DIVINE REMADIES

PURANAS

Origin

As the answers for the basic questions on god/man/existence/ ascension/ liberation became available to the mankind on one side the codification of the way of living was worked out and on the other side the enlightened elders in that era wanted these fundamentals truths to be reached to the common man as well and did not want it to be the preserve of a few.

But this knowledge was so esoteric and mind blowing and hence they thought that if presented as it is, it will either go over the head or will frighten  the ordinary mortals. As a result it may not reach him at all. They also knew very well that unless these basic values are imbibed and practiced  by the society as a whole the human emancipation and an orderly life is not possible.

They wanted the common man to practice these values even if they don’t learn the intricacies.

Therefore they developed stories around these values and morals so that it can catch the imagination of the common man and  will be retained in their minds.

Accordingly several puranas arose – each highlighting one or more morals in the name of one or more deities. While the wrapper was ornamental, the substance was real. As anticipated it reached the masses and societal values and discipline got maintained.

Today at a far distant future from that day when it originated, to us it looks ridiculous, superstitious, and even barbaric. But we are completely wrong in coming to that hasty conclusion without appreciating the above basic fact and the context.

Logic and Psychology of glorified tales

Even today we are creating many puranas –high moral stories-on celluloid and getting public accolades.Such heroic movies even become ever green dramas because of it’s value content though many of us know it is imaginery. Many celluloid heros have caught the imagination of the people and have even come to power on popular support because the public at large were attracted to the morals he/she espoused on the screen and people of some generations admit that many of their attitudes,life styles,moral views were influenced on account of the imprint these stars left in their psyche..You and I know that the screen heroism in magnified,glorified and exaggerated. But that in no way has diminished the value of the underlying morals.

Therefore our ancient seekers have done the right thing of resorting to puranas to keep the order and morality in society.

There are about 108 puranas of which 18 are prominent.They are Agni Purana, Bhagavata purana, Brahma purana, Brahmanda purana, Bhahmavaivartha purana, Garuda purana, Kurma purana, Linga purana ,Markandeya purana ,Matsyanpurana, Narada Purana, Padma purana, Shiva purana, Skanda purana, Vamana Purana, Varaha purana, Vayu purana and Vishnu purana.

Since they have been composed by saints with utmost devotion and for common good, which serves the purpose of the godhead of an orderly human mind evolution, those divine stories and verses carries extraordinary vibrations and powers and even a simple recital invokes the god in our soul .

It must be understood this culture and practice of popularising the values has been practiced by all religions.

It must  also be understood that the  mind is the most powerful creation of god and if channelized well it can do wonders and if uncontrolled can wreck a havoc.

Therefore for human evolution into a superman, which is the objective of god; mind control. mind development, mind culturing are all very necessary and important  and all these puranas is a very important step towards it.

Puranas were , again, assembled and compiled by Sage Vyasa.The puranas were popularized through discourses,drama, songs, folk lores,etc., and reached every man in one form or the other.

In every country and every religion puranas have played a very crucial role in their culture, civilization ,fine arts, governance, public order,crisis management and above all the human development.

Science behind puranas

Every purana has an undelying cosmic science behind it.

Skanda Purana

If you take Skanda purana for example the Asura Surapadma had to be vanquished by Lord Skanda. If you look at closely, Surapadma was a devout saivite and obtained all boons by austerity and tapasya as his name itself indicates  Sura Padma ( a padma of the suras-a jewel of noble men). But then what happened. After getting all the boons the power corrupted him and intoxicated him and blinded him. Al possible dirts-Kama, Krodha, Loba, Moha, Mada, Mascharya-  lust, anger, greed, illusion, pride and envy -took over his senses and who was a great sura - Sura padma- became a terrible Asura- Padmaasura- (Padma Asura) -the evil force. To quell him none other than the primordial power - that too the combined energies of Shiva and Shakthi together-the omniscience and omnipotence-had to be invoked.

The moral for human beings in this purana is at materail level success can intoxicate and ruin you.  Therefore while on one side you should strive to succeed on the other side you should simaltaneously develop humility so that the success doest go to the head. If not the same nature which provided you a field to succeed will conspire for your fall.  

