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Re: Authenticity of Divya sthalams

From the Bhakti List Archives

Chandrasekaran Venkatraman • May 26, 2000 


Dear members,
    In this regard, though not directly related still relevant, I 
came across the following in Vishnu Puranam (story like translation
in tamizh of the purana) in which,
  " ... parasara tells maitreya that only in bhAratha varsha spiritual
activities are taking place. Other varshas are bhOga bhUmis. Only
bhAratha varsha is karma bhUmi. Even the chatur yuga are relevant 
only to this varsha ..."

    So is it deducible from this that the other portions of the 
earth are not divine ??

    Please correct me if I have misquoted above..
 
    adiyEn,
    chandrasekaran.


--- In bhakti-list@egroups.com, schakrav@g... wrote:
> Murali Kadambi wrote:
> 
> > Just because the sthaLa purANas may be of a later
> > origin and just because the vibhavAvatArams "took
> > place" in North India, there is no valid reason for us
> > to assume that the divya sthaLams of South India are
> > any less "divine," and that they are more "historical"
> 
> That is true.  The entire universe (as an embodiment of
> Paramatma) is divine; archas are especially so because
> they are objects of devotion and focal points of worship.
> So are the ArAdhana daivams of the mutts and even in our
> own homes.  My curiosity was academic.  I'm interested
> in knowing the origins of temple towns, and whether those
> are tied to scripture, history or legend.  Unfortunately,
> reference material is scant and/or unreliable.  I thank
> those people who emailed me information about svayamvyaktas
> etc.  Perhaps the origins of most temples are masked in
> legends, which build up over centuries to become elaborate
> sthala purANas which don't have any basis in the fundamental
> Srivaishnava scriptures.  It is this kind of pattern which
> I would like to identify for the sake of my own interest;
> not necessarily to gain or lose devotion in the process!! 
> 
> aDiyEn
> -Srinath Chakravarty
> email: xsrinath@t...


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