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| P C K Prem |
P C K PREM
Study
of literature whether contemporary or ancient gives glimpses of age, its
socio-economic, political, religious, philosophic and historical aspects and
thus, it is a compound approach to life and existence. Vision, knowledge and
wisdom of the ancients attract and teach true art of life and do not hide
imperfections and negativity. Subjects of perennial interest – creation,
preservation and dissolution form the fundamental substance when they tell
through various discourses, tales and legends about creation, destruction, and
growth of life in between. They speak of different ages, Solar and lunar
dynasties, lineage of rulers with microscopic particulars. Sage Vyasa taught and transmitted ancient
wisdom to his devotee Lomaharshana,
who passed on the sacred knowledge verbally to holy men at Naimisha forests and later, these wise sages while interpreting the
wisdom made additions and alterations and hence, the figure of puranas increased and so it is difficult
to tell the exact number of Puranas
with conviction and correctness.
One can easily say that
Puranas are in truth, encyclopedic in scope and import where one finds
essence of life and existence in totality, and where social, economic,
political, religious, psychosomatic, and philosophic dimensions become obvious.
A judiciously meditative and reflective intellect goes further than the borders
of transitory life and wishes to concentrate on life beyond as glimpses of
mysteries open up. Treatment of multifaceted subject is heterogeneous, exciting
and stimulating for an inquisitive intellect. It teaches art of living in
entirety with emphasis on truth and righteousness.
To confine the vastness
of Puranas to a definition is fraught
with dangers of imperfection, immaturity and meager perception of the subject
matter. Mahapuranas and Up-puranas are the two classes. Sage Vyasa wrote Puranas perhaps to convey the essence of the Vedas. Puranas are tales
of kings, sages, celestial and semi-celestial beings, gods and goddesses, daityas, human beings – mortals and
immortals, and so speak of time and life. These contain the inner world and the
worlds beyond, man is still trying to fathom with eagerness. He wishes to know
the depth and immensity of what exists next, and tries to comprehend the mind
and heart and the immeasurable and manifold dimensions relating to philosophic,
psychological, mystical and spiritual yearnings. Objective is to teach man the
art of life based on truth and uprightness in simple language and approach and
correlate ordinary man’s karmas and
desires with the life of created beings wielding super powers with proclivities
toward truth and falsehood, piety and injustice, triumph of truth over
prejudice and evil. Puranas act as a
mirror to men to see truth and glorify life with faith, devotion and truthful karmas. It is a path to freedom from
internal and external bondages.
Immensely vast in scope
and treatment, scholars put puranas
in three categories – Vaishnava Puranas,
Brahma Puranas and Shaiva Puranas
and these contain profound elucidation of Sattvic,
Rajasic and Tamasic gunas of
humankind respectively. Therefore, they speak about the Trinity – Vishnu symbolizes Sattvic virtues, Brahma
tells of Rajasic and Shiva speaks about Tamasic nature and tendencies of created beings, which determine
destiny.
Shivapurana
speaks about the glory, splendor, and rituals before prayer and worship,
idealistic and philosophical principles of Shaivism.
Through teachings, religious disquisitions, laws of dharma, karmas and
virtues, it gradually reveals different aspects of life contained in various samhitas (segments) as they portray
sermons and expositions of grandeur, enormity of mysticism and divinity of
created beings – mortals or immortals.
Besides the story of
creation and birth of Brahma, it
tells about the coming up of Lingam,
creation of universe, emergence of Rudra,
daitya Taraka, Kamadeva and lord’s anger whom Rati
saves, Parvati’s tapa, birth of Ganesha
and Kartikeya. One learns about the
images of Shiva as lingams, various tirthas and emergence of Jyotirlingams
and tirthas, Shiva-ratri fast, significance of ashes – bhasma, Shilada’s son Nandi, yagya of Daksa and its
devastating consequences, tales of asuras
namely: Andhaka, Hirayanakasipu, Hirayanaksa,
and of monk Upamanyu. Five
incarnations of Shiva, description of
eight murities of Shiva and image of Ardhanarishwara and understanding the essence of Shiva-tattva that are for the benefit of
humankind find right delineation. It
talks about forty-two incarnations before one knows about Nandi. In the course of even casual look at the holy book, one
learns about nature of hells to which sinners ultimately go and suffer for the
consequences of karmas.
