Re: Srimad Bhagawatam/ Gita

From the Bhakti List Archives

• November 21, 2001


srImathE rAmAmujAya namaha
srImadh varavara munayE namah

Dear Sri B.S

Srimadh Bhagavatham or Bhagavatha purana, is by itself a purANa. The
purANAs are 18 in number of which 6 are sAtvic in nature, 6 are rAjasic in
nature and 6 are tAmasic in nature.  Srimadh bhAgavatham or bhAgavatha
purANA is one of the sAtvic purANAs. They both are one and the same.

mahAbhArathA is not contained in any purANA. It is called IthihAsA.
IthihAsA means "it happened thus". Yes, both rAmAyaNA and mahAbhArathA are
true recordings (eye witness account) of what happened during that time.
And gItA is a part of this mahAbhArathA.

The IthihAsAs take much pride in that, they are considered even worthier
than the purANAs. The reason being that, in purANAs, there is a
classification of sAtvic, rAjasic and tAmasic purANAs and these are said to
have emerged when BrahmA was in that particular state of mind. So for a
prAmANam (100% proof) we have to consider only the sAtvic purANAs, the
foremost of them being Sri Vishnu purANA, which is called by Sri ALavandAr
as "purANa ratnam". Looking at IthihAsAs, they just talk nothing but truth
and hence takes priority over the purANAs.

This is brought out beautifully in Sri Vachana BhooshaNam, a very authentic
rahasya grantham of Swamy PiLLai lOkAchAriar , as "vEdArtham
aRudhiyiduvadhu smruthi, ithihAsa purANangaLAlE" (the meanings of the vEdAs
can be understood clearly from 1. smruthis, 2. IthihAsam & 3. purANam.

The great AchAryan of Sri Vishnu Himself, Sri maNavALa mAmunigaL, in his
vyAkhyAnam (explanation) for the above sUtra of Sri vachana bhooshaNam
explains what I have written in the 3rd para above. Hence what I wrote is
only a reproduction of what the greatest AchArya ever, explained.

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam
adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,
Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh



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