THE STRUCTURE, IMPORTANCE AND ADVANTAGES OF VISHNU PURAN.

Vishnu puran has twenty three thousand shlokas. It has the power to destroy all your sins. In its first part it contains the dialogue between Parashar rishi and Maitrey rishi.

Rig Ved 1.40.6

For the purification, beautification and cleansing of our chitta(चित्त) and to make our inner self full of prem(Love), to make Stuti bhaavmay(भावमय) and rasmay(रसमय) stuti is a Prayer that takes us to Parmatma. Since Parmatma is omnipresent,

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our prayers are definitely heard. Parmatma is Chaitanya, present everywhere. In terms of Kaal or time he is always there. In terms of Desh or place he is everywhere and in terms of vastu or thing he is chaitanya. So if our prayers go to him, they are definitely heard.

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तमिद्वो॑चेमा वि॒दथे॑षु शं॒भुवं॒ मंत्रं॑ देवा अने॒हसं॑ ।
इ॒मां च॒ वाचं॑ प्रति॒हर्य॑थाव नरो॒ विश्वेद्वा॒मा वो॑ अश्नवत् ॥

Translation:

देवाः '- Oh the leader devtas!

तम इत् - This.

शंभुवम - Wishing for happiness.

अनेहसम् - Without any flaws.

मन्त्रम् - Of mantras.

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विदथेषु - In yagya.

वोचेन - Us.

नरः - Oh leaders!

इमाम् - This.

वाचन - Of speech.

च - If.

प्रतिहर्यथ - If you wish.

विश्वा इत् - All.

वामा - Beautiful words.

वः - Yours.

अश्नवत् - To get.

Explanation: Oh the leader devtas! We are offering mantras for

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happiness and destruction of difficulties. Oh leaders! If you wish for these mantras respectfully, then these Beautiful mantras are devoted to you.

Deep meaning:For the purification, beautification and cleansing of our chitta(चित्त) and to make our inner

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Rig Ved 1.40.2

Here marudgans are requested to help the yajmans at the time of war. Our actual war is with ignorance. We will become truly powerful and able bodied only after defeating ignorance. The yajmans request marudgans to make them effective rather than

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make them lacking in something. Let their nature and effectiveness be divine. Let their Praan and Pragya { knowledge} become capable. Mind will be enriched only when it is satisfied. Unsatisfied and sad mind cannot carry out the work of Paramarth.

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Only quiet and reclusive mind can think of Paramarth. Those who are unattached can only experience constant mind(स्थिर बुद्धि). The one with determined insight only can know their true self. This is what we wish Parmatma to grant us.

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त्वामिद्धि स॑हसस्पुत्र॒ मर्त्य॑ उपब्रू॒ते धने॑ हि॒ते ।
सु॒वीर्यं॑ मरुत॒ आ स्वश्व्यं॒ दधी॑त॒ यो व॑ आच॒के ॥

Translation:

सहस्त्रपुत्र - Oh the protector of many Waters!

मर्त्य: - Human.

हिते - Formidable for enemies.

धने - For wealth.

त्वाम - Yours.

इत - This.

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उप ब्रूते - Near.

हि - Is there.

मरुतः - Marudgan.

यः - Which.

व: - Yours.

आचके - To praise.

स्वश्यव्यम - With beautiful horses.

सुवीर्यम - With best valour.

आ दधित - To wear on all sides.

Explanation: Oh the doers of all courageous works! The men call out to you

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SHAKTA DHARMA AND THEIR ACHARYAS

Śhākta or Shakti or Devi pooja is not a new upasana. It is being carried out right from the time of Vedic period. Puran's tell us that Rishi Vashishth would worship Tara devi. Parshuram ji worshipped Tripura devi,

Agastya learned the secrets of Shri Vidya from Vishnu ji in Hayagriva avtaar. Bhagwan Ram, Laxman and Krishna too learned the tantrik vidya. Even Rig Ved 7.103.5 Sayan Bhasya also mentions about Śhākta/शाक्त(शाक्तस्येव शक्तिमतः).

Then we find that in the Harrappan excavations many figurines depicting Shakti were found. So in that age too, which was supposedly an urban city shakti was being worshipped. So naturally this tradition would be prevalent in rural areas too.

It is wrong to say that shakti puja originated from Bengal although it was popular there. Matsyendranath received this vidya from Maheshwari herself in Kamrup. We know that Shakti pooja is practised all over India.

Not much is known about the Śhākta saints in other parts of India in the middle ages.

Adi Shankaracharya wrote Pramanech saar named book on tantra and Anand lahri book on Devi strotras. Then there were Acharya Shankar, Bhaskar Rai, Laxman, Deshikendra, Raghav Bhatt, Krishnand,

BRAHMA VAIVARTA PURAN: IMPORTANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS.

