Father's Day, Health and FItness, International Yoga Day, Solar Eclipse 2020

21st June 2020 – What’s so special?

Usually, my posts are about food and travel but today I am writing a special post dedicated to 21st June 2020! What makes it special this year? Three events close to my heart are coinciding on this day – Solar Eclipse, Father’s Day and International Yoga Day! Also, it happens to be the longest day of the year!

Solar Eclipse:: I just love astronomy. Space, Stars, Galaxies fascinates me a lot. Today we see the annual Solar Eclipse of the year 2020. It was partially visible because of the clouds in our city, Pune, India. But whatever we saw was the beauty of nature!

Photo by Alex Andrews on Pexels.com

We used to follow this tradition of chanting prayers, not consuming anything during the eclipse and cleaning kitchen, clean the food and water storage and taking bath after the eclipse. These traditions are losing their importance these days. Do you still follow any of them?

Today, I received a whatsapp forward mentioning the writing about the Solar Eclipse in our vedas. Not sure about the authenticity though. It is such a proud feeling that 1000s of years ago, when nobody knew about the Eclipse, our one of the oldest vedas – Rigveda had the mention of Solar Eclipse…

Rig Veda 5.40.5,5.40.9
यत् त्वा सूर्य स्वर्भानुस्तमसाविध्यदासुर∶Ι     
अक्षेत्रविद् यथा मुग्धो भुवनान्यदीधयुःΙΙ5ΙΙ
यं वै सूर्यं स्वर्भानुस्तमसाविध्यदासुर∶Ι
अत्रयस्तमन्वविन्दन् नह्यन्ये अशक्नुवन्ΙΙ9ΙΙ

Which translates, “O Sun, when you are blocked by someone whom you gifted your own light (moon), then earth gets confused by darkness”.

How interesting!

Father’s Day:: Also, today is Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day to all of those who are celebrating. Though, personally we believe dedicating a single day to celebrate the special person be it your father, mother, brother, sister, wife, friend or any one can not define the amount of love you do. Rather each day should be special when you have loved ones in your life. Enjoy the special moments of your life, cherish them. Make them feel valuable and share how much they mean to you. Do not wait for a particular day. Life is too short for regrets!

International Yoga Day :: Yoga was originated in ancient India and an amalgamation of physical, mental and spiritual discipline. It gives you mental strength, flexibility, awareness by balancing the body, mind and soul. Yog is bascially derived from a sanskrit word, “Yuj” which means “to join or unite.” Yoga professes you to connect or unite your inner consciousness with the universal one. It lets you connect with nature, space.

“Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self” – Bhagwad Gita.

The most important message of ancient India to modern India and also to the world is, “To go outside, you also have to first go inside“. That means, before knowing about the world, search for yourself, know yourself, your consciousness. Who you are, where did you come from, what is your purpose and what you are doing.

5 years since the inception, each year 21st June is celebrated as the International Yoga Day. Each year the theme is different and this year it is – ‘Yoga for health – Yoga at home‘.

I hope you liked reading it. Your suggestions and comments bring a smile on my face. Please share your views in the comment box. Love to read from you! 🙂 

19 thoughts on “21st June 2020 – What’s so special?”

  4. Great post as usual Madam..!! Liked the article.. 😊😊
    Indian Civilization is unique and has been continuous since the time of the Vedas. Liked your mention of the alignment of Yoga Day, Father’s Day, Summer Solstice (you missed it I guess) and Solar Eclipse all happening on 21st June 2020.
    I saw the eclipse earlier this year, plus this being a Sunday didn’t evoke much interest from me to go out and see this again. I do the cleaning and bathing part on a daily basis, eclipse or no eclipse, and I don’t like practices without a scientific rationale. Speaking of Science, the Rig Vedic quote you mentioned is great, and ancient Indian scriptures do contain a lot of Science in them (including estimation of the speed of light) if properly analysed.
    And as you rightly said, I appreciate all the loved ones on a daily basis. Days like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day etc are marked so that the loved ones may be given gifts. Other than that, every day should be cherished as Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day etc.
    Thank you Madam for sharing such a lovely article..!! 😊😊

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  5. Wow – what a lot of great things all in one day.

    I completely agree with you about Father’s Day and the like. We generally don’t celebrate any holidays in our family. We enjoy the time off when we have it but don’t feel as if because the calendar says a particular thing now we have to be extra nice to someone. It feels weird, for example, to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Why would you set aside just one day for the one you love? What do you do the rest of the year? Why buy a gift because the calendar tells you? Instead, why not buy a gift when your heart tells you?

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