Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 1/4/2005

Question
Dear Jayendra,

I am doing research for a book and have a question about the movement of our Sun as it travels around the galaxy. I was very excited to see your interest in metaphysical knowledge as well as scientific knowledge. My question is does our Sun move above and below the plane of the galactic center? I was led to believe that there is a Hindu belief that our Sun moves in circle that is perpendicular to the clockwise movement of galaxy. At times it is above the galactic plane and the other half of the time, below. The Hindu belief I was referring to is that the portion of the movement that is above the galactic plane and moving toward the center of the galaxy is known as the day and the portion that is below and moving away from the center is called the night. That the day is ruled by the feminine essence and that the night is ruled by the male essence, sort of like the Yin/Yang symbol. I appreciate any light you may shine upon this question.

Answer
Hi Jud,
Good to know of your "double interests" too.
I have NOT COME ACROSS any direct references to such a travel by the sun, in any Hindu literature.
Ofcourse we have concepts that might be of interest to you.
such as
1 - The day and night of Brahma. each of 4.32 billion years.
2 - The concept that one terrestrial year equals 1 day of the gods.
3 - Concepts of very large ages and numbers.
4 - Equating activity with the feminine principle "prakriti" and "inert consciousness" as the causal and masculine "purusha". Purush in the upanishadas is described as all pervading and omnipotent, but that which is there and not there. (meaning purush is disinterested unattached pure consciousness, all work falling in the realm of prakriti.)
5 - The big-bang concept (Hiranya-garbha sukta of the rig-veda). The hiranya-grabha sukta describes the primordial singularity in a series of negations. It establishes the supremeness of THAT as being above all known dependent-dualities (dwandwa)s, such as life-death, light-dark, hunger-satiation, day-night, up-down, etc.
THAT is the source that first feels "i am one let me be many" and starts the creation of cosmos from chaos!
And which after a timeless length sleeps again on the "waters" of chaos for another timeless eternity!
6 - Science does not allow stars to orbit in a plane at right angles to the plane of the milky way. Do understand OUR SUN is not special in any way.
Being knowledgeable demands being humble! (sad to say ;) )

I actually tend to believe that since we exist, we must end and since we end we must start over again. The holographic concept of all cosmos in an atom dictates that we must have some properties of our creator (named literally "THAT" in the upanishadas!), hence we come to "life" have our say and fade away..just to come back all over again. Afterall HE does the same! The difference is of degree and scale!
And dont the shastras say "thou art that"! (tat tvam asi)
Jayen