Bhagwat Purana Skandha Three, Part One – The Beginning of Creation

The third Skandha begins with Krishna sitting next to the sea, all the Yadavas having had died. Krishna’s cousin, Uddhava finds Krishna there and knows that Krishna is planning to leave this mortal world. Krishna teaches Uddhava the Brahma Vidya and then Bddhava left to travel to Badarik Ashram on the Gandhamadana mountan. While travelling to the Badarisk Ashram, Uddhava realises that Krishna has also died from Jara’s arrow shot which hits the sole of Krishna’s foot. The arrow was cursed and it was destiny otherwise how else can a Vishnu incarnation die? Vidura happens to meet Uddhava and hears about the end of the Yadavas and upon knowing that he is now in possession of the Brahma Vidya, begs to learn it. But Uddhava demurs, suggests that Vidura go learn the Brahma Vidya from Sage Maitreya.

Vidura reaches Sage Maitreya’s Ashram and begs him to give him the Brahma Vidya starting with the story of how creation began and Vishnu’s incarnations. A brief overview was given in Skhanda two but this is much more detailed. And then began a fascinating story about the beginning of creation. A Mahapralaya happens. A mahapralaya is a fascinating event. Thinking more about it, it is philosophically challenging to even imagine. Think of a situation or an event where the entire known and unknown universe is annihilated. Existence of time, space, consciousness, all dimensions vanish. Physical matter, memory, Dark Matter, souls everything is no longer in existence. You might well as inquire if that is mahapralaya, then what is pralaya. Well, if I understood it correctly, this roughly corresponds to significant cosmic events such as a star / nova / super nova explosion or the destruction of a solar system. A maharalaya is the mother of all pralayas so to say. This event marks the end of one and the beginning of another cycle of a mahamanvantara, a cosmic cycle.

Now take a step back and imagine this kind of philosophy being discussed thousands of years back. I find it difficult to comprehend and hold the concept in my mind, much less visualise this and these fellows were not only discussing the concept, they were describing a whole mythology around it. So after the mahapralaya happens, all creation is now dissolved into the primordial sea, Naara. Now this is where I am a bit confused. If all creation is annihilated, then where is this sea coming from? It might be primordial but this means that the sea is outside the realms of creation. Is this in some other dimension that Vishnu has? Something to think about, eh?

The reason why I think it is another dimension is because the Purana now talks about a serpent, Adisesha, which is floating on this sea upon which Vishnu is sleeping. It says that all creation has now been withdrawn into Vishnu. Ah! Ha!, so my guess was right, Vishnu exists outside of creation. For a long unbroken moment, everything was perfectly balanced and nothing stirred. The three gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas were in equilibrium till Kaala, the spirit of time, disturbed the balance.

Before I go on with the story, here is another incongruous statement. How can something external disturb something that is inside Vishnu? If Vishnu is the lord of all including time, how is it that Kaala (which isn’t time itself, but it is the spirit of time) can disturb the balance? The only way this can happen is if there is method in the madness. In other words, this disturbance was part of Vishnu’s design. So time is really not external to Vishnu at all.

Following this, a lotus stalk emerged from Vishnu’s navel and then an immense lotus flower bloomed. Vishnu’s spirit rose in the stalk and emerged in the flower in the form of Brahma. He thought of himself as Svayambhuva, born of himself, knowing all the Vedas, and looking at four directions through his four heads. The waters of the infinite sea whispered to him “tapa, tapa, tapa”, which lead him to tapasya, or deep meditation. After hundred cosmic years, he suddenly saw Vishnu, immediately attained enlightenment and knew the purpose of his existence, to be the creator.

Brahma created the four Kumara Rishis from his mind, Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatkumara and Sanatana, and told them go forth and multiply. Typically, the kids refused to do work and wanted to go in search of Moksha. The Rishis said, we want to attain enlightenment as well while you are asking us to work to create the universe. I have to admit I had a bit of a chuckle. Even the gods have problems with their kids. I feel better now.

