring, respecting, being grateful for, and making room for the twelve qualities of your inner sun, your soul, Surya, the sun as the primary source of light and life-giving center in our cosmos.

1. Mitraya

The Sanskrit word mitra means friend and lover. Here, the sun and its light, like the soul and its light, are meant to be warming, joyful, the giver of charm, love, and friendship. Friendship is an attitude toward life or a relational stance that is open, knows joy, and carries the willingness to connect with someone or something. You are willing to open up and experience more than just yourself and even to meet another person and discover feelings of affection, care, and love. Friendship is the beginning of peace, is the path to reconciliation, and is a yes to meeting someone, to change, and to emotional enrichment. Friendship is the symbol of a positive development of coming together and of wanting to get to know and experience the other as an enrichment.

Mitraya stands for the happiness-bringing quality of friendship.

2. Ravaye

The Sanskrit word ravi is a name for the sun as the central planet in the solar system. The sun and its rays are the central and most powerful part of the solar system, and so is your soul. Ravaye symbolizes your soul as the center of all that you can experience, think and do. It makes you aware that you are the center of everything and therefore the most important of all. Without a center, there is no you and no one to experience, understand and act. Without you, life cannot live, develop and become. Without the soul, there is no one who can be conscious and can allow, transform and shape experiences. However, many get lost in this process of creating and translating, in this fascinating process of becoming, and forget to regularly descend to the truth that you are the most important in all of this. By experiencing this, you momentarily leave each becoming as it is and take the time to just be. Ravaye reminds you to occasionally take time to be with yourself, with the center of life that you are, to just be.

Ravaye stands for the happiness-bringing quality of taking time for yourself."

3. Suryaya

The Sanskrit word surya means sun and fire. The sun is a great fire; it burns and gives light, just as the soul burns like the flame of a candle and gives light that allows you to be conscious. Light is one thing, but the fire from which the light comes is another. Without fire, without commitment, you don't really commit to anything and you are lacking passion. Without the fire of your longing, you're not developing, you're not aware of your needs, and you're not stimulated to act in a worthwhile way. Passion brings you into flow, commitment gives you intensity, longing makes you take risks, and the fire of longing gives you the energy to work toward improvement. The fire of longing transforms, makes new things possible, and brought you into existence from your parents' longing for intimacy. The fire of longing is therefore the fire of creation, it longs for growth, it longs for blossoming, it longs for maturation, it longs for the new and the unknown. The fire of longing ensures that we don't remain inert out of fear, but that we move toward what we know deep down is happiness, despite the unknown.

Suryaya stands for the happiness-bringing quality of involvement.

4. Bhanave

The Sanskrit word bhanis means light-giver and represents the light of the sun that lets you see and perceive, that gives you sight. This seeing and perceiving refers to both your interiority, your consciousness, and what is at the surface, the manifestation of everything. You don't always realize how extraordinary it is to be aware of things and to perceive and see things. In addition, as a human being, you have the ability to become aware of more things out of interest and to learn to perceive in a more subtle way. In this way, consciousness and whatever you wish to see and perceive can deepen and expand infinitely. Understanding, seeing, and distinguishing all the wondrous things creates a tremendous wealth and leads to feelings of gratitude. Gratitude for the abundance of everything you received and continue to receive and how this makes you feel.

Bhanave stands for the happiness-bringing quality of gratitude.

5. Khagaya

The Sanskrit word khaga means to fly. Flying symbolizes freedom. The sun and its energy are free and unbound, while all the other planets relate to it in a certain fixed way. The light of the sun also moves freely through the cosmos, just as the light of the soul moves freely through you. Internally, this means that the soul is unbound and free, and all your developments and changes relate in some way to this inner core of yourself. Because your soul is always the same, you can recognize yourself looking back at different ages, such as when you were two, ten, and twenty. If your soul also changed, life would be chaotic with no recognizable thread of development. The soul is unbound, and the rest can change and still be recognizable. The light of the movie stays the same, pure and clear, so you can follow the movie well. If the light were also constantly changing, the movie would be chaotic. So the core remains unbound and free while everything around it changes. The soul enters a person at birth and leaves at death; the soul is free, flying and unbound, while the body is bound by the laws of nature. To evolve, to develop, to unfold, a person needs freedom, which is related to circumstances, but also very much related to how free one is to think, feel, and experience oneself as one truly is.

Khagaya stands for the happiness-bringing quality of freedom.

6. Pushne

The Sanskrit word push means to nourish and to flourish. The sun is the giver of life and therefore of all that grows and all the fruits that ripen. As a human being, you need adequate nourishment and income to live in some degree of prosperity and contentment. Nourishment is everything you take in: food, impressions, money, and so on. Income is financial nourishment. What is sufficient varies from person to person and situation to situation, but you feel happiest when you have enough income and nourishment on all levels to do what you wish to do. In order to know and feel what you truly desire, it is important to feel what aligns with your soul, for this is the quickest way to bring you into harmony with who you truly are. Therefore, you can be happy with less possessions and money if you feel your inner being, your essence, your soul, and you can be unhappy with a lot of possessions and money if you don't feel your essence or soul.

