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SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA.


--- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Sankarkumar" <Ommuruga41@xxxx> wrote:
>
>
> "In Bhagavatam in the description of varshas, all avatars of Lord
> are mentioned. But why do the avatars not parallel the varshas. The
> avatars seem to go all over, especially in the 5th conto.. Even in
> entire Bhagavatam the avatars are all over the place. There must be
> some significant meaning for this. Will you pl. explain to me?
> thanks"
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The description in Canto 5 is comparable to the 5 land forms of
ancient Tamils, each having a specific God for worship.

 The description is about worship in varshas or countries, that  were
parts of larger landmass or islands or Dweepas which were 5 in
number. As how we find worship of different gods in different places,
so too in these varshas. Each varsha had a specific following as a
result of which each varsha had  a specific moorthy (or avatara or
form of Vishnu) for meditation and worship.

This can be substantiated by cross reference to description of these
varshas found in Bheeshma parvam, 6 th & 7th chapters. (Mahabharatham)

 The varshas described in this parvam are about the land forms that
existed prior to the onset of kali yuga, or in other words, about 5000
years ago. The 5 th canto of Srimad Bhagavatham expresses the kind of
worship that were followed in those lands. This is not about any
specific avatara, but about the predominance of a particular God as
goal of worship in those days and in those varshas.

The Gods that have been predominantly meditated upon were naturally
the avatars that have happened before Krishnavatara and other forms of
Sriman Narayana.

Let me tabulate what has been given in this chapter.

(1) BhadrAshva varsha > Hayagreeva or Dharma.

(2) Hari varsha > Narasimha.

(3) KetumAla varsha > Hrishikesha.

(4) HiraNmaya varsha > kUrma

(5) Uttara kuru varsha > VarAha

(6) Kimpurusha varsha > Rama.

(7) Bharatha varsha > Narayana.

From this  the following insights  emerge.

Ø       Not all varshas have  been covered. Not necessarily. The description
of these is related by SUta in the context of what is Truth, what is
spiritual Truth and what people did to follow the Truth. As a matter
of giving examples, the sage is  expressing how the people of
different varshas have  been singing His praise in the way that has
been  peculiar to their lands. One instance is Hari varsha. This  is a
place having the descendants of Prahlaadha. Naturally they were the
worshippers of Lord Nrusimha. If we go by the nature of these varshas,
( some clues emerge from Sanjaya's description in Bheeshma parvam)
there is nothing surprising about the way a particular God has gained
prominence in a particular varsha. We will elaborate further  in this
mail.

Ø       The avatars till Rama have  been worshipped, probably with the
exception of Vamana. But it doesn't mean that Vamana was not
worshipped. What is mentioned in Bahgavatham here, is only a random
sample of who worshipped whom. There are many other varshas left out
of this description and the land connected with Vamana avatara must
have been having Vamana as the presiding God.


Ø       Here let me tell what I understand about how gods had been
everywhere. One interesting information we find in Vamana purana is
that Prahladha went to a temple of Vamana, to worship Him. The
location seems to be somewhere in the southern bank of  the river
Ganga. The sage who is hearing this from another, asks how could
Prahlaadha  had worshipped Vamana whose avatar has not yet taken
place. It was replied that the Lord had taken the Vamana avataras many
times in the past (before humbling Bali) and this temple is of Vamana
in one such avatara.

Ø       The probability of all the 10 avataras occurring in every mini-yuga
cycle of 28,800 years which constitutes one revolution around the
saptha rishi mandala has been discussed in my series on Rama's date
archived at raamabhakthi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  bringing out  justification
/ evidence to show  that many  rounds of avataras have happened in one
Maha yuga of 43,20,000 years and to be precise, 150 rounds of 10
avataras each in the Maha yuga of 4 yugas and 15 rounds of 10 avatars
in Kali Maha yuga alone. Added to this is the Manvantras. There must
have been pretty many times that the avatars have taken place than
what we think. A deeper look into related smrithi texts give this
picture. This can be corroborated by geological and archeological
evidence too.


Ø       A rationale for why all avatars are at all places –sometimes jumbled
in order – can also be  substantiated from chapter 10 of Gita, where
Bahgavan identifies Himself with many beings. The names of those
beings are jumbled, i.e., from different manvantras as not one of them
can be identified along with the other of the same group from the same
purana. Different puranas give their names differently. In other words
you will find the names of maruts, sadhyas,  rishis etc from different
manvanthras, running all over this chapter. The reason may be to show
how He has been through - across all times, at all Ages.

Now a detailed account on varshas and their Lords.

