'Saptapadi' or 'Saat Phere'

"Seven steps"

The word, Saptapadi means "Seven steps". The tradition of taking 7 steps around the fire or 'Saptapadi' or 'Saat Phere' is an important rite of any Hindu Marriage Ceremony, irrespective of the region. In this rite the bride and groom are symbolically brought together through the marriage knot and then asked to  circumambulate a (sacred) fire or the Agnideva 7 times reciting specific vows which represent everything from nourishment, strength, hapiness to progeny, long life, harmony & understanding. After taking these 7 sacred rounds or 7 life-changing steps and exchanging the vows; the couple agrees to be companions forever. But, how many of us really know the significance of the 7 steps – why the 7 rounds around the fire are important in marriage? According to Sanskrit Saptha means - 7 and then what does padhi mean? 7 steps with 10 different meanings is collectively called Saptha padhi. Here is the meaning of the seven different things and the relative importance in life of the married couple.

1.    7 Kama" (lust), "Lobha" (greed), "Kroda" (anger), "Moha" (anxiety), "Mada" (conceit) and "Matsarya" (envy), "Ahankara"(pride).- By leaving all these 7 evils behind both the bride and bridegroom promise not leave each other.

2.    7 colours of the rainbow – VIBGYOR

·         Violet – Sweetness.

·         Indigo - peace full like night.

·         Blue - pleasent as morning sky.

·         Green - healthy

·         Yellow -  Generally In Hinduism yellow is symbol of auspicious and good things.

·         Orange - Kashayam  in Hindusim is mostly worn when they enter to lords place which is considered to be true color to devotion.

·         Red- Kumkum – it’s not danger, but like spice; adds taste to life have a meaning for the life.

Life is common with problems. Even in any of the 7 experiences of life they would walk together and yet, treasure the colourful life.

3.    7  directions of the path – with 8 directions, the mention is for 7 only because despite there being 8 directions but in our life, we must pray and hope that we never get a chance to go in backward direction and hence, it’s only the 7 directions we need to choose and keep going forward.

4.    7 Saptha rushi- During the re-incarnation of the world; only [7] Saptha rushis were alive and saved by lord Vishnu. Hence, they form the base for knowledge. Bowing to them would propel one forward by obeying the Vedas written by them.

5.    7 Sapth Graha - not including the moon and sun which are included as Navagraha in Hinduism. Why so? We can get blessings of sun and moon by bowing to them directly. But for the remaining 7, one needs to get blessings symbolically by one step for each of them.

6.    7 Days of the week – this is symbolic of the fact that the couple would be with each other; all the time and in all kinds of situation extending support to each other to lead a happy life.

7.    7 to be immersed in all the 7 worlds. The seven lokas, may be briefly described as:

·         Bhûhû - earth, the physical world

·         Bhuvaha - astral/desire/breath, the world of becoming

·         Suvaha - mental, the world of thinking

·         Mahaha - causal, silent mind, the world of emotion

·         Janaha - world of creative generation

·         Tapaha - world of intuition

·         Satyam - world of absolute truth

8.    7 Notes of the music- The way the 7 notes of the music make great tunes; similarly, the couple should strike a musical cord through the ups and downs of life for a wonderful and pleasant life of togetherness.

9.    7 Lives - why the 7 lives and why not 8 lives live together? For this, a small story should be recollected of Jaya and Vijaya Dwara [palakas of the Lord Vishnu] - When they were cursed by Rishis to take birth on Earth. As Jaya and Vijaya plead, asking the way to redemption and for getting back to Vaikuntam, Lord Vishnu Says - "you should either take birth for 7 livs as a devotee and follow all ashram dharmas to reach me  OR take 3 lives as demon and keep chanting my name to get killed by me and come back". So, as Lord Vishnu said, 7 lives are needed to reach him by following all the Ashrams of life. For all the 7 lives, the prayer is to seek the same life partner to complete and reach lord successfully.

10. 7 final - Give respect to each other. Uphold the good name of both the families that can be remembered for at least 7 generations. In earlier times, it was common for families to harbour 6 to 7 generations, since marriages were early and life span was more).

