In plain words
Saṅkrānti is the day when every home, and above all the farmer's home, is full of plenty, and people pass it in peace and at rest. It is the day when everyone remembers with gratitude Īśvara, who is rich in every kind of wealth. Dharma, Jñāna, Prema, the attainment of Mokṣa: all of these are true riches for human beings. To grow in worldly life and in physical life, in dharma and in morals, economically and spiritually: that too is nothing less than wealth. Saṅkrānti is the day we pray to Parameśvara to grant us such riches and such wealth.
The half of the year called Uttarāyaṇa is set apart especially for prayer to God. Dakṣiṇāyana belongs to the ancestors. Uttarāyaṇa is the season that favours spiritual sādhana, svādhyāya, pilgrimages and the sacraments the Vedas lay down. Saṅkrānti is the first day of that Uttarāyaṇa. On this day the Sun begins his journey, facing north. The Sun himself is the cause behind the birth and death of the world's people. And for their strength and abilities too, the Sun alone is the one who stirs them and spurs them on. The Sun, too, works without rest for the uplift of the world. The Sun himself brings about the joy of the living beings in the world. When the Sun travels towards the Himālaya, the dwelling place of Īśvara, it is only natural that all living beings pray with longing for the vision of Īśvara. That, too, is why this day has become holy.
Indra is the lord of the senses. To let them act as they please, and to urge them on, is the habit of the rākṣasas, the nature of the asuras. Not to let the Manas run after the senses, but to hold it in check with the Buddhi: that is most urgent. The presiding deity of the Buddhi is the Sun. When that Sun goes into the presence of Parameśvara, whatever little sādhana people do brings a great deal of fruit. If you want to come from Bangalore city to Bṛndāvan, you can come on foot, all right; but it will take a long time. Some will not manage to arrive in time. For some others it may not be possible at all. But if you find a car in the city and sit in it, you can arrive in time, comfortably and without effort. In the same way, if you join the Buddhi to the Sun, its presiding deity, you reach the presence of Parameśvara with ease. The people of Bhārata have also proclaimed, down the ages, another distinction of the Saṅkrānti festival, another inner meaning. Makara Saṅkrānti is the day the gopīs kept the Kātyāyanī vrata to choose the Paramātma as their lord! It is the holy day on which they set out to cast off the weakness that comes of wearing a body and to become one with the Paramātma. The Manas is master of the senses. The Buddhi is master of the Manas. Even the Buddhi has no independence. Its master is the Ātma. Over the Ātma there is no master at all. To merge themselves within the level of the Ātma, master of all: that alone is the aim and the fruit of the Kātyāyanī vrata. He is the Lord of the world, and He is lordless too. For who could be lord to Him, who is Lord of all!
Grieving that poor Rāmadās had no food to eat and no cloth to wear, Mahārāja Śivājī sent grain, clothes, everything, to his āśrama. Seeing it, he asked the king's messenger, ‘For whom have you brought this?’ ‘You are very poor. Yours is a hard life, and you have no lord to look after you, so the emperor himself gathered these and sent them to you,’ he said. ‘You are content with whatever comes of itself. You lean on no one. So he has sent you all these,’ he said. Then Rāmadās, ‘I am not without a lord. I have Lord Rāmacandra as my lord. He has no lord. So give them to the lordless Rāmacandra Himself,’ he said, so the story goes. Just so, it is the day the gopīs prayed, ‘We have no lord: You alone must come to be our lord,’ and kept their vrata.
Bhīṣma, grandsire of the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas, lay on a bed of arrows for 56 days waiting for Uttarāyaṇa, and when this holy day came he merged in the Paramātma. This is not possible for those who have fallen into the delusion that they are the body. They suffer in pain. But Bhīṣma was a sthitaprajña. He never changed his resolve. For him there was a single word and a single way. Knowing that a body which dies in the time of Uttarāyaṇa has no rebirth, he waited for Saṅkrānti with courage and steadiness, calm, his thoughts on God, giving good counsel to everyone. He merged the flame of his life in the Sun, the very form of the supreme Light. Every light must be joined to that supreme Light. Like Bhīṣma, all who believe in God wait for Uttarāyaṇa for every auspicious undertaking. Weddings, upanayanas, house-warmings and everything else that is auspicious, they perform in Uttarāyaṇa alone. It is the auspicious months in which the Sun travels among all living beings towards the holy, pure Himālaya that are the best of all. The Himālaya means the heart itself, shaped to be cool, calm and unmoving. In just such a heart Īśvara makes His dwelling. These holy days are a great help, too, for developing the inner vision.
How are we to make the heart pure, still and selfless? For this, control of the senses is the chief sādhana.