The puraaNa-s

The Need: The veeda-s form the original source of all of Indian thought. The veeda-s establish that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and from this logically deduce that God must be absolute and hence without any attributes whatever. God cannot have a size or shape, or even a name. The moment you give an attribute, you can think of "other things" which have a different attribute and hence not God. There can be nothing other than God or God will become limited, constrained and restricted in some way. Although the most logical, this view of God as nameless and formless makes it very difficult for ordinary people even to imagine or pray. India has therefore evolved a very rich variety of approaches to God to suit the bewildering divergence of human temperaments. In whatever name, or form you worship God, in so and so name and form the absolute God attends to the call of his devotees. Hinduism is the most tolerant of all religions because Hindus know that a God by any other name is no different from the God they worship. This has also given Hinduism great resilience to withstand incessant onslaught by barbarians and the powerful impact of the semitic religions over thousands of years.

The puraaNa-s cater to the needs of people of all temperaments. The puraaNa-s encompass all aspects of human life, both sacred and secular, and have naturally grown into encyclopedic proportions. Listening to puraaNa-s was the only means to knowledge for vast sections of the Indian society and the puraaNa-s have discharged their duty to the society admirably well.

What the puraaNa-s are NOT: Partly for want of better terms in English and more so out of ignorance, the term puraaNa has been translated as "Mythology". It must be made very clear at the outset that the puraaNa-s are NOT a primitive collection of meaningless cock and bull stories, full of fanciful imagination, highly exaggerated fantasy, hyperbolical yarn, illogical and unscientific, dressed up in some curious language. The authors of these puraaNa-s, great sages and visionaries as they were, who have given us priceless spiritual treasures and words of wisdom about the ultimate Truth in these puraaNa-s, cannot mix this up with meaningless stories as if coming from a berserk intellect endowed with an imagination that has run amuck. The puraaNa-s are NOT mythology. Unlike in the case of veeda-s and upaniSat-s, unfortunately there is no unbroken guru-s'iSya paraMpara in the puraaNic tradition and everybody seems to have got confused.

What the puraaNa-s ARE: "ajoo nitya s'aas'vatooyaM puraaNaH", says the s'Rti. The term puraaNa means ancient. puraaNa stands for the puraaNa puruSa, the ancient, unborn, unchanging, eternal and imperishable One Supreme Reality. The puraaNa-s say the same as what the veeda-s say, the two are essentially the same. While the veeda-s say it in direct, terse, cryptic, abstract statements, the puraaNa-s have chosen to say the same thing indirectly through colourful stories and liila-s of the Supreme One in His various incarnations. puraaNa-s appeal to the lay men who find the veedic statements too abstract. Different strokes for different folks. But the Truth is the same.

The puraaNa-s show that the Lord is omnipotent and as such nothing is impossible. Everything, even the most incredible things are possible for Him. Going to the moon was considered impossible until it was done and shown. Down the ages, both scientists and common people have been ridiculing and scoffing at things only to discover that what they thought was impossible has already been made possible. Nothing is impossible, especially for the Lord. The stories in the puraaNa-s are not to be brushed off as exaggerated fantasies, they are all meant to show the omnipotence of the Lord. The puraaNa-s sing the glory of the Lord through these magical exploits of the Lord in his various incarnations. To the extent that they reveal the true nature of the omnipotent Lord, they are considered a pramaaNa, a valid means of knowledge just like the veeda-s, the only difference being that the veeda-s remain unchanged through the ages while the puraaNa-s have evolved gradually as the great seers keep contributing their insights. The puraaNa-s are saMbhava (possible) pramaaNa-s.

An ordinary monkey cannot jump an ocean. If one could do, it can only be by the grace of the Lord. The Lord is omnipresent, inside and outside all beings. Yet if yas'ooda could tie down Lord kRSNa with a rope, what else is this than the liila of the Lord Himself? puraaNa-s are NOT stories of the impossible, their aim is to show that everything is possible for the Lord. When we are talking of everything, there is no such thing as exaggeration. The universe is vast. We do not even have a count of the number of galaxies or the number of stars in our own galaxy. Our life is so short compared to the cosmic time. We do not even know who we are. To pass judgements on what is possible and what is impossible based on our tiny experience could only be termed exhibition of ignorance and foolishness.

