The Sun rises, and it doesn’t.

Srimad Bhagavatam 5.21.8

Scripture speaks of the Sun rising and setting according to ordinary human observation.

Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakur wrote: srutir api vyavaharato, na tu vastutah

“Even Sruti speaks according to conventional usage, not according to literal reality.”

In Reality
The point that Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakur makes is that scriptural language itself may sometimes describe a physical phenomenon from the standpoint of ordinary observation. That is, from the viewpoint of a common man.

In this regard, it is to be noted that in Srimad Bhagavatam there are verses that are spoken from the viewpoints of a vast number of different types of observers. The different observers see things differently, and the stated words of an observer who, for example, sees “the sun rise and then set,” is not necessarily expressing a factually correct account of whatever it is that they are describing.

Not every observer is equally capable of properly interpreting an event they witness. The same event or manifestation may be understood differently by:

• a child-like, uninformed observer,
• a skeptic who immediately assumes an argumentative viewpoint,
• a worldly minded observer open to the possibility their current understanding may be wrong,
• a practitioner of bhakti,
• a devotee who understands there is such a thing as rasa-vichar,
• a devotee who relishes rasa.

This list of observers is not an exhaustive list. There are other kinds of observers also, for example animals or even trees that manifested “trembling” when they felt the sudden awareness that Krishna is close by.

It is to be noted that when Krishna entered the wrestling arena of Kamsa, each person there saw Krishna in their own peculiar way. The same object can be genuinely perceived differently by different observers according to their relationship, disposition, and qualification. This is seen in Bhagavata 10.43.17:

mallanam asanir nrnam nara-varah strinam smaro murtiman
gopanam sva-jano ‘satam ksiti-bhujam sasta sva-pitroh sisuh
mrtyur bhoja-pater virad avidusam tattvam param yoginam
vrsninam para-devateti vidito rangam gatah sagrajah

The ancient commentator Sridhara Swami commented:
tat-tad-abhiprayanusarena babhau, na sakalyena sarvesam
Meaning:
“Bhagavan appeared according to the particular disposition or intention of each group of people at the arena. Krishna did not reveal the totality of all these aspects to everyone, but instead each group of people observed some of the qualities of Bhagavan.”

• The wrestlers perceived Bhagavan as something like a thunderbolt.
• Ordinary men saw Bhagavan as the best of men
• Women see Krishna as the peak example of beauty
• The cowherds see their beloved relative
• Kamsa sees his own death has arrived at the arena
• Yogis see Paramatma, or Brahman.