Brahma Purana part… 3

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Brahma Purana part… 3

 

Namaste

Let us Continue Reading Puranas.

Puranas are also a Treasure to Sanathana Dharma.

Agni Purana, Brahma Purana, Garuda Purana,

Markandeya Purana, Varaha Purana, Matsya Purana

Vishnu Purana, Linga Purana, Narada Purana,

Padma Purana, Shiva Purana, Skanda Purana,

Vamana Purana

Let us start read one by one .

We Finish reading AGNIPURANA ,

Now we will Continue reading BRAHMA Purana .same like

before I will post Brahma Purana as part by part.

 

 

I Know while reading Manusmriti to read

Other puranas may be difficult , but as you know

atleast to taste our great values in

Sananthana Dharma One Human life is not enough,

so I try my level best to spread this values

to my respected friends.

If anyone miss to read or interest to read my

previous postings Chanakya Neetisastra,

Kautiliya Arthasastra , Vidura niti or

Tiruvallurs Tirukkural,and Uddhavagita or

any part of Manusmriti ,Agnipurana, Brahma purana

pls mail to me , I will send again to you.

I humbly request you to forward this values to your family, friends and to your groups. Allow all people from different religion to understand the value of our Sanathana Dharma. At least let them learn and then let them criticize.

 

Here we Continue the translation of the text of the BRAHMA PURAN in Short at the currently available form :

I am not a scholar to modify any of this laws or puranas or its languages suitable for modern life .I Humbly request you to read it and think in a modern scientific way. Like in Bhagavadgita Chapter 18 text 63 it is said by lord Krishna Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do.

I humbly request you to forward this values to your family, friends and to your groups. Allow all people from different religion to understand the value of our Sanathana Dharma. At least let them learn and then let them criticize

As my Guru told me

One need not worry too much about the source of certain knowledge. Just adopt in our life if they are good. If needed refine the knowledge by way of addition, deletion, modification and correction. Also try to understand the meaning of Different Castes , it is not by birth it is by his performance.

Brahma Purana part… 3Vaivasvata Manu’s Children Vaivasvata Manu had no children and he arranged for a sacrifice so that he might have a son. Nine sons were born as a result of this sacrifice. Their names were Ikshvaku, Nabhaga, Dhrishta, Sharyati, Narishyanta, Pramshu, Rishta, Karusha and Prishadhra. Manu also made an offering to the two gods Mitra and Varuna. As a result of this offering, a daughter named Ila was born. Buddha was the son of Chandra, and Buddha and Ila had a son named Pururava. Subsequently, thanks to a boon conferred on her by Mitra and Varuna, Ila became a man named Sudyumna. Sudyumna’s sons were Utkala,

Gaya and Vinatashva. Utkala ruled in Orissa, Gaya in the region that is also called Gaya, and Vinatashva in the west. Sudyumna was not entitled to rule since he had earlier been a woman. He lived in the city known as Pratishthana. Pururava inherited this later on. When Vaivasvata Manu died, his nine sons divided up the earth amongst themselves. Ikshvaku ruled in the central regions. He had a hundred sons, the eldest of whom was named Vikukshi. Vikukshi came to be known as Shashada. Thereby hangs a tale. Ikshvaku wanted to organize a sacrifice and he sent his son Vikukshi to the forest to fetch some meat for the sacrifice. While hunting for game, Vikushi felt very hungry and ate

up some of the meat. This was a sacrilege and the sage Vashishtha advised Ikshvaku to banish Vikukshi from his kingdom. Because the meat that he had eaten had been the meat of a rabbit (shashaka), Vikukshi came to be known as Shashada. But after Ikshvaku died, Vikukshi returned to his father’s kingdom and began to rule there. This was the kingdom of Ayodhya. One of Vikukshi’s sons was Kakutstha, and Rama of Ramayana fame was born in this line. Kubalashva Kubalashva was one of the kings descended from Kakutstha. Kubalashva’s father was named Vrihadashva. After Vrihadashva had ruled for many years, he desired to retire to the forest. He therefore prepared to hand over the kingdom to his son Kubalashva. But learning of King Vrihadashva’s

