The Sundoor then becomes an image of transcendence, a movement beyond the immediate constrictions of this world. Embedded in the colloquial languages are phrases like, "the light at the end of the tunnel," "seeing the light." We use such phrases in a variety of situations. They seem to refer to a time of imminent spiritual death when too much is going on, but we begin to see, to feel a breaking up of a paralyzing confinement. The time to come out, a time to be born again. If we really watch our daily vocabulary, what we say carries many implications which we miss because of its habitual familiarity. We are so accustomed to the metaphorical structure of our colloquial language that we overlook the meaning of our own dialogue.
The Sun as the source of light has been associated with Truth or Real Being through many traditions within human history, and this Truth which must be "literally penetrated is the outward aspect of the Sun and the same as his disk, light or rays."21 This raises the questions of qualifications and who is able to penetrate the Sun and move through the Sun door. The literature from a wide variety of spiritual traditions relate those qualifications to a consciousness of life as something more than "sensuous infatuation" and a perception that the life of the spirit moves from a preoccupation with oneself.
"The qualification is primarily one of likeness, and consequently of anonymity; anonymity, because whoever still is anyone cannot be thought of entering in, as like to like, the Him 'who has not come from anywhere nor become anyone.' 'One should stand aloof from intention, from concepts, and from the conceit of "self." This is the mark of liberation (moksa). This is the track, here and now, that leads to Brahman. This is the "opening of the door" here and now."22
In Vedic mythology, the dun door is the image of the final ascension beyond this world into another reality. Birth and death exist below this world into another reality. Birth and death exist below the sun in time, for time is measured by the rising and setting of the sun, the passage of days. The timeless and eternal exist above and beyond the sun.
1987