The Scientific and Historical Essence of Maker Sankranti and Ganga Sagar Festival

Hindus are progenitors of a heritage which combined spirituality and science with mystical secrets. The underlying core conviction of Hinduism is that there is only one supreme divinity and all emanates from that One. Simultaneously Hinduism believes the supreme divinity is beyond of number system. From nothing to infinity the Supreme Brahman exists. Every types of divine personalities are the expression of the Supreme Brahman, each reflecting one or more aspects of the divine qualities, duties and expression. The multi-faceted Vedic Hinduism’s original name is Sanatana Dharma (Eternal Order). Our ancients sages (Rishis) thought us the core philosophy of secret in simplest way that the inner core of human life is the combination of Sat-Chit-Anand (Reality-Consciousness-Spiritual satisfaction) and that environmental evolution is not separate from human life.To bring the science and spirituality to life, the philosophical ideas (Vedas) were transformed into beautiful allegorical ancient history.

Every year, on the occasion of the Ganga Sagar Mela, a large crowd of pilgrims gather on the island of Ganga Sagar on Makar Sankranti.The island in the Ganges delta, located on the Continental Shelf of the Bay of Bengal about 100 kilometers southeast Kolkata. The second largest mela after Kumbh Mela is the Ganga Sagar Mela. It's India's biggest fair in Sagardwip, West Bengal, and experiences a large group of people coming in. Celebrated with brilliant vigor and excitement, the event has a cultural and religious importance where pilgrims dive into the holy waters of Ganga to purify their souls.

Astronomical Significance

Hindus celebrate major cosmic changes (In this planet hinduism is one and only religious View that worships cosmology), such as the transmigration of the sun from one Zodiac sign (Rashi) as Sankranti. Of the twelve sankrantis (bcoz , there 12 zodiacs), Makara Sankranti on January 14th is the most significant; the sun passes through the winter solstice, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn (Makar).

Lets see what history is saying about the origin of this festival.

This sacred place is primarily important for the Temple Of Kapil Muni (Who invented the legendary Book "Sankhya-Darshanam") , the great saint who according to myth was Lord Vishnu. Kapil Muni was the son of Kardam Muni. In ancient history it was said that Kardam Muni wanted to get Lord Vishnu as his own son. Lord Vishnu had taken birth being his son & named Kapil Muni. Kapil Muni’s historical story is related with the story of bringing the Holy River Ganga at this place. The story is something like-
60,000 sons of King Sagar, who was the ancestor of Lord Sri Rama and king of Ayodhya, came at this place searching their sacred horse. The horse were infact stolen by Indra Dev and hidden at the ashrama of Kapil Muni. The sons of King Sagara did not know anything about Kapil Muni, they found the horse from the residence of Kapil Muni and mistakenly they started blaming Kapil Muni. Muni was furious, and his blaze of outrage came out of his eyes which burned the King's sons and confined their souls to hell.

Several years later King's grandson (the son of his daughter) Prince Bhagirath did come to Kapil Muni to ask and pray to Muni to free the souls of his maternal uncle from hell.
Kapil Muni advise Bhagirath that if the Mother Ganga emerges from heaven to earth, and if the divine water of Ganges passes over that prince's body ashes, then only the king's sons will be freed from hell otherwise no. Bhagirath managed to bring Devi Ganga to this place, and the souls were freed with the touch of this holy river of water. According to the narrative, the souls were liberated on the day of "Makar Sankranti"

Still after many centuries people come to this Ganga Sagar to get rid of the pain of their Bad karma (sin) and to earn grace from all over India and world. They take a sacred bath in this divine Sagar and receive blessings and worship the great saint Kapil Muni.

Other astrological and Historical Significance

1. The Puranas state that on this day, Sun is entering the house of his son Shani (Saturn), the lord of Makar Rashi. Such father and son don't generally get along comfortably, but in spite of any discrepancy between each other, Lord Sun makes it a point to join each other on this day. Father actually comes to his son's house for a month. This day symbolized the value of a father's special bonding.

2. Another well-known connection of this day came when Mahabharata, Bhishma, on this day proclaimed his intention to leave his mortal coil. His father had Ichha-Mrityu's boon, so he kept lying on arrow bed until this day, and then left his mortal coil on Makar Sankranti's day. The person who dies during the Uttarayana era, is believed to be free from the endless circle of life and death.

Scientific Explanation

 “Makar- Sankranti” is not only a festival, but there is a secret science behind the festival , after 12 years of research Microbiologists from the Chandigarh-based Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), who had studied the special characteristics of Ganges water have found, some significant mineral and bio changes in Ganga water at the time of Makar Sankranti. The most important point here to noticed that this changes stay only for 6 hours. At the time when Sun starts to enter Capricorn, the specific angle between Sun and Earth allows some unrecognized rays (similar to Crepuscular Rays) fall on earth, the behavior of this rays are normal in any source of water, but magically it plays a wonderful rolls in river Ganga, some good bacteria (Example, Bifidobacterium, Streptococcus, Lactobacillus Reuteri ) are activated automatically with the presence of this unknown rays in Ganga Water. This bacteria are responsible to increase beneficiary mineral entities for Human body. Well I think it’s not the entire science behind this festivals, in future we may disclose more interesting and scientific facts behind this ritual, apart from science, Purana says at the time of Makar Sankranti ,one can remove his or her sins through taking bath in Ganga River. Mother Ganga will rescue Him or her from the system of maya, as Mother Ganga is the elder sister of Mother Mahamaya (Uma) so, one can achieve Mokhsya / Nirbana receiving the blessing of Maa Ganga.