श्री सूर्य देव की आरती (जय कश्यप नन्दन)

The Sun's āratī that begins 'Jai Kaśyapa nandana, Om jai Aditi nandana' — son of Kaśyapa and of Aditi, cutter-down of the darkness of the three worlds, sandalwood to the heart of the devotee. Seven couplets, and unusually specific about what it asks for. He rides a chariot of seven horses on a single wheel; gods, sages and brahmins bow to him; he is the begetter of every good work and the loosener of the heavy bonds of existence; he opens the massed lotuses and destroys the three torments. Two of its lines name plain afflictions rather than spiritual ones — he takes away disease of the eyes and the suffering of the earth, and he releases the withheld rain — and then the closing couplet asks for none of that, but for the removal of ignorance and delusion and the gift of knowledge of what is real.