People today think something must be valid or invalid because so many people, including highly educated scientists and researchers say so. It cannot be wrong because no body has said so. Or it cannot be right because everybody thinks so. Is this not also a kind of superstition? If what six Billion people living on Earth today say is to be believed, how then can you ignore what Trillions of people who have lived, experienced, proclaimed and vouched for, for tens of thousands of years? How can you take one and ignore the other and still think you are scientific and rational? Just think.

Movement is always with reference to a non-moving substratum, the train moves with respect to the station and the rest of the land mass, the Earth itself moves with respect to the Sun, the entire solar system is moving with respect to the rest of the Universe. All movement, all change for that matter, is always with respect to an unchanging substratum. If time is moving, it can only be with respect to a time-less substratum. The call of the RSi's is to overcome the temptation to get engulfed in this ever changing enchanting phenomenal world, the constant flux, endless action, and to focus the attention on the underlying, universal, changeless, birthless, deathless, eternal Reality, the One Homogeneous Essence, the Truth. King yayaati was so intoxicated by the lures of this enchanting world that he actually took away the youth from his own son in order to wallow in the mire of sense gratification! But he too had to ultimately reckon with his insatiable lust and turn inwards to seek the Truth! This is the message of the puraaNa-s.

puraaNa-s also include historical accounts but unlike usual history which merely reports what happened in an objective manner, the puraaNa-s are s'ikSa pradhaana, they are didactic, they clearly point to the Ideal, guide us, educate us and instruct us, as to how to reach the Ideal. And for doing this they resort to allegory and metaphor. Indian tradition is all highly symbolic. If you miss the symbolic messages, you miss everything and the whole thing appears as cock and bull story.

A philosophy that is conceived on the basis of this every changing external world would itself be subject to change and decay. The value systems arising from such philosophies cannot give enduring peace and happiness. Carl Marx was once worshipped as God Almighty in some countries but now the same people have pronounced his theory, which was their very religion, as irrelevant! Truth, by definition, is something that is always 'true' and never changing. Two plus Two has to be Four whether it is in India or Indonesia or Indiana. It has to be Four now, after ten thousand years and it was so ten thousand years ago. Progress, development, advancement, these are not the terms that apply to Truth. Tow plus two cannot gradually develop into five or eight! Do not get carried away by the promises of a hollow world. Look inside yourself and discover the eternal Truth. This is the timeless, priceless philosophy of the puraaNa-s. This is the only philosophy of life guaranteed to give lasting peace and happiness irrespective of time, place, circumstances or people. This is the only proven, time tested practical philosophy of life in the world.

The puraaNa-s are practical, they give us a workable means to the end. Respect life. Save and protect life. Do not injure, harm or torture any living creature. (How then can you eat animals?) Seek knowledge, dispel ignorance, spread the light of knowledge everywhere. Seek the Truth. Not from the world! Not from others! The Truth is already inside you. Seek the Truth hidden inside you, see and experience the Truth for yourself, accept and internalize the Truth, abide in the Truth and be happy and blissful for ever. Superficial treatment of the symptoms will not do. Diagnose the disease and treat the fundamental causes of suffering and misery. There is no better method than this in the world.

The Age: puraaNa-s are very old, perhaps as old as or even older than the veeda-s. The term occurs in ancient works like atharva veeda, s'atapatha braahmaNa, bRhadaaraNyaka upaniSat and chaaMdogya upaniSat. The puraaNa-s are linked to the mahaabhuuta (the great being, or God) and to brahma the creator. puraaNa-s are associated with the akhyaana bhaaga or narrative portion of veedic sacrifices. The Rgveedic kings divoodaasa, sudaasa and soomaka occur quite low in the geneology given in the puraaNa-s. Here the term puraaNa is perhaps indicative of only ancient stories and legends, not necessarily the specific named puraaNa-s as we know them today. The term puraaNa itself means ancient narrative (puraa bhavaM) or ever new and fresh (puraa api navam, ancient yet new and applicable to all ages).