Markandeya Purana

Similarly if you look at the most Divine- Devi Mahatmiyam in Markandeya purana -you will notice that Madhu-Kadap; Mahishasur; Rakthabeej: Dumralochan:Chand-Mund; Sumb-Nishumb- all had to be eliminated by Chandi ma-who is the combined energy of Durga,Lakshmi and Saraswathy-Valour,Vast resources and Wisdom. Why – all these rakshasas had received many boons to start with by good deeds , but with power going to their head did all wrong things.

Madu means sweet, in fact the ultimate of sweetness and Kaidab means the other side of the same coin- the ultimate tongue watering and tempting  sensory pleasures- which normally accompanies the ‘madhu’ . We have every right to enjoy them . But if we get overindulged we are likely to forget our cosmic responsibilities and we will be ending up facing the wrath of the god. That is what happened to the dinosaurs.

Mahishasur is the stupidity/vanity  of human ego, which makes you not see reason at all even if you are otherwise a fine and strong person, which results in sordid end. The Dumralochan is the smoky and unclear mind of and therefore gets carried away like smoke with no mooring of it’s own the way the gets knocked out .

Rakthabeej is the continuous and unstoppable self mutiplying bunch of desires bubbling in our mind. If one desire is satisfied another crops up. This makes you go astray and you fail to fulfill  the cosmic responsibilities and as a result you end up getting annihilated.

The Chad- Mund is the ‘this or that syndrome’ – making you not able to take the right and wise decision by yourself and therefore getting dictated by others and at the end meeting the sad fate.

The Sumb - Nishumb are the final summit of being good or bad ; to have wisdom or ignorance;get illuminated or remain in darkness. The choice is pretty obvious-reach the summit of wisdom by good thoughts , words and  deeds . But the false ego makes us not to take the right decision because then it has to give up the illegitimate worldly pleasures and hence makes us to choose the wrong one or makes us to pretend being good by words but not in thoughts and deeds. The result is ending up in disintegration.

This whole purana is a deep prayer to chandi ma to keep us away from these mental pitfalls and provide us the powers and energies to quell any such tendencies if they try to creep in. These are just a few examples to show that our puranas have very deep meanings and if we can understand it and follow it will be guaranteed bliss all the way. 

Mind that matters 

The other important point to be noted is that in all these puranas the evils originate only in the mind and then envelopes the intellect and conscience making them silent spectators like what Duriyodana,Sakuni and Dhritharashtra did to Bhishma,Drona and Vidhura in Mahabarat.

Also we can note Sura padma came in six disguises – the six dirts of mind namely-anger,lust,greed,pride,envy and illusion. Similarly in Devi Mahatmiyam the Madu-Kaidab represented the mental dust of the vanity; mahishashur-the stupidity and sumb nishumbh-the false ego and again we can see all of them are mental illnesses.

Ravana paid for lust.,Duryodana for Jealosy;Kamsa for anger;sisupala for pride;hriyanyakasibu for vanity;again each of these are mind related illnesses and that is why we repeatedly say that it is only mind that matters to be in the divine world of eternal bliss.

Puranas have again and again tried to drill deep this into our mind and it is most unfortunate  that we have not made the best use of them in shaping our younger generation.

So the moral of the story is that you can earn all powers from nature and succeed both materially and spiritually. But if your mind is polluted or gets corrupted and you don't rectify it all your other good things will get buried .So it is highly imperative that  you keep  your mind  pure and genuine.

ITHIHASAS

Origin

While  Puranas were part imaginary and part recalling of something happened in the past as known to the author, or as told to the author or as hypothesized by the author; the Ithihasas were of contemporarian nature with the Author.

This means that some of the characters of the Ithihasas lived when the author also lived or the author himself was a character in that Ithihasa. Therefore it becomes more authentic as it is a first hand account and not an account of what happened in a far removed  time. No doubt Ithihasas also have their poetic liberties,hero worship and exaggerations but they are not totally figment of imagination.They have truth history combined with mythology.

Two major Ithihasas

In india we have two Ithihasas –Ramayana written by sage Valmiki,and Mahabharata written by Sage Vyasa.

Valmiki is said to have brought up Lava- Kusa –sons of Lord Rama and  after giving divine shelter to Sita Mata - so he was a contemporarian with the hero/heroine during the final stages of the Ramayana.

Vyasa was the progenitor of the principal characters of Mahabaratha- Dhridarashtra, Pandu and Vidura.