But guess what? Even Brahma feels anger. He was utterly furious. Well, I am not surprised, it is not like he is asking for a cup of tea, you really cannot get any more important than the task of creation. So while he controlled himself, his anger was seething. This anger of his manifested himself in the form of a howling child. Brahma named him Rudra and asks him to go dwell in the heart, senses, life, sky, air, fire, water, earth, sun, moon and tapasya. Quite an interesting time, those few moments when Brahma was getting on with his work of creation. I am a project manager and while I also create a project starting with a project plan or business plan, it’s a tad different from what Brahma goes through. At least no children spawn off my forehead even though some veils might pop.

Brahma created ten more sons from his body, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Bhrigu, Daksha, Marichi, Vasista and Narad. Not just sons, but metaphysical concepts such as Dharma, Adharma, Desire and Anger were born from his body, soul, heart and brow. His shadow became another son called as Kardama.

Then he really got down to the nitty gritty by issuing all the physical matter in the universe, the galaxies, the stars, the planets, the cosmic dust, etc. The four Vedas emerged from each of his faces and merged into one. Brahma divided himself into two genders, male and female called as Svayambhuva Manu and Satarupa who in tern produced Akuti, Prasuti and Devahuti (daughters) and two sons, Priyavrata and Uttanapada. People of tender dispositions look away now, because Brahma gave Akuti to Ruchi (who seems to appear out of nowhere, who is he? Where did he come from?), Devahuti was given to Kardama Muni (I guess her uncle) while Prasuti was married off to Daksha Prajapati. These six people, three couples, are the ancestors of mankind.

A rather simple straight forward tale but truly cosmic in conception and imagination. While I had read that Brahma had created creation, I did not know about the details. Some of the relationships are a bit fruity, eh? But then again, from a metaphysical basis, when everything is part of Vishnu, you really do not worry about mere aspects such as Incest or genetic problems of consanguineous marriages. Good start, made me wish to keep on going. In the next part, I will be talking about Varaha, the cosmic boar who brought the Earth to Humans, Rishis and Gods.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!

Bhagwat Purana Skandha Two, Part Three – The main reincarnations of Vishnu

I always thought that Vishnu reincarnated only for 10-12 times, depending upon whom you ask, but the Bhagwat Purana clearly says that he was incarnated countless times. After listening to his father, Brahma, Narada Muni about the path to Moksha and the story of creation, he asks Brahma about the incarnations. As it so happens, if one listens to the stories of Vishnu’s reincarnations, then one’s sins are removed. Brahma then started narrating the stories of the main reincarnations of Vishnu.

Bhumidevi, the Earth, was sinking into the Ekarnava, the first primordial sea and Vishnu appeared as Varaha, the great boar, whose body is made up of Yagnas to dive into the sea to save the earth. The first Asura Demon Hiranyaksha challenged him and Varaha destroyed him and saved Earth byraising her using his tusks.

His next reincarnation was when mankind peopled the earth and he appears as Suyagna, who liberates earth from another disaster. His grandfather Svayambhuva Manu calls him as Hari, the saviour. His next incarnation was as Kapila Deva, who provided guidance on Atman to his mother, who found Nivana. Muni Atri wanted a son and carried out deep meditation to the lord to provide him with this boon, so Vishnu was pleased by his devotion and then was born as Muni Atri’s son, called as Datta, the given one.

Brahma created the world via Vishnu’s guidance. Narayan has a lotus sprouting from his navel and thus is called as Padmanabha, incarnated himself as the four Kumaras, Sanatkumara, Sanaka, Sananda and Sanatana, taught them Dharma and set them free. From Dharma Deva and Brahma’s grand daughter Murti Devi, Vishnu was born as Nara and Narayana. Vishnu was reincarnated as the son of Veena, who abandoned the Dharmic path and thus was cursed. Vishnu saved her soul. When the deluge happened, (Dp you see the interesting links? Almost all ancient books of humankind have this deluge myth), earth was drowning and Vishnu, in his incarnation as the Matsya, the fish, saved the Earth.

Vishnu came as Koorma, the tortoise, who supported the Mandara mountain on his back, which was used as the mixer to carry out the Samudra Manthan (ocean churning) between the Devas and Asuras. He came again as the Narasimha, half man half lion, to save his devotee from Hiranyakashyapu the Demon. He did not just save humans, but he also saved the king of Elephants when he was attacked by a giant crocodile. One might recall this scene as quite a popular painting in current day India. He appeared as Dhanvantari, the original physician, who brought Amrita to humankind, chanting his name can help cure every sickness as he gifted the gift of Ayurveda to men.