resolve, a sage named Utanka came to meet the king. Don’t go to the forest right now, Utanka told the king. My hermitage (ashrama) is on the shores of the ocean and is surrounded by sand in all directons. A strong rakshasa named Dhundhu lives under the sand. He is so strong that even the gods have been unable to kill him. Once every year, Dhundhu exhales his breath and this raises a temendous cloud of sand and dust. For an entire week the sun remains shrouded in dust and for the whole week, there are earthquakes as a result of Dhundhu’s exhalation. This is disturbing my meditation (tapasya) and you can’t very well go away to the forest without first doing something about Dhundhu. Only you are capable of killing him. I have accumulated a lot of power as a result of my tapasya and I will give this to you if you kill Dhundhu. Vrihadashva told Utanka that there was no need for Vrihadashva himself to kill Dhundhu. He would go

to the forest as he had decided. His son Kubalashva was perfectly capable of killing Dhundhu and would accompany Utanka. Kubalashva and his hundred sons went to the shores of the ocean where all the sand was Kubalashva asked his sons to start digging so that they might find Dhundhu. Dhundhu attacked Kubalashva’s sons and killed all of them but three. The three who escaped were named Dridashva, Chandrashva and Kapilashva. But Dhundhu himself was killed by Kubalashva. As a result of this great feat, Kubabashva came to be known as Dhundhumara. The sage Utanaka blessed Kubalashva and by the sage’s blessings, Kubalashva’s dead sons went straight to heaven. Trishanku From Dridashva was descended a king named Trayaruni. Trayaruni was a righteous king and followed all the religious dectates. But Trayaruni’s son Satyavrata was quite the opposite and refused to follow

the righteous path. King Trayaruni’s chief priest was the great sage Vashishtha. Vashishtha advised the king that his evil son should be banished from the kingdom. Trayaruni accepted the sage’s advice. Consequently, Satyara started to live with outcasts (chandalas) outside the kingdom. After some time, Trayaruni relinquished his kingship and went away to the forest. The kingdom had no king and degenerated into anarchy. The absence of a king is also frowned upon by the gods and for twelve years there was a terrible drought. Vishvamitra was another great sage. While all this was going on, Vishvamitra was not present in the kingdom. He had gone away to perform tapasya on the shores of the ocean, having left his wife and children in a hermitage (ashrama) that was in the kingdom. But because there was such a long spell of drought, there was also famine in the kingdom. People started to strave. Vishvamitra’s wife decided to

sell her son so that she might have some foods to eat. She tied a rope round the son’s neck and took him to the market - place. There, she sold him in exchange for a thousand cows. Since a rope ahd been tied around the son’s neck(gala), he came to be known as Galava. But Satyavrata discovered what terrible straits Vishvamitra’s family was in. He freed Galava and started to take care of Vishvamitra’s wife and children. Satyavrata had not been terribly fond of Vashishta. He blamed the sage for his banishment. When there was famine everywhere, Satyavarata stole Vashishtha’s cow. He killed the cow and served the meat to Vishvamitra’s sons, apart from eating it himself. Vashishtha was in a terrible rage when he got to know about this incident. He cursed Satyavrata. You have committed three sins (shanku), Vashishtha told Satyavarata. Firstly, you have angered your father Trayaruni. Secondly, you have

stolen and killed a cow. Thirdly, you have eaten beef, a forbiiden meat. Because of these three sins, you will henceforth be known as Trishanku and be eternally cursed. (The word tri means three.) Satyavrata had however taken care of Vishvamitra’s family when the sage was away on his meditation. After Vishvamitra returned, he was very happy to learn about what Trishanku had done and offered to grant him a boon. Trishanku desired the boon that he might be allowed to go to heaven in his own physical body. Thanks to Vishvamitra’s immense powers, even this virtually impossible task was accomplished. Trishanku became king in Trayaruni’s kingdom and Vishvamitra acted as his chief priest. Sagara Trishanku’s son was Harishchandra and from Harishchandra was descended a king named Bahu. Bahu devoted too much to pleasurable pursuits. The upshot of this was that the defect

