Vikarttana
Vikarttana signifies "shorn of rags" in Sanskrit, a name for the Sun god Surya, and metaphorically, an initiated spiritual seeker who has shed worldly attachments and ignorance. It represents a state of spiritual nakedness and purity achieved through enlightenment.
Where the word comes from
The Sanskrit term Vikarttana (विकर्तन) derives from the verb kṛt (कृत्), meaning "to cut" or "to sever," prefixed by vi- (वि-), indicating separation or distinction. Thus, it literally means "cut off" or "shorn." It appears in ancient Vedic and Puranic literature.
In depth
Lit., "shorn of his rags"; a name of the Sun, and the type of the initiated neophyte. (See Secret Doctrine, I., p. 322, n.)
How different paths see it
What it means today
The name Vikarttana, meaning "shorn of rags," resonates deeply within the Hindu tradition, offering a potent metaphor for spiritual initiation and the attainment of enlightenment. It is famously an epithet of Surya, the Sun god, whose brilliance pierces the cosmic darkness. This solar association is not accidental; the sun, in its unadulterated glory, represents pure consciousness, untainted by the shadows of ignorance or the obscuring veils of material existence.
When applied to the neophyte, Vikarttana signifies a radical stripping away. The "rags" are not simply physical garments but the accumulated layers of egoic identification, societal conditioning, and the ceaseless desires that bind the individual to the cycle of suffering, samsara. This process of divestment, as Mircea Eliade might observe in his studies of archaic and modern religions, is a recurrent theme in shamanic and mystical traditions—a symbolic death and rebirth, a shedding of the old self to embrace a new, more authentic existence. The initiated one, like the sun emerging from behind clouds, stands revealed in their essential, unadorned spiritual nature.
This concept is not confined to passive renunciation. It implies an active severing, a conscious act of will to cut through illusion. The yogi who practices detachment, the jnani who discriminates between the real and the unreal, are all engaged in this process of becoming Vikarttana. It is a state of spiritual nakedness, not of shame, but of radical honesty and vulnerability before the divine. The purity implied is akin to that of a newborn, unburdened by the weight of past experiences and future anxieties. It is the realization of the self as it truly is, radiant and eternal, much like the sun’s ceaseless, life-giving energy.
The metaphor invites contemplation of what constitutes our own "rags"—the habits of thought, the attachments to comfort, the fear of vulnerability that prevent us from shining with our own inherent light. Becoming Vikarttana is to embrace the austerity of truth, to stand uncloaked in the face of existence, and to find liberation in that unburdened state. It is a call to shed the superficial and reveal the luminous core of being.
