<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->as I understand, all stars (suns) are Adityas, one of whom is Surya? <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Absolutely. Primary term used in Rigved is Aditya. Aditya is the basic concept, then there are specific names of each of the various Adityans - Mitra, Surya, Khag, Savitra, PushNa, Rav....(though not all stars are Adityas, only those which contribute to creation of life)
Some have interpreted that there may have actually been 13 different suns, one after the other, and some times even parallelly, over the zillions of years of life in this universe, causing and flowering the life!
On Makar Sankranti, there is a tradition of donating 13 different dhAnya - seeds. Each of these are dedicated to each of those Adityas, as a mark of gratefulness for having it made possible. In Surya Namaskar cycle, we repeat namaskar for 13 times in each cycle. Aditya is the custodian of life (and death) and therefore one of the Yamas too. So, we celebrate 13 days of death, as our final sanskar is on 13th day.
In PaurAnik sense, Aditya comes from Aditi, mother of all the devas, and her eldest son. Etymologically, Aditya comes from Adi-tya, doer of the beginning, 'the initiator'. And why not! All beginning of life begins with the beginning of Aditya!
So we can say, with some difficulty in English, this. Aditya is the CONCEPT-sun, while Surya (and others) are IMPLEMENT-suns.
Importance of sun has been understood by all civilizations, even if Hindus took it to such philosophical and scientific sophistication.
Then GurutvakarshaNa may be more accurately understood like this. Guru does not only mean master, but other things too. 'Gu' means darkness, 'ru' means removing, 'tva' is 'ness', 'karsh' is pulling. GurutvakarshaNa means 'the pull by the one that is remover of the darkness'. In more basic sense 'guru' means heavy too. so gurutvakarshaNa may mean 'attraction because of the virtue of heaviness'. Very interesting.
Regarding western interpretation of Vedas. All west depends largely upon Max Muller's version. Maharshi Dayanand has shown, with ample proof, how that version is a translation of the translation of the translation of the translation of the Vedas, and therefore as removed from real meanings contained in them.
[This is worth a disclaimer. Above is my (mis?)understanding only, which can be completely, largely or at least partly wrong]
Absolutely. Primary term used in Rigved is Aditya. Aditya is the basic concept, then there are specific names of each of the various Adityans - Mitra, Surya, Khag, Savitra, PushNa, Rav....(though not all stars are Adityas, only those which contribute to creation of life)
Some have interpreted that there may have actually been 13 different suns, one after the other, and some times even parallelly, over the zillions of years of life in this universe, causing and flowering the life!
On Makar Sankranti, there is a tradition of donating 13 different dhAnya - seeds. Each of these are dedicated to each of those Adityas, as a mark of gratefulness for having it made possible. In Surya Namaskar cycle, we repeat namaskar for 13 times in each cycle. Aditya is the custodian of life (and death) and therefore one of the Yamas too. So, we celebrate 13 days of death, as our final sanskar is on 13th day.
In PaurAnik sense, Aditya comes from Aditi, mother of all the devas, and her eldest son. Etymologically, Aditya comes from Adi-tya, doer of the beginning, 'the initiator'. And why not! All beginning of life begins with the beginning of Aditya!
So we can say, with some difficulty in English, this. Aditya is the CONCEPT-sun, while Surya (and others) are IMPLEMENT-suns.
Importance of sun has been understood by all civilizations, even if Hindus took it to such philosophical and scientific sophistication.
Then GurutvakarshaNa may be more accurately understood like this. Guru does not only mean master, but other things too. 'Gu' means darkness, 'ru' means removing, 'tva' is 'ness', 'karsh' is pulling. GurutvakarshaNa means 'the pull by the one that is remover of the darkness'. In more basic sense 'guru' means heavy too. so gurutvakarshaNa may mean 'attraction because of the virtue of heaviness'. Very interesting.
Regarding western interpretation of Vedas. All west depends largely upon Max Muller's version. Maharshi Dayanand has shown, with ample proof, how that version is a translation of the translation of the translation of the translation of the Vedas, and therefore as removed from real meanings contained in them.
[This is worth a disclaimer. Above is my (mis?)understanding only, which can be completely, largely or at least partly wrong]