The March Equinox & the Vedic Basis of Easter

Agni Hotra: a daily ritual enactment of Agni's Sacrifice
[Image found sans credit via Magical Forrest, text added by me.]

The real basis for our modern tradition of celebrating Easter beginning with a morning Easter Egg Hunt is thoroughly Vedic. These traditions, however degraded and distorted they have become over time via our mental-egoic consciousness, arise out of the Solar Year or the Solar Sacrifice of the Vedic Rishis which is the Earth’s Tropical Year. The Sacred Egg of the Vedic Rishis is the triply-

Image found at Northlakebaptist.org

formed Hiryanagharbha – the golden egg or embryo or light of the Sun/Soul – is hidden or embedded in the 'spring' of creation (i.e. the March Equinox) and eventually found, recovered or reborn 9 months later upon the December Solstice. The Egg and its full gestation and immanence are inseparable from the Year. According to the Vedic Rishis the Sacred Egg is the seed of the Earth's 12 month Solar year and is simultaneously the seed or Dawn of our 24 hour Day and our entire creation. This Egg is the yoke of the Solar (Tropical) Year and together they form the essence of Yoga in which the light of the Sun/Soul progressively illuminates the unity or oneness of All that is. In the Vedic system of equivalences, the 12 months of the sacrificial year refer not only to a Solar Year but also to the Great Year of the Precession and to larger cycles of time. Meaning, whereas it may take only 9 months in our yearly journey to reach the December Solstice where upon the Sun’s light begins to increase in the Northern Hemisphere, much larger stages, spans and cycles of time are needed to foster ‘the return of the Light’ in terms of the evolution of our consciousness wherein we eventually find our Lost Egg, Hidden Sun/Son, or Lost Oneness (the true meaning of our unnecessarily dreaded ‘apocalypse’).

The Rishis called our Sacred and collectively Lost Egg by many names. Primarily they called it Agni – the hidden One, the triple One, the divine flame, the triple fire, the son of force, the eternal spring of life, leader of our evolutionary march (journey), the preserver, our deliverer, world savior and hero of all heroes. In the Western tradition, Agni is known as Aries (or Mars). He is often depicted as a hunter. The true antiquity of this yogic mythology, depicting our evolutionary march towards reunion with the light of our soul and hence with all of creation (past, present and future) is unknown. It is found in the Rig Veda – the world’s oldest sacred text that was an oral tradition until it was written down some 5,000 years ago. Symbols of the Solar or Vedic Year can be found in the Sphinx of Giza (Lion-Man) which some believe is at least 12,000 years old. In 1939 a Lion-Man figurine was found in a cave in Germany in 1939, dating to 40,000 years old. Both are symbols of the 12 month Vedic Year symbolizing the Leo and Aquarius axis. The Lion-Man also figures in Hindu mythology as one of Vishnu's incarnations, which irrevocably links Vishnu to the Zodiac. In the Rig Veda, Vishnu the Preserver, is linked to the preservation signs of the Zodiac via his three steps (trikrama) across the universe. [1]

Religious traditions and rituals that separate the ‘hidden’ or ‘golden egg’ from the Spring Equinox serve to keep the Egg hidden – i.e. distorting or hiding the truth of the Vedic Solar Gnosis and unity consciousness it contains and births in time. The Christian celebration of Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox is one such distortion, as is the Nirayana or Sidereal measure of the yajna (year) which celebrates the birth of Agni, and hence entrance into the fire sign of Aries on 13/14th of April some 23 days late.[2] The Sidereal separation of entrance to Aries from the March Equinox will continue increasing one day ever 72 years with the Precession of the Equinoxes. Both of these distortions are products of losing the Solar context of the Vedic Gnosis … i.e. the Egg being the solar seed, and binding point (bandha) or yoke of the Solar Year and simultaneously of our entire creation.

Efforts are underway in India to correct this distortion, via the work of Aeon Centre of Cosmology as well as via Hindu Dharma Acharyashave, Acharya Darshaney Lokesh and T.V.Sivaraman. [See:  www.reformedsanathancalendar.in, from which the below quotes and images are borrowed. Sanathan means eternal and Sayana below refers to Solar/Tropical Zodiac].

“You have formulated the Tithi Patrak and Calendar strictly on the basis of Vedas, Puranas and Siddhantas and the Dwaraka Mutt feels that every Hindu in the country would be enriched culturally and spiritually by following it. H.H Dwaraka Acharya of the past had exhorted 120 years ago, that religious festivals and fasts should be observed on the basis of Sayana only and the Mutt’s affirmation of this stands for ever” says H.H Jagatguru Sri Swarupananda Saraswathi Maharaj

SMKATP & RSC have shown “a way for the Hindu Community and especially to the publishers and authors of Panchangas to mull over the facts and factors presented in this Panchang. A time has come for the elite to revamp the presentday almanacs in tune with Vedic injunctions, H.H Jagtguru Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal of Kanchi Mutt, had said.

H.H Gangadharendra Saraswathi Swamiji of Shri Sonda Swarnavalli Mutt is “also of the opinion that our present day panchangas have to be modified to fall in line with the sayana system, at least for religious purposes. The Mutt will “always support your efforts at adding glory to the spiritual life of the people of Bharat.”

Recommended Reading: 

Why is Makar Sankranti important for the unity and integrity of India?  an article by PNB

A Center that Holds (a 12 March 2016 post on this blog) 

A List of More articles about the true measure and significance of the Vedic Year via Aeon Centre of Cosmology
The Gnostic Circle a book by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet. 

Notes:
[1]  See: Cosmology in Rigveda — the third premise and Secrets of the Earth-Questions and Answers on the Line of Ten Avatars of Vedic Tradition by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

[2] Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, director of Aeon Centre of Cosmology, has written much on the un-Vedic nature of modern-day astrologers, who measure the 12 month sacred year via the Sidereal Zodiac, and who call themselves ‘Vedic’ astrologers. She writes that the path to our higher consciousness remains greatly hampered or hidden by this distortion prevalent not only in India but in many corners of the world.