Contents: A puraaNa is supposed to include the following five topics: sarga (creation), pratisarga (intermediate creation), vaMs'a (dynasties of gods and of the patriarchs), manvaMtara (the fourteen manu-s and their periods), vaMs'aanucarita (geneology of kings of the solar and the lunar race). However, only the viSNupuraaNa shows all these five characteristics. rakSaa (protection of the world through avataara-s or incarnations), saMsthaa (praLaya or dissolution of the world), heetu (the cause of creation, that is, jiiva and its karma), vRtti (modes of subsistence) and apaas'raya (the refuge or brahma) are also included. Topics such as s'raaddha (obsequial rites), varNa-s and aas'rama-s, daana (gift), tiirtha (holy places of pilgrimage), images and their worship often find a place. Some puraaNa-s contain material aimed at propagation of particular cults such as s'aivism or vaiSNavism. aayurveeda (the science of health), architecture and town planning, prognostication through omens and astrology etc. are also found.

Evolution of puraaNa-s: Although conceded to be of hoary antiquity, there is so little information available about the puraaNa-s to trace their history or place them clearly on the time line. Tradition has it that the sage kRSNa dvaipaayana, better known as veeda vyaasa or vyaasa composed all the eighteen mahaapuraaNa-s (major puraaNa-s) and the eighteen upapuraaNa-s (subsidiary puraaNa-s). However, the term puraaNa referred to in the veedic and allied literature perhaps refers only to a set of aakyaana-s (tales), upaakhyaana-s (anecdotes), gaatha-s (metrical songs or proverbial sayings) and kalpakooTi-s (sayings that had come down through the ages). According to older puraaNa-s such as vaayupuraaNa, brahmaaMDapuraaNa and viSNupuraaNa, the sage veeda vyaasa compiled these into one puraaNa saMhita. His disciple roomaharSaNa (also spelled loomaharSaNa) made it into six versions and taught them to his six disciples. Of these six, kaas'yapa, saavarNi and s'aaMsapaayana composed three separate saMhita-s known by their respective names. The works of roomaharSaNa and these three disciples of his form the muulasaMhita-s. The later puraaNa-s have all evolved out of this.

manu smRti and yaajnyavalkya smRti have used the word puraaNa in plural, indicating that the original puraaNa saMhita had already been developed into several distinct puraaNa-s. By the time of aapastaMbha (450-350 BC), the term puraaNa had already come to be designate a definite class of books. All the extant puraaNa-s talk of 18 mahaapuraaNa-s and the names given also more or less agree. Based on the evidence in matsya and kuurma puraaNa-s, we can conclude that the evolution into 18 mahaapuraaNa-s had been completed by 700 AD.

The names of the 18 mahaapuraaNa-s along with the size in number of s'looka-s (verses) and approximate time of completion of evolution are tabulated below. The 18 mahaapuraaNa-s add up to a mammoth 400,500 verses!

* Or s'iva puraaNa? See vaayu puraaNa.

upapuraaNa-s: Apart from the 18 mahaapuraaNa-s, there are several other puraaNa-s generally considered to be appendices and hence subsidiary to the major puraaNa-s. However, some of them compete with the major puraaNa-s in both size and substance. The upapuraana-s are also supposed to be 18 in number but the names of upapuraaNa-s listed in various mahaapuraaNa-s do not fully tally. Some of the major puraaNa-s are listed as upapuraaNa-s in others. According to some deevibhaagavata is a major puraaNa and s'rimad bhaagavata puraaNa (or viSNu bhaagavata) is only a upapuraaNa. In terms of content, the upapuraaNa-s are similar to mahaapuraaNa-s although a bit more sectarian, promoting specific cults. Here is a list of some of the upapuraana-s:

1. aadi puraaNa
2. naarasiMha puraaNa
3. kaapila puraaNa
4. kaalikaa puraaNa
5. vaaruNa puraaNa
6. bRhannaMdi puraaNa
7. eekaamra puraaNa
8. viSNudharmoottara puraaNa
9. deevi bhaagavata

Recurrent Topics: The puraaNa-s are encyclopedic in nature, covering as they do a wide gamut of topics. A few topics, however, are recurrent and we shall now take a quick look at them.