The chapters mentioned above give detailed report on varshas and
dweepas, as seen by Sanjaya upon gaining Divine vision to see the War.
Before training his vision to the war field, he looks around the
world, obliging the request by Dhritharaashtra. Anyone working on
landforms in ancient world, can take up a study of these chapters and
the subsequent ones to arrive at a precise picture of lands, the
people and their culture.

One can see then that the entire landmass was brimming with sanatana
dharma. Everywhere there was worship of Vishnu's different forms
Infact the Bharata varsha was the  only place among those other places
where rajas and tamas were predominant. Sanjaya expresses this in
detail in the next chapter after finishing the description of the
landmass. It seems (from a reading of these chapters) that all the
avatars have taken place in bharata varsha, because there was no need
for Bahgawan to take avatars to establish Dharma at other places as
those places were full of dharmic people!

The Meru running east to west and south to north was central to all
existence. That the sun and the heavens revolved around it shows that
this formed the axis or central part from which directions were
calculated. (A similar version on how the celestial longitude was
calculated somewhere to the east of the Greenwich has been detailed in
'da vinci code' by Dan Brown. His version is substantiated by many
undeniable authentic sources from very ancient civilizations.). In my
reasoning this is somewhere on the line passing through Tanzania where
there is a volcano called Meru with a rivulet called jambhoo passing
down on its side. This area is closer to the Equator.

It will be evident from a close study of the texts of Indian Astronomy
that Latin America was known to ancient Indians, who called it
Pataladesa. The Surya Siddhanta, a textbook of Astronomy, composed
before 500 A.D. identifies and describes Patala desa in very clear and
definite terms in the chapter of geography (chapter xii). This area is
just on the other side of Bharata varsha in the globe. This coincides
with the west course of South America.

One interesting connection that comes to my mind is that Bali who was
humbled and sent to Patala would become the Indra of the next
manvanthra. From purans we get the description of what happens after
manvanthra – pralaya. After 100 suns (100 years of scorching the land
by sun), it would rain for 100 years when all life forms would perish.
But some able bodied ones would survive and migrate to another planet.
Once situation becomes normal, these people (descendants of these
people) would return to earth and start new races.

Since Bali is said to be the next Indra and since Surya Sidhanta
identifies the land at the other side of the globe as Patala, a
curious thought comes whether the descendants of the people there (of
Bali) are the ones mentioned in Puranas (particularly Linga purana) as
continuing (or initiating) their progeny in the next manvanthra. The
talk prevalence of once ancient wisdom in this region (particularly
Peru) adds sap to this thought.


Coming to the topic, there are many clues that all the varshas were
part of a great humanity of sanatana dharma and rishis of yore had a
very good knowledge of them.

To quote an example here, Lieutenant Speake, when planning his
discovery of the source of the Nile, secured his best information from
a map reconstructed out of Puranas. (Journal, pp. 27, 77, 216;
Wilford, in Asiatic Researches, III).
It traced the course of the river, the "Great Krishna," through
Kusha-dvipa, from a great lake in Chandristhan, "Country of the Moon,"
which it gave the correct position in relation to the Zanzibar
islands. The name was from the native Unya-muezi, having the same
meaning; and the map correctly mentioned another native name, Amara,
applied to the district bordering Lake Victoria Nyanza.


"All our previous information," says Speake, "concerning the
hydrography of these regions, originated with the ancient Hindus." The
ancient history is now completely buried with the re-naming of the
lake as Lake Victoria.


Another  notable feature emerging from this is the meaning of
Kusha-dweepa. Kusha means dharbhai and Kusha dweepa is a land of
darbhai (the grass lands of Africa) Each dweepa had acquired its name
from the predominant tree or plant in that area (like the jambhoo
dweepa where India is, was once full of Jambhoo (naaval maram) trees)

This Kusha –dweepa was the biggest of all dweepas, as per the
description of Sanjaya. This land was known to have many medicinal
plants.


Coming to our discussion on varshas, it seems that it is here in
Kusha-dweepa, Ketu mAla varsha was located. Sanjaya says that the
people of this varsha are black in colour and strong in body! The land
north of this varsha had people who were white in complexion. That was
Shwetha varsha, says Sanjaya. Sage Narada was said to be belonging to
Shwetha varsha.