My understanding of the Puranas

• The Puranas (Sanskrit: purāṇa, "of ancient times") are ancient Hindu texts eulogizing various deities and are supplementary explanations of the Vedas through divine stories. Vyasa, the narrator of the Mahabharata, is traditionally considered the compiler of the Puranas.
• All the Puranas belong to the class of 'Suhrit-Samhitas,' or friendly treatises, markedly differing in authority from the Vedas, which are called the 'Prabhu-Samhitas' or the commanding treatises.
• The Puranas have the essence of the Vedas and were written to popularize the thoughts contained in the Vedas. They were meant, not for the scholars, but for the ordinary people who could hardly fathom the high philosophy of the Vedas. The Vedas and Puranas are one and the same in purpose. They ascertain the Absolute Truth, which is greater than everything else. The aim of the Puranas is to impress upon the minds of the masses the teachings of the Vedas and to generate in them devotion to God, through concrete examples, myths, stories, legends, lives of saints, kings and great men, allegories and chronicles of great historical events.
• The Puranas are mainly written in the form of a dialogue in which one narrator relates a story in reply to the inquiries of another.
• Puranas usually give prominence to a particular deity, employing an abundance of religious and philosophical concepts and are usually written in the form of stories related by one person to another. The Puranas are distinguished as Maha-puranas and Upa-puranas, both being 18 in number. Srimad Bhagavata and Varaha-purana are considered the Maha-puranas.
• The MahaPuranas are frequently classified according to the Trimurti (Trinity or the 3 aspects of the divine intended) but as all men are not equal, the Padma Purana classifies the puranas for the 3 types of men, in accordance with their 3 gunas or qualities of Sattva (Truth and Purity), Rajas (Dimness and Passion) and Tamas (Darkness and Ignorance) into sattvik ,rajasic and tamasic puranas, each consisting of 6 puranas.
• Of the 18 major texts,

1. 6 are Sattvic Puranas glorifying Vishnu;
2. 6 are Rajasic and glorifying Brahma; and
3. 6 are Tamasic and they glorifying Shiva.

They are categorized serially in the following list of Puranas:

Bhagavat Purana	18,000 verses	the most celebrated and popular of the Puranas, describing Vishnu's ten Avatars. Its tenth and longest canto narrates the deeds of Krishna, introducing his childhood exploits, a theme later elaborated by many Bhakti movements.
Vishnu Purana	23,000 verses	Describes the many deeds of Vishnu and various ways to worship him.
Naradiya Purana	25,000 verses	Describes the greatness of Vedas and Vedangas.
Garuda Purana	19,000 verses	Describes death and its aftermaths.
Padma Purana	5 5,000 verses	Describes the greatness of Bhagavad Gita. Hence, it is also known as gītāmāhātmya (the majesty of Gita).
Varaha Purana	24,000 verses	Describes various forms prayer and devotional observances to Vishnu. Many illustrations also involve Shiva & Durga.
Brahma Purana	10,000 verses	Describes the Godavari and its tributaries.
Brahmanda Purana	12,000 verses	Includes Lalita Sahasranamam, a text some Hindus recite as prayer.
Brahma-Vaivarta Purana	17,000 verses	Describes ways to worship Devis, Krishna and Ganesha.
Markandeya Purana	09,000 verses	The Devi Mahatmya, an important text for the Shaktas, is embedded in it.
Bhavishya Purana		Signifies a work that contains prophecies regarding the future.
Vamana Purana	10,000 verses	Describes areas around Kurukshetra in North India.
Matsya Purana	14,000 verses	Narrates the story of Matsya, the first of ten major Avatars of Vishnu. It also contains genealogical details of various dynasties. Narrates the story of Matsya, the first of ten major Avatars of Vishnu. It also contains genealogical details of various dynasties.
Kurma Purana	17,000 verses	Is the second of ten major avatar of Lord Vishnu.
Linga Purana	11,000 verses	Describes the magnificence of Lingam, symbol of Shiva & origin of the universe. It also contains many stories of Lingam one of which entails how Agni Lingam solved dispute between Vishnu & Brahma.
Shiva Purana	24,000 verses	Describes the greatness of Shiva, worthiness in worshiping Shiva and other stories about him.
Skanda Purana	81,100 verses	Describes the birth of Skanda (or Karthikeya), first son of Shiva. The longest Purana, it is an extraordinarily meticulous pilgrimage guide, containing geographical locations of pilgrimage centers in India, with related legends, parables, hymns and stories. Many untraced quotes are attributed to this text.
Agni Purana	15,400 verses	Contains details of Vastu Shastra and Gemology

• Foremost among the many Puranas are the Srimad Bhagavata Purana and the Vishnu Purana. In popularity, they follow the same order. A portion of the Markandeya Purana is well known to all Hindus as Chandi, or Devimahatmya. Worship of God as the Divine Mother is its theme. The list of 18 puranas is sometimes enlarged to 20, to include the Vayu Purana and the Harivamsa = 16,000 verses and is considered to be itihāsa (epic poetry).
• The topics that form the subject matter of a Maha-purana are primary creation, secondary creation, means of sustenance, protection including Incarnations, epoch of Manus, genealogy of royal and priestly lines from Bhahma down, dynastic history of distinguished emperors, dissolution, purpose of all creative activity and ultimate support or the substratum.
• Of the ten subjects, the last one, the Supreme Being Who is the final stay of all, and to which man's devotion is to be unconditional and total, forms the one theme with which the Bhagavata is primarily concerned. All other subjects are subordinated to it. The object is to bring man into an adequate conception of His excellences and to generate in him unconditioned devotion to the Lord.
• As for Varaha-purana, it deals mainly with primary creation and secondary creation. It is full of religious and theological matters and glorification of the gods, mainly Visnu.
• The Pauranikas say that their accounts are traditions based on the intuition, inspiration and revelation that have come to wise and realized sages.
• The immortal works of literature and art that have survived several centuries are always considered the works of intuition, inspiration and revelation. On the other hand, rationalists contend that the contents of the Puranas are either imaginary or absurd and do not have historical validity.