Ithihasas in addition to highlighting high moral values also dealt with real life predicaments, issues,trials and tribulations. They also provided satisfactory answers for these problems.They also dealt with extensively on social issues and governance issues.In this way it went beyond personal morals to social and group morals.

Such Ithihsas are there in other religions as well though not designated a such. For example in our opinion the life story of Jesus or Prophet Mohammed or Gautama Buddha will fall into this category, though some one can claim it is not Ithihasa but history. Similarly somebody may claim Ramayana and Mahabaratha are also history more than Ithihasa. The ithihasa and history are differentiated by a thin line only. Therefore in our opinion these are all word plays but communicating the same thing.

Most Adorable Heros

Ithihasas were written on people or characters who played an extra ordinarily  beneficial role for the upliftment of the human mind and lived and established certain eternal values which can lead the mind to supermind.

You can see for yourself the contribution to the  evoultion of human mind made by Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Lord Buddha,Lord jesus, Lord Prophet Mohammed, Lord Guru nanak etc., Their sayings and teachings are divine energy infusers as these great men carried the divine power and wisdom with them because they were actually furthering the fruition of the gods need – developing an universal conscious mind.

That is why their name evokes  devotion, respect,and a magnetic pull.That is why it is also  generally believed and accepted that they are god incarnations-avatars.

Since the very story is woven around the good overpowering the evils - at the gross mind level it developed positive thoughts and at  subtle mind level the verses has the cosmic vibratory power which is a very powerful tool in mind nourishment.

The Ithihasas were also popularized and was taken to the masses in the same way as puranas.But the human acceptability and adoration was more in Ithihasas as they reflected the common man’s daily life issues as  the characters actually had lived in flesh and bone. For the same reason the association with the characters was quickly established and the mutual empathy was strong'

Therefore Ithihasas play a very major role in human growth into a superman

Significance of Ithihasas

Ihihasas over and above the ethical part of it always has a  profound  central message to be conveyed.

Ramayana

Intoxication of success:  

Ravana was no ordinary man- He was a devout and scholarly Brahmin that too son of Sage Pulasthya; Ravana himself was a great Shiva devotee and was loved by Shiva himself;and blessed with all boons by lord Shiva.It is believed that Shiva in fact sided with Ravana on an issue between Ravana and Bagavan Nandi. That should show the level of his devotion and level of mind evolution achieved. ( It is another aspect that in that situation when Lord Shiva supported Ravana, Nandi cursed Ravana that what he failed to do a monkey god will do and that is why Lord Hanuman played that crucial role in the fall of Ravana.)

Despite having reached such dizzy heights he committed the cardinal mistake of falling for lust and the consequential Ego. Therefore if you err in cosmic law and if you don't correct yourself you will meet your bad end only; however successful you may be otherwise. 

The Web of Karma:

One great theme of Ramayana is the working out of Karma, the consequence of past deeds. The basic plot of Ramayana is a simple struggle between good and evil. But it is not allowed to remain simple. We discover that there are many layers of karma involved and dilemmas to be faced, and the gap between good and evil is not as clear as we might have thought, and that behind this simple story lies a cosmic purpose to be fulfilled. At every step along the way, we are tested emotionally and intellectually.

Freedom and Duty:

A central theme of Ramayana is the sacrifice of freedom for the sake of duty or honor. The Sanskrit word approximating "duty" is dharma which has no equivalent in English. Roughly translated it means, ' the essential purpose of life.' In Hindu society this manifests as a set of principles governing behavior, such as the duty to obey one's father or to protect one's dependents. 

Mahabharata

Polluted Mind :

Duryodana had many things in his favour- strictly speaking he was a victim rather than the culprit in his claim for kingdom - lost the game only because as Lord Krishna says , he was having dirts of jealousy, krodha, Adamance, Unfairness etc.,

 Dharma is universal:

The finale of Mahabharat is gloriously impressive as conclude by Rishi Vyasa

"Dharma is eternal; life, its joys and sorrow are not. Do not give away the eternal for the temporal values of life." And he explains what is Dharma:

“Do not do to others what you do not wish others to do to you; and wish for others too What you desire and long for, for yourself — 

This is the whole of dharma — heed —it well”

To Sum Up

Again and again it comes to that one single point that it is the mind and mind alone which matters which can make you either an adorable hero or a cantankerous villain .