Aditi’s Eclipse: The Story Behind The Wonder

I’d always grown up with a strong sense of religion in my household. Whenever I needed guidance or I needed a sense of peace, anyone in my household would say that praying is the solution to your problems. 

As a strong Hindu believer, we believe (much like Christians), that there is a story behind everything that happened to create the world. Take the creation of life, for example. Only, instead of Adam and Eve, Brahma formed from a lotus and split himself in two to create a male and a female, which then created all other female and male beings. 

This was the reason why when my school announced that we would be viewing the next solar eclipse during class last week, I was so confused as to what exactly an eclipse was and how it happened. My friends had told me that according to Google (and science)  that an eclipse was when the moon blocked the sun’s light from reaching Earth, and it happens when the moon passes exactly between the sun and the Earth casting a shadow over parts of earth and obscuring the view of the sun in those places. 

I knew that was a valid explanation, but I felt there was a spiritual miracle behind the science of it. After reading through the Book Of Vedas, the ancient Hindu book that describes how the universe came to be, I finally got my answer. 

Hinduism is a polytheistic religion with one supreme God, Brahma, who is reincarnated in many ways in other Gods and Goddesses. Each deity is known for creating or controlling a certain element of the world. 

The goddess Aditi, is the goddess of the sky and the cosmos, and is the one who can create an eclipse with her power. She is also the mother of a group of celestial deities called the Adityas, who are each linked to a month out of the 12 months in a solar year.  

Each of Aditi’s sons is a celestial element, such as Mitra, guardian of human existence, or Varuna, guardian of cosmic order. All the sons have to work together, under the watchful guidance of their mother Aditi, to create harmony in the celestial universe. But 12 sons meant that there will be more than just the occasional argument. Indra, the god of meteors, has a fiery temper that can be wielded in the form of a meteorite that can either barely miss Earth, or destroy it altogether. Fortunately, Aditi can manage to calm him down before Earth gets blown apart altogether by a particularly forceful meteorite. 

The two sons who always seemed to be at odds with each other, however, were Chandra, god of the moon, and Savitri, god of the sun. They were constantly jealous of each other, the time they had. Chandra always felt that the sun had too much power for Savitri to handle, and Savitri felt that humans had always talked more about the moon than the sun, even though most humans were asleep when it rose. 

Since the two were always at odds, Aditi helped create Daylight Savings, so each god felt that they got equal time in power during the year. Even with this and other rules set in place, the two always had a major fight at least once each year. 

The fight would start with one god feeling underused or undervalued in the celestial world. It usually happens in a season where the other God is prominent (ex. Summer Solstice for Savitri, or Lunar New Year for the Moon). They’d start to feel jealous and want to find a way to assert and prove their power and place in the world. 

The gods' fight would eventually get so heated that the two powers can start to collide in space. Not physically, but spiritually. The sun is blocked by the moon and light doesn’t shine in places on Earth, forming an eclipse. The moon, however, can’t stay too long during the day and eventually gets pushed aside by the sun during daytime, until after sunset when the moon is free to rise again. 

Sometimes, the fights can cause other celestial incidents too. One time, Chandra was overshadowed by the sun trying to peek through the surface on a full-moon night, but the Savitri and the sun were unsuccessful. The moon stayed up in the sky, but the sun had managed to turn it an orangey, red color. As revenge, during the next full moon, Chandra made sure the moon shined enough for the sun to see it as bright as it would be on Earth. 

Another incident that could've been catastrophic to the world as we know it was when Chandra tricked Nakshatra (the God of stars) into shining sparkly during the day. This not only confused the Savitri and the sun, but it caused chaos and jealousy. Savitri wanted the sun to have the time it had during the day completely to himself - no star should be able to share it with him. This also confused humans on Earth, but not in a negative way. They were intrigued and started paying attention to the moon and its cycles more, which further angered Savitri, but contented Chandra. 

Aditi has tried hard to ensure that the chaos caused by these two gods is always short-lived, which is why a total eclipse is so rare. They may fight constantly, but they both know they would never fight so permanently that it would affect the state of the celestial universe. The eclipse is in effect for a few minutes, during the heat of the fight. But suddenly, just like the tensions between the brothers, the moon fades and the sun continues to shine until twilight comes and it rises again.

Aditi has also worked hard to try and repair the relationship between her two sons, and she has been slowly more and more successful. There hadn’t been a total eclipse for 17 years until now. She has slowly lessened their fights one by one and has made them more bearable to each other and everyone else. Even then, smaller eclipses still happen once in a while - they are brothers after all. 

After finding the answer, not only was I prepared to witness this captivating event, I was excited to see how long it would last! The school excitedly made its way down to the soccer field, where me and my friends were handed protective glasses. Some of my friends thought they were too embarrassing to wear, but I knew the rays of sun from Savitri were powerful, whether or not they were covered by Chandra’s moon. Shortly after putting on the glasses and adjusting myself to the new lighting, the eclipse began to make its way into view. 

I was hooked on this miracle. The wondrous shadows of the moon slowly began to move in front of the radiating light of the sun, almost like it was being pushed or pulled into place. When the moon completely obscured the sun, the whole sky as far as I could see went dark. It was completely pitch black for about 5 minutes, but it felt like a couple seconds. I marveled at what a fight between two celestial gods could show us humans on Earth. After it was over, I knew I had witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime event, and that night, I would pray for it to stay that way.