Pushne stands for the happiness-bringing quality of contentment.

7. Hiranyagarbhaya

The Sanskrit word hiranyagarbhaya means golden womb. The sun, and thus the soul, is seen here as the golden womb, meaning that the sun is the radiant birthplace of everything, for without the sun, the earth and you would not exist. The sun, and thus the soul, is the origin of life and light, the source of richness and happiness. The sun, which shines constantly, is itself the source of happiness, and that is why it radiates. You, who are constantly engaged and living, are yourself the source of your happiness, which lives and radiates when you allow it. Your soul is your source of radiant happiness, and therefore it is important to love your soul and experience self-love as the source of happiness. Self-love not for your ego, as that tends towards narcissism, but self-love for your soul as the source of life and happiness. The closeness of the soul to you is fantastic; it can make you feel that without your soul you cannot live and that without your soul, the source of happiness, of gold, of richness would not exist.

Hiranyagarbhaya stands for the happiness-bringing quality of self-love.

8. Maricaye

The Sanskrit word marici is a name for healing energy. It refers to the sun and its light in the sense that it can be healing, just as the soul has a healing influence on you when you feel its energy and it brings you into meditation. Healing energy is energy that removes imbalance. Outwardly by resolving disputes and conflicts, and inwardly by balancing diseases and psychological disturbances. Internally, however, there are many more situations of imbalance that are not visible as diseases or disturbances. Healing energy is energy that wants to bring all of this back into balance, that wants to bring all of this from division back into wholeness. Energy that removes imbalance within you is a form of intimacy because it reaches deep within you and makes everything as whole and complete as possible. The sexual desire for intimacy is also a longing for wholeness, for completion and completeness. Intimacy is the feeling that you are alone and yet missing something, or that you are a masculine or feminine aspect and yet missing the other aspect to be whole. It is precisely in the absence of the other that you become aware of your individuality and your own sexuality, and in knowing yourself so clearly, you know what you need for the wholeness you long for. In this sense, your soul is deeply connected to your sexuality, for it is there that you know who you are, what you long for, and what your path to wholeness will be.

Maricaye stands for the happiness-bringing quality of intimacy.

9. Adityaya

The Sanskrit word aditi means mother. Here the sun is referred to as the light of all lights, because the sun gives light to all the other planets, just as the soul gives inspiration to everything. That which gives light to everything is like a mother who first gives life to all her children and then provides them with a safe refuge. It is the soul that animates every experience and that always takes you in its arms and wants to give you a sense of safety and security when something in your experiences does not go the way you want it to go. The soul is always there, just as in normal circumstances the mother is always there for the child. It is in the safety of the mother that the child learns to deal with emotions, pain, setbacks, and the like. And in the safety of the mother soul, the soul of all souls, you as an individual soul find safety and you as a human being find safe refuge in the light of your individual soul. Safety is important for your development and both the mother and your soul are in principle responsible for this safety, just as the womb is responsible for your physical birth and existence, and as the vessel for the birth of all your experiences and their existence. The soul is then, as it were, your spiritual mother.

Adityaya stands for the happiness-bringing quality of safety.

10. Savitre

The Sanskrit word savitri means rays of sunlight that dispel darkness, just as the soul, when you feel its energy, dispels all your sadness and fear. This quality is about the light that provides insight and inspiration, illuminating your path through life. Light that helps you see through things, like realizing that something is just a movie or that a rope in the street is not a snake, helps you see through illusions to what is real. In this way, the light of the soul helps you to see that all your ideas are just trains of thought, and without the light of the soul you would not be able to see them. It is also the light of inspiration, the light that allows you to see something in a brief moment that gives your life a strong sense of direction and progress. My inspirational moment that Surya gave me was so profound and significant that it inspired me to write a book about the depth of the experience. The inspirational moment lasted only a few seconds, but writing the book kept me busy for years and enriched and gave direction to my life. Insight and inspiration are enlightening qualities that give you insight into what you are doing and what appeals to you, what is important to you. Insight and inspiration are, in normal circumstances, like the wise words of a father, who lovingly helps you to understand yourself, to know yourself, and to recognize your strengths, knowing that you will only be happy if you are in harmony with yourself. Such guidance is most easily received from your spiritual father, from your soul.

Savitre stands for the happiness-bringing quality of self-knowledge.

