D N Singh
It is said that Makar Sankranti ushers in a phase when so many things happen.
The coming of Makar Sankranti is a time when the winter beats a retreat and brings the advent of Spring when the foliage smiles, sending an aroma of feel good and fragrance of flowers in the air.
An unforgettable sense of bliss prevails all over making people of a certain community engage themselves in worship and precedes a phase when events like marriage etc unroll.
Which is slowly followed by a climate of warmth and foot-falls of rain get audible.
So important is this day that it found a mention in the epic era when Bhishma Peetamah had chosen the day to shed his life lying on a bed of arrows while overseeing the entire war of Mahabharat .
What deserves a mention here is that, on this day Goddess Ganga walking along Bhagirath merged with the ocean triggering a cause when King Bhagirath celebrated it with all agogness.
Sun is life and the Sun God assumes utmost importance on this day that leads to several festivals in the name of Sun God.
According to ancient scriptures Makar Sankrati(MS) makes a climatic shift when the Sun takes the Northern tilt signaling the day of Gods and Goddesses and when the Sun dips in the Northern side the night for the Gods starts the night. Makar Sankranti has in a way become a template of occasions and in India it opens the phase of harvests of many crops.
Most importantly MS brings in the celebration of Kumbh Mela that comes in once in 12 years. When devotees make a beeline to reach at the sacred confluence of Ganga, Saraswati and Yamuna and pay their obeisance after taking dips in the confluence.