As Parasurama, he slaughtered all the Kshatriyas, who had become Adharmic, as Rama, he got rid of Ravana, as Dwaipaynana he divided the Veda for men to understand it easily, as Krishna he got rid of Kansa and other tasks and finally he will appear as Kalki, when the Kali Yuga ends to get rid of evil from this world.

Parikshit is by now quite excited to know more about the Lord and asks Suka Muni about the soul, differences between man and God, the location of the Divine Man, how time is measured, dimensions of the cosmic egg, the details of Bhakti and a host of other questions. I am not writing down all the questions, because I think I will end up spending one essay on each of these questions and have to leave something to the reader and these questions are answered in the later Skandhas.

Suka Muni talks about how Brahma was worshiping the Paramatman, the Supreme Lord manifested himself and explained the difference between the Atman and the Brahman. Brahma then meditated on the type of creation, what would emerge, but could not do so till a voice murmured in his ear, “Tapa” (penance). So Brahma executed penance for 100 godly years till the Supreme Lord was pleased by him and showed him his own abode, Vaikuntha, the place without fear. It is without fear because the five miseries, ignorance, selfhood, attachment, hatred and death-fear have been banished. He saw the gods and goddesses, the views of Vishnu in his physical form. Vishnu explained to Brahma, who was in ecstasy from seeing the divine lord, that by his penance, the Lord is happy and the task of creation can begin. After giving more instructions, Vishnu disappears and thus Brahma begins the task of creating ‘creation’.

Suka Muni states that the Bhagwat Purana is the answer to all his questions. He further explains the ten characteristics of the Lord, which are described within the Purana. These ten characteristics or statements relate to the creation of the universe, the secondary creation, the different worlds created by the Lord, support via granting of boons or reincarnation, the creative drive, the changes of Manus, how to follow the Lord’s instructions, how to revert back to the supreme being, how to attain perfect liberty and Moksha and finally an exposition of what Lord Krishna did. The last two chapters of the second Skandha were very difficult for me. I am not sure if I have understood all and that is why I am perhaps summarising to a degree which is not borne out by the text. For example, in this chapter, eight elements are mentioned instead of five, earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego. I was not sure where the last three elements came from or what is their connection with the Lord.

The creation story and the demographics of creation are curiously numerical, a specific number of elements, number of worlds, ascribed to specific parts of the body of the Supreme Being, locations, etc. Was this because having concrete numbers and locations assists in the logical formation of the story? Is it because it makes it easier for people to remember? What is the philosophical angle behind this? Personally speaking, it made sense to me, although the mathematician inside my cranium was trying to draw up a taxonomy of the various worlds, a flow chart of the process of creation and I was constantly finding areas (like the elements mentioned above) where things were not clear, they were not typing up. Hair hurt time!

It’s just the second Skanda that I have finished now and there are still ten more to go. This is perhaps the most complicated and difficult things I have ever attempted and it shows. I find myself curiously incompetent to explain basic concepts. I can see the words in Sanskrit and in English, explained in various versions, but I struggle to explain them and put them down on this review. Is this why people tend to say that it is easier to talk verbally about the Bhagwata Purana rather than write about it? I feel insignificant. Onwards and upwards in the service of the Lord to the third Skanda, which talks about teachings and lessons using stories.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!

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Bhagwat Purana Skandha Two, Part Two.

How do you get on the path of moksha, the inner path to Bhawan, the path to liberate your soul? This is one of the most ancient of questions and something that people have tried to answer for time immemorial. This is where a guru or a teacher comes in. A teacher describes to you how to find and how to walk on this path and then how to reach the goal.

Parikshit is waiting out the seven days till his death takes place and Suka is reciting the Bhagwat Purana (BP) to him. Parikshit asks about this path, so Suka starts by saying that one has to renounce all attachments, all desires before one even comes to the path. Once in this no attachment state, one meditates and awakens the kundalini shakti, which sleeps at the base of one’s spine. This shakti or power rises through six chakras along the spine, from the base to the navel to the heart to the breath to tongue to eyebrows to the top of the head in the brain. At this point the person is one with the Brahman.

