Sunday, July 2, 2023

13 Dec 22 - learnings from Puranas and Itihaas

 

13/12/2022

Jai Shri Ram,

One of my favourite topics to discuss or fret over is the dasha avatar of Shri Mahavishnu. Recently in the last one month I read and heard a lot about the 1000 names of Vishnu through Vishnu Sahasranamam. Two vaktas or speakers, Shri Dushyant S in English and Shri Samavedam  Shanmukha Sharma’s videos in Telugu are very influential over that.

Now the thoughts of creation are something the world frets over. While the western world thinks that the creation was not there and it came up later, that means there is a creator and a creation and the difference is between creation and creator. Like a builder of a house and the house. The person who build it and then entered it. Unlike that, the Hindu philosophy says: It’s like the cotton in the cloth. The creation and creator are the same. The creation is not separate from creation. Just like the Pot and earth (mud) in it, just like the cloth and fiber in it.

The Vishnu sahasranama was told by Bhishma pitamah to Yudhisthira in the presence of Lord Srikrishna himself. There is a lot of intelligentsia over this. Bhishma pitamah is a grand old man who knows lot of things and an Acharya by himself. There is a point we need to understand, Bhagvad Gita is told to Arjuna by Lord Srikrishna and Bhishmacharya shares the Vishnu Sahasranamam, Both have the similar essence of each other but then why they are told twice and why the vakta and shrota are different in each of these?

In Bhagvad Gita the speaker is lord himself and the listener is his friend and a bhakta Arjuna. Here the maturity levels are high but in comparison to Yudhisthira who is clear that he has to fight as it’s his dharma as a Kshatriya to fight for what is right. The emotional quotient of Arjuna is weaker compared to Yudhistir, He can get emotional quicker and get cleared off by a friend’s advice. While the higher order thinking of Yudhisthir may not be capable to get influenced by a friend and brother as much as it will be influenced by an elderly and knowledgeable person like Bhishma charya.

Also being logical during one of the question asked during the Yakshna Prashna, the yaksha had asked what is that which is not understood but yet followed, Yudhushtira answers that it is the Sanatana Dharma where Intelligent people differ in thoughts, no two things agree and logic cannot solve it, hence we should follow what our ancestors have been doing. Although the yaksha cleared the answer with full marks, Yudhistir was not convinced by his own answer and he wanted to know it better and hence he asks in the beginning of the Vishnu Sahasranaam, what and who is the only one answer to which we can think (Japa), praise (Stotra – Stuti) and be out of all janma sansar bandhan.

In answer Bhishma tells the Vishnu Sahasranaam. I am pasting Dushyant’s English Video link  for you to listen.

https://youtu.be/oGdQqmKER3A

 

 If there is a fifth veda it is Mahabharata and in Mahabharata there are 5 ratnas or pancha ratnas .. they are

Interaction between  Vidura and Dhritarashtra – Vidura Neeti

Interaction between Sanat kumara and Dhritarashtra – Sanat Sujiyam

Interaction between yaksha and Yudhistira – Yakshna Prashnam

Interaction between Arjuna and Krishna (Overheard by Dhristarashtra) – Bhagvad Gita

Interaction between Yudhistir and Bhishma – Vishnu Sahasranamam

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