HINDUISM FOR ALL

IMPORTANCE OF AGNI AND SURYA

Fire / Tejas is the Supreme Principle by which man started to become civilised. Due to its protective nature and light giving principle. Agni is worshipped by all Hindus at every stage of their life.

Lord Surya too is called ‘Savitaa’ i.e. ‘one who preserves the life on the earth with His benedictive rays’. Surya too is an important deity of worship.

MAXIMS OF HINDU BELIEFS

Whichever part of the world a Hindu may live in or the community that he may belong to or the language that he may speak, there are certain common beliefs and faiths which he follows. These beliefs and faiths are the backbone of Hindu religion

The entire life-style of a Hindu is deeply influenced by these maxims, which was further strengthened in the Epics and Puraanas.

EPICS

(ITIHAASA)

The twin epics namely, the Raamaayana and the Mahaabhaarata have left a deep influence in the development of Hindu Society.

RAAMAYANAA

Sage Vaalmeeki the earliest author of this Epic called ‘Raamaayana’, through this monumental work, not only opened the gates of development of classical poetry, but also conceptualised the idea of a personalized Godhead, called Raama. The story is so well known that it doesn’t need an elaboration. A summary of Raama Epos is given in the “Ekashloki Raamaayana”.

Lord Vishnu incarnated as Raama, the son of Dasharatha, and married Seeta, the manifestation of Lakshmi who was born as daughter of Janaka. Raama had three brothers namely Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna. He was accompanied by Lakshmana and Seeta when he was exiled by his father Dasharatha to satisfy the vanity of Kaikeyi, one of three of Dasharatha’s queens (the other two being Kaushalya and Sumitra). Raama equipoisely departed to the forest. In the Dandaka forest, due to a skirmish with Soorpanakha, the Raakshasa King Raavana’s sister, Seeta was abducted by him as an act of revenge. In his pursuit of discovering Seeta, Raama befriended Sugreeva the monkey king, who dispatched, search parties in all directions. Hanumaan, the devotee of Lord Raama and a trusted Lieutenant of Sugreeva found Seeta in Raavana’s Lanka and after conveying to her of Raama’s march, burnt down the entire Lanka. Raama arrived on the shores of Lanka with the troupe of monkeys to seize Lanka. Vibheeshana, the righteous and saintly younger brother of Raavana, aided Raama in the battle in which all the Raakshasa hordes were vanquished, including Raavana by Raama’s army. Seeta being rescued and Raama was crowned as the king of Ayodhya upon his return with the help of Sugreeva’s minister Hanumaan.

This being the broad outline of the epic, the main motto behind the passionate devotion towards the epic as well to the main protagonist lay in the simple message it sent forth. “Live a righteous life like Raama, not like Raavana” (raamaadivat vartitavyam, na cha raavanaadivat)

Raamaayana has had a profound impact along with its sister epic Mahaabhaarata on the life and culture of not only India, but also in Greater India (comprising S.E. Asian countries, China, Afghan etc.)

We have many versions of Raamaayana other than that of Vaalmeeki, not only in Sanskrit and almost all major Indian languages but also have adaptations of Raamaayana in Jain and Buddhist religions as well the versions of the epic in Thai (Raamakiyan), Laos (Raamakiret), in China, Burma etc. Some of the Sanskrit versions of Raamaayana popular in India are Adhyaatma Raamaayana
(Philosophical interpretation), Adbhuta Raamaayana (Shaakta influence), Aananda Raamaayana (dwelling more on Uttarakaanda episodes of Raamaayana), and Bhushundi Raamaayana (Version of Raamaayana which is highly influenced by Srimad Bhaagavata Puraana). Apart from these Sanskrit versions we have Kamba Raamaayana in Tamil written by the Great Tamil Poet Kamban, Kruttivasa
Raamaayana in Bengali, Raamacharita Maanasa in Hindi written by the Poet Saint of the North India by name Tulsidaas to name just a few.

With the writing of Raamaayana, there was a remarkable change in the literature as well in the practice of religion. The prominence of Vishnu, Shiva etc. can be one such important contribution of this Epic period.

MAHAABHAARATA

Mahaabhaarata of Sage Veda Vyaasa was a monumental work written in about one lakh verses. The name Mahaabhaarata is etymologically explained as “Mahatvaat Bhaaravatvaat Cha Mahaabhaaratam Uchyate” i.e. due to the bulk of the text (bhaara) and also owing to the greatness of the subject matter (Mahat) the text is named Mahaabhaarata.

Though the entire Mahaabhaarata cannot be said to follow uniformly a single story line, the continuous storyline is that of the Paandava and Kaurava princes, their wonders, exploits, deceits, sufferings, envy, triumph etc. But the lifeline of Mahaabhaarata is the character of Krishna, the incarnation of Vishnu.

It is a story of conflict between Kauravas led by Duryodhana and their cousins Paandavas, the virtuous. Intricately woven with suspense, greed, avarice, deceit, state-craft and ruthlessness, all part of politics of power, Mahaabhaarata is a book

with a lot of dramatic action. The final dramatic culmination is in the Great War, resulting in annihilation of a large chunk of human population.

But within this labyrith of episodes, Vyaasa emphatically sets forth the greatness of morals, righteous living, devotion, penance, pilgrimages, nuances of dharmic life which can be imbibed by following the Wise and Learned. Spread in eighteen chapters called Parvas, Mahaabhaarata accords a special place to the number ‘Eighteen’. For, the older name by which Mahaabhaarata was known was ‘Jaya’, which when represented numerically (using traditional Kataapayaadi system of coding) gives
number eighteen. The number of Parvas is eighteen.

The extent of army participating in the battle is eighteen aksauhini (battalions i.e. eleven on Kaurava side and seven on Paandava), the number of days the battle raged was eighteen and the most important message that flowed out of this pelmel i.e. Bhagavad Geeta was a revealed to this world in eighteen chapters.

This article is a snippet from the Book Hinduism For All, Authored by TS Srinivasan and Edited By Dr Ramchandrashekar. Hinduism for All is available online at www.giri.in & across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture & Tradition.

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