But this is not the end, but just the beginning of the journey. He passes through a realm of divine fire called as Vaisvanara, where all impurity is burnt out of him. Then he arrives at the Saisumara chakra where the links to a thousand previous lives is cut out from him. Then he goes on a world where other beings who know the Brahman live. The yogi lives here for a kalpa (and that is a seriously long period to live).

Once the kalpa ends, the universe is consumed in the cosmic apocalypse and then he migrates to the next world of Paramesthin, where the greatest yogis and munis meditate for two parardhas, sitting in great flying platforms. By the way, each parardha is 100,000,000,000,000,000 human calendar years each. That left me fairly shell-shocked, because I like to put my arms around numbers, but these kinds of numbers are beyond my comprehension. Either these are there to impress people, or are actually meant to teach devotees that they should not really count days and years, but look at the end result. It is a way to show that time moves differently in those realms, for those who are on the path of Bhakti. Suka says that these realms do not have any old age or death, no sorrow and no nothing, except for compassion for those who are on the lower wheels of life and death.

The next stage for the yogi is to unite the spirit body with the five cosmic elements including earth, water, fire, air and then merge into ether. After this merge, the yogi transcends the senses of smell, taste, sight, touch and sound and finally merges with the vital breath, Prana. Then the yogi arrives at the core of the Ahamkara, the sense of self after having merged with the elements and transcended the senses. Crucially, he also transcendent the deities who rule over these elements and senses.

Past Ahmkara, he moves into Mahat and then into Prakriti, which is primal and original. He now transcends the self and is absorbed into the supreme soul, the Paramatman and finds perfect bliss. This is the first of two paths. The second path is to worship particular deities,for particular purposes as a starting point. For example, Suka Muni says that one should worship Brahma if one wants the wisdom and power of the Vedas; worship Indra if one wants power and skill in his body. For children, Prajapatis, for prosperity worship Devi Durga, for brilliance appeal to Agni, for wealth meditate on the eight Vasus and for strength worship Rudras. Similarly the list goes on including worshiping Shiva for learning, Vishnu for justice etc.

There are more than one god to worship for the same thing, like for the treasures, one worships Varuna, but for prosperity, one can also worship Ma Durga; while for wealth, the eight Vasus. The flip side also applies, such as appealing to and worshipping Brahma for wisdom of the Vedas; you can worship him as well if you want to be an emperor. There were many gods mentioned in the Purana whom I did not even recognise, but given that there are tens of millions of Gods, that is not surprising. But all these are manifestations of the same godhead, Vishnu or Krishna. This is the gradual path and this is not wrong, because Krishna is supposed to be the beginning, middle and end of every step on the step. All you are doing is doing Bhakti for Vishnu.

After this, Parikshit asked Suka Muni about how the universe was created by the Lord Vishnu? Suka says that Narada Muni had asked the same question of his father Brahma. Brahma described the process as such: He said that there is one beyond Brahma himself, Narayana (another name for Vishnu). He is formless but has assumed three Gunas or attributes or abilities, namely Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. These create, sustain and destroy the world of reality. The five elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether) plus Gyana (knowledge) and Karma (deeds) are founded on these three gunas. As one can make out, the human soul is bound by these three Gunas, five elements and Gyana and Karma, which sheathe the body in ignorance and illusion, or Maya.

That is the underlying concept. Formless Vishnu then desired to be many and have forms. The balance of the three Gunas was therefore disturbed and Mahat came in existence permeated with Sattva and Rajas, but with an additional dimension dominated by Tamas. In this Tamas dominated dimension came the five elements, the senses and the gods of them. These all came together to give rise to Ahamkara, the true self.

Ahamkara then modified itself into Sattvika, Rajasika and Tamasika. Tamasa gave rise to Akasa, the cosmic ether whose essence is sound and gives rise to the knowledge of seers. Akasa then transformed into Vayu or air, whose essence is touch, which gives rise to life. Vayu gave rise to Tejas, fire/brilliance/heat which then became Agni. At the same time, the evolution of Tejas threw out water, whose essence is taste. Out of water evolved earth, whose essence was smell. Thus the five elements were born.