• Creation and Dissolution: Creation of the world has perplexed the human mind for ages. If God created it, that means God existed before creation and that would render the term creation meaningless - how can anything exist before creation? If God also did not exist, if nothing existed before creation, then we cannot answer how anything concrete can come out of nothing. These simple minded theories of creation fall apart with a moment's reflection. Since God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, He is infinite and all encompassing. There can be nothing other than Him, or He will cease to be omnipresent and all inclusive. Hence it is impossible to accept to usual notion of creation, where there is a creator and the created. The creator and the created must both be one and the same. For there is one and only thing that can be infinite and all inclusive.

  The concept of creation as given by the veeda-s and all the other works that follow, is as follows. The Supreme Being is ever present. He is neither born nor does He die. He was always there, He will always be there. There is nothing other than Him that can be created, born or destroyed. The creation of the world as we know it today is merely a transformation, a change of appearance, a different kind of manifestation. The creator and the created are both the same Supreme Being. I, you, he, she, all of us, all creatures, all the mountains, rivers and forests, all the planets and all the stars, the entire universe is His manifestation.

  This is exactly what the Big Bang theory of the Origin of the Universe says. Before the Big Bang, the entire Universe was compressed into the size of a thumb tip. Where were the stars or the planets? Where were mountains or oceans? Where were the plants and the animals? Where were the men and the women? Everything was unified and compressed into one homogeneous mass. How foolishly do we keep fighting all the time over all these superficial, temporary, fleeting differences between men and women, boss and the subordinate, companies and competitors, religion, language, race and one hundred other non-existent, unreal, imaginary differences! The veeda-s therefore advice us to rise above these superficial differences and see ourselves in everybody, treat everybody as ourselves, treat all living creatures, even the inert dirt as yourself, treat everything in the universe as God Himself. Where then will there be any competition? Or cheating or corruption? Or hatred or jealousy? Or anger or greed? You already have the whole universe within you, why seek anything at all? How can you torture, inflict injury or pain, kill or eat animals if you identify yourself with those helpless creatures? Heed the advice of the puraaNa-s and all the suffering and misery of man kind will go once and for all.

  It is common experience that the world is undergoing constant change. The Sun is burning, so to say. The stars are burning. The Earth is cooling. The Universe is expanding. The atoms and molecules in all substances are in constant motion. In fact heat is nothing but this motion. Physical changes, chemical changes, birth, growth, change, decay, destruction, this is the seemingly endless cycle of changes. But think for a moment. Can a thing that is burning keep burning for ever? One day or the other it has to burn off completely. Anything which is changing is not stable, it has to come down to a more stable form some time or the other. According to Thermodynamics, only those processes which are 100% efficient, can leave the entropy unchanged. All other processes will cause the entropy to increase. Hardly any process in nature is 100% efficient and therefore the entropy keeps increasing monotonically. Entropy is related to randomness, the higher the entropy, the larger the degree of randomness. Take a pack of cards and shuffle it. Randomness and hence entropy increases. Do you think if you keep on shuffling the randomness keeps on increasing monotonically for ever? In fact the cards may even get arranged in more or less sorted order, reducing randomness. That means there is a limit to randomness. There is a limit to how far entropy can keep increasing. This proves that the world has to end. It is as simple as this. Science knows this. Yet it attaches so little importance to theory of dissolution of the world. What goes up must come down. What is created must dissolve. Only to start all over again. Creation is not a one time process but part of an eternal creation-dissolution cycle.

  The puraaNa-s take this general veedaMtic and saaMkhya view of creation and dissolution and add detailed accounts of the actual processes. brahma, the Supreme Being, the one without a second, sometimes identified with s'iva or viSNu, first manifests Himself as muula-prakRti, the primeval matter. This primeval matter develops into prakRti, then mahat, then ahaMkaara (I-ness), then mind, then jnyaaneeMdriya-s (organs of knowledge), karmeeMdriya-s (organs of action) and the paMcabhuuta-s (the five primordial elements). These first evolutes make up the brahmaaMDa, the cosmic egg, also called hiraNyagarbha. Modern science also tells us the the Universe is shaped like an egg, a huge ellipsoid.

