Puranas were written ages ago.. with the view that people who cannot understand the vedas and the high-end philosophy in the Upanishads can understand the eternal truth.. The problem that lies with us is, the way we interpret it... Because, knowledge is meant to be given to the deserving candidate, not to someone who'll abuse it at its face value..And so, when u listen to a Purana, it wont straight away give you the treasure,.. Its given in the form of stories..Its for you to unravel the treasure behind those stories..
And one main reason why people lose interest in the Puranas is, they dont understand the subtler meanings as spoken by the Rishis.... and the second reason is that, they interpret it wrongly... Remember, all the religions in the world speak of only one thing : The God is in You and You are no different from the Supreme Being, unless you realise it..This is called Advaita (The Non Dual) in Hindu Philosophy .. But its bloodshed throughout the world because everyone has misinterpreted what their respective religions have preached..
Well let me tell u one truth, The Vedas aren't books.. but vibrations that are always existent in space, they have been there, always.. spreading over a time period of Infinity..The Rishis had trained their sense organs to be fine-tuned into that frequency to be able to listen to those vibrations.. Its an up-hill task and not everyone has the will-power, dedication and the discipline involved to fine-tune oneself to those frequencies.. thats the reason why our Rishis stand apart from everyone else.. When this is the eternal truth and truth always has one form.. Every religion cannot speak of different truths... They can speak only one truth and that of Advaita alone.
So, all religions are the same.. This is Sanatana Dharma.. the first thing to be understood by any Hindu..
Let me come to the interpretation part now:
There are 18 Puranas in all,authoured by Maharshi Veda Vyasa,
Two Epics: Srimad Ramayanam by Maharshi Valmiki and Mahabharatam by Veda Vyasa and when Veda Vyasa didn't find contentment even after giving so much to the world, The Divine Sage Narada urged him to write the Srimad Bhagavatam. Each in turn is just an essence of the Upanishads.. simplified in each aspect so that the layman can understand it..
Let me give you one example with the Epics.. because more than the Puranas, we are familiar with Ramayanam and Mahabharatam.. I will take one example which is a common thread in both the epics.. Both the Epics yell themselves hoarse about one thing : Worship the Feminine.. Dont Abuse them..
In Ramayana, Ravana is the anti-hero.. Going in a filmy format.. The anti-hero is interested in the Hero's beautiful wife, kidnaps her against her wishes, tortures her and threatens her in every way to forget her husband and marry him.. But the dutiful wife never submits to the anti-hero's threats, believes in her chastity and husband and curses the anti-hero that his destruction is not far away.. It happened sooner or later... and the destruction came in the form of the hero.. the anti-hero is vanquished and the hero and his dutiful wife are united... Seems like the screenplay for one of the late 1980's movies.. But, can u see the message underlying it: Respect women.. else, destruction will follow u..
Mahabharata is no different... Draupadi is married to the five brothers.. but is insulted and abused in view of the full public because the Pandavas lost her in the game of dice.. Draupadi held that they didn't have the right to stake her as a pawn when the Pandavas have lost themselves.. No one did anything.. She was saved from embarrassment by Krishna Vasudeva even while she was about to be undressed by Duhshasana.... Even then, everyone was mute.. Thats when Draupadi cursed the prepertrators of the crime.. forget about the curses.. but what was the end result??? The entire clan of Kauravas were wiped off in the Kurukshetra war... Seems another big time hit story.. what's the underlying message?? Respect women..
Similarly, Puranas and the Epics have teachings for everyone.. Rama lives as the example for the Ideal Son, Husband and King.. We still talk about Rama Rajya.. Sita lives as the ideal wife... Arjuna as the ideal student and Karna as the ideal friend... these characters lived and they showed how every aspect of human life should be lived..
We believe stories from the US and China when there are accounts or news clippings about " The Man who is unusually ten feet tall or the girl who is just 15 inches tall ( these are forwarded messages i got along with the photos"... But why do we refuse to believe about a man like Kumbhakarna who was extremely gigantic...
Now, lets proceed towards the Puranas..
Shiva Purana talks about the unending column of fire which alighted all the seven worlds.. Brahma flew his swan, to find the beginnig.. and Vishnu as a boar to find its end.. but they cudn't.. Seeing a flower (thazhampoo) fall from the top, Brahma assumed its not very far away and reported that he had won the competition .. hence he is the greatest of Gods.. but, alas, that was not to be.. The Great God Shiva, arrived in front of them as Ardhanareeshwara.. and revealed to them both who he was.. Brahma was cursed hence forth that he wudn't be worshipped in any temple since he was not truthful...
Nice story.. we will start criticising how stupid our gods are.... but my dear fellow.. look at its underlying meaning :
1) U can't achieve anything by being over-confident
2) U are degraded the more you lie
3) Our gods themselves gave 50% reservation to our womenfolk.. but we refuse to include women as our batter half ourselves.. even the Indian Parliament doesn't give so much reservation..
4) U can achieve the status of Godhood, if u strive to be so.. but u lose the status once u let in your internal enemies..
Lets go to Vishnu Purana now.. there's the churning of the Milk Ocean..
assuming you know the story:
here are the underlying messages:
1) Asuras mentioned in the Puranaas are the personification of your internal enemies : The bad qualities
2) The Devas mentioned are your good qualities
3) The Ocean is you
4) When you interospect yourself.. that is churn the ocean with the right guide ( your Guru).. the Devas ( your good qualities) win over the Asuras (your bad qualities) and as a result you get the Amrita or the Divine Nectar, which is the state of self-realization.. means you hav become one with God... means Advaita is proved here again..
So, there are infinite examples staring right in front of you.. all around you all the time, reminding about why u are born, why u are here and where are u supposed to go... The Puranas are meant to guide you in that journey... And trust me, they work.... Its not an exaggeration.. If you are not feeling interested in them its because you dont understand what they speak.. once you do that, you will start looking up to them as your guide...
Not everyone gets the gut feeling to ask questions like what for are the Puranas and what is written in them...You try digging into these Puranas, you will find yourself a changed person...
Hinduism is not a religion, its a way of life.. Tested, Tried and sucessfully proven a number of times by our great ancestors.. So its safe to follow..
May the Gods help us in our endeavour to know more about ourselves!
