Part One : Introduction
1. Why I am reading the Garuda Purana?
2. Why am I doing a comparitive analysis between two famous authors?
3. The actual analysis of Garuda Purana from two perspectives explained in 3 parts.
I am a 40 year old woman without a child in a country which despite it's population explosion and pollution, still strongly believes in the 21st century that everyone born MUST have a child!
I started investigating where this belief comes from and why does almost everyone in India end up having a child. Whether they do anything useful at all with their lives or not, you will find most Indians atleast making a child, and that justifies their entire life in the Indian society.
My husband is a strong adherant of this belief system and leaves no opportunity to say things like- my soul will never find peace because I do not have a child who will do my shraddha and give me agni.
Like most other beliefs in India, I knew that this belief is born out of ignorance more than correct knowledge. I do not know anyone in my close or far circle who know anything at all about what our sacred texts say about such topics as death and what happens after death. And so I had to do my own research on this topic ( like I have to do in every other area of my life since nobody around seems to have bothered to really get to the source of anything at all. 99.99% of the population is operating on auto pilot mode set by some ancestor which they tweak a little to get by in life. )
Anyway, so I found out through some light research that there is something called 'atma-shraddha' where one who does not have a progeny or family who will do his shraddha can do his own shraddha before his death, or anytime during his lifetime and be stress-free about his journey after death. The details of all kinds of shraddha ceremonies and life of every kind of person after death are found in Garuda Purana.
And this is how I got interested in reading Garuda Purana!
In business, they say start with the end in mind. The exit strategy is as important as the first step you take towards your goals. Without a thuruoughly thought over exit strategy, your plan is a no-good plan.
But can we apply the same logic to life and death? Is this in our hands at all? Do we decide when we will be born and how we will die? It's all upto the destiny, it's all random ,isn't it?
One can argue on this point endlessly that everything in life is random or leave it up to something called destiny over which we have no control and say and believe there is no connection or meaning to anything.
I have tried living my life on this particular belief and it did not help me much. Humans are meaning seeking organisms. We need stories and education to base our life on. That is why all the brands who sell us their products , sell us their stories first. Take Apple for an example. Look at their ads and see what story they are selling.
Since I am a human being, I need some belief system to operate on. And after trying everything which is floating around the society (most of which is directly lifted up from the west and the minor parts are some hearsay from some ancestor) ,I have settled down on doing my own research of Indian ancient texts and scriptures to live my life by.
This is a longer route of course. I have been sitting at home for years, going from one book to the other, getting lost in several texts for several months at a time, not understanding where I am going....things take a bad turn when someone from this clueless society who especially is blindly on an auto pilot mode and feels he has made a successful life by making money starts asking me what exactly I am doing with my life?
It is difficult to explain to such person what exactly I am doing with my life, isn't it? Especially since he isn't even aware of his own beliefs by which he is living his life.
Ignorance is truly a bliss!
I have wished to be ignorant and roll back to my earlier version who would bounce from one drink to the next and make stupid decisions every moment of my life!
Because that was easy!
That was so easy!
I made the money, blew it up on vacations and alcohol, sometimes some drugs and shopping, and I was some weird form of happy that other people could resonate with because they were the same weird happy!
Now happiness is a different ball game altogether, and these old time folks who are still on weird happy feel I am depressed!
Anyway,
so I explore ancient scriptures and texts. And slowly and steadily, I am changing my lifestyle to align with what I am reading.
I am learning how to do the daily puja from Chinmaya International foundation, they also have fantastic online courses on Vedanta which I will be doing obviously along the way.
This reading of Garuda Purana , Mahabharata etc are light reading assignments on the side.
In the next post:
2. Why am I doing a comparitive analysis between two famous authors?
Notes:
1. Atma Shraddha - https://sanjeevkotnala.com/aatm-shradh-doing-shradh-of-self-while-alive/
No comments:
Post a Comment