Purana
narrates godly characteristics, manifestations, exploits, origin of phallic
image – installing and worship of lingams
– the images of lord Shiva at various
places and the legends associated with lingams.
It is good to penetrate into the essence and
meaning of purana’s teaching,
religious anxiety, man’s future, role of celestial beings and man’s acts and
devotee’s zeal to seek merger with the Absolute –the Supreme lord. Meditation
on the lord Shiva may seem easy but
initial preparation for proper prayer and worship requires fulfillment of
certain rituals.
The legends in the Purana convey the essence of ancient
wisdom and the eternal message to contemporary man.
Many ages before, Brahma’s manas putra sage Narada,
wanted to know about Shiva. Nothing
existed in the beginning of creation not even the cosmos, the universe. Brahma begins to narrate the tale of
creation and tells that only He (the
divine essence) existed but water was everywhere. Brahma was bereft of any property regarding the extent, range,
temperature – hot or cold, a man understands in ordinary language, and further,
he was without the beginning or the end and therefore, defied thoughts of
limits. Vishnu manifested ‘the self’
in the great form and relaxed on the water. When he slept, a lotus flower (padma) of many petals took birth from
the navel. Padam’s stem dazzled as if
it were a cluster of a thousand glittering suns and from the core of the lotus,
Brahma took birth, wandered around,
and witnessed a vast and unfathomable ocean.
Many Questions – ‘Who am
I? How and from where did I come? What am I to do? Whose son am I? Who gave
birth to me?’ cropped up in the mind of Brahma.
He wanted to find conceivable answers, and so, he looked deep into the lotus
and wished to find its centre. Out of inquisitiveness, he travelled along padam’s stem and continued to travel for
another hundred years but failed to find Padam’s
centre and roots, and therefore, after a thought, he returned to the place of
birth but failed to find the entity, the little cell from where he had emerged.
Brahma
was exhausted and therefore, thought it better to take a break. A voice
suddenly woke him up but he was lost in deep tapasya – meditation and intense tapa for twelve years. After austere tapa, Vishnu with four
arms appeared before Brahma. Vishnu’s hands held a sankha (conch shell), a chakra (a discus), a gada (mace) and a padma (lotus flower). Brahma
was surprised to the see the man he did not know.
Engaged in a serious
dialogue, Brahma and Vishnu noticed a luminously elegant lingam (Shiva’s image) appearing before the lord. It had no beginning or
end. Vishnu requested Brahma to stop arguing, when they
observed materialization of the third unknown being. Linga’s identity raises questions ‘who is he and why did he come
and from where?’ They looked at each other and seemed extremely astonished.
Vishnu
told Brahma to transform into the
figure of a swan (a bird hamsa) and
fly high even as Vishnu changes into
the form of boar (varaha) and went
down into the depths of water. They went with the intent to investigate
and find out the farthest points of both sides of linga. Brahma was now a
white swan and flew high into the sky. Vishnu
as a white boar went down to know the truth of an unknown being linga. The search continued for four
thousand years but they failed to locate the limits –the end of linga. After the journey in search of linga’s limits, they returned to the
place from where they had begun. It was time to pray and so spent another
hundred years in prayers.
After the long prayer,
they heard the sound of ‘om’ and
soon, an amazing being turned up with five faces and ten arms. It was Mahadeva – Shiva. Vishnu was a bit happy and said, “It is because of the fight we had
that you arrived on the scene. It is good I say.”
Shiva
said gently, “We are ‘One’ with ‘One Entity’ and here, we are in three
components. Brahma is the creator. Vishnu is the preserver and I am the
destroyer. Another being would take birth from this body and he would be Rudra. Rudra and I are ‘One’. Let Brahma
create now” and he disappeared. After Shiva
left, Brahma and Vishnu abandoned forms of ‘the swan’ and ‘the boar’.
