Question in Vishnu Puranam

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagawathas,

I have some doubts in Srimad Vishnu Puranam... I request the scholars in

this list

to kindly clarify... The questions are solely out of adiyEn's ignorance and

not intended

to question the authority of the purANa rathnam: These questions are based

on my

reading a tamizh prose-like translation of the purANam (by Sri

M.A.Venkatraman, LIFCO).

1. There are lot of stories housed in the puranam. Stories about kings,

sages... Generally

the stories explain the spiritual aspects of life. In this context, I didn't

quite understand

the relevance of the stories about "bhr~haspathi-chandran-thArai-bhudhan"

episode and

"purUravas-Urvasi" episode. I can't collect any spiritual import from

these... And the story

of yayAdhi who seeks youth from his son and enjoys many years of life till

becomes tired

of his youth and then takes vAnaprastham and attains the goal of life... In

this particular

story: yayAdhi is steeped in sensual pleasures in the beginning of life...

Though he realises

in the end of his life he is in the wrong path, what is the relevance for

this and the other

two stories in Vishnu Puranam... And in the "purUravas-Urvasi" episode, the

story ends as

"purUravas gains a permanent residence in Urvasi's lOkam and lives there".

How is this

relevant to "Narayana thathvam" understanding which was my ambition before

starting

the reading? adiyEn is clearly not a matured soul to see the spiritual

essence embedded in

the stories... Kindly enlighten. Kindly correct me if I am misquoting

anything here... These

are from my reading the abovesaid book.

 

2. Sri parAsarA in the purANam tells His prophesies about Maurya dynasty

viz., chANakyan,

Chandragupta, Bimbisara, Ashoka etal... But isn't it true that from Ashoka

downwards

the dynasty embraced budhism? Basically my problem is, what do we gain

(spiritually) by

knowing about these emperors.. But I can understand what I will gain if I

know about Sage

king Janaka etal.,

 

3. Sri parAsarA also tells of mAyAmOhan who is Lord Narayana's amsam... He

goes about

diverting certain sect of people from vedic living and converts them into

"bhuddhas" and

"arhadhas". So clearly here it adduces to Bhuddha and Mahavira... Is it

right? But somewhere

in this list, I have read that Buddha is not amsam of the Lord... Please

clarify. Also the dates

of Bhuddha and Mahavira are really recent in the history of Hinduism

compared to Krishna's

birth and even Sri parAsarA's time.

 

Please suggest me, how to gain spiritual aspects from Srimad Vishnu

Puranam... adiyEn's

mandha bhuddhi doesn't comprehend clearly..

 

 

I apologise sincerely if I even unintentionally offended anybody's

feelings by the above

writing.

 

adiyEn,

chandrasekaran.