Brahma Purana - A Concise Guide

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An extraordinary book that reveals how the themes and symbols of ancient narratives continue to bring meaning to birth, death, love, and war. The Power of Myth launched an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Joseph Campbell and his work. A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people—including Star Wars creator George Lucas. To Campbell, mythology was the “song of the universe, the music of the spheres.” With Bill Moyers, one of America’s most prominent journalists, as his thoughtful and engaging interviewer, The Power of Myth touches on subjects from modern marriage to virgin births, from Jesus to John Lennon, offering a brilliant combination of intelligence and wit. From stories of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome to traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, a broad array of themes are considered that together identify the universality of human experience across time and culture. An impeccable match of interviewer and subject, a timeless distillation of Campbell’s work, The Power of Myth continues to exert a profound influence on our culture.

Brahma Vaivartha Purana observes Bhagwan Krishna as the supreme Parabrahma. Brahma Vaivartha Purana is considered by many scholars as the source of things Krishna and equivalent to Bhagavatha Purana in its supremacy. Brahma Vaivartha Purana is structured as follows: Brahma Khanda Prakrithi Khanda Ganapathi Khanda Sri Krishna Janana Khanda Sri Krishna Janana Khanda covers the most detailed account of Sri Krishna as Parabrahma and Sri Krishna’s avatara leela on earth. In this part of the Purana, Krishna encounters Kamsa and releases people of Mathura from his tenure. Balarama and Krishna get their education from Rishi Garga, their shift to Dwarka as primary residence, Narration of Pradyumna, the fight with Banasura and the marriage of Usha and Aniruddha and finally concludes with Krishna Niryana and submersion of Dwarka

This book is the crowning achievement of the remarkable scholar D. Dennis Hudson, bringing together the results of a lifetime of interdisciplinary study of south Indian Hinduism. The book is a finely detailed examination of a virtually unstudied Tamil Hindu temple, the Vaikuntha Perumal (ca. 770 C.E.). Hudson offers a sustained reading of the temple as a coherent, organized, minutely conceptualized mandala. Its iconography and structure can be understood in the light of a ten-stanza poem by the Alvar poet Tirumangai, and of the Bhagavata Purana and other major religious texts, even as it in turn illuminates the meanings of those texts. Hudson takes the reader step by step on a tour of the temple, telling the stories suggested by each of the 56 sculpted panels and showing how their relationship to one another brings out layers of meaning. He correlates the stories with stages in the spiritual growth of the king through the complex rituals that formed a crucial dimension of the religion. The result is a tapestry of interpretation that brings to life the richness of spiritual understanding embodied in the temple. Hudson's underlying assumption is that the temple itself constitutes a summa theologica for the Pancharatra doctrines in the Bhagavata tradition centered on Krishna as it had developed through the eighth century. This tradition was already ancient and had spread widely across South Asia and into Southeast Asia. By interweaving history with artistic, liturgical, and textual interpretation, Hudson makes a remarkable contribution to our understanding of an Indian religious and cultural tradition.

When injustice threatens Dharma, the Lord himself will come to set things straight. But what if God himself violates Dharma? That is when Dhantasura crossed the threshold. He was a monster endowed with the abilities of every living thing. Dhantasura journeyed across boundaries and mental landscapes, moving from naiveté to wisdom as he developed his perceptual powers. Despite the gods, the politics, and the odds, he had to come to face the injustice head-on. He goes up against the potent deities, fully armed with his grief and desire for vengeance. Thrilling and fast-paced, Dhantasura - War of Justice against the Gods, Book 1 of the Dhantasura trilogy, sets the stage for the action of epic proportions.