In the previous episode, we had witnessed a very important aspect pertaining to the difference between the “Ithihaasas” and the “Puraanas”. We’ve seen that the “Ithihaasas” were authored when Bhagawan’s incarnation was going on in this world. Whereas, “Puraanas” were authored after all the incarnations got over. In a similar way, we also witnessed yesterday that the ultimate aim of the “Puraana” and “Ithihaasa” texts are to convey the highest principles of “Vedanta” in a lucid form for normal people like us to understand and comprehend. If it is all complex content of “Vedanta”, we might not be able to understand, decipher and appreciate the relevance of it, due to our lack of knowledge, understanding capability, etc. This is why, our great “Maharishis” have taken it upon themselves to offer the greatest of the services to humanity – By putting in place all the stories, life events of Bhagawan together, along with the “Vedanta” content encapsulated into them! What more can we ask for from our great Maharishis?
This is one sort of a selfless service that they’ve offered to the world! Of course, they did not gain anything commercially on this. They did not go behind money, name, fame, etc. by writing all this. For instance, today if someone publishes a book or an article, what do we do? The moment our book gets published, immediately we would take to the social media and publicize it, isn’t it? We would be eager to see how many “likes” and “comments” we receive on a regular basis! Moreover, we would also be interested in how many copies of the book are getting sold, and how much money is the publisher giving us. But did Valmiki Maharishi or Sage Veda Vyaasa look into all of this? They composed something that is nearly impossible for any other human being in this world can even think of, isn’t it? Yet, they never went behind publicity, name and fame!
So, what should be our token of gratitude towards our great Maharishis for their selfless offering? All what we’ve to do now is take the book and start reading what they’ve written! That is what our Maharishis are asking us to do! All we should do is to read and re-read what they’ve written for us, and implement the messages that they’ve conveyed, in our day-to-day lives. This is their only expectation. Hence, in that way, we should firmly believe with trust and faith, on what our Maharishis are saying. In that way, we had commenced looking into the structure of this “Puraana”, namely “Shri Vishnu Puraana”. We had witnessed that this text comprises of six different “Amsas”, just like how Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana had “Skandhas”, Ramayana had “Kaandas” and Mahabharata has “Paruvas”. Under these six “Amsas” there are lot many “Adhyaayas”, which we would be discussing in detail in the coming episodes.
Now, let us witness the themes and messages that each of these “Amsas” try to convey to all of us. The first “Amsa” talks about how the world was created – The various aspects associated with it. This is explained in a lot of minute detail by Sage Paraashara, and we;re going to witness that in the first “Amsa”. Once this is covered, the theme moves into how Bhagawan Vishnu incarnated as “Mohini” to help the Devas and Asuras explore and excavate the “Amrut”. Subsequently, the text talks about various incarnations of Bhagawan Vishnu in detail, including Bhagawan Narasimha’s “Charitra”, Dhruva Charitra, etc. similar to that of the Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana text. Of course, the detailing would be a bit more here and all of it forms part of the first “Amsa” itself. Finally the first “Amsa” comes to an end with a detailed explanation of how Bhagawan Vishnu is maintaining a great deal of balance with all His creations. How does He ensure that the balance is maintained? All the various ways in which Bhagawan is maintaining the balance is explained in detail and with this, we mark the end of the first “Amsa”.
With this first “Amsa” itself being so detailed in accord, we still have five more “Amsas” to talk about! We can imagine here as to how huge the “Shri Vishnu Puraana” would be! In the next episode, we shall continue this discussion further and understand the contents of the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth “Amsas” in brief, before we start going into the contents of the first “Amsa” in detail! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 