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Eighteen Puranas:
The Vedic Mythology
Puranas
are Symbolic
Language to explain Eternal Truth.
There
are 18
puranas compiled by the greatest Genius Sage Vyasa as "Puranas".
He used such an brilliant approach of using a real event in history
to convey the same message through his historical work, the
Mahabharata,
the biggest literary work ever composed. The
Puranas narrate the history of the various dynasties and hierarchies
that emanated from the supreme Consciousness. As a continuation of
the lines of Priyavrata and Uttanapada (vide, the doctrine of
creation under the Upanishads, above), the world saw the coming in
of many heroes, both spiritual and temporal. These offspring of the
ancient ones included both the divine and demoniacal natures, which
waged a perpetual war between themselves, and much of the Purana
content is devoted to descriptions of these conflicts between the
Devas and Asuras.
Other than these earlier descendants
of the progenitors of the race of all beings, particular mention
must be made of the lines of the solar and lunar races of kings and
sages, whose lives provide a highly interesting biographical reading
of both human and superhuman natures. The history of these dynasties
is brought down almost to our own times, thus connecting our
present-day existence with the diviner sources from which we have
come, as, in the words of the Upanishad, children of the Immortal (Amritasya
Putra).
But
through these historical events and life of great men, Puranas helps
us to understand what is
Consciousness,
the Mystery of every Human being, whether he or she
was in the ancient age or living in this modern age. It is the birth
right of every human being to understand the Mystery of
Consciousness. The Rishis says the very purpose of Human's life is
to realize this Consciousness.
Only with this clear understanding of Body-Sense complex, Mind,
Intellect and Awareness can the Puranas be understood without any
misgivings. With this simple understanding one clearly understands
the Symbolism of all Vedic Gods, rituals, culture and the
Purushartha (goal) of Mankind.
Most of the Puranas abound in lengthy narratives of legends
glorifying a particular god or deity, delineating his or her
incarnations, descriptions of holy places of
pilgrimage
(Tirtha), vows or observances (Vrata), acts of charity (Dana), and
the like, with some shorter or longer references to the process of
creation, the genealogy of the gods, demons and kings, stories of
Rishis, as well as occasional statements on the foundations of
politics, and the arrangement of the continents of the world as
parts of the cosmos.
Thus,
the Puranas form a general encyclopaedia of popular thought on
religion and philosophy. But the Bhagavata and the Vishnu Puranas
are a great exception to this rule and they constitute a really
splendid literature on a very lofty philosophy and mysticism.
In Vedic tradition, however everything is centered around the
main Trinity Gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the symbolism
of the Mind, Intellect and Awareness. Brahma is the creator
God, Vishnu the sustainer and Shiva the destroyer. All the three
originate from the Supreme Para-Brahmam, the Pure-unconditional
Consciousness.
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Web
sites that give information on the meaning of
Puranas,
Another
site giving information on the meaning of
18-Puranas,
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