From Sattvika, the mind was born whose God is Soma Deva and the other ten Devas who rule over the five senses and five who rule over the organs. They are Vayu, Surya, Varuna, Aswin twins ruling over the ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose. Then you have Agni, Indra, Upendra, Mitra and Ka, who rule over speech, hands, feet, anus and genital reproductive organs. From Tamasika the five organs and five senses were born and finally from Rajasika emerged intelligence, the ability to know, the vital breath and the power to act emerged. This, when acted upon by the will of Vishnu, are combined as the body in the shape of a golden egg and after many Kalpas had passed, he breathed life into the golden egg. He himself came bursting out of this egg with thousands of legs, arms, mouths, faces and heads. This is the Virata Purusha, the Cosmic Man having seven worlds below his loins and seven above. The Brahman was born from the cosmic man’s mouth, the Kshatriya from his arms, the Vaisya from the thighs and Sudra from his feet.

The cosmic man defines the universe and the worlds. Bhurloka from his feet, Maharloka from his chest, etc. His nostrils are the abodes of Prana, the vital airs. His tongue is the font of taste. His body hairs are the trees and plants, while the hair on his head, beard and nails cause rocks, metals, clouds and lightening. His three paces provide Bhur, Bhuvar aAns Svar, they provide protection. His feet are the sanctuary of all seekers, which makes the Sudra the first port of call, so to say. The description goes on, such as his buttocks being the source of defeat, godlessness and ignorance, his heart being the source of the spirit body,is arteries and veins the sources of rivers and streams.

When you worship any god, you are doing so using parts of his own body, the water, the food-grains, the fruits, the wood, the ghee, the gold, the clay, the earth, the Vedas, the vows, the Dakshina, all emanate from him and revert back to him. As Brahma carried out the first Yagna, the nine Prajapatis joined Brahma in worshipping the Cosmic Person and this gave rise to Vishnu manifesting himself as Indra and the other Devas. He is the first man, the unborn one who creates time out of himself. He is the truth, perfect, whole without beginning or end, with and without change, eternal and alone. So this is the story of how creation happened.

I come to the end of the second part of the second Skanda. As I was reading and rereading the Skanda, I kept going back to the other books and trying to decipher the Sanskrit shlokas, trying to cross correlate with the English translations. It was ok, but once it was written down, I felt absolutely tiny, miniscule, infinitesimally minute in front of this awe inspiring story of creation. I felt empty of anything other than sheer awe. “Big Bang” theory? Sure, bring it on, you can see the links between the theory and this theory of creation. Call it intelligent design if you will. Actually, it’s up to you what you call it, but I am not going to call it anything. It just is.

This exercise is perhaps one of the most difficult I have undertaken in my life. The actual logistics of the review was fairly complex anyway, but the philosophical elements have seriously made my hair hurt and I can feel my brain expanding and pressing in my tiny cranium. This is going to be painful, but in a good way. In the next part of this Skanda, we will explore the other incarnations of Vishnu and finally end with the complex and searching questions that Parikshit asks of Suka.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!

The Blinkered Strategists

 

When waging wars, the powers that be are driven by strategic preconceptions. In each of the Indo-Pakistani wars, whether 1948, 1965, 1971, 1984 or 1999, both sides had strategic preconceptions. Unfortunately, preconceptions for the aggressor are tortured by two aspects. The first relates to the old saw, “never over-estimate yourself and never under-estimate the enemy”, and the second is the “law of un-intended consequences”. In this essay, we explore these fascinating aspects of the Pakistani military mind.

I wrote these while reading about the 1965 Indo Pakistan War. Needless to say, there is no point in rehashing the details of the actual battles; the winners and losers; the history behind the war and its repercussions; heroes and cowards; the innumerable and frankly pointless loss of life; etc. These aspects were either already thrashed half to death or better military historians than me will be able to shed better light on them. I, therefore, decided to look at the 1965 war as a strong way-point on the path on which the Pakistani strategic mind works, jump forward to 2006, and see what lessons can be drawn. This analysis, coming from a layman, may well be far too airy fairy for many and my apologies for this.

These preconceptions relate to both sides, their own side and the enemy side. This is but natural and deeply rooted in human nature itself. These preconceptions emerge due to very high level factors such as national culture, education systems, national ideology, and extend to mid level factors such as military training, political structure present at that time, quality of the military / economic capabilities, facilities and infrastructure, etc.

