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Sunday, 3 June 2018

The Hindu Scripture series:- 3. The Purana.

The Purana:-



         The Purana are ancient Hindu eulogizing Hindu god's colony mainly trinity gods. texts  greatest informational encyclopedic ancient texts are Purana in Hindu culture. Puranas can be found in Jainism and Hinduism. It has wide range of topics it covers so many topics based on myths, legends, and other traditional lore. first it was composed in Sanskrit and regional languages. most of the Purana are named after Hindu gods like Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, and some goddesses.
The Purana has so many topics or wide range of topics like cosmogony, cosmology, genealogies of gods, goddesses, kings, heroes, sagas and demigods, folk tales, pilgrims, temples, medicines(Ayurveda), astronomy, grammar, mineralogy, humor, love-stories as well as theology and philosophy. the content is highly inconsistent across the Purana.
         there are 18 Mahapurana and 18 Uppuranas with 400,000 verses, composed by many authors over the centuries. The Purana inspires major Hindu traditions and regional festivals, cultures. The Bhagavat Purana is considered as the one greatest Purana.
          The Purana were presented orally before it being written. it considered as the saga Vyasa has credit to compose the Purana in written form.
           there is no definite time of composition before 16th century. according to the study of Wendy Doniger. she claimed that the Markandya Purana is composed in 250 CE with portion dated to 550 CE. also the Matsya Purana was composed in 250-500 CE. Vaya Purana has created in 350 CE. Harlvamsa and Vishnu Purana was composed during 450 CE, and Brahmanda Purana was composed in 450-900 CE, Karma and Linga Purana was composed in 550-850 CE and 600-1000 CE respectively.

The 18 Mahapurana has been divided in three philosophical grouped named as sattva, rajas and tamas. each group consists six Purana.

Sattva (truth):-

vishnu Purana, Bhagvata Purana, Naradeya Purana, Garuda Purana, Padma Purana, Varah Purana.

Rajas (passion):-

Bramhanda Purana, Bramha-vaivarta Purana, Markandeya Purana, Bhavishya Purana, Vamana Purana, Bramha Purana.

Tamas (ignorance):-

Matsya Purana, Karma Purana, Linga Purana, Shiva Purana, Skanda Purana, Agni Purana. 


we will discuss sattva, rajas and tamas in another blog.

           

Thursday, 31 May 2018

Hindu Scripture Series:- 2.Upanishads.

Upanishads:-

(Upanishads:- seating down near the feet of teacher.) 

          Upanishads are the collection of religious texts, composed after Vedas. Upanishads composed between 800 BCE to 500 BCE. It's the period as we discussed when priest start questioning the traditional and religious Vedic principles. so in that way to pursue spiritual knowledge some priests sacrificed their regular life i.e family life by rejecting ordinary concerns. some of their philosophy were compiled into Upanishads. 
          The one of the meaning of the Upanishads is the seating near down in the feet of guru's (teacher). and pursuing knowledge. Upanishads meant to explain by the teachers from the personal experiences. basic source for Upanishads is Hindu cultural philosophy. Upanishads are focused on religious life from external rites and sacrifices to internal spiritual power. 
          Upanishads does not have any divided part. each of them is complete in themselves. there are entirely 200 Upanishads are presents at this time, but only 14 out of them are considered as important. 
the 14 important Upanishads are:- Isa, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandakya, Taittiriya,  Aitareya, Chendogya, Brhadaranyaka, Svetasvatara, Kausitaki, Mahanarayana and The Maitri.
Upanishads represents the opinions, suggestions and experiences of many different men and women.
           The first lesson of Upanishads is human intellect is not able to understand the immense complexity of reality. it does not means that human brain is useless, it has its use to Unlock mystery's of life. it says that the highest understandings comes from direct perception and intitution.
          

THE UPANISHADS ARE COMPOSED ON FOUR BASIC PRINCIPLE:-

 Sansara:-

concept behind the Sansara is reincarnation. it says that our soul is bounded in the cycle or loop of  death and birth. 