Vishnu
created a huge egg (anda) in the vast
limitless deep-sea and entered the egg, and in the meantime, Brahma began to pray. He gained immense
power through tapa and meditation and
created many holy men and sages. Thereafter, the process of creation began. Brahma, after initial aura of mystery,
decided to create male and female components for an innovative process – a
sacred creative act through the union of male and female constituents. The
Supreme lord assigned the sacrosanct function to Prajapati Daksa, who
encountered many problems in the beginning but later, surmounted all
impediments and fulfilled a divine duty.
Purana
is a vital treatise on karma, bhakti – devotion, wisdom and knowledge,
the three qualities of – sattva, rajas and tamas, and the elucidation of gunas
– the qualities through tales make the purana
interesting and contemporary as always and emphasizes the path of dharma.
Truth and virtue fill
life with happiness but violence and malice cause sufferings. An anguished man
seeks refuge at the feet of the god or goddess. He tries to understand the
nature of acts (karmas) and
therefore, tentatively prays and worships to get rid of bodily and mental
afflictions. He explores nature of karmas
and learns that every act originates from the quality of three gunas-sattva, rajas and tamas. The
conduct and nature of man depends upon the impact of gunas. When he turns to religious texts, he knows the true meaning
of sattva, rajas and tamas. Various
holy books urge men to live truthfully and honestly – a life of dharma. Virtuous karma is dharma (a life
of truth and righteousness) of man, for karma
with a righteous motive serves man and humankind.
Karmas
are precursors to human relations, love, passion, anxieties, thirst,
uncertainties, jealousy, hatred, greed and attachment, and carry the longings
for reward. Social obligations presuppose certainty and thus, liberation from
worldly joys or sufferings becomes difficult. However, karmas if understood correctly, guide a man to freedom from earthly
shackles. ‘Pleasant and enjoyable’ karmas-preyas (pleasant) do not create obstacles, for such karmas cause attachment to transient
material joys, and bring pain, grief and sorrow. Virtuous and humanistic
thoughts originating from acts enrich man with inner ecstasy and bliss and at
this moment, karmas are bereft of the
thoughts of recompense. Impassiveness to fruit of karmas brings inner peace and proves enlightening to man and
society and so, karmas attain unique
characteristic – shreyas (good). To
perform duties rightly, is the real dharma
of man irrespective of the status he holds in the social, economic or political
hierarchy, otherwise ubiquitous putrefaction stares.
Faith in Shiva, the Supreme not only eliminates
sufferings from the life of a man but also grants deliverance. Purana consists of six sub-sections (samhitas) with more than two hundred and
fifty chapters. One learns about the birth of Brahma from the navel of Vishnu,
Linga, Rudra and then, it speaks of the process of creation, through prajapati Daksa. It tells about the tapa
and penance of Parvati and Shiva, of the birth of Uma and the lord of love, of legendary yajnas, of Ganesha and the interaction with other gods and celestial beings,
of incarnations and various daityas
and of elimination of iniquity, violence, untruth and unrighteousness and
establishment of laws of dharma.
In the light of the above
one observes that righteous acts determine destiny of man from the
social, economic, psychological, philosophic, political and religious aspects. Karmas are integral to the essence of dharma, integrity, truth and uprightness
and evaluate man’s acts. Man’s development not only relates to material growth
but also growth of inner man. Tales contained in the Purana explain and expound the quintessence of inherent message.
Continuity in narrative remains uninterrupted whereas the sacred radiance of
texts and subtexts of various inbuilt legends, sages’ anxieties about life and
existence on earth and beyond, spreads philosophic and spiritual light and so
each facet of purana enlightens,
dispels doubts and darkness, and brings light.
****
If
man serves humankind, performs worldly karmas
honestly and pursues path of truth and honesty, it definitely leads to
salvation. Atonement absolves a man from the affects of karmas if he abandons wickedness and imprudence and loves virtues
and dharma. If a man maintains
sanctity of acts and words, life turns meaningful. Human beings possess
tremendous power to live as they wish. A life of limpidness, truth and
self-respect values devotion and truth and an elevated and godly life, offers
real connotation and delight. A man listens to the scriptural teaching and
hears religious men but ignores the real substance.