  The puraaNa-s claim that there are 14 looka-s worlds, all inhabited by intelligent beings. Seven are below and other others above ours. Since is yet to discover these other looka-s!

• The Earth: The puraaNa-s describe Earth as including seven dviipa-s (continents), each with its own system of mountains and rivers. The continents are separated from one another by the oceans. The modern man is only rediscovering the same well known facts. The standpoint is from jambuudviipa, taken as the central continent, containing mahaameeru, the axis. The Sun moves in a circle on his single wheeled chariot around the lokaalooka mountain, relatively speaking, creating day and night. The details are symbolic and must be interpreted and understood as such.


• Time: According to the puraaNa-s, one cycle of creation and dissolution corresponds to one day of brahma, the creator. During the day he creates and during the night he dissolves the world. 360 such days make one year for him and his life span is 100 years. Converted to human years, these are mind-boggling numbers as one year of humans equal one day for the celestials. Twelve thousand celestial years form one caturyuga (the four epochs - kRta or stya yuga, treetaa yuga, dvaapara yuga and kali yuga) Two thousand such caturyuga-s form one day-and-night for brahma. Thus brahma's life time comes to more than 300,000 Billion human years! All that modern science knows is the Big Bang that happened some 4.8 Billion years ago. What was there before that, how long did it stay in that form, nobody knows.

  Each day-time of brahma (of one thousand caturyuga-s) is divided into 14 manvaMtara-s or epochs of the manu-s or the patriarchs. The manu-s maintain the world order and progress under the direction of divine incarnations. Science tells us that there have been total or near total extinctions and life re-starts on earth. (To say man-kind started off with a single named pair of persons would either imply re-incarnation or life-after-death, or negation of the scientific fact of near total extinctions and re-start of life on Earth.)

  The English word 'man' is related to the Sanskrit words maanava, manuSya and manuja (born from manu). As such, the word man does not apply only to masculine persons, men and women are both included. There no gender bias when we say man or mankind. Let us not fight over imaginary problems.

  Every manvaMtara consists of about 76 caturyuga-s, each of which is marked by retrogression from the perfect satya yuga gradually into the dark, degraded kali yuga. We are now in kali yuga of the vaivasvata manu. We have seen the gradual degradation of human values over the last couple of thousand years, especially after the period of the mahaabhaarata. The graphic and detailed accounts of what is going to happen next by the contemporary seers of our own grand parents and great grand parents is strikingly accurate. Everything is happening today exactly as what they had projected a hundred years ago. Every step of it. Strange but true. At the end of the caturyuga, things get too bad and incorrigible, and the Lord will restore the balance. Only He can! We are all now racing towards the end fooling ourselves thinking that it is progress and development!

  Recently Stephen Hawking, considered to be one of the greatest scientists and a great thinker, posed an open problem: How can the human race survive another 100 years? A devastating asteroid impact, a nuclear war, drastic climate change, rampaging genetically modified viruses - there seem to be too many threats to our survival. Of course Stephen Hawking did not know the answer. Nor does any other scientist or intellectual. Just think. If man could survive and thrive over the last five hundred thousand years on planet earth, how come we have suddenly started worrying about the next 100 years? Nuclear war or climate change or genetic engineering for that matter, are all these not our own making? And we continue to eulogize science and technology, we continue to think human intelligence is supreme, we continue to compete with one another and display our smartness. There can be no greater folly than this. Forget about development, advancement, progress. These are hollow, meaningless terms. If anything changes it cannot be True. Because Truth can only change int Falsity, for, if it is not True, it has got to be False. Forget science. Give up technology. Stop research. We have fancied long enough with these ideas only to find that these are not solutions but the very cause of all of our problems. A recent survey in the US brought this out strikingly - after heart attack and cancer, the third biggest killers in the US are doctors and hospitals! Enough of fooling around. Start thinking. Get back to the basics. Go back to your roots. This is the message of the puraaNa-s.

