It is customary among some of the Hindus to organize a recitation of the Garuda Purana within the thirteenth day of the death of a member of the family. In fact the Hindu scriptures also enjoin this. It is part of the rituals that are required to be performed by the family of the departed.The Puranas are the texts comprising tales and adventures of some divine personages or the rishis. Thus we have Vishnu Purana, Shiv Purana, the Bhagwat Purana ( the story of Krishna), Narad Purana etc. All these puranas tell the story of the divine personages i.e.Vishnu, Shiv, Krishna, Narad etc..The Garuda Purana is a little different in that it is not the story of the adventures of Garuda, who, according to the Hindu sacred books, is the vehicle of Vishnu and is a bird-- a hawk with supernatural divine powers.But the Garuda Purana does not describe the adventures of this bird.It is but a dialogue between him and his lord viz. Lord Vishnu.
In the book Lord Vishnu tells Garuda what happens to a person after he gets out of his mortal body.Sixteen chapters of the book describe in detail how the person is transmuted first in a being with dimensions of a hand and then with dimensionsof a thumb.The description of what he undergoes is a tale of unqualified terror.The reader is taken through paths paved with all kinds thorns, burning coal, boiling oil and incessant beatings. A normal middle class man who attaches far more value to the written word in general and the word of a scripture in particular, is bound to be filled with extreme terror when he is told what fate he is going to meet in the nether world.There is a detailed description of various kinds of sins and the punishment each of these sins entails There is a strong emphasis on doing good which generally means giving out liberally mostly to brahmins. It is enjoined upon the the person whose father has died and who is performing the rituals after his death for salvation of his soul that he should give so much to the brahmin conducting the ritual as would be sufficient to meet his needs for the entire year to come.
I think it is because of the Puranas such as the Garuda Purana that there is so much anger against the brahmins. When I , a brahmin myself, felt so strongly against the author of this book, it is easy to guess the amount of angst the non-brahmins are likely to have against it. And it is not against this book alone.It has become generic i.e.against all the so called sacred books of the Hindus.And since the books were supposed to have been written by the brahmins, the ire has got transferred against them i.e. the brahmins. Today the brahmins are the most despised group of people in the country getting the blame for everything that is wrong with it including the ascendance of Dr. Manmohan Singh as the prime minister. I think that the books such as the Garuda Purana are responsible for this kind of antipathy to a considerable extent. But the lesson should not be missed. Sins of forefathers do visit their sons and grandsons, otherwise, we the brahmins of today would not have to suffer for the deeds of our ancestors.But the fact that the people are still asking a brahmin to read the Garuda Purana, even today i.e. in 2012 christian era following the death of a member of their family speaks volumes about the vice-like grip that the religion has on our collective psyche.
In the book Lord Vishnu tells Garuda what happens to a person after he gets out of his mortal body.Sixteen chapters of the book describe in detail how the person is transmuted first in a being with dimensions of a hand and then with dimensionsof a thumb.The description of what he undergoes is a tale of unqualified terror.The reader is taken through paths paved with all kinds thorns, burning coal, boiling oil and incessant beatings. A normal middle class man who attaches far more value to the written word in general and the word of a scripture in particular, is bound to be filled with extreme terror when he is told what fate he is going to meet in the nether world.There is a detailed description of various kinds of sins and the punishment each of these sins entails There is a strong emphasis on doing good which generally means giving out liberally mostly to brahmins. It is enjoined upon the the person whose father has died and who is performing the rituals after his death for salvation of his soul that he should give so much to the brahmin conducting the ritual as would be sufficient to meet his needs for the entire year to come.
I think it is because of the Puranas such as the Garuda Purana that there is so much anger against the brahmins. When I , a brahmin myself, felt so strongly against the author of this book, it is easy to guess the amount of angst the non-brahmins are likely to have against it. And it is not against this book alone.It has become generic i.e.against all the so called sacred books of the Hindus.And since the books were supposed to have been written by the brahmins, the ire has got transferred against them i.e. the brahmins. Today the brahmins are the most despised group of people in the country getting the blame for everything that is wrong with it including the ascendance of Dr. Manmohan Singh as the prime minister. I think that the books such as the Garuda Purana are responsible for this kind of antipathy to a considerable extent. But the lesson should not be missed. Sins of forefathers do visit their sons and grandsons, otherwise, we the brahmins of today would not have to suffer for the deeds of our ancestors.But the fact that the people are still asking a brahmin to read the Garuda Purana, even today i.e. in 2012 christian era following the death of a member of their family speaks volumes about the vice-like grip that the religion has on our collective psyche.
No comments:
Post a Comment