A very happy Pongal and Shankaranti to all my readers !! I hope you are celebrating with your families and enjoying some tasty chakkarai pongal today. For those unfamiliar with this festival, this ancient celebration marks the new harvest but also uttarayana, the northward movement of the sun. The festival is dedicated to Surya, the Sun God. It is appropriate therefore to mark the day with a recitation of Aaditya Hrudayam, the most powerful stotra dedicated to Surya.
Found in the 107th sarga of Yuddha Kanda in Valmiki Ramayana, the stotra is preached to Sri Rama by the sage Agastya. Tired mentally and physically with his war with Ravana and worried about Ravana’s Maya Shakti, Rama is adviced by sage Agastya to recite this ancient stotra three times to gain renewed energy and strength.
Aaditya Hrudayam is in other words ‘aaditasya hrudayam’ or the essence of the Sun God. In a spiritual sense, the essence or the innate qualities of the sun such as self-luminosity (swatejas), all pervading presence (sarvavyapi), witnessing without being involved (sakshi swaroopa) reflect the qualities of Brahman or the ultimate God (Reference: paper by Dileep Bellave , 2004)
Recitation of this beautiful and powerful stotra is said to give devotees strength to face difficulties and it also illuminates the mind. Who can say no to blessings such as these?
The stotra starts with describing the setting – Lord Rama’s state of mind and an introduction by sage Agastya.
सर्वमङ्गलमाङ्गल्यं सर्वपापप्रणाशनम्। चिन्ताशोकप्रशमनम् आयुर्वर्धनमुत्तमम्॥ ५॥
This hymn is supreme and is a guarantee of complete prosperity and is the destroyer of sin, anxiety, anguish and is the bestower of longevity.
Then the qualities of the Sun God are described; these mirror the qualities of Brahman. After this salutations are addressed to the God. The sage says तमोघ्नाय हिमघ्नाय शत्रुघ्नायामितात्मने। Salutations to the transcendental atman that dispels darkness, drives away all fear, and destroys all foes. This in essence is the power of the stotra. The last section describes the phalastuti or ‘fruits of reciting’.
For the lyrics in Sanskrit, transliteration and translation, click here.
Listen below to S.P.Balasubramaniam’s beautiful recital of the stotra.
To learn, it is easier with subtitled recitations on youtube like this.
Music To My Ears 
I am a new fan of your blog. Happy pongal to u.
Thank you shoote 🙂
Regular chanting with prostrations to the Sun god will give great health, self confidence, energy and also make you very visible wherever you go. It is indeed a most wonderful prayer.
Thank you for the comment. Indeed, its a very powerful prayer.
I appreciate the information you have been giving on Carnatic music.
About your notes on Uttarayana, please see the following from Wikipedia.
“The term Uttarayana is derived from two different Sanskrit words “uttara” (North) and “ayana” (movement) thus indicating a semantic of the northward movement of the Sun on the celestial sphere. This movement begins to occur a day after the winter solstice in December which occurs around 22 December and continues for a six-month period through to the summer solstice around June 21 (dates vary ). This difference is because the solstices are continually precessing at a rate of 50 arcseconds / year due to the precession of the equinoxes.”
Precession was not known to ancient Indian astronomers/astrologers.
Thank you for this info, I appreciate your interest. Sorry for the delayed reply, I have been busy with my travels.
cheers. Suja