In the case of Pakistan, what were and are the preconceptions? The first and foremost is the underestimation of India and its capabilities. Whether it be Indian economics, its people, its military force, its international stature, the quality of its diplomatic corps, the secularity of its body politic, the very strong institutional framework of parliament, judiciary and the executive, the strange but workable (like the proverbial bumblebee) centre-state-regional stresses and strains, all combine to give a completely wrong preconception to the generals, that India is weak and a “strong” shove will make it crumple, shatter into pieces, beaten and defeated. Like General Ayub Khan believed "as a general rule Hindu morale would not stand more than a couple of hard blows at the right time and place."

This is expressed in many ways – such as “the Hindu Bania mentality”, Hindu's were never warriors, Pakistani soldiers are better than Hindu soldiers, Indians are sneaky and underhanded and will never be able to stand up to a forceful reply, their secularism is a sham, the Hindu religion itself does not lend itself to a strong state, so on and so forth. That is on the under-estimation side.

On the over-estimation side, one can see the flip side of the above. A Pakistani soldier is worth three Indian soldiers and other expressions along this ilk. Since the military has ruled over Pakistan (covertly and/or overtly) for most of its history, the predominant view of the strategists is necessarily military focused. Consequently, Pakistan is often seen as an army with a country, unlike India which is a country with an army. Therefore, the feedback mechanism, the strength which comes from a populace which is strongly behind the military, the check on military adventurism, the militarization of society, etc. is different. Hence, the strategists frequently over-estimate their own capabilities.

The second side of the over-estimation comes from the judgment of the military rules as to their worth as a client state to others, whether it be China or USA. Needless to say, that Pakistan acts like a client, but there is a significant difference in expectations between what Pakistan would like to have and what China/USA will let them have. This preconception that their “friends” will step in to help means a significant over-estimation of their own strength when going head to head with the enemy.

The last preconception, which could potentially be the most damaging, is their view of civilians. Because of various well known reasons, the Pakistani military thinks that the civilians are a bunch of nincompoops and blithering idiots, who cannot be relied upon to arrange for the proverbial piss-up in a brewery. Consequently, any and all recommendations which may emanate from the civilian side (foreign ministry, economics ministry, public think tanks, the press, etc) are airily waved away as inconsequential. This leaves the military mind purely focused on the war effort, disregarding the hugely important battles in the international diplomatic arena, the economic arena, the domestic public arena, etc. But it is this lack of respect for anything civilian which also affects their military performance. When there is no accountability to nobody, the military will not live up to its responsibility and will not learn from its mistakes. This chrysalises in the words of Col S. G. Mehdi, MC commanding the SSG until just before the 1965 war: “Had our Government initiated a probe into concept, conduct and consequences of 1965 War', and raised the curtain from the acts of gross omission or that of the criminal commission, the ignominy of 1971 could have been avoided.”

Law of unintended consequences is where these preconceptions come home to roost (if you don’t mind me mangling proverbs). A good planning department will consider various alternatives and have what we call as a decision tree, where each alternative has a series of potential results, with sub decisions, which again have a series of results. Unfortunately if preconceptions are embedded in this process, the range of alternatives will simply not be there. Hence the surprise when the Indians attacked after Operation Gibraltar. Or that the 1965 war will remain a covert war in Kashmir. Or that the Rann of Kutch spat proved that India was a pushover. Or the shock at the lack of support given by US and China to Pakistan’s strong requests for aid.

As I mentioned, being the aggressor means that planning and estimation have to be spot on, after all it is the aggressor, who is trying to change the status quo. Accordingly, (and assuming that victory and the achievement of objectives is the main goal), one has to be prepared for potentially all eventualities. For that, an open mind is necessary, a disciplined validation of basic assumptions is crucial and a balanced estimation of costs/benefits is required. Having preconceptions means that one limits one’s ability at the very start. Consequently, the bravery of the Pakistani soldier or pilots and the sufferings of the civilians are of no avail if the strategists put them into inconclusive or losing battles.

