By Sadhguru – Founder, Isha Foundation

Right now we are at the threshold of Uttarayana, when the sun’s run in relation to planet Earth will shift from the southern run to the northern run — from Dakshinayana to Uttarayana. It is not that the sun is moving anywhere. What is happening in terms of celestial arrangement is that on the winter solstice on December 22, the sun was over the Tropic of Capricorn. From that day, if you watch the sunrise and the movement of the sun, slowly every day it will shift to the north.

A human being cannot escape anything that happens to the planet — I am not talking in environmental terms — because what you call as “myself” is just a piece of this planet and a more sensitive and far more receptive part of the planet than what is there as earth. So whatever happens to the planet will happen a thousand-fold more within the human system. It is just that it takes some sensitivity and receptivity to experience it and make use of it.

Uttarayana and Dakshinayana have a significant impact on how the human system functions. Accordingly, spiritual aspirants shift their tone of activity — when the sun is in the northern run they are one way, when it moves to the southern dimension they are in a different way. Uttarayana is a period of harvest. People who have been spiritually aware have always identified this transition as a possibility for human consciousness to blossom.

One of the most famous stories is of Bhishma waiting on his deathbed of arrows for many weeks. Though he was severely injured, he held onto his life until Uttarayana came because he wanted to make use of this transition in nature, to make his own transition possible. Gautama also attained on the third full moon day after Uttarayana. In South India, there are innumerable examples of saints, sages, siddhas and yogis who made the transition during this period.

In terms of sadhana, Dakshinayana is for purification, Uttarayana is for enlightenment. This is the time to harvest and it is also the reason agricultural harvests begin during this period. Pongal and Sankranti are the harvest festivals. So it is not only the time of harvesting food grains, but also the time to harvest human potential.

The human body, if brought to a certain level of intensity and sensitivity, is a cosmos by itself. Everything that happens in the external sphere, in a subtle way, manifests in the body. It is happening to everybody, it is just that most people do not notice this.

But a more organised and purposeful rearrangement of the human mechanism could be done if one becomes conscious of the external movement and aligns that with the movement that is happening within the human system. If you want this body of flesh and bone to imbibe the nature of the cosmic body, understanding and being in tune with this movement of Uttarayana and Dakshinayana is very essential.

[Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a yogi, is a visionary, humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet and internationally-renowned speaker, Sadhguru’s wit and piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life. www.ishafoundation.org]