• Geneologies: puraaNa-s abound in geneological lists of kings and sages. The various puraaNa-s agree on the names as well as the order. There must be some historical significance to this, pointing to our civilization going back to hoary antiquity. Scholars coming from countries which have only a few hundred years of history naturally find it difficult to accept this and they tend to shift the time scale as close to today as they can. For some countries world war is history, for us it appears as if it happened just yesterday, in fact its effects are still felt today. We visit a few thousand year old temple daily and a few thousand years does not look too far back to us. Man has been living on Earth for some five hundred thousand years now, history should not be limited by our ignorance.

  All the different dynasties trace back to vaivasvata manu, the son of Sun. Four of his nine sons, ikSvaaku, naabhaaneediSTha, s'aaraati and naabhaaga, established the well known aikSvaaku, vais'aala, s'aaryaata and raathiitara dynasties. The caMdravaMs'a (lunar dynasty) was founded by puruuravas aila.

puraaNa-s as ancient Indian Historical Tradition: Unlike modern history which tends to be a bundle of dry lists of facts and figures, the puraaNa-s are historical accounts with a message in them. Exactly in what year a person was born is far less important than what he said or what he did. Dry facts have never been given too much of importance in the Indian tradition. People wrote books so that others may read and benefit from them, not for the sake of name or fame. Many wrote books without even mentioning their name. Some even wrote in the names of other well known persons so that their books stand a better chance of being read and found useful. Compare this ancient Indian ethos with the vastly different modern ethos of copy rights and intellectual property rights and patents and legal fights, everybody trying to hide information, everybody trying to sell information to make money! It takes a different mind to understand and appreciate the historical import of the puraaNa-s. It is the history of human values, of ideas, of interpretations, of knowledge and understanding. Not a book of dates, place names and documentary evidence. Who cares?

Lessons from the puraaNa-s: dharma is the essence of ethics. dharma is the very foundation of this world. Without dharma at both the individual and societal levels the whole world would run into chaos and collapse in no time. dharma includes the acquisition and maintenance of virtues as also right action. Do the right thing and do it right. Prescriptions are given for both the general case and specific or special situations. Society is made up of the individuals. If society should achieve great heights, every individual must also uplift himself and strive for human excellence. There is no conflict between the individual and the society. Today the market Gurus advise you to exploit demand or weaknesses of people, outsmart your competitors and make money. This is termed success! Individual trying to cheat others, their own friends and relatives, to make profit by giving less and taking more! What dharma is this? How long can a society based on cheating as the fundamental principle go on?

The world has come to attach too much of importance to discrimination between True and False and too little importance for the discrimination between the Right and the Wrong, the Good and the Bad. What is maximally beneficial to the entire universe is called Good. Otherwise it is called Bad. What is maximally good for you alone, or for you and your family, or for your department or institution or even your country cannot be taken as Good. The puraaNa-s give us the touch-stone of discrimination between the Good and the Bad, between the Right and the Wrong. Every small step of your daily life, every cycle of breathing, every heart beat must be for the benefit of the entire universe, otherwise it is selfishness, greed and just Bad for the world. Man is a social animal. What is bad for the society as a whole is bad for you too. It is strange that even such a simple plain logic as this is missed by large sections of the society today. Where has all our intelligence gone?

According to Indian tradition there are four puruSaartha-s, the four things to aim for and achieve in life. First comes dharma or righteousness as described above. Then comes artha (money, wealth), after that kaama (other worldly desires) and lastly mookSa (liberation or emancipation form the bondage of worldly life). Please note again, dharma comes before artha, not after! Money earned by adharmic means is bad for you as well as for the whole world. Giving less and taking more is the definition of cheating. Profit motivated business equates to cheating. Business done for the sake of service to mankind alone is Good business. Success is not becoming rich by making others poor. Success is making everybody rich.

Everybody must die and go someday. What is it that you can take with you when you go? Can you take your money, house, car, wife, children? You will have to leave behind everything here and go bare. Absolutely no choice. But the Good deeds you do in this life, the dharma you accrue is non-physical, it does not grow old or die, it can go wherever you go, even after you die and leave your worn out body behind, just as you cast aside old torn clothes. Compared to the cosmic durations, our life span is tiny, we live here for just a few days. Everybody's days are counted and the counts are quite small! If you live for 80 years, that is 80 times 365 or 29,200 days, which can be represented in a computer in just two bytes, enough to store just the first two letters of your name! And how much of it is already over? And how much goes in sleep and all the other preoccupations? Accrue as much dharma as possible in the small amount of time still left. There is nothing else more important than this in life. This is the message of the puraaNa-s. It is as much valid today as it was thousands of years ago.