In 2006, having the luxury of looking back, we can but see that the preconceptions, which drove the Pakistani military minds are still there, although (and you can call me an optimist) I see signs of improvement. Not much, but it is happening. The offer for peace talks, the burial of the strategic depth shibboleth, the fact that the Kashmiri militant camps are now an open secret, the fact that the military has seen the need for a “civilian” fig leaf for its rule, the freer press. Ok, ok, so I will not go overboard and all these may wash away with the next general in power. All the above-mentioned mis-conceptions have within them the implicit cure, but before this columns turns into a tome, let me close with a quote, “we judge ourselves by what we THINK we are capable of doing, people judge us by what we have DONE.”

All this to be taken with a grain of salt!

 

(Note: this was written in 2006, but never published as the outlet went bust.., just found it now)

Bhagwata Purana, Skandha Two, Part One.

You know my great idea about writing one essay on each Skandha? Well, I am afraid that it became impossible for me to stick to my original plan in the second Skandha itself, as there are far too many concepts and ideas that I want to try and do justice to. The Skandha starts with the story of how Vyasa Muni first composed the Bhagwata Purana (BP).
You might already know that Vyasa Muni was the original compositor of the Vedas, but the Purana is silent on when exactly he wrote it in Hindu cosmological terms, although we know it was written after Krishna’s death, which is tentatively given as 3228 BCE (according to the wiki entry). The Purana, on the other hand, says that Vyasa was born in the Dwapara Yuga. Take a look at this calculation which talks about some seriously huge time frames. Time is defined in the top level as Brahma Years. We are in the first day of the 51^st year of Brahma (he is a middle aged God right now). Each day and night in an year comprises of a Kalpa, which is further divided into 28 manvantaras and we are in the 7^th day manvantara. Each Manvantara is made up of 71 mahayuga’s and we are in the 28^th mahayuga. Each Mahayuga comprises of four yugas namely Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. We are currently in Kali Yuga. The time in human Christian Gregorian Years is roughly 432,000 solar years.
So extrapolating from this (and bear with me, I have no way of confirming this), Vyasa was born before 3228 BCE. Given that the average human life span in the Dwapara Yuga was considered to be approximately 1,000 years, he could have been born and actually composed the BP any time between 3228 BCE to 4228 BCE, but the actual book took shape in the 3^rd millennium BCE. For the longest time, this kind of thinking about time blows my mind, but I have that down as a potential research project to think about. Take a look at this article by Ramesh Rao for an interesting perspective on time.
But let’s get back to the BP and its origins. The above is from a mythological perspective that is; the real truth is much more complicated. As of the current state of historiographical research, there is simply no evidence of when it was originally written and by whom. The wiki entry for the Vedas is a good example of the confusion about the dates on the origins of the Vedas, but it’s aimed at a date of 1,000 BCE. This sort of conflicts with the reputed death of Krishna around 3228 BCE, so what happened in the middle 2 millennia?
However, I am not writing an analytical paper here, I am talking philosophy and mythology. Hindu philosophy (if this kind of a formulation can even be said) simply has too many strands to worry about exact timing or authenticity of the author, unlike say the fact that Gabriel taught Mohammad the Quran or there is a gospel by Mark. How about the philosophy that time is essentially an illusion (maya)? If it’s maya, then is it really important to know the author or the time? We also need to know that if we start ascribing the authorship to a particular person and time, we run the risk of it sounding fallible, which really cannot be done now, can it? The other way of looking at this is that there is simply no origin or that the Vedas and the Puranas were and are: unauthored, unreal and eternal at the same time. When the (atma) soul can be pure consciousness without content, then extending that analysis to the Vedas and Purana can mean content without consciousness relating to temporal aspects such as authors or time.