Karma:-

Karma means action. actions of every individuals determines its condition of next life and this current life.  If anyone do good will be reborn in good condition or vice versa.

Dharma:-

Most of the people takes the meaning of  Dharma as religion but according to Hindu philosophy it means good behavior and duty of that individual. in ancient times each cast has its particular duty's or Dharma. for example It was great sin for KSHATRIYA( warrior class) to die in the bed. it is honor and Dharma for them to die in battlefield. from one view Dharma encourages or inspire peoples to do there duty's and  complete there responsibility's.

Moksha:-

Moksha means freedom from Sansara or the freedom from the cycle of the death and birth. in Moksha the Atman returns to Brahman. like drop returns to ocean.

their is Concept of Atman and Brahman in Upanishads:-
Atman:- according to Upanishads core of every our own self is Atman(self). It is the core for all individuals. and it can be achieved at deepest levels of our existence.
Brahman:- Brahman is the absolute being which is untouchable essence of the entire existance. it means as source also.
Atman and Brahman are created from same substance.

        this four basic principles and other philosophies are shared by Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. the lessons which are given from the Upanishads are used practice in most of India. 




    



Tuesday, 29 May 2018

Hindu scripture series :- 1.The Vedas.

THE VEDAS

          The Vedas are ancient texts which are composed by gods (as some Hindu texts described). They are passed orally through so many generations and in 1500BCE it was composed in texts. it includes so much knowledge about the world and Hindu rituals at that time. it's like a treasure of knowledge. 
          Vedas are a collection of hymns and other ancient religious texts. it includes liturgical material, as well as poems, prayers formulas considered to be sacred by Vedic religion.
          as we know after migration of  nomad tribes of Aryans, the Aryan language get ascendancy over the local subcontinental language. the language of the Vedas is Sanskrit, the ancestor of most of the modern languages speak in Asia.
         Vedas were firstly composed in 1500 BC to 1000 BC in the north western region of Indian subcontinent. the Vedas were transmitted orally over many generations before eventually being committed to writing.
          The oldest text is Rigveda. according to some scholars  that the four Vedas completed in 2nd millennium of BCE.


The Four Vedas:-

RIGVEDA:-

          it consists knowledge of hymns of praise for recitation.
          It is the largest and most important text of Vedic collection. it consists 1028 hymns and it is divided into 10 books called as mandalas. it is difficult text that are hard to understand for modern readers. 
for more information about Rigveda, refer earlier post Rigveda.
  

SAMVEDA:-


          It consists of melodies for chanting.
          The Samveda has verses that are copied from Rigveda, but arranged in different manner since they are meant to be chanted.

YAJURVEDA:-

          
         it consists knowledge of sacrificial formulas for the liturgy.
         Yajurveda divided in two parts:- Black Yajurveda and White Yajurveda.
         it contains explanatory prose commentaries on how to perform religious rituals and sacrifices.

ATHARVVEDA:-


              
           it consists knowledge of the magic formulas.
          it contains charms and magical incantation.

the Vedas present multitude of gods from which most are natural forces as storms, fire and water.

         the veadas also have hymns which describes Purush who sacrificed his deity by other gods.
for creation of world. his mind becomes moon, his eyes becomes sun, his head forms sky, his foot forms earth. in same passage, we have description of cast system as:-
 The Bhramnas:- priests comes from Purush's mouth.
 The Kshatriya:-  warriors comes from the arms of Purush.
 The Waishyas:-   land owners and merchants comes from Purush's thighs.
 The Shudras:-     labors and servants comes from Purush's feets. 


from 800 BC to 500 BC the priest class started questioning. and they composed Upnishadas on that basis.
 for more information refer earlier post Trinity Gods.    

THE HINDU SCRIPTURE BLOG SERIES


According to old records Hindu is the oldest religion or way of life of the world. there are so many texts was composed in this great culture. so in ancient Hindu scripture series we are going get deeply information about them.

1.The Vedas.