The verse and its meaning · Stotras · Stotras — Aditya Hridayam

Golden Womb, Gentle Heat

Aditya Hridayam 12

हिरण्यगर्भश्शिशिरस्तपनो भास्करो रविः । अग्निगर्भोऽदितेः पुत्रश्शङ्खश्शिशिरनाशनः

Meaning · English

Golden womb, cool and gentle, giver of heat, maker of light, the Sun; carrying fire within, son of Aditi, Śaṅkha (the auspicious one), ender of winter's cold.

These are more names for the sun, and some of them pair cool with heat. He is the golden womb, the seed things come from. He is cool and soothing, and he is also the one who burns. He makes the light, and he is Ravi, his most familiar name. He holds fire inside himself. He is Aditi's son. He is Śaṅkha, a word read as the auspicious or the calm one, and he drives away the cold of winter. Heat and gentleness sit in one line, as two sides of one sun.

Picture a cast-iron stove in winter. Glowing coals are shut inside a heavy box, while the room around it is only comfortably warm. You can sit beside it with your hands held out. The fire inside is fierce, but what reaches you is kind. That is the sun of these names: fire held within, gentle to come near, and the end of the cold.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Horses, Rays, Darkness Churned · Aditya Hridayam 11
• Next: Sky Lord, Rain Friend · Aditya Hridayam 13
• All of Stotras · Ask Krishna about it

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