Ninth Theme: The Puranas are Vedic writings and are therefore the highest authorities

 

The six sections that follow, i.e., the twelfth to the seventeenth theme, are meant to demonstrate that the Puranas, like the Vedas, are perfect scriptures and are in many ways superior to the Vedas.

 

Since the Vedas in Kali-yuga are difficult to study and comprehend, because even the great sages who try to understand them cannot agree on some philosophical questions, we will examine Sabda only on the basis of Itihasa and Purana. Because of this reason, it becomes clear that in the present age, only the Itihasas and Puranas are capable of generating true knowledge.

 

The historical epoch in which we live is Kali-yuga, which began just over 5,000 years ago and will last another 427,000 years. In the cycle of the four ages (Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali), Kali-yuga is the most degraded. During this period man loses his best qualities, which were once his common wealth.

 

Based on this reflection, Sri Jiva presents a question that has been posed in the past by other great personalities of the Vedic world: what is the best of the scriptures for a study that avoids the tragic waste of time and points in the right direction? 

 

At the end of the Dvapara-yuga, the sages of Naimisa posed the same problem and asked Suta Gosvami to show them the best works, starting precisely from the awareness of the waning qualities of the man of the future. Their conversation is recorded in Srimad Bhagavatam (1.1.10 and 11):

 

“O wise man, in this Iron Age (Kali-yuga) men live little, they are quarrelsome, lazy, deceiving, unfortunate and above all, they are always disturbed.”

 

“There are many scriptures, and in all of them we find prescribed duties which may be learned, according to their various divisions, only after many years of study.  So, O wise man, please select the essence of the Scriptures and explain them in an understandable way for the sake of all living beings. Thanks to such instructions, people’s hearts will find full satisfaction.”

 

Here we see that the merciful sages wondered how to solve the problem to alleviate the suffering of the people. The same need, a few millennia later, is felt by the Gosvami of Vrindavana. Sri Jiva realizes that the Vedas are difficult to comprehend and especially to practice. In fact, we must remember that the Vedas do not propose ideas for the enjoyment of mind and intelligence, but teach a way of life, a new consciousness, a new way of being. Beyond this there is an additional problem: a part of the Vedas has been lost and has been impossible to trace.

 

Jiva Gosvami also says: 

“You see, even great sages find it difficult to come to a conclusion that everyone agrees on.”

 

Baladeva Vidyabhusana explains that here Jiva Gosvami refers to the authors of the six Darsanas, such as Kanada, Patanjali and others.

 

The sages of Naimisa ask Suta Gosvami to determine where to find the essence of the Vedic teachings and he, the esteemed son of Romaharsana, replies: 

 

“The Srimad-Bhagavatam is the Amala-purana, the immaculate Purana, devoid of any trace of material compromise or duality.”

 

The Gosvami of Vrindavana evidently wants to lead us gradually to the same conclusion.

 

He begins by stating that Vedanta (the philosophical conclusions of the Vedas) can also be found in the Puranas and Itihasas. In support of this thesis, he presents some references, including a verse from the Maha-bharata (Adi-parva 1.267), which reads:

 

“One should complete the Vedas with Itihasas and Puranas.” 

 

In fact, the term Purana means “ancient” and “that which completes”.

 

But to do this, the Puranas themselves must be of the same nature as the Vedas, otherwise it would be like trying to fill a half-empty glass of milk with water; Eventually, we wouldn’t drink a glass of milk. Jiva Gosvami says it would be like trying to complete a gold bracelet with lead: the two metals, so different from each other, could not coexist. Therefore, nothing that is not Vedic can complete something Vedic.

 

An objection is possible: 

If we accept the Itihasas and Puranas as Vedic scriptures, shouldn’t we look for other Puranas to complete them? Otherwise, Itihasa and Purana could not be considered Vedas.

 

Jiva Gosvami anticipates this objection by saying: 

“If it were in the nature of the Vedas to be incomplete, it would also be so for the Puranas.” 

 

In this case, we would never have complete knowledge.

 

To this we reply that, although all are of divine origin, nevertheless a distinction can be proposed in terms of order and accent.

 

The meaning is clear: the Vedas and the Puranas are the same in the sense that they come from the same divine source, but between them there is a certain difference of language and features, so sometimes certain themes are deepened and sometimes not, and so a text may be more relevant to one era than another.

 

Baladeva Vidyabhusana offers an enlightening example, which recalls that for the sudras there is a specific prohibition regarding hearing and studying the Vedas.

 

For them and for other lower social classes, texts such as the Maha-bharata (which is an Itihasa) have been conceived. Recalling that in Kali-yuga all are considered sudras (kalau sudra sambhavah), Sri Jiva’s proposal to consider the Puranas and Itihasas superior to the Vedas seems logical and is confirmed by the sastras. 

 

 The second part of section twelve and the following sections contain numerous confirmations of the above.

 

In the seventeenth section, the author of the Tattva-sandarbha gives more information about the Puranas, dividing and classifying them according to the qualities called sattvika, rajasika and tamasikas. The Padma Purana divides the eighteen Puranas as follows:

 

Visnu, Narada, Bhagavata, Garuda, Padma and Varaha are Sattvika Puranas; 

Brahmanda, Brahmavaivarta, Brahma, Vamana and Bhavisya are Rajasika Puranas; 

Matsya, Kurma, Linga, Shiva, Agni and Skanda are Tamasika Puranas. 

 

The meaning of all this requires a few additional words. We know that the world of matter is characterized by three gunas or ways of being. Not only objects, but also people are victims of the preponderance of one guna over others. People who are more characterized by a specific guna will find larger lights in the Puranas corresponding to their preponderant guna.

This is a section of the book “Tattva Sandarbha”, in English.

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