BY: SUN STAFF
Dec 11, CANADA (SUN) —
Tattva Sandarbha
by Srila Jiva Goswami
SECTION FIFTEEN
Similarly, the Vayaviya-samhita of the Siva Purana indicates the Vedic nature of the Puranas by discussing their common appearance:
"The ingenious Lord abridged the Veda then divided it into four and therefore He became known as 'Veda Vyasa'. The Puranas were also summarized in four hundred thousand verses, but in the heavenly planets they still have one billion verses". (Siva Purana, 7.1.1.37,38)
Here the word sankshiptam (lit. condensed) implies condensed by Him. The names of the Puranas such as Skanda, Agneya, and so forth indicate their prime speaker or the person who arranged the order of the book. The Katha Upanishad, for instance, was promoted by the sage Katha. If sometimes they are described as non-eternal, that is because sometimes they are manifest and sometimes not. Hence the Vedic nature of the Itihasas and Puranas is established. The right of Suta and others (not twice-born) to recite the Puranas is comparable to the right to chant the holy name of Lord Krishna, the pious fruit of the creeper of all Vedas, (which is accessible even to low-born people). As stated in the Prabhasa-Khanda of the Skanda Purana:
"O best of the Bhrigu dynasty, the holy name of Krishna is the sweetest of the sweet and the most auspicious of the auspicious. It is the pious fruit of all the Vedas and is conscious. Whosoever chants it but once, whether with faith or with contempt, becomes liberated."
The Vishnu Dharma Purana states:
"A person who chants the two syllables 'Hari' has already completed the study of the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvaveda."
And the Vishnu Purana states that the meaning of the Vedas is in the Puranas and Itihasas:
"On the pretext of writing Mahabharata, Srila Vyasa has explained the meaning of the Vedas. There is no doubt that all the meanings of the Vedas are in the Puranas."
Moreover, even if the Itihasas and Puranas are counted among the books explaining the meaning of the Vedas, still they are unique, owing to the glory of their compiler (Bhagavan Veda Vyasa). The Padma Purana says, "What Srila Vyasa knows is unknown even to Brahma and others. Vyasa knows everything known to others, but what He knows is beyond the reach of others".
Sri Jiva Toshani Commentary
The word "sankshiptam", in the verse from the Siva Purana (7.1.1.37) is significant. It means condensed, not composed. Srila Veda Vyasa, the literary incarnation of God, condensed the already existing Vedas. An unused part of that abridged portion became the Puranas, but He did not compose them. This confirms that the Puranas, by dint of their transcendental origin, are equal to the four Vedas. They are eternal and apaurusheya. One may protest that since the Puranas have names such as Skanda and Agni they must have been composed by these persons and thus they are neither eternal nor apaurusheya.
If so then the Vedas themselves become non-eternal compositions since they have names such as Kathopanishad and Aitreya Brahmana, after the sages Katha and Aitreya. Portions of the Vedas are named after a certain sage, not because he wrote that portion, but because he was its main exponent, hence his name became affiliated with that section of the Veda. Persons with names like Katha or Aitreya appear in every millennium and so one should not think that before the appearance of the known Katha and Skanda these names were meaningless words in the Vedas.
Similarly, the Puranas have their names after their first teacher or the person who rearranged them. By the influence of time some books become less popular or are completely forgotten on this planet. Eventually a sage or demigod again speaks them and the book becomes known after his name. An example of this is in the Srimad Bhagavatam, where it describes how sage Yajnavalkya received the Vajasaneyi-samhita from the Sun God (S.B.12.6.73) "Suta Gosvami said: Satisfied by such glorification, the powerful sun-god assumed the form of a horse and presented to the sage Yajnavalkya the Yajur mantras previously unknown in human society." Just as the Lord appears to take birth and then disappear like a mortal being, similarly the Vedic literature becomes manifest and unmanifest. The Srimad Bhagavatam was unmanifest at the end of Dvapara-yuga. After the instructions of Narada Muni to Vyasa it again became manifest. Otherwise, reference to it in earlier Puranas would be meaningless. In the Padma Purana, Uttarakhanda, for example, Gautama advises Ambarisha Maharaja, who reigned in the Satya-yuga, to study the Srimad Bhagavatam.
So the Puranas are eternal, but sometimes manifest and sometimes unmanifest to human society. As the Lord is independent in His appearance and disappearance, so by His free will He speaks various scriptures through the medium of different sages and gives them different names.
Another objection is that the Srimad Bhagavatam states that women, the mercantile class and the friends of the twice-born have no access to the Vedas. Strisudradvija-bandhunam trayi na shruti-gocara (S.B. 1.4.25). Furthermore, in the same chapter, text 13, Saunaka Rishi, addressing Suta Gosvami, states, manye tvam vishaye vacam snatamanyatra chandasat (S.B. 1.4.13). "We consider you expert in all subjects except the Vedas." Therefore, if the Itihasas and Puranas comprise the fifth Veda, why does Suta gosvami, who was not twice-born, narrate them?
Anticipating this objection Srila Jiva Gosvami compares the right to study the Puranas and Itihasas to that of chanting Krishna's holy name, which is the choicest fruit of the Vedas. That is to say even though the holy name is Vedic in nature it is accessible to everyone, including those who have no right to study the Vedas. As a low class person has the right to chant the holy name, so a qualified sudra can approach the Itihasas and Puranas. In Mahabharata (Vana Parva 180.25,26), Yudhishthira Maharaja describes who is a qualified sudra to King Nahusha:
"If the qualities like truthfulness, and control of the mind and senses are found in a sudra, then he is to be considered a brahmana and not a sudra. On the other hand, if a brahmana does not have these qualities he is to be accepted as a sudra.
"O Snake, anyone who has the qualities of truthfulness, control of the mind, and so on is to be considered a Brahmana, and that person devoid of these qualities is a sudra."
Therefore, although the Itihasas and Puranas are considered the fifth Veda, still a qualified person like Suta Gosvami has the right to study them. Suta Gosvami himself acknowledges this in Srimad Bhagavatam 1.18.18.
"O how wonderful! although we are born in a mixed caste, we are still promoted in birthright simply by serving and following the great who are advanced in knowledge. Even by conversing with such great souls, one can without delay cleanse oneself of all disqualifications resulting from lower births".
As one can get all perfection by chanting the holy name of Lord Krishna, which is the ultimate fruit of the Vedas, one can also get the essence of the Vedas by studying the Itihasas and Puranas. He need not study the Vedas. Otherwise those who are not twice-born will have no means to attain perfection, since they are barred from studying the Vedas.
Finally, even if one lumps the Itihasas and Puranas with other smriti scriptures that explain the meaning of the Vedas and are composed by sages or saintly teachers, their place is unique because of the eminence of their propounder, Srila Vyasadeva, who is an incarnation of the Lord.
In the next section Srila Jiva Gosvami further explains the superiority of the Itihasas and Puranas due to the excellence of their compiler.
Go to Section Sixteen
Return to Section Fourteen
