Where did Vinata’s son go?

Aruna, the premature and partially developed child of Vinata was also known as the personification of the reddish glow of Surya whose radiance has spiritual powers. He was born to Vinata as a premature son, owing to her impatient cracking open of the egg he was developing in. We have seen in the 2nd episode of Mahabharat Astika Parva that after his birth, Aruna cursed her mother of lifelong slavery and he left her. But what happened thereafter? Was Aruna alive and where did he go?

To understand his role, we have to go back to the story of ‘Samudra Manthan’ - i.e. Churning of the milky ocean by Devas (Gods) and Danavas (Demons) to obtain Amrit. After Amrit emerged, there was a fierce battle between the aforementioned parties regarding who gets the Amrit first. Vishnu, at this point, came in the form of Mohini and he deceitfully started giving the Amrit to all the devas and convinced demons to wait. However, the Asur (demon) named Rahu saw this and disguising himself as a deva he managed to get some Amrit. But as soon as he gulped it, Surya (Sun) and Chandra (moon) identified him and shouted: “It’s Rahu!”. Vishnu immediately sliced Rahu’s throat with his Chakra before Amrit could get down Rahu’s throat. But, a drop of Amrit was already into his body. What followed this was a resumption of the bloody battle (now that Vishnu too had lost his disguise) and much more. But that’s a different story. For now, note that this was how Surya helped the Gods fail Rahu's plot.

As Rahu was angry with Surya, he periodically swallowed it, leading to the solar eclipses. Surya expected that Gods will help him now, as he had helped them before! But this never happened.

Eventually, Surya ran out of patience and decided to punish the Gods. He resolved that he would head towards the earth and destroy it, burning down everything with his heat. Gods were very much worried and sought guidance from Lord Brahma. Brahma-deva came up with a plan - he created a chariot that could withstand Surya’s heat and told the gods “A son is about to be born to Kashyap. As his wife Vinata had asked in her boon, he is going to be very strong and radiant! He will be able to not only withstand but lessen the heat and light given out by Surya. He, using this divine chariot, will manoeuvre the Surya and contain his wrath”. The Gods were happy and eagerly awaited for Vinata’s egg to hatch.

Arun was destined to be born to Vinata for the same purpose. However, due to Vinata's impatience and jealousy, he was born crippled. His arms and body were still huge and strong to shield the sun and drive the chariot, but his legs were underdeveloped and he just couldn’t reach the sun to do all that.

Then one midnight, As Surya began to get closer to earth and started to magnify his radiance, Earth started heating up. Animals were perplexed feeling hot in the dead of the night! They shrieked, made sounds and ran about in confusion. The Gods saw it almost certain that at the daybreak, Sun’s effect will only grow massively and the world would be destroyed.

Just then Garud broke through his egg. As he was born of the same boon as Arun, he had the same strength and capabilities as Arun and could go closer to the Sun. He took Aruna, flew to the Sun and installed him on Surya’s Chariot. Arun shielded the Sun, reined the seven horses of its chariot with all his strength and changed its course to revolve around the Earth instead of towards it. The calamity to the Earth was averted. To this day, it is said in Indian Mythology that Aruna continues to drive the Sun.

Aruna has a wife named Shyeni and 2 sons Jatayu and Sampati, who are also mentioned in the Ramayana and have a pivotal role in it.