Srimad Bhagavatam — Panchama Skandha, Shloka 13
The Orbit of the Sun, the Measure of Day and Night, and the Sun-God’s Chariot
यस्यैकं चक्रं द्वादशारं षण्नेमि त्रिणाभि संवत्सरात्मकं समामनन्ति तस्याक्षो मेरोर्मूर्धनि कृतो मानसोत्तरे कृतेतरभागो यत्र प्रोतं रविरथचक्रं तैलयन्त्रचक्रवद् भ्रमन्मानसोत्तरगिरौ परिभ्रमति ॥ १३ ॥
yasyaikaṁ cakraṁ dvādaśāraṁ ṣaṇ-nemi tri-ṇābhi saṁvatsarātmakaṁ samāmananti tasyākṣo meror mūrdhani kṛto mānasottare kṛtetara-bhāgo yatra protaṁ ravi-ratha-cakraṁ taila-yantra-cakravad bhraman mānasottara-girau paribhramati.
Le char du dieu Soleil n’a qu’une seule roue, appelée Saṁvatsara. Les douze mois en sont les douze rayons, les six saisons les sections de la jante, et les trois périodes de cātur-māsya le moyeu à trois parties. Une extrémité de l’essieu repose sur le sommet du mont Sumeru, l’autre sur le mont Mānasottara; fixée à l’extrémité extérieure de l’essieu, la roue tourne sans cesse sur Mānasottara comme la roue d’un pressoir à huile.
FAQs
This verse describes the year as a single cosmic wheel with twelve spokes, six rims, and three hubs—an image showing time’s structured, divinely governed cycles.
He uses Meru as the fixed axle-point and Mānasottara as the boundary-support to explain, in Purāṇic cosmology, how the Sun’s chariot-wheel is situated and how the Sun is said to circle in a continuous orbit.
Seeing time as an ordered cycle helps one live with discipline and devotion—aligning daily and yearly routines with remembrance of Bhagavān rather than being driven by anxiety and randomness.