What constitutes a dhaarmic way of life? Here are the main ingredients:

1. ahiMsa - non-injury: never torture, terrorize or kill man or animal
2. satya - truthfulness: never tell a lie (at least not to become a successful salesman!)
3. kSama or ksaaMti - forbearance: replace revenge and punishment with forgiveness
4. dama or iMdriyanigraha - self control: refrain from sense gratification and pleasure seeking
5. s'ama - mind control and inner peace: do not become slaves of your own passions
6. dayaa - compassion: treat every living creature with kindness
7. daana - charity: discover the joy of giving and sharing
8. s'auca - purity and cleanliness of body and mind - keep yourself and the environment clean, make it a worthy place for God to live
9. tapas - austerity and penance - simplify life, aim for simple living and high thinking, work with dedication but without attachment
10. jnyaana - knowledge, wisdom and vision - knowledge is power, go after right knowledge

Apart from these general principles applicable to all, the puraaNa-s also specify svadharma or specific dharma-s based on the varNa and aas'rama system. The varNa categorizes people into four classes based on guNa (nature, inclination or predisposition) and karma (vocation or profession). braahmaNa-s are those who live simple austere life in pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, and giving knowledge to others too. kSatriya-s are strong, bold and brave men who safe guard the society from external aggression and maintain internal law and order. vais'ya-s engage themselves in the production and distribution of wealth through agriculture, industry and trade. s'uudra-s serve the others in various capacities. Please note that this division is not based on birth nor is there any notion of high or low. This is not to be confused with the so called caste system, a purely political creation of recent times.

There is now scientific evidence to prove that what a man becomes is partly because of his own mental predisposition, something which he has inherited from his parents and ancestors. It is only natural then, that a carpenter's son excels in carpentry rather than a potter's son. There is a natural tendency for a braahmaNa-s son to become a braahmaNa, a kSatriya-s son to become a kSatriya and so on. But this is what they 'become' not what they 'are'. You find teachers, lawyers, engineers, scientists, drivers, gardeners and servants in all countries. To call this caste system and a social evil is at best foolish.

The aas'rama system takes one naturally through the various stages of life. We start off as a brahmacaari or student, learning at home and then from a guru. The discipline and values we learn during this stage carries us through the ups and downs of the rest of the life. Then come gRhastha or house-holder stage. Here we get married and produce children for the sustenance of the human race on Earth. This stage gives maximum scope for service and sacrifice and accrue dharma. People in the other three stages are in fact dependent on people in the gRahasthaas'rama. A gRhastha should strive for earning his livelihood by right means. As times passes on, you start getting bored with the trifles of life and you start yearning for lasting peace and happiness. You tend to become more spiritual. This is the right time to get into to the third aas'rama, the vaanaprastha aas'rama where you live a simple life of a recluse in a forest, far away from the mad hustle-bustle of a crowded city. This stage leads smoothly to the last stage, optional for most people, namely saMnyaasa or life of a monk. A saMnyaasi renounces the whole world and dwells eternally in God, free from all attachments, free from all the usual pleasures and pains of life. We all see such natural tendencies at various stages of our lives. The puraaNa-s have only given us detailed and clear accounts of each of these stages.

The puraaNa-s also deal with other ideas. The doctrine of karma is based on the simple idea: "as you sow, so you reap". Can you sow bittergaurd seeds and expect a sweet mango tree to come up? Our everyday experiences show that what we get is related to what we do. You have to study well if you wish to do well in the examinations. A thief gets behind the bars. The fastest runner gets the first prize in sprint. Sometimes we get great things happening to us for no reason we can see or we may become the most unfortunate to lose our beloved or suffer untold misery for no reason we can see. It is not that there is no reason. Nothing happens in this world without reason. It is only that we are unable to see the reason. It is only our limitation, our inability to see the reason. The reason can only be our own making, our own past deeds, good or bad as they may be. What else can be the reason for unexpected good luck or bad luck? This is the way those in distress can be consoled. This is the way the lucky winners may avoid getting over proud. This is the way others can see reason to do good and eschew the evil.

