[HinduCalendar] Fwd: The Fifth Veda and the Uttarayana

[Guest guest]

HinduCalendar , narayan iyer <z1e1b1r1a

wrote:

 

Dear Sri Sunilji,

I will restrict myself to the discussions on the fifth veda issue only.

Who has classified puraanaas as fifth veda?  Is it mentioned as such

in any of the vedas?  If Veda Vyasji did indeed separate puraanaas

from vedas and give it a nomenclature of a veda, why didnt name it as

....(xyz) veda?  There are surely many things that doesnt add up here.

Surely there were vedic people before Mahabharata.  Why didnt they

need the advice contained in Mahabharata that one should read puraanaas

before studying veda, which advice is contained only in Mahabharata?.

 As you know young brahmacharis were sent to gurukulam in the olden

days to study vedas (even now there are some pathashalas being run on

the same lines).  I havent heard or read that they are being taught

puranaas.  

Now there are some puraanaas which historians date to post-mahabharata

period..  Why are they classified as puraanaas and not as vedas?

I do not under-rate any puranaa, but surely they are not vedas per se.

 The word " puraanaa " used in Brihadaranyaka and chandyoga, actually

refers to the preceding brahmanam of the sukla yajurveda and sama veda

respectively according to some experts and this word has been made use

of by pauranikaas to try tobring the puraanas to the same footing as

vedas.

With regards,

narayan

 

--- On Thu, 11/5/09, Krishen jyotirved wrote:

 

F

The Fifth Veda

 

 

 

The Puranas have been called by the Chandogya Upanishad and the

 

Brihadaranyak upanishad as the fifth Veda. Vayu Purana tells us that

 

before Vedavyasa divided the Vedas and the upanishads all the Vedas and

 

the Puranas were together as a single Veda. When Vedavyasa found that

 

it wast became almost impossible for any single individual to master

 

all that is encompassed in the Veda, he divided and rearranged the

 

original single Veda into five parts ie. the four Vedas (Rig, Yajur,

 

Sama and Atharva Veda) and the fifth Veda comprising all the Puranas

 

together. The Mahabharata tells us that one must study the Puranas and

 

Itihasas before reading the Vedas. Thus no one can afford to think the

 

Puranas to be any lower than the Vedas. Again some uninformed people

 

grudgingly say that the Bhagavad purana alone may be the fifth Veda.

 

Nothing can be further from the truth. All the major puranas are

 

important. However Padmapurana tells us that the Bhagavat purana is

 

best among the Puranas. It is somehing like Lord Rama telling Hanuman

 

that if anybody can read only one Upanishad that must-read will be the

 

Mandukya Upanishad. That does not mean that one can ignore the other

 

Upanishads.

 

--- End forwarded message ---