Prayers - why do I?

There have been several occasions in my life when I have been asked 2 questions –

1. What is the need for prayers or prarthana?
2. Why do I pray?

Out of curiosity, I did a short introspection and here are my findings. Most major religions in the world involve prayer in one way or another in their rituals. Prayer is considered to be an integral part of the Hindu way of living. The Gita and the Vedas play a vital role in Hinduism in the rituals of prayers. The chanting of mantras is the most popular form of praying in Hinduism. The word ‘Prarthana (prayer) is derived from 2 words - ‘pra’ & ‘artha’ meaning pleading fervently.

• In other words, Prayer includes respect, love, pleading and faith and involves asking The Lord for something with intense yearning. 
• The words used in prayer may take the form of intercession, a hymn, chanting words of gratitude, or a spontaneous utterance in the person’s praying words.
• Praying is done in public, as a group, or in private and has different forms which include prayers reflecting praise, requesting guidance or assistance, confessing sins or an expression of one’s thoughts and emotions.

In addition to these conclusions, I wish to offer my own thoughts on why I pray:

1. Prayer is my first resort rather than my last resort to ensure God always guides me, not by preventing problems for me but by providing solutions for the problems constantly.
2. Through a prayer I wish I succeed in expressing my helplessness and thus endow the task for help to God.
3. I pray for wisdom and guidance through the maze of life that is always sidetracked with a lot of distractions and diversions. 
4. I pray to build bonds with Him in good times rather than run to Him only as bad times.
5. I pray so that I get to know God better and request for an altruistic relationship with all.
6. I pray to ask for strength to overcome trying times. 
7. I pray because when there is no crutch, prayers offer me solace and the belief that my words for help will be heeded.
8. Another reason for me to pray is for the purpose of repentance.
9. Praying permits me to seek God's help the purpose of my life. I think one of the most important purposes of prayer is to bring my will into synchronized correspondence with God’s will.
10. After all, hope keeps the world alive. My hopes lie in the strength of my prayers in the language that I do not understand but which I find pleasing to my ears – Sanskrit.

The Bhagavata Purana [Srimad Bhagavatam] - What, why & how?

The Bhagavata Purana [Srimad Bhagavatam] - What? why and how?

“The Srimad Bhagavatam is the very essence of all the Vedanta literature. One who has enjoyed the nectar of its rasa never has any desire for anything else."