Delusory potency of the
lord is unfathomable and teaches lessons to ‘ego and arrogance’ filled created
beings. A man if understands ‘the self’
only then, he comprehends the essence of Param-brahma
Paramatma, the Supreme Brahma,
who bestows supreme ecstasy – true ananda
and is nirguna – beyond virtues, and nirbikara – beyond the limitations of
belief and three gunas of sattva, rajas and tamas. He is Supreme Trinity – Brahma,
Vishnu and Mahesh, the origin of
all lords and gods.
Devotion in right spirit
is the ultimate path to deliverance one learns. Created beings, the three
worlds, regions and directions function under an unambiguous plan the lord
emphasizes. Without any illusion and delusion, Supreme Brahma, explains the secret outline and design of creation and the
divine sanction. For any sacred
mission, a man if devoted and genuine attains the highest objective.
If a devoted man genuinely
understands heavenly objective of gods behind the creation and life’s mystery,
he really makes life evocative. Incarnation carries a purpose the lord tells.
To abandon ‘the self’ in devotion purifies ‘the inner self’ and here, a man
loves man and humanity – the message of the Supreme.
Elegance, nobility and virtues, truth and dharma lead a man to fulfillment and
ultimate deliverance. If a man of pure heart thinks rationally, he goes near
the divine and invisible power. Dharma,
righteous conduct and concentration on the tattva
– essence of life and existence beautify life. Tapa helps a created being to attain goal. Not only created beings
but also the gods of heavens and celestial souls consider Shiva as the origin and source of creation and delusory potency,
who bestows power on Trinity – Brahma,
Vishnu and Shiva. Life of daityas
devoted to gods teaches eternal lessons to humankind. Love, devotion and
intense bhakti offer essence of life.
World is not real and so, a man lives in delusion and illusion. Impiety
survives if hatred, violence and sins thrive and so invite miseries and
death.
One ought to respect privacy and supremacy of
one’s region and grant it to others, and nobody should ever think of
infringement, tells Shiva Purana. It further tells that if a man adheres to
the path of truth and righteousness, and spends life without prejudice or
feelings of injustice for anyone, he makes man and society happy. Man ought to
be genuine in what he does. Virtuous Karmas
bring joy and prosperity, the tales highlight quite often.
If one has faith in one’s karma born of virtuous qualities, one is
surely free from sufferings, for evil karmas
cause sufferings. A man if knows his limitations and understands delusory
powers of the great god that even Brahma
does not know it is good. Faith in the invisible frees from sufferings and
delusory living, and therefore, for a man, who seeks refuge in gunas – sattva, rajas and tamas, salvation on apt understanding is
certain.
The world witnesses an
eternal struggle between the good and the evil, in the images of gods and the
demons and there is no let up. Evil forces look virtuous in the beginning but
soon return to original nature and enjoy pleasures. It increases hunger for
more, and consequently, revulsion, hostility, brutality, ego and conceit
overwhelm. Death is unavoidable, howsoever, strong and mighty a man is. Many
undergo tapa and penance for years
and seek immortality from the Supreme but face death. If one goes beyond the
borders of wisdom and intellect of the creator, he commits a momentous blunder,
for the creator assigns each one fixed time, karma, space and location. Even in intensity of bhakti, a man fails to go beyond what
the creator designs.
Wickedness enjoys short
life. Asuras symbolize insatiability
and violence, transgression and brutality whereas gods are harbingers of peace
and harmony and evince interest in bhakti
and tapa. Gods want happiness of
created beings and never disturb the flow of system and so, promote goodwill, tapa, bhakti, wellbeing and prosperity. Whoever works against the
dictates of Supreme gets retribution and lives in oblivion. Supreme lord wants
eternal continuity of humanity and guides to deliverance if a man lives
righteously.
Lord creates a world
where birth, death and rebirth are inevitable. He specifies role of power,
pelf, pleasures of the senses and material prosperity. For the growth of
population, he defines the role of females. The lord seeks consent of Supreme Brahma the Pitahamaha, undergoes tapa and pleases Mahadeva, who appears in an amazing figure of ardhnarishawara – a figure of a man and a woman in equal
proportion.
