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Understanding the eclipse in totality

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mark blake

When an acquaintance called to enquire about the timings of Friday’s annular eclipse of the sun, the longest anyone will witness from Earth this millennium, I was reminded of the another spectacular sky show that took place last year.
 

While the high point of Friday’s event was a fiery ‘golden bangle’ seen from many parts of the world including the southern tip of India, the solar eclipse of July 22 was all about totality – the complete obscuration of the sun with its ‘corona’ dramatically glowing in a near dark sky. 
 

The moments seem frozen in time. We were at the Assi Ghat in Benaras. At 6.25am, the sun suddenly turned into a big black pearl with a flashing aura, and the ghat was drenched in a surreal dim light. 
 

A sadhu, bathing in the Ganga among thousands of other devout, stood transfixed. For the next couple of minutes, he seemed to have forgotten that the eclipse was ‘inauspicious’ and the very reason why he was taking the purifying dip. Instead, he was entranced by the magic of totality. 
 

Describing ‘totality’ can be frustratingly elusive. It’s eerie but not scary. It’s thrilling but not in the sense of a Formula-1 race. It makes you expressive as well as reflective. In fact, if a spiritual experience expands human consciousness, helps a person see things in a new light and connects him to a larger reality, then it can be deeply spiritual to watch a celestial spectacle such as an eclipse. And Benaras that morning, seemed to have touched the high point of spiritual experience. 
 

An eclipse can be spiritual in more than one way. It reminds us of what lies beyond ourselves and our earthly home. It connects us to the universe, offering a brief glimpse of the beauty that awaits us in its vast and varied spaces. Many human beings, who can hardly be called spiritual in the traditional sense, believe that exploring the universe is the ultimate goal of our species. For, it’s there that one can find answers to all the questions about life on Earth. And that’s a spiritual quest. 

 

Thanks!

 

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