• The Bhagavata Purana also known as Srimad Bhagavatam or Bhagavata, literally meaning Divine-Eternal tales of Supreme God) is one of the maha (prefix meaning great) Puranic texts of Hinduism, with its focus on bhakti (religious devotion) to Supreme God Vishnu (Narayana), primarily focusing on Krishna. 
• The Bhagavata is a product of oral tradition, its extant version usually dated between 4th or 10th century CE and Sage Veda Vyasa is accredited for being the author of Bhagavata Purana. 
• The Bhagavata Purana includes many stories well known in Hinduism, including the various avatars of Vishnu and the life and pastimes of his complete incarnation, Krishna. 
• The Bhagavata is widely recognized as the best known and most influential of the Puranas, & is at times referred to as the "5th Veda" along with itihasa + other puranas. 
• The Bhagavata is unique in Indian religious literature; and is primarily a bhakti text, with an emphasis emphasis on the practice of bhakti and achieving moksha through cultivating a personal relationship with Vishnu in the form of Krishna, compared to the more theoretical bhakti of the Bhagavad Gita. In fact, the Padma Purana categorizes Bhagavata Purana as a Sattva Purana (Purana which represents goodness and purity).
• The Bhagavata teaches that simply following Vedic injunctions that do not produce devotion towards God, is of transitory benefit and so is considered to be fruitless labour The Bhagavata extends the concept of dharma that had previously been regarded either as the duty to follow Vedic injunctions, as a moral code that emphasizes ahimsa (non-injury), and satya (truthfullness), into the idea of self-realization through yoga. While classical yoga attempts to shut down the mind and senses, the Bhakti Yoga in the Bhagavata teaches that the focus of the mind is transformed by filling the mind with thoughts of Krishna. The Bhagavata also considers dharma to consist of sincere worship and devotion towards God without any ulterior motive.
• The Bhagavata Purana is considered to be the purest and greatest of all the puranas since it invokes intense devotion and personal bhakti toward Krishna as Lord Vishnu and his various incarnations in human form but primarily focusing on Krishna since he was the complete incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
• The Bhagavata Purana declares Lord Vishnu (Narayana) as Param Brahman  or Supreme Lord who creates unlimited universes and enters each one of them as Lord of Universe. 
• The Bhagavata Purana truly reveals the means for becoming free from all material work, together with the processes of pure transcendental knowledge, renunciation and devotion to Lord Vishnu and anyone who seriously tries to understand, hears and chants the verses of the Bhagavata Purana with devotion to Lord Vishnu, becomes completely liberated from material bondage and attains moksha or liberation from the cycle of births and deaths in the material world.
• Lord Vishnu engages in creation of 14 worlds within the universe as Brahma when he deliberately accepts rajas guna. Lord Vishnu himself sustains, maintains and preserves the universe as Vishnu when he accepts sattva guna and annihilates the universe at the end of maha-kalpa as Shiva or Rudra when he accepts tamas guna.
• The tenth book (or canto), which is dedicated to Krishna, takes up about one quarter of the entire Bhagavata. It includes the most comprehensive collection of stories about the life of Krishna, showing him in all the stages and conditions of human life. It also includes instruction in the practice of bhakti, an analysis of bhakti, and descriptions of the different types of bhakti. 
• Many Vaishnavas consider Srimad Bhagvatam to be non-different from Krishna and to be the literary form of Krishna. In fact, the Bhagavata, along with the Bhagavad Gita, are the main sources of scriptural authority used by Vaishnavas for demonstrating the devotion to Hari.
• The Bhagavata is a recounting of events by the storyteller Ugrasrava Sauti (Sūta) to Shaunaka and other sages assembled in the Naimisha Forest. 
• As a composer, Veda Vyasa re-edited the vedas which was a single unit into 4 units - Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva, so that the four kinds of officiating priests may perform and the vedas do not disappear. 
• Vyasa also wrote Mahabharata for the people who were debarred from studying vedas to understand Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha principles. 
• As Sūta explains, Veda Vyasa was still very dissatisfied, even after he made divine knowledge available to humans by writing the Vedas and the Mahabharata.
• As he was contemplating the source of his distress in the banks of river Saraswati, Sage Narada arrived and Vyasa Maharshi confesses that he was unhappy and that he does not feel any joy or satisfaction within himself. He asks Sage Narada for advice. 
• Narada asks Veda Vyasa to create an epic (divine sacred text) which would describe the unsullied glory of Lord Vasudeva (Vishnu) and sing the glory of the Omnipresent Hari since it is only devotion which would please the Lord and nothing else. Agreeing to which, thereupon, Vyasa wrote Bhagavata Purana and attained perfect peace of mind
• Sūta recounts this Bhagavata in the form of a story recounting Vyasa's work being recited for the first time by his son Shuka to the dying King Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna, who owes his life to Krishna first recital of Vyasa's work, given by Vyasa's son Shuka to King. Parikshit is the son of Abhimanyu and Krishna protected him in his mother's womb from the Brahmastra weapon of Ashwatthama.
• Parikshit had angered a rishi's son for being disrespectful to the rishi's father. He was cursed to be bitten by a poisonous snake and had only 7 days to live. 
• Fasting by the banks of the Ganges River, and with Krishna no longer alive, Parikshit longed to hear of him. Longing to hear of Krishna before he dies, Parikshit hears the Bhagavata recited by Shuka, including questions by the king and replies by the sage, over the course of 7 days.
• The Bhāgavata introduces the life of Parikshit as background, thus bringing Krishna into the story, and is presented as part of Shuka's recital over the course of 7 days. Shuka tells Parikishit that when one is about to die, they should become free of the fear of death and let go of all attachments to pleasure, home, and family. They should control the breath and mind and concentrate on the sacred Aum. The development of yoga and bhakti, different types of dharana, the nature of Bhagavan, and the liberation of a yogi upon his death are also explained by Shuka. In response to Parikshit's questions, Shuka describes creation and the avatars of Vishnu, concluding with a description of the ten characteristics of a Purana.
• It concludes with Shuka asking Parikshit the standard, "What more do you want?" Completely satisfied with what he has heard and his purpose in life fulfilled, Parikshit dies.
• The Narayaneeyam is a condensed Sanskrit version of Srimad Bhagavatam composed by Melpathur Bhattathiri of Kerala in 1586.