of the kingdom was not properly taken care of. Enemy kings seized this opportunity to attack Bahu’s kingdom. They drove Bahnu out and Bahu went off to the forest with his wife Yadavi. The enemy kings who dislodged Bahu were led by the Haihaya and Talajangha kings. They were aided by the Shakas, Yavanas, Paradas, Kambojas and Pahlavas. King Bahu died in the forest. His wife Yadavi desired to die on her husband’s funeral pyre. But since Yadavi was pregnant at the time, the sage Ourva persuaded her that such an act would be a sin. He brought Yadavi to his own hermitage and began to take care of her. Bahu had also had a second wife and she had once tried to poison Yadavi. The poison (gara) had however done Yadavi no harm and emerged when the baby was born. Since the baby was born together with poison, he came to be known as Sagara. The sage Ourva took care of Sagara’s education. He imparted to Sagara

the knowledge of all the shastras and also the usage of weapons. Amongst other things, Sagara acquired the skill of using a divine weapon known as agneyastra. When he grew up, Sagara attacked the Haihaya kings and defeated them through the use of agneyastra. He then defeated the Shakas, Yavanas, Paradas, Kambojas and Pahlavas and was about to kill them all. But these enemy kings fled to the sage Vashishtha for refuge and Vashishtha persuaded Sagara not to kill his enemies. Instead , the heads of the Shakas were half shaven off. The Yavanas and Kambojas had their heads completely shaven. The Pahlavas were instructed that they would have to keep beards. These enemy kings also lost all right to follow the religion laid down in the Vedas. Amongst the other kings whom Sagara defeated were the Konasarpas, the Mahishakas, the Darvas, the Cholas and the Keralas. King Sagara had two wives. The first was named Keshini and she was the

daughter of the king of Vidarbha. The Brahma Purana does not tell us the name of the second wife, but from the Mahabharata we know that it was Sumati. Keshini and Sumati had no sons. They therefore began to pray to Ourva so that they might have sons. Ourva was pleased at these prayers and said, both of you wil have sons. But one of you will have a single son and the other will have sixty thousand sons. Tell me, who want what. Keshini asked for a single son and Sumati asked for sixty thousand sons. In due course, Keshini gave birth to a son named Panchajana. Sumati gave birth to a gourd. Inside the gourd there was a lump of meat. The gourd was placed inside a pot full of clarifed butter (ghrita). And from the lump of meat were born sixty thousand sons. King Sagara proceeded to conquer the entire earth. As a recognition of this conquest, he initiated an ashvamedha yajna (horse sacrifice). In this ceremony, the

sacrifical horse is left free to wander all over the earth. The sixty thousand sons accompanied the horse as its gurads. The horse eventually reached the shores of the ocean that lies towards the south-east. While Sagara’s sons were resting, the horse was stolen. The sons started to look for the horse and began to dig up the sands in their search. In this proces, they came upon the sage Kapila. Kapila had been meditating and his meditation was disturbed by the terrible din that Sagara’s sons made. He gazed at them in fury and all but four of the sons were burnt to ashes. The four sons who were saved were named Varhiketu, Suketu, Dharmaketu and Panchajana. The Brahma Purana is slightly confused here. Was Panchajana Keshini’ son or Sumati’s son? There is some inconsistency with the account given in the Mahabharata. In the Mahabharata, it is Keshini who gave birth to sixty thousand sons and it is Sumati who had a single on named

Asmanja. Also in the Mahabharata, all sixty thousand sons were burnt to ashes. The Brahma Purana also tells us that the sacrificial horse was obtained by Sagara from the ocean. That is the reason why the ocean is referred to as sagara/ To come back to the account given in the Brahma Purana, Panchajana’s son Amshumana and Amshumana’s son was Dilipa. Dilipa had a son named Bhagiratha. Bhagiratha brought down the river Ganga from heaven to earth and thus redeemed his ancestors who had been burnt to ashes by Kapila. It was because of this that the river Ganga came to be known as Bhagirathi. From Bhagiratha was descended Raghu. Raghu’s son was Aja. Aja’s son Dasharatha and Dasharatha’s son Rama.

Will be continue on part 4

with regards

dilip