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There are many hymns dedicated to Wind, Sun, Fire in the Vedas. There was also a yajna done to please them. Sun is called Aditya, meaning son of Aditi and Kashyapa Rishi. How can a star be born from a living being?

In Ramayana, Hanuman is the son of Wind. How can Wind have a son?

In Mahabharata, Arjuna got the Gandeeva Bow from Fire. How can Fire give a bow to someone unless it is living? Karna was son of Sun. How is this possible? How can a star have a son?

So, this brings me to the question are Wind, Sun, Fire, etc. also living beings? If yes, how? Sun stays at one position all the time totally unconscious. Wind blows following laws of nature totally unconscious. Fire also burns as long as there is fuel. They all seem non-living. How can they then react like living beings and have children? Also, in many stories from scriptures, they appear in front of people and talk to them. How is this possible at all?

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  • "Sun stays at one position all the time totally unconscious" - The sun revolves around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. – YDS Jun 4 '18 at 20:04
  • Similarly, how Ganga, which is a river, can have sons? – Tat Tvam Asi Jun 5 '18 at 15:32
  • @NarayanaSharma many Q-A hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/ganga are there in this site which describe how Santanu and Ganga incarnated on Earth and who were they earlier....or how Ganga became river etc...etc... – YDS Jun 5 '18 at 19:37
  • this is no different from asking - how can a bunch of cells grouped into a 6 ft long thingy with 4 thin thingys protruding (limbs) and a round thingy on top (head) - be a living being ? You are assuming that 'life forms' can only have a certain shape or size or position or purpose, because those type of life forms are the only ones you know about. There could be other forms too. Wind, Sun, Fire are some of those. – ram Nov 3 '19 at 23:42
  • Science is a relevant tag here because you say Sun is a star, it is a lifeless being and can't talk (according to science). But he is not a star, he is a planet according to Hinduism. You are mixing different things here. Mahabharata, Itihasa are irrelevant tags. They should only be added if you are specifically asking about itihasa and Mahabharata. – Sarvabhouma Nov 4 '19 at 7:06
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To understand it better, I am answering after keeping your question limited to the Sun.

Sun is called Aditya meaning son of Aditi and Kashyap Rishi. How can a star be born from a living being?

The star was not born from Aditi. It is not true that there was no Sun before the Aditi's son.

The star Sun came out from the Golden Egg in the very begging. From the creation chapters of Matasya and Kurma Puranas:

In the very beginning, inside the golden egg, Brahma created himself. Therefore he is also known as Svayambhuva and Hiranyagarbha.

After Lord Brahma,

From golden egg, the Sun was also born. Since he was the first (adi) being to be born, he is known as Aditya.

As the Sun emerged from the Golden Egg, Hiranyagarba is also name for the Sun same as Lord Brahma.

Due to this very reason Lord Brahma also called as SuryaAgraja.

Markandeya Purana also confirms that the Sun emerged in the very beginning (source 1, source 2).

And after this Sun (star) was emerged, Lord Brahma created Marichi (Kashyap's father) and Daksha (Aditi's father).

Not only the Sun but also,

Everything that there is in the universe was already there, in in embryonic form, inside the egg. There the moon, the stars and the planets etc.

How the Sun became son of Aditi

From Markandeya Purana,

A great battle was fought between the deities and the demons in which the deities were defeated. Aditi, the mother of the deities became very sad. She did a rigorous penance to please the Sun god. She observed fasts and eulogised the Sun god for most of her time. At last, the Sun god appeared before her but she could not bear his radiance which was so powerful that she could not even open her eyes. She requested him to subdue his power so that she could see him.

Markandeya says- 'After being pleased by the eulogy of Aditi, the Sun shed its radiance and became sombre. Now, Aditi could see him. She said- 'O lord! Be pleased upon me. The Daityas and the Danavas have captured all the three worlds from my sons. I request you to take birth as my son and defeat the demons.' The Sun god agreed to take birth as her son.

Now your question boils down to who was this Sun god who appeared before Aditi?

Most of God's names are posts actually they own the responsibility of that thing. For example, if someone says Indra as rain god then Indra is not rain but he owns the responsibility of rain. And when someone owns the responsibility they get some special powers, the one who rules the star Sun should have the powers to bear the heat of the star Sun. He also gets the radiance of the star Sun. So before Aditi's son someone was ruling the Sun or Sun was abode of someone. The same person incarnated as Aditi's son named Vivasvana. And Aditya got one more meaning Aditi's son (other than the first (adi) born).

Karna was son of Sun. How is this possible? How can a star have a son?

Karna was son of Aditi's son Vivasvana, the ruler of the Surya Loka.

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  • How about Wind God? How did He gave birth to Hanuman? – Lokesh Jun 5 '18 at 17:12
  • @Lokesh Hanuman and Bhima are sons of Vayu, the lord of the winds...but not of the wind itself...to understand this lets take one example... in some texts even Rudra is depicted as the lord of winds, do you also question how did he give birth to someone?..No, right? – YDS Jun 5 '18 at 19:28
  • This doesn't answer 'How can Wind have a son?'...'How is this possible? How can a star have a son?' - I think the question itself is off-topic for the site. – sv. Jun 7 '18 at 16:34
  • @Lokesh it isn't clear whether Hanuman is avatar of Shiva or Vayu since scriptures are contradicting on this but neither gave birth to Hanuman instead Hanuman is an avatar. – Wikash_ Nov 3 '19 at 21:21
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    @sv, This does answer the question. You only feel it does not answer because you personally don't believe it. The question is no different from asking - how can a bunch of cells grouped into a 6 ft long thingy with 4 thin thingys protruding (limbs) and a round thingy on top (head) - be a living being ? It is no different from the question of 'what is life?'. You are assuming that 'life forms' can only have a certain shape or size or position or purpose, because those type of life forms are the only ones you know about. There could be other forms too. Wind, Sun, Fire are some of those. – ram Nov 3 '19 at 23:43

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