The BP talks about how Vyasa Muni divided the original single Veda into the four Vedas that we know now, mainly because he realised that in the Kali Yuga, mankind cannot handle the full weight of God’s word, so had to be fed in small broken down chunks. He then gave each Veda to one of his disciples and asked them to further teach humans. As women, sudras and other impure members of the Brahman class were not eligible to read and hear the Vedas (don’t go there yet, I will return to this topic sometime in the future), he also wrote the Mahabharata so that even the women, sudras and impure people could attain moksha. But Vyasa Muni was not happy and less than satisfied with his work on the Vedas and Mahabharata. Narada Muni came around and identified his cause of dissatisfaction. Narada Muni said that he has not described the Lord Vishnu in detail and that is the reason why his work does not satisfy him. Narada Muni then proceeds to tell Vyasa his own life story and how he became a Vishnu devotee. In one of his past lives in another Kalpa, he wandered the earth in search of God and finally he sat to meditate for eons. Finally, Vishnu manifested himself to him and Narada was enlightened. Vishnu said that Narada will find the Lord when all desires have been quelled, but he will be with Narada all the time. Saying this, Narada departed leaving behind Vyasa full of determination to explore and compose the story of Lord Vishnu. Upon completion of the BP, Vyasa Muni taught the secret Purana to his son, Suka.
Then there is a bit of a jump and the third section talks about the life history of Pariskshit, son of Abhimanyu, who is the ruler of Hastinapur. Remember the story about how he was saved in his mother Uttara’s womb, by Krishna when Ashwathama tried to kill him using the brahmastra? Anyway, moving on, the BP talks about how righteous he was, how he banished the demon Kali (not the Goddess Kali) and saved one legged Dharma Deva, the God of Truth and Bhumi Devi, Mother Earth from Kali’s depredations. Interestingly enough, the four legs of Dharma Deva, who manifested himself as a Bull, represent austerity, purity, compassion and honesty, but Kali Yuga broke three of them by pride, lasciviousness and inebriation. Only honesty was left and even that was being destroyed by the Demon Kali. So Parikshit banishes the Demon Kali to the gambling dens, whorehouses, and in houses of slaughter. By doing so, Parikshit kept the demons of the Kali yuga at bay, but then disaster befell him.
He was hunting and reached an ashram thirsty and hungry. Looking around, he could only see a rishi deep in meditation and despite Parikshit’s entreaties; the rishi would not wake up to give him water or food. Becoming furious, Parikshit draped a dead snake around the rishi’s neck and rode away angrily. Then the rishi’s son came back, saw the snake, learnt the background and cursed Parikshit with death in seven days from snakebite. On his return to the palace, Parikshit was beset with sorrow and regret at his treatment of the rishi and then learning of the curse, decided to renounce his kingdom, go to the banks of the Ganga river, meditate on Vishnu for the remainder of his days while fasting.
When he sat down, a whole host of other great rishis came to him. Atri, Vasistha, Chyvana, Shardavana, Arishtanemi, Bhrigu, Angirasas, Parasara, Viswamitra, Parasurama, Utathya, Indrapramada, Indhmavaha, Medhatithi, Devala, Arishtisena, Bharadvaja, Gautama, Pippalada, Maitreya, Aurva, Kavasha, Agastya, Dwaipayna Vyasa and Narada all joined him. There is a reason why I am repeating all these names. These names are our greats. They have, in effect, given us our religion. They were the first teachers and telling their names again is a way of worshiping them, paying obeisance to them and recognising our debt to them.
Finally Suka Muni arrives and Parikshit asks him how best to purify himself before death, to which Suka Muni replies referring to the BP as the best way to purify the body and soul. Parikshit asks about the form of Vishnu that he would meditate on and Suka describes the Lord to him. This was a stunning description and I was seriously taken aback. I am not going to give the full description, but it involves patala, the soles of his feet, bhumi his hips, and the sky as his navel. Indra and other Devas are his arms, agni his tongue, the sun and moon are his eyes, Yama is his teeth, his laughter is Maya, modesty is his upper lip, while greed is his lower. Prajapati is his penis, while Mitra Deva and Varuna Deva are his testicles. Vayu is his breath, time is his movement. Twilight is the garment he wears, brahmana his mouth, kshatriya his arms, vaisya his thighs and sudra is his feet. This is whom Parikshit should visualise.
The formulation of the Lord’s description took my breath away. With my puny mind, I simply could not comprehend this vast assemblage at all, which is why I am quite envious of those who can. Can you imagine somebody being able to visualise this wondrous image? What an imagination one would require! What a breadth of vision, what faith! I felt so insignificant at just the description of the Lord Vishnu.
But now I have to draw this exercise to an end. In the next part, I will be talking about how Suka explained the way of the Dhyana, the route to Moksha. This is not an esoteric description, but something with concrete details which man can grasp. This will follow with a description of how Brahma created this universe and a description of the incarnations of Vishnu and ending with the numerous questions that Parikshi asks of Suka.
All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt