The Puranas
By Dr.E.Krishnamacharya, M.A., Ph. D
This is an introduction to the Puranic lore, which explains the many intricate points of the features of the Purana literature. This is of real importance for those who want to study them for their inner significance which is artistically hidden in their symbols and allegories. It is precise to say that these symbols and allegories explain the various scientific aspects of our very existence on this planet.
A few words about the authors of the Puranas. Parasara, the son of Sakti, is the first author, who compiled the Vishnu Purana. He is the grandson of Vasistha. Before him the Veda was in its hay day; when the Puranic keys were used orally by the Gurus to divulge the secrets of the Veda. Parasara could foresee the Kali age in which the human beings have their comprehension blurred by mere intelligence and lose synthesising power in the light of the analytical faculty. Hence he could find the necessity of imbedding the puranic keys from the oral tradition in the form of written books. He was well versed in the vedic lore and was a pastmaster of the eighteen cosmic formulae which he edited in the form of the Vishnu Purana. His son Veda Vyasa developed the remaining seventeen formulae into separate books elaborately. Then he also composed the grand Itihasa, the Mahabharata, the scope and the field of which is dazzling to the human comprehension. This book contains the synthesis of the eighteen Puranas in its eighteen books. It also contains the Bhagavadgita of eighteen chapters, which covers the total import in the grand synthesis which is known as Yoga. In the end, Veda Vyasa found his work too intellectual and involved to be carefully followed. He felt a sense of dissatisfaction with what he had contributed to posterity. In a nutshell, he composed the aphorisms of Brahma, but again, he found them too stiff and concise to be easily followed. Then he received a new inspiration from Narada and composed the grand and final book on the Vedas with a particular stress on the Sama Veda. It is the Bhagavata Purana.
10) VARAHA Purana or the formula of the Great Boar which lifts up the Divine Essence from passive nothing to active something.
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
By Dr.E.Krishnamacharya, M.A., Ph. D
This is an introduction to the Puranic lore, which explains the many intricate points of the features of the Purana literature. This is of real importance for those who want to study them for their inner significance which is artistically hidden in their symbols and allegories. It is precise to say that these symbols and allegories explain the various scientific aspects of our very existence on this planet.
*********************************
The Puranic literature covers the major portion of the ancient wisdom of India. The main object of the Puranas is to render the proper import of the Vedas in the form of the description of some historical events symbolised and allegorised to suit the need of explaining the various truths of the Veda. Veda forms the centre of the circumference of the basic human consciousness and it is better understood through the Puranas. The Vedic literature is itself so extensive and compact that it requires a specialist to comprehend and provide the import to others. To an ordinary reader, it appears quite like a bush of valuable, yet unapproachable truths. Here the Puranas come to our rescue. In lucid language they give out the import of the whole Vedic literature. They narrate, describe, explain, exemplify, symbolise and divulge the Vedic literature in an engagingly magnificent manner. They are to the reader like the surface of the still waters of a deep lake in the bosom of which we can gauge the mysteries of the paramount heights of the Vedic skies, reflected.The Puranic author finds the gateway between the cosmic and the mundane worlds. According to him, the behaviour of the whole cluster of the universes is cyclic and these cycles render a formula. To him the history is a materialisation of the cyclic mysteries of the universe. The author imbeds this formula in a historical incident. A detailed description of the seasons, necessarily imbeds the formula of the year in it. So also the detailed version of a Purana imbeds the cosmic wisdom enough to reveal the Puranic formula. This formula is quite helpful for us to approach the Vedic import with ease.
The very composition of a Purana means an epic. Any Purana is composed according to the given formula which imbeds five essential features:
1) The unfolding of a cosmos into an egg of various universes with all the details of the evolution of the solar systems and planets thereof. This aspect is called “SARGA”.
2) The stages of creation in its secondary stages called “PRATISARGA”.
3) The order of evolution of the creative intelligences descending upon this earth, which is called “VAMSA”.
4) The nodes and demarcation of time during the process of creation which is called “MANVANTARA”.
5) The dynasties of the divine intelligences descending as ruling forces from the solar and lunar centres. This is called “RAJAVAMSANUCHARITA”. The plan contains a microscopic as well as a bird’s eye view of the whole expanse of one creation from its emanation to its merging.
A few words about the authors of the Puranas. Parasara, the son of Sakti, is the first author, who compiled the Vishnu Purana. He is the grandson of Vasistha. Before him the Veda was in its hay day; when the Puranic keys were used orally by the Gurus to divulge the secrets of the Veda. Parasara could foresee the Kali age in which the human beings have their comprehension blurred by mere intelligence and lose synthesising power in the light of the analytical faculty. Hence he could find the necessity of imbedding the puranic keys from the oral tradition in the form of written books. He was well versed in the vedic lore and was a pastmaster of the eighteen cosmic formulae which he edited in the form of the Vishnu Purana. His son Veda Vyasa developed the remaining seventeen formulae into separate books elaborately. Then he also composed the grand Itihasa, the Mahabharata, the scope and the field of which is dazzling to the human comprehension. This book contains the synthesis of the eighteen Puranas in its eighteen books. It also contains the Bhagavadgita of eighteen chapters, which covers the total import in the grand synthesis which is known as Yoga. In the end, Veda Vyasa found his work too intellectual and involved to be carefully followed. He felt a sense of dissatisfaction with what he had contributed to posterity. In a nutshell, he composed the aphorisms of Brahma, but again, he found them too stiff and concise to be easily followed. Then he received a new inspiration from Narada and composed the grand and final book on the Vedas with a particular stress on the Sama Veda. It is the Bhagavata Purana.
For the information of the reader, we enumerate the eighteen Puranas hereunder:
1) MATSYA Purana or the formula of the great Fish God.
2) MARKANDEYA Purana or the allegory of the Man who survives the deluge.
3) BHAVISHYA Purana or the key to the future.
4) DEVI BHAGAVATA or the formula of the Divine Essence as the Mother.
5) BRAHMA Purana or the formula of the self-expanding principle.
6) BRAHMANDA Purana or the formula of the Cosmic Egg.
7) BRAHMA VAIVARTA or the formula of the precipitation of the expanding principle into the universes.
8) VAMANA Purana, the formula of the Physical Dwarf as a potential God.
9) VAYU Purana, the formula of the Cosmic Pulsation.
10) VARAHA Purana or the formula of the Great Boar which lifts up the Divine Essence from passive nothing to active something.
11) AGNI Purana, the formula of the Mystic Fire as the Light of the Vedas.
12) NARADA Purana, the formula of the Messenger of Gods.
13) PADMA Purana, the formula of the expanding lotus-pattern.
14) LINGA Purana, the formula of the Divine Symbol of Abstraction.
15) GARUDA Purana, the formula of the Greatest Cycle represented as the bird of the eternal periodicities.
16) KURMA Purana, the formula of the stellar dome.
17) SKANDA Purana, the allegory of the Celibate Hero.
18) VISHNU Purana, the formula of the Consciousness of Pervasion.
Of all these, the Vishnu Purana is the first and all-comprehensive. It contains all the eighteen formulae, edited into the synthesis of the eighteen formulas.
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into every widening thought and action.
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Rabindranath Tagore, “Gitanjali”.
No comments:
Post a Comment