It is  in KetumAla,  Kubera spent his time, as per Sanjaya's
description. The people of this land worshipped Hrishikesha (5th
chapter of Bhagavatham), the One who has controlled all Indriyas or
who controls all indriyas. The prevalence of kusha grass goes with
japa or meditation. One reasoning we draw here is that the people of
KetumAla were all the time engaged in mediation by controlling their
indriyas and concentrating on Hrishikeshan. (This is  about one of the
varshas mentioned in Bhagavatham, numbered 3 in the list furnished
above, based on the order it appears in Bhagavatham.)

From the hymn mentioned in Bhagavatham it is also known that this was
a land where Lakshmi and her attendants worshipped Hrishikesha.
Connecting this with Kubera's residence here, we can understand that
this land was a land of prosperity.

We have another information from Surya Siddhanta, about the four great
cities situated on the opposite ends of the world, equidistant from
one another. 1. Yamakotipura in BhadrAshva varsha  in the east, Lanka
in BhArat varsha  in the south and 3. Romak in KetumAlavarsa  in the
west and Siddhapura in Kuruvarsha  in the north.


The celebrated astronomer Bhaskaracarya mentions the time difference
between the important cities situated in different parts of the world
in his Siddhanta Siromani (Goladhyaya) thus:
" When the sun rises at Lanka, the time as at Yamakotipura to the east
of Lanka, will be midday. Below the earth at Siddhapura, it will be
twilight then, and at Romakadesa, the time will be midnight."

If one tries to decipher this, YamakOti pura is somewhere in the
pacific 180 degrees E. This could have  been  part of  Indonesian or
Japanese island groups which could have drifted to their present
location. Please browse www.a tributetohinduism.com to know how these
areas have had sanatana dharma culture since time immemorial. Japan
has some old inscriptions in Sanskrit older than any found in India.

This YamakOti pura in BhadrAshva varsha worshipped Hayagreeva or
Dharma as their object of concentration. (1st in the list) The hymn on
this in Srimad Bhavatham extols the way Vedas were restored and Dharma
established. Yama is known as Dharma devata known for his impartiality
between good and evil. It is inferred that this land in those days
must have had the connection with the story of restoration Vedas.

Let me go through the other ones in quick (!?) succession. (May God
give me the power to write in brief instead of this kind of lengthy
mails)

The second is Hari varsha, where it is mentioned in Bhagavatham that
Prahalladha and his followers worshipped Lord Nrusimha.

Then comes Ramyaka, Hiranmaya and uttara-kuru, worshipping Matsya,
Kurma and Varaha respectively.
Uttara kuru is described as north of Hymavada. This seems to be beyond
the northern limits of Himalayas. If this is so, the description will
become logical with the so-far available archeological and geological
evidence we have. There was a sea or water body before Himalayas
lifted up. Fossils of marine life are found at the top of Himalayas.
The once sea area which had now become a land could have become
Ramyaka worshipping Matsya.

The Hiranmaya had been the anchor for this elevation of mountains.
Therefore Kurma became their Lord. Further north Uttara kuru was the
land uplifted and therefore had Varaha as their Lord . This area is
likely to be Russia or Siberia and the name kuru in the names of
Russians (like Kuruschev) is an interesting point to ponder.

The 3 avataras mentioned in the above 3 lands is about the mini yuga
avatars coinciding with the elevation of the Himalayas. In every round
of mini-yuga, these avatars are happening though the initial ones had
taken place in satya maha yuga in the distance past. What we say in
sankalpa, as shweta varaha is about the avatara at Maha yuga scale.
The time period coincides with the birth of land forms on the surface
of the earth about 3-4 billion years ago.


The description is related to the sequences of land as these from
Nepal upwards North as found in Sanjaya's words. From the description
of the lands nearby, it seems Nepal was the  Kimpurusha varsha, where
Sita's birth place was situated. Therefore the inhabitants of that
land worshipped Rama. It is worthy to recall here that Ayodhya was
deserted after Rama's departure (refer Kalidasa's Raghu vamsam), and
came back to some life and activity about 1000 years ago. But worship
of Rama had remained alive in Kimpurusha.

The bharatha varsha had Sriman Narayana  as their Lord, as it was here
He was born to establish Dharma. As per Sanjaya's description, the
people of other  varshas were the ones  who have slipped from their
Achaara in their heavenly abodes and were born in those lands to shed
their karma. They led an ascetic or devotional life and left  for
their former abodes once the time  period was over. There was no
report of acrimony and chaos in those lands as were found in Bharatha
varsha. This shows why avatars have happened in Bharatha varsha - to
establish Dharma.

The worship of different forms of God in these varshas can  be thus
explained.

Regards,
jayasree saranathan


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Azhvar EmberumAnAr JeeyAr ThiruvadigalE Saranam 
http://www.vedics.net

 
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