In all my notes, I insist festival driven life. Each उत्सव/पर्व comes with alteration in life routine. ChaTha pUjA is no exception.

We do not see same person with same outlook every time. There is no generalization. If you happen to know that the fellow traveler in train is CEO of fortune 500, your response would suddenly change.

It is natural for human mind to alter perception based on the information we receive for others.

For persons, we change our outlook for better communication. When we do same for our interactions with nature, we can communicate with nature in best ways and deserve best returns in terms of spiritual progress and physical stability.

When we see nature, our outlook should also change as per season of the year. For Sun, we have 12 different archetypes to revere. One for each month.

In each month of the year, it is a different aditya who shines. As Indra, Surya destroys the enemies of the gods. As Dhata, he creates living beings. As Parjanya, he showers down rain. As Tvashta, he lives in the trees and herbs. As Pusha, he makes foodgrains grow. As Aryama, he is in the wind. As Bhaga, he is in the body of all 0living beings. As Vivasvana, he is in fire and helps to cook food. As Vishnu, he destroys the enemies of the gods. As Amshumana, he is again in the wind. As Varuna, Surya is in the waters and as Mitra, he is in the moon and in the oceans.

चैत्र शुक्ल पक्ष से हिन्दू अपना नववर्ष प्रारंभ मानते हैं। इसी चैत्र में धाता सूर्य, कृतस्थली अप्सरा, हेति राक्षस, वासुकी सर्प, रथकृत यक्ष, पुलस्त्य ऋषि और तुम्बुरू गन्धर्व के साथ यात्रा संपन्न करते हैं।

So when you do Surya Namaskar in चैत्र, concentrate on धाता सूर्य. Pray धाता for wellbeing of everyone. Pray धाता to give your strength to contribute in various yagna. Pray धाता to consider you as his son.

And when month changes, change your perception about सूर्य to realize his seasonal changes.

Isn’t it primitive culture where Sun = Sun every day? Poor Indians, they are moving from rich knowledge to dumb reductionist generalization.

One more New Year Indians celebrate is in कार्तिक month. In कार्तिक, सूर्य is in विष्णु form. छठ पूजा विष्णु पूजाही है| Unless you concentrate on human form of सूर्य, it is impossible to imbibe his well described scriptural characteristics.

 

It is विष्णु-सूर्य who will instill new fresh प्राण after उग्र स्वरुप of वर्षा (वरुण,इंद्र) & शरद(विवस्वान,त्वष्टा). Soon, Vishnu will wake up on Prabodhini Ekadashi. This is preparation for प्रवृतिमय उत्तरायण पर्व series.

Here is the detail of 12 Aditya(s) and their associates as per Srimad Bhagavatam 12.11.27-49.

Vishnu as the sun-god, Asvatara as the Naga, Rambha as the Apsara, Suryavarca as the Gandharva, Satyajit as the Yaksa, Visvamitra as the sage and Makhapeta as the Raksasa rule the month of Urja.

Now comes validity of different forms of Surya by shallow modern science, learning to cope up with rich Sanatana Dharma.

Sunshine matters a lot to mental health; temperature, pollution, rain not so much

https://news.byu.edu/news/sunshine-your-pocket-byu-study-shows-sun-time-primary-weather-variable-impacting-mental-health

Sunshine matters. A lot. The idea isn’t exactly new, but according to a recent BYU study, when it comes to your mental and emotional health, the amount of time between sunrise and sunset is the weather variable that matters most.

Your day might be filled with irritatingly hot temperatures, thick air pollution and maybe even pockets of rainclouds, but that won’t necessarily get you down. If you’re able to soak up enough sun, your level of emotional distress should remain stable. Take away sun time, though, and your distress can spike. This applies to the clinical population at large, not just those diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

“That’s one of the surprising pieces of our research,” said Mark Beecher, clinical professor and licensed psychologist in BYU Counseling and Psychological Services. “On a rainy day, or a more polluted day, people assume that they’d have more distress. But we didn’t see that. We looked at solar irradiance, or the amount of sunlight that actually hits the ground. We tried to take into account cloudy days, rainy days, pollution . . . but they washed out. The one thing that was really significant was the amount of time between sunrise and sunset.”Therapists should be aware that winter months will be a time of high demand for their services. With fewer sun time hours, clients will be particularly vulnerable to emotional distress. Preventative measures should be implemented on a case-by-case basis.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, started with a casual conversation that piqued Beecher’s professional curiosity.

“Mark and I have been friends and neighbors for years, and we often take the bus together,” said Lawrence Rees, a physics professor at BYU. “And of course you often talk about mundane things, like how are classes going? How has the semester been? How ‘bout this weather? So one day it was kind of stormy, and I asked Mark if he sees more clients on these days. He said he’s not sure, it’s kind of an open question. It’s hard to get accurate data.”

A lightbulb went off in Rees’ head. As a physics professor, Rees had access to weather data in the Provo area. As a psychologist, Beecher had access to emotional health data for clients living in Provo.

“We realized that we had access to a nice set of data that not a lot of people have access to,” Beecher said. “So Rees said, ‘Well, I’ve got weather data,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve got clinical data. Let’s combine the pair!’ Wonder Twin powers activate, you know?”

The duo then brought in BYU statistics professor Dennis Eggett, who developed the plan for analyzing the data and performed all of the statistical analyses on the project.

Several studies have attempted to look at the weather’s effect on mood with mixed results. Beecher cited four reasons why this study is an improvement on previous research:

1. The study analyzed several meteorological variables such as wind chill, rainfall, solar irradiance, wind speed, temperature and more.
2. The weather data could be analyzed down to the minute in the exact area where the clients lived.
3. The study focused on a clinical population instead of a general population.
4. The study used a mental health treatment outcome measure to examine several aspects of psychological distress, rather than relying on suicide attempts or online diaries.

Sunshine on my shoulders: Weather, pollution, and emotional distress

http://www.jad-journal.com/article/S0165-0327(16)30655-3/abstract

Seasonal changes in sun time were found to best account for relationships between weather variables and variability in mental health distress. Increased mental health distress was found during periods of reduced sun time hours. A separate analysis examining subjects’ endorsement of a suicidality item, though not statistically significant, demonstrated a similar pattern. Initial results showed a relationship between pollution and changes in mental health distress; however, this was mediated by sun time.