In spite of knowing all this, what if we have still committed some sin? Is there no way out at all? The purpose of the karma theory is to prevent sin but it is human to err and human beings may still commit sin, knowingly or unknowingly. Exemplary punishment can be given, mainly aimed at others, meant to be a deterrent for others, meant to be examples of what would happen if they commit a sin. But what about the person who has committed the sin? What can we do to ensure that he realizes his mistakes and will never again think of doing the same in the rest of his life? What is it we can do to use this 'opportunity' to turn this criminal devil into a saintly saadhu? Punishment is not necessarily the best solution. In fact self punishment is far more effective than punishment given by others. Because self punishment, or repentance, praayascitta, works from inside and works wonders. The puraaNa-s prescribe expiations for sins committed so that the sinner can finally overcome his feeling of guilt and start a new life.

All the bad things we do are because of the impurity of our mind. Just as a field needs to be cleared of bushes, weeds and stones, tilled and prepared for sowing, the mind needs to be purified before the seeds of dharma can be sown and the harvest of happiness and bliss can be reaped. The puraaNa-s prescribe various vrata-s or religious observances meant for practicing and perfecting self control. The nitya (daily) and naimittika (as per occasion) religious observances are meant for purifying the mind. Just as you can see every grain of sand clearly in a calm pool of water but nothing can be seen in the puddle that has been stirred up, the clean and pure mind can easily see the Truth by itself while the confused, chaotic mind, full of commotion and turmoil, with ever changing scenes like the scenes on a TV screen changing every second as they do, cannot see even a bold and clear writing on the wall glaring all the time at our face. japa (repetition of the name of the Lord), dhyaana (meditation), puuja (ritualistic worship), yaatra (pilgrimage), all have one purpose - to cleanse the mind. If that does not happen, mere ritualistic mechanical action has no value. It is not a question of whether God actually exists in an idol or an image, it is not a question of whether image worship is good or bad, any worship is good or bad depending upon whether it gives the intended result or not. If worshipping stone, mud, metal, water, air, sun, cow, snake, monkey or whatever cleanses your mind, please go ahead and do it without asking a question. There is nothing unscientific about this. Not at all.

Practical Religion for all: Strictness and complexity of the veedic ritualism had become difficult for many sincere aspirants to undertake. Nor is it easy for every common man to renounce the world completely, give up all worldly desires and simply revel in the company of God. These may be the proven and best paths but too difficult for everybody to follow. What can save the masses from resigning themselves into a completely helpless situation? The puraaNa-s showed the way. Simple, practical, affordable, understandable religious practices that every one can follow. Worship God at home with flowers, leaves, grass, and such simple readily available materials. Not that the God needs a flower or a fruit, He is in fact the creator of the whole world. This is symbolic of our respect and reverence to Him who has already given us everything we want. Everything is symbolic. If you understand the symbolism, it all makes great sense. Otherwise, a bundle of unscientific superstitions and myths. If you do not understand what the other man says or does, do not assume he is a fool. It is wiser to assume that you are the ignorant fool in stead. Temples came up to support public worship. Places of pilgrimage came up. Every ordinary man now had a practical religion, an affordable path to lead him to the final goal. If you find the nivRtti maarga too difficult, do not worry, there is also the pravRtti maarga. Devotion to God can work wonders. You do not even have to do any worship or other rituals. Just revel in the Glory of the Lord, sing his glory, feel his glory, even simply listen to the singing of his glory. Continue to live as usual. Work as usual. But work with a sense of detachment, work for the sake of work, not for the sake of fruits. Expect nothing. Accept what comes your way with a humble and respectful mind. Do not crave for what you did not get. Do not compare with others and feel jealous. Work is worship. Can there be any more practical religion than this?

Conclusion: The puraaNa-s certainly deserve a far more serious study than they have received at present. puraaNa-s are simple and practical yet effective in mitigating the problems facing the mankind at this hour. Properly understood and properly internalized, the puraaNic values can change the face of the Earth, making it a much better place for all of us to live in harmony and peace.