Bhagavata Puran: Best lesson at International Gita Society

Purana means stories or histories of ancient times. There are several subject matters in the puranas and they are classified into five sections. Their five sections are history, cosmology, secondary creation, genealogy of kings, and of Manvantaras or Manus. The Puranas are part of the Itihasas. The Puranas were written to popularize the religion of the Vedas. They contain the essence of the Vedas. The aim of the Puranas is to impress on the minds of the masses the teachings of the Vedas and to generate in them devotion to God, through concrete examples, myths, stories, legends, lives of saints, kings and great men, allegories, and chronicles of great historical events. The sages made use of these things to illustrate the eternal principles of religion. The Puranas were meant, not for the scholars, but for the ordinary people who could not understand high philosophy and who could not study the Vedas. Each purana gives prominence to a particular deity and therefore places all others on a subservient position. There are stories in the puranas to further explain the application of religion in life and to emphasize the importance of injunctions.

The Srimad Bhagavata Purana describes at length the appearance and activities of the ten main incarnations of Krishna. Other incarnations are also mentioned where necessary. The avatars appear to re-establish religious principles, to destroy those promoting irreligious life, and to enjoy pastimes with Their devotees. The ten Avatars are: Matsya (The Fish), Kurma (The Tortoise), Varaha (The Boar), Narasimha (The Man-Lion), Vamana (The Dwarf), Parasurama (Rama with the axe, the destroyer of the Kshatriya race), Ramachandra (the hero of the Ramayana who destroyed Ravana), Sri Balarama (brother of Sri Krishna), Buddha (the prince-ascetic, founder of Buddhism), and Kalki (the hero riding on a white horse, who is to come at the end of the Kali-Yuga).

Purana means `ancient'. There are 18 major Puranas - They have been written over a long span of time and their contents as well as their style reflect the changing times. The Puranas are not religious texts, though they do have religious, even ritualistic, elements. They are poetry with a religious theme. They contain accounts of the creation and dissolution of the world, of the dynasties of kings, of geography, law, politics, history, philosophy and so on. They have fascinating stories about brave warriors, beautiful women, and hotheaded sages. Written mostly as poetry in the metres of the Itihasas, the Puranas are a lively mixture of realism and romanticism. Several minor Puranas also exist, known as the Upa-puranas.

The Puranas are the richest collection of mythology in the world. The Puranas deal with many religious and moral matters of importance, and document Hindu religious concerns from about 400 to 1000 CE.

The aim of the Puranas is to impress on the minds of the masses the teachings of the Vedas and to generate in them devotion to God, through concrete examples, myths, stories, legends, lives of saints, kings and great men, allegories and chronicles of great historical events. The sages made use of these things to illustrate the eternal principles of religion. The Puranas were meant, not for the scholars, but for the ordinary people who could not understand high philosophy and who could not study the Vedas.

The Puranas are a class of literary texts, all written in Sanskrit verse. There are eighteen main Puranas and an equal number of subsidiary Puranas are as follows.

The Brahma Purana

The Padma Purana

The Vishnu Purana

The Bhavishya Purana

The Bhagavata Purana

The most celebrated and popular of the Puranas, telling of Vishnu's ten Avatars. Its tenth and longest canto narrates the deeds of Krishna, introducing his childhood exploits, a theme later elaborated by many Bhakthi movements.

The Shiva Purana

The Markandeya Purana

The Agni Purana

The Brahmavaivarta Purana

The Linga Purana

The Varaha Purana

The Skanda Puran, the longest Purana, containing parables, legends, and stories, with multiple versions and recensions. Many untraced quotes are attributed to this text.

The Vamana Purana

The Kurma purana

The Matsya Purana

The Garuda Purana

The Brahmanda Purana

The Vayu Purana

Puran is one of the structuring dynamics of Rk Veda. It highlights the ANCIENT and ETERNAL quality involved in structuring Rk Veda. With reference to consciousness, Puran comprises the specific sets of laws of Nature that are engaged in promoting the quality of Devata ' the process of observation, the dynamism of observing in the witnessing quality of Rishi ' within the Samhita level of consciousness, providing a structure to the eternally silent, self-referral, self-sufficient, fully awake state of consciousness, which is intimately personal to everyone. Puranas usually give prominence to a particular deity and most use an abundance of religious and philosophical concepts. They are usually written in the form of stories related by one person to another.

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