11. Arkaya

The Sanskrit word arka means ray of light and vastness. It refers to the infinite vastness of light in the sense that no matter what happens, the light will continue to shine and one day reach its destination. This means that no matter what happens, the light will one day reach the seed to make it blossom, and no matter what happens, the light of the soul will one day reach you and reveal to you the depth of your existence and its values. The light as an energy that is always there for you and that you will always eventually reach, just as the seed of a rose will always eventually become a rose, and you will always eventually become what you are, in alignment with what you are in your being and in your soul. Arkaya is about the light of your destiny, the light that continues to shine for you until you realize what your destiny is. Everyone wants to reach their destiny, but it has nothing to do with willpower, it has to do with letting yourself be told, being enlightened from within what your destiny is. Many people are like rose seeds that no longer see and know that they are essentially roses. They look at the world in amazement, dazed and fascinated, and forget to make contact with their own destiny. If you go to bed tonight and tell yourself that you are going somewhere tomorrow, you will know your destination in the morning. Many people do not realize that at the end of their previous life they wished for something and expressed that wish, and that is now their destiny. That is why it is important to be open to what your destiny is, what you carry as your deepest longing and motivation, and what the light of your soul is continuously shining on until you open up to it and recognize it. When you are reconnected to that light, you will know what you want to do with your life, so you can take responsibility for it and begin your journey through life.

Arkaya stands for the happiness-bringing quality of having sight of your destiny.

12. Bhaskaraya

The Sanskrit word bhaskara means creator of light. The word is used here to refer to the sun as a kind of divine creator, just as the soul makes all your inner experiences possible. Most people now know that gods are merely an interpretation of what we cannot fathom, name, or understand. In the past, this was the sun and all sorts of other natural phenomena. Religions have tried to refine this by assigning special people and mythical figures to this role, but ultimately the fact is that a person can only be as refined as his openness to the relationship with his own soul, with his inner sun. Unfortunately, this is often not the case with religious people, precisely because of the ideas they cling to. Without an open relationship with one's own soul, an external God becomes only an authority to be feared or dreaded, and this fear is not a good basis for growth and development, because these come only from friendship. However, it is important that you have the ability to name and give form to that which you cannot fathom, that which you do not understand, and that which seems unbelievable, even if you call it God or use a mythical example. Everyone needs their own unique way of expressing this, for it is the freedom to give form and expression to the unbelievable that can create space for the experience of meaning in your life. You can then honor the unbelievable in your own way, in the name of your wonder and awe. You can then give the unbelievable a place in relation to your experiences and thereby place your life and actions in a meaningful framework. You can then see the unbelievable as that which you are returning to and that from which you came, and thus not feel lost. These are all important frames of reference for you, and they give meaning to your life, in part because they allow the unnameable to become a nameable part of your life again. Giving meaning places your experiences in a more complete frame of reference, which provides peace and perspective, and within which more comprehensive developments are possible. It is precisely through how you interpret the unbelievable and incomprehensible and give it a place in your experience that you give depth and meaning to your life. Everyone needs that depth and meaning, even if it is a form of atheism or something similar.

Bhaskaraya stands for the happiness-bringing quality of meaning.

Humor

And of course, and the authors of the book also say this about what everyone has told them and written to them, there is one more thing to all of these truths that matters and that is also important in my interaction with the work of The Light of Being: humor. Humor is the yellow and orange of the sun, the joyful colors of the warm light. Humor ensures that you do not take anything too seriously and that you always feel behind your ideas that the soul underneath or behind your perception is the light of truth and not what you see through the light.

Everything is interpretation and only the light is real and pure, is everything and the whole. So yes, however true, profound, touching and moving the truths described here may be, humor always shows how easily you can let go of something or get attached to it. Humor, not in a sarcastic way or to be hurtful or nasty, but humor to put things into perspective and to be freed from thoughts you are inclined to cling to. Truth has to be lived and is therefore constantly changing, truth never has anything to do with ideas or beliefs. You do not believe because you are sure that something is not true or because you want something to be true, but because we still know so little about life and our humanity. You do not have to start believing, you can simply give the unbelievable a venerable place in your life as the unbelievably great, unimaginably profound. And laugh at everything you do not yet know, because it will continue to show you that what you thought you knew is not as you thought, but that it is even more fantastic, even more incredible than you imagined. May we endlessly be surprised by what comes, enriched by what we receive, and surrender to the fullness of the whole to which we, in any case, belong.

* Translated from Dutch using DeepL (AI)

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Anandajay (which means “blessing from the heart”) has been dedicated to integrating the spiritual essence into daily life for over 50 years. He has developed twelve teachings (spiritual practices), 50 music albums (mantras, pujas and ragas) and twenty books (written in Dutch) to bring you closer to the natural basis of your existence, your spiritual authenticity, and its wholesome, joyful essence, so that it can also be your shining, spiritual guide in your life. He expresses the core value of his work as: The Light of Being.