Lord Sun defeats Rahu after being eaten

[This article was composed on July 22, 2009, But could not be published due to internet issues]

Well, had we been living in the age old era, the headlines of the newspapers would have been similar to the one above. But, this is not the truer side of the story. Yes, I am talking about one of the rare celestial phenomena which occurred today. I am talking about the solar eclipse.

Since past few days a lot of things were being discussed and written in news channels and print dailies. The astronomers predicted that this is going to be the longest duration total eclipse of the century, with the totality lasting up to 6 minutes and 44 seconds. The next eclipse which will pass this duration will occur in 2134. Therefore this event was a must watch as it was a once in a life time opportunity.A number of channels had organized a discussion on the causes and effects of eclipse, involving scientists and astrologers. While, astrologers believe that such celestial incidents have positive and negative effects on life of individuals and may even bring severe calamities. However scientists obviously denied the claim as there is no direct scientific evidence for the same. However, there are a number of astrologers (Jyotishi) who advice people of the ill effects of the phenomena. Generally, people are advised not to be asleep and eat anything during the period of eclipse. Pregnent women are advised to stay indoors and not to see the eclipse. They prescribe various pujas and other instruments to ward off evil spirits. A news channel aired a senior Jyotishacharya, who rubbished such claims and prescriptions as being made by (Ponga pundits) and said that these people do not really have knowledge of Jyotish and are misguiding people because they want them to be there customers.

Reasons for occurrences:
Scientific reason: Earth rotates around sun and moon rotates around moon. Sun's light illuminates both earth and moon. However when all three comes in a straight line, with moon being in between sun and earth, the moon blocks rays of sun and prevents them in reaching to earth. This is what we call eclipse.
Mythological reason: This is a bit interesting. According to Hindu mythology, Gods and demons were involved in Sagar Manthan (Sea churning), when a pot filled with nectar came out every body started fighting for drinking it, as one who drinks it would become immortal. Lord Vishnu thought that demons cause trouble to everyone, and if they become immortal, they will cause destruction of the world. So, he took the form of a beautiful woman and said everyone that everyone should sit in a que and then she will distribute it. However, Lord Vishnu served nectar only to Gods. Sensing the cheating a demon named Rahu-Ketu changed into dress of Gods and sat among them, and had the nectar. However soon Lord Sun and Moon identified, because of which Rahu-Ketu started running. Then Lord Vishnu cut his head using his Sudarshana Chakra. Thus the head was called Rahu and the remaining part as Ketu, the same is believed to be eating Sun and Moon every now and then because of his animosity with two deities.

The total eclipse was to be seen at a strip passing covering Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Parts of UP, Bihar, and north east in India. the remaining parts of India were to see the partial eclipse. Excited by a lot of media attention, I had also prepared myself to watch the eclipse in the morning. I took out my camera and charged the battery so that I may be able to take the picture. The timing of eclipse was from 5:21 AM to 7:30 AM.My room mate set an alarm of 5:15 AM. in the morning both of us got up together just to find out that the alarm had not went off as expected, but we had not lost much time as it was only 5:45 AM. Unfortunately, Hyderabad had been witnessing rains for past few days, and the weather was heavily clouded, so we had no chance to see the eclipse. Then we switched on TV, to enjoy at least there. First news. Surat which was supposed to be the first city to witness it was raining. Then news came in that there are clouds in almost all of Gujarat, MP, UP and Bihar. Then news came that Bhopal is also raining. Luckily in Varanasi the eclipse was visible as the cluods were very thin there. A small village in Bihar, Taregna was the center of all news till today morning as NASA had declared it the best spot to view the eclipse, however the clouds spoiled the party here too. A host of VIPs including state chief minister, MLAs, scientists, media person had camped here just to be disappointed.

The TV showed total eclipse at three locations, Varanasi, Tawang and a place in China. At approximately 6:21 AM, the moon covered the sun completely and all of a sudden Varanasi witnessed complete dark for about 4 minutes. In the end there was a beautiful diamond ring. Though the eclipse in Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh) and China were clear, but they were not as spectacular as at Varanasi. Other places in Central and Western India could not see the eclipse, because of cloud cover, but these places also witnessed the complete dark during the period of total eclipse.

I have downloaded a few photographs of today's total solar eclipse at Varanasi from the internet (Source: TimesofIndia.Com), which I am showing here.