Surya
Surya — dispeller of darkness (Surya name 3 of 12)
ॐ सूर्याय नमः
Oṁ Sūryāya Namaḥ
Simple reading: Om soor-yaa-ya na-mah
About this mantra
Surya — the name the whole star answers to — is third: the impeller, from the root that means to set in motion. He does not merely shine; he drives — sap up the stems, winds across the oceans, the whole machinery of the day. This is the sun as mover of everything that moves.
Meaning
Om, salutations to Surya — the impeller, dispeller of darkness. The name makes the sun a verb as much as a light: that which sets things going. The reciter bows to the force that has already set this very morning in motion, and asks to be moved by it rather than by inertia.
When to recite it
One of the twelve names of the Surya Namaskar cycle — recited one per posture at sunrise, or counted together as a Sunday (Ravivar) jaap. Take up Surya when momentum is the need — a stalled project, a slow recovery, a morning that refuses to start.
Word by word
- ॐoṁ
- the primordial sound
- सूर्यायsūryāya
- the impeller, dispeller of darkness
- नमःnamaḥ
- I bow, salutations
Source: Sūrya Namaskāra mantra sequence (traditional twelve names of Sūrya)