This Puran introduces us to way of Vedas. On the request of Narad Muni Bhagwan Saavarni had preached this Puran. It is a summary of Dharma, Arth, Moksha etc.

Listening to this Puran one gets automatically attached to Vishnu and Shiva and realize that there is no difference between them. Vyasji divided this book into four parts. It has eighteen thousand shlokas. This whole book is in the form of dialogue between Suutji and Maharishi's.

The first part Brahmkhand, consists of Shrishti description. Here Shri is known as Para Brahma and description of Gokul is also mentioned, It also narrates the argument between Brahma and Narad in which both were defeated, and then Narad went to Shiva to attain more gyan.

Shivji advised him to go to Bhagwan Saavarni for this. Narad goes to Saavarni ashram to seek Knowledge and is totally amazed by the sorroundings.

Next is Prakriti khand which consists of dialogue between Narad and Saavarni where they discuss the

Importance of Shri Krishna through various stories. Then there is the discussion of Prakriti and its various hues. Listening to this gets you wealth.
Next is Ganesh Khand which describes the Punyak vrat done by Parvati ji. After this it narrates the birth of Kartikeya and Ganesh.

One key element of the Islamic intellectual tradition is the commentary. Commentaries on the Qurʼan (tafsīr) began early in Islamic history, but from about the 12th or 13th century, well into the 19th, commentaries on other scholarly texts became extremely common. -jm

Usually a commentary is called a sharḥ, and a supercommentary (i.e. a commentary on a commentary) is called a ḥāshiyah. Sometimes you get all the way up to a fourth- or fifth-level supercommentary. -jm

Sometimes it's hard to even tell what the "core text" is, because even a very famous text that's the core of many commentaries might present itself as an abridgement or comment on something even earlier. -jm

Commentaries might serve multiple purposes: to explain obscure grammar or vocabulary, to dig into particular legal cases, etc. Even to show why the core text is wrong. Eventually you get some Ottoman Turkish commentaries that translate Persian poems and then comment on them. -jm

Authors of commentaries often mark quotes from the core text by key words like "qawluhu" ("what he said") and manuscripts often emphasize this by writing these words in red or putting a line over the quoted text, so you can figure out who is talking. -jm

@Kate_SdE @PriyamvadaGopal @ChathamHouse @AdomGetachew Hindu nationalism should not have a negative connotation. It’s not exclusivist because Hinduism isn’t a religion - rather, it’s a way of life, and the term “Hindu” refer broadly to the people around and east of the Sindhu. This transcends the modern construct of religions.

@PriyamvadaGopal @ChathamHouse @AdomGetachew For “Hindus” - a broad-brush stroke for a people whose culture is underpinned by a knowledge system that provides logical structure for adopters of a plethora of philosophies, “Hindu nationalism” by definition, is inclusive and pluralistic. It gives space to everyone.

@PriyamvadaGopal @ChathamHouse @AdomGetachew If Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva-Mimamsa, Buddhist and Jain philosophies are studied in comparison with Abrahamic faiths, India’s unique Carl Popper Paradox comes to light. The imposition of a western matrix of secularism on a pluralistic culture has done much harm.

@PriyamvadaGopal @ChathamHouse @AdomGetachew Because the traditions are rooted in universalist philosophies, India gladly hosts followers of non-proselytizing faiths. Supremacist theocratic ideologies find little resonance with the people of the land. To understand “Hindu nationalism,” one has to study Indic philosophy.

@PriyamvadaGopal @ChathamHouse @AdomGetachew Equally, it is important to view history objectively, know the excesses of supremacist invaders/colonizers, and importantly, understand the asymmetries created by the “secular” state which structurally disadvantage the vastly heterogeneous so-called “Hindu” majority.

Ever heard of a temple where the statue of the Goddess was found in a field in 1936 after spending almost a millenia under the soil?And is worshipped as the Tri-Sakthi-Swaroopini?
No?
I shall narrate the story of Nidadavole Kota Satthema temple in West Godavari district, Andhra

Nidadavole is a sleepy little town in the district of West Godavari, located a few kilometres from the Godavari. Among other things, it is famous for its Gramadevatha and Kshetrapalika, the Goddess Kota Satthema

In the tenth century, Nidadavole was known as Nirvadhyapuram, and was under the rule of the Eastern Chalukyas. They were nominal feudatories of the Kakatiyas of Warangal. The local Sthalapurana indicates that the original temple was built by one king called Virabhadra.

This Virabhadra has been identified as the husband and royal regent of the Kakatiya Empress, Rani Rudramadevi who ruled Central Deccan during the period. The original stone figure of the Goddess was built within a fort during his reign.

The goddess was worshipped as the Shakti of the Fort. Over time the name entered the vernacular parlance as Kota (the telugu word for Fort) and Satthema (a local vulgarisation of the word Shakti).