Surya Dev सूर्य देव

Seated in gold, lotuses in his raised hands, the sun-disc blazing behind him and his charioteer at his feet — Surya Dev, the Sun himself, shines in his shrine at our mandir.

Who he is

Surya is the deity you have already seen today. He is God made visible — the light by which every other thing is seen, honoured since the oldest hymns of the Rig Veda. Hindus turn to him for health, vitality and clarity: of body, of mind, of purpose. He is the witness of all deeds, before whom nothing is hidden, and the giver of the day itself.

The tradition pictures him crossing the sky in a golden chariot drawn by seven horses — the seven days, the seven colours folded inside white light — driven by Aruna, the red glow of dawn who always goes ahead of the sun.

Reading his form

• The radiant disc behind him — the sun’s own corona, his unmistakable sign.
• A lotus in each raised hand — life opening to the light; the lotus follows the sun across the sky.
• The charioteer at his base — Aruna, dawn himself, reins in hand. Look for him: he is the surest way to know Surya from every other golden murti.
• Gold upon gold — the colour of the light he is.

Surya at our mandir

His day is Sunday — the sun’s day in the Hindu week as in the English one — and devotees honour him especially at Makar Sankranti in mid-January, when he turns northward and the days begin to grow, and at Chhath (October–November), the great fast offered to the rising and the setting sun.

The simplest of all his observances needs no temple at all: surya arghya, water poured toward the rising sun with folded hands. Many of our sangat keep it every morning, in Willenhall as their grandparents did in Punjab. See Surya Dev’s shringar — dressed through the seasons like every murti in the mandir.