Do the days have religious significance?

Do the days have religious significance? The 7 days of the week are associated with some planet and the planets are associated with some deity. According to this, people of some religious inclinations, fast or worship, for the pleasing that particular deity on that particular day. For example Monday (planet - moon) day of Shiva (Shankara), Tuesday (planet - Mars) and Friday (planet - Venus) are the days of the Goddesses,Thursday (planet - Jupiter) is the day of Shri Datta Maharaj, Saturday (planet - Saturn) is the day of Sani deity and Hanuman. And Sunday (star - sun). 

         However, Sunday is not related to any deity. In fact, why is it not surprising that the sun, which subdues all the planets (and the deities in the above context) by their gravity, has no religious significance? 

      

         Hindus do not perform any worship on Sundays. This restriction on eating and drinking is a free holiday. The other day without restrictions is Wednesday. Wednesday is actually dedicated to God Brahma. One of the very important God who is one of the ‘Tridevas’ in Hinduism. But according to a mythology, the worship of Brahma has come to an end, so no one worships Brahma. However, some people dedicate Wednesday to Ganesha. But who decided to dedicate Wednesday to Ganesh and why? So who decides which day to be dedicated to which particular deity and why, has no reference or rule. Why should there be days in the names of Ravi (Surya) and Mercury (Brahma), when Brahma is not worshipable and Surya is not a spiritual God! In ancient times, the sun was considered to be a divine power, not a God, because they were impressed by its light, heat, regular rise and fall, which decided their day’s activities and rest at night. In short Sun regularised their daily life. Sun was worshiped only by offering the flowing water at the time of Sunrise and Sunset. And more importantly, why shouldn't there be a day dedicated to God "Vishnu", one of the very important of Trideva? 

That is, the days have reference to the planets, but according to the religious system, they have no relation with the gods.  Hence in religious or divine context, significance of the days becomes inappropriate.

         Indian chronology

      The Indian Almanac is the only chronology in the world that is based on astronomical events such as the solar cycle and the lunar cycle. All Indian festivals, religious functions, muhurats etc, are based on the shadow days of the moon, seasons and the constellation. For example, according to the Hindu calendar, the Hindu new year begins with the festival of Gudipadva, and this festival is celebrated every year in the spring, on the first day of the month of Chaitra, Pratipada, Shukla Paksha ie, the day after the new moon. In the chronology based on this cycle of nature, i.e. in the almanac, the days of the fortnight are named as tithi, but not the days of the week. It was introduced later. 

 There are no references to Rashi, names of the days, and Karan in the Mahabharata, confirms Shri. B. A. Dixit, the expert on ancient and modern astrology, in his book published in 1896. This proves that Rashi, names of days and karan are introduced after Mahabharata. The Indian calendar, Almanac, was based on 27 constellations. The Greek concept of zodiac sign and names of the days was introduced in 6th century AD in India. 

      Formation of zodiac signs and weekdays. 

              Greek scholars learned advanced astronomy from Indian scholars. They did not give importance to the Indian 27 constellations. They considered 6 Indian seasons of 2 months each ie 12 Indian months of a year. They divided 12 parts of 360 degrees of earth orbit around the Sun, and called them Zodiac (Rashi). So each zodiac sign is 30 degrees. They named the zodiacs. This zodiac concept was later accepted and assimilated by Indian scholars. 

       The concept of weekdays was also of Greek. It was not fixed as to how many days the cycle should be (at that time the "week" system was not there) So they named the days after the Greek gods. 

 The names were Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite and Cronus.(5 days only). 

 The Romans later renamed the Greek deities to Roman deities. They are - Mars, Mercury, Jove (Jupiter), Venus, Saturn. 

 The Germans renamed of their deities in place of the Greek deities, They are - Tiu (Twia) (Tuesday); Woden (Wednesday); Thor (Thursday); Freya (Fria) (Friday) & Saturn. (5 days). 

 Scientific composition of weekdays. 

        The Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata (476 AD to 550 AD) proposed the formula for the classical composition of weekdays in his books, Aryabhatiya and Suryasiddhanta. It should be noted here that each planet revolves around the sun, at a certain distance from the sun, at a certain speed. Although the moon is not a planet, Aryabhata, knowing its importance in the Indian calendar, included it in the composition, as well as the Sun. He named the planets from Sanskrit text. 

          According to Aryabhata’s formula, ‘planets should be arranged from slow-moving planets to fast-moving planets.’ 

 Accordingly, the order of the planets becomes - Saturn - Jupiter - Mars - Sun (Ravi) - Venus - Mercury - Moon (Mon). 

 According to the abbreviated form of the Sutra, the name of the day will start from any of the planet planets in the speed based planetary order, leaving the next two planets, the third planet’s name is the name of the day. E.g. Saturn is followed by two planets (Jupiter and Mars) and Ravi/Sun. So Sunday comes after Saturday. Also, after Sunday, leaving two planets (Venus and Mercury), the next moon hence after Sunday comes Monday. In this way the names of days were methodically designed. 

 The beginning of the week 

 According to the International Organization for Standards, the first day of the week is considered to be Monday. Accordingly the whole world started observing Monday as the first day of the week from a specific day. 

 Conclusion 

 From all the above information the following two things become clear. 

 1) The names of the days are according to the formula specified by Aryabhatta, but not according to religious system or mythology hence weekdays have no relation to God. Therefore, worshiping God according to the names of the planet or name of the weekday is not in accordance with Dharma. 

 2) The implementation of starting the week from Monday is during the period of Brahmabhatta ie in the 5th or 6th century. Never before has there been such a standard common name of the day at the international level. 

        So there was no specific weekday on the day the ‘Monday’ was started as the first day of week. So today’s ‘day’ does not prove that it belongs to the same specific planet and corresponding day of that particular God. 

            So why should we worship a particular God on a particular day? Isn't it more appropriate to worship the important religious days like Tithi, Nakshatra, Ritu according to the Indian calendar? E.g. In the spring, on the month of Chaitra Shukla Navami (9th day from full moon) is celebrated the Shri Ram Navami. While in the autumn, in the month of Ashwin Shukla dashmi (10th day from full moon) is celebrated as Vijaya Dashami or Dussehra. The weekday does not matter on any such religious and auspicious day. 

      So the ‘days’ have no religious or spiritual significance, hence there is no religious or divine importance to the particular day. 

 

Tradition and mentality. 

      Today, according to advanced astronomy and in-depth scientific research of Hindu culture, the above things became clear. But the past and present generations, the reference to the name of the weekday to God and the worshiping according to that particular God has been a practice for many years. It is not mentally possible to give up or break the tradition easily. And no one is urging you to give up. Just considering this scientific information, superstitious worship should not be passed on to the next generation. They are expected to have the freedom to make their own decisions. ———————————-