Comprehending the Puranas

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Comprehending and appreciating Puranas

 

Many think that Puranas are just *Mythologies.*

This is a misnomer. Puranas by themselves

have to be classified as a special type of religious

literature. They do not deal with *Myths* but

they extensively and intensively delve in

*Mysticism.* They actually are *Lucid Expositions*

of the *ONE basic and core principle* underlying

the multifarious expressions/manifestations

of the COSMIC PHENOMENON in its entirety.

The Puranas therefore essentially have to

be Mystical as otherwise it would not be possible

for them to be exponents of this *Supreme Truth.*

 

We have to view at another aspect of the Puranas.

That is their immeasurable *utility value* to

mankind, their capability to lift the mortals to

higher levels of consciousness and give them

perfect ideals which would be a source of divine

inspiration and true devotion to God in any form/s.

 

In order to appreciate the Puranas, one should

have a clear and open mind and should not be

exposed to preconceived notions. We should

not read with *an already foregone conclusion*

that, they are just some *fictions* talking of

some *Myths,* that Ganesha or Vishnu or any

other God described therein are all *Myths,*

and that the main person *Vyasa Bhagawan*

who gave these Puranas to this world was just

a *Lowly Human* and so on. These sort of

conceptions are born out of the so called

*Intellectual Ego* and lack of realisation or

understanding of the *subtlety of the sublimity*

of the human mind.

 

Just look at what Einstein, the greatest of all-

time scientists had said:

 

The most beautiful and most profound emotion

we can experience is the sensation of the Mystical.

It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this

emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder

and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.

 

To know that what is impenetrable to us, really

exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom,

and the most radiant beauty, which our dull

faculties can comprehend only in the most primitive

form - this knowledge, this feeling, is at the

centre of true religiousness. The Cosmic religious

experience is the strongest and oldest mainspring

of scientific research.

 

My religion consists of a humble admiration

of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals

Himself in the slight details we are able to

perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That

deeply emotional conviction of the presence of

the superior reasoning power, which is revealed

in the incomprehensible Universe, forms my

idea of God.

 

SCIENCE WITHOUT RELIGION IS LAME;

RELIGION WITHOUT SCIENCE IS BLIND

(continued)

 

*

 

http://www.hindunet.org/alt_hindu/1995_Apr_1/msg00071.html

Brief outline of the eighteen Puranas