Chapter 7

The Puranas and Hindu Worship Today

Present-day Hindu worship is based on the scriptures known as Puranas. Unlike the Vedas, they promote use of images, temple rituals, and pilgrimages to sacred places. Through such practices, worshipers seek God’s blessing in order to break free from the cycle of rebirth.

² “The Purāṇas have been called ‘the Veda of the common folk’, since they present much traditional and orthodox material through myth and legend, story and symbol,” notes Hindu World.¹ Although the Puranas are not generally accepted by orthodox Brahmans and reformers, they are popular among ordinary Hindus. Can they help you to worship God in truth? Consider what they teach.

Creation in the Puranas

³ Influenced by Vedic ideas, the compilers of the Vishnu Purana believed that the universe consisted of seven upper stories, with the earth at the bottom, and seven lower stories, inhabited by a half-human, half-serpent race.

⁴ In the Bhagavata Purana, the sun and moon are thought to revolve around the earth. The moon, because of a higher velocity, is said to overtake the sun during its orbit. The earth, resting on a cobra, is divided into continents that are separated by oceans of water, wine, and ghee.—Bhagavata Purana 5:16-22, 25.

The Search for God

⁵ The Puranas, like the Vedas and the Upanishads, continue the search for the true God. Although the sages adore many deities, they earnestly desire to know: “Which deity shall a devotee desiring liberation worship . . . ? Who is the god of gods?” What important questions these are!

⁶ In reply the Brahma Purana notes that although Brahma, Vishnu, or Siva are worshiped, the true Creator is someone else.² Confirming this point, Brahma states in the Bhagavata Purana that both he and Siva have yet to fathom the Creator’s nature.—Bhagavata Purana 2:6.

⁷ Without a revelation from God, however, it was not possible for the sages to know God. As a result, some worshipers came to imagine him to be a human, an animal, or even half-human, half-beast. The Bhagavata Purana describes Vishnu as a fish “of golden colour, having a horn, and a body extending over ten million Yojanas.”³ * The Vayu Purana portrays him as a dark-colored boar with a height of 4,000 miles [6,400 km].

⁸ The compilers of Puranic legends also imagined that the gods had human weaknesses. The Brahmavai Purana states that the wise do not worship Brahma because he was cursed for having committed a gross wrong.⁴ * Other Puranas describe Siva as “a bad provider [who] allowed his family to starve, while he himself indulged in opium and other drugs,” according to Hindu World.⁵

⁹ Disturbed by reports of one deity’s relationships with local milkmaids, a king in the Bhagavata Purana asks:  ‘How can the divine lord who was born to establish virtue and repress vice, practice its opposite, namely the corruption of other men’s wives?’⁷ To this the sage replies that if superior beings deviate from virtue, then it cannot be viewed as sin, just as blame cannot be attributed to fire if it consumes impure things.⁸

Methods of Worship

¹⁰ Puranic worship centers around carefully designed temples, or shrines. Their ground plans follow a mandala, which, according to Swami Harshananda, “is a geometric diagram with occult potentialities.”⁹ The temple’s most sacred object is the yantra, a gold plate with occult diagrams. In the past it was used by followers of Tantric sects who practiced the sexual rites depicted on the walls of great Hindu and Jain temples.

¹¹ Idols are bathed in water or milk by worshipers who hope to acquire wealth or good health. Then, according to the Brahmavai Purana, tilaks are applied to people’s foreheads to ensure the magical potency of rituals.¹⁰ Lamps are lit and flowers are offered to ward off evil spirits, as mantras are chanted in praise of deities or to seek their favor.

¹² The Skanda Purana traces the use of idols to a curse upon the gods by the goddess Parvati for their intrusion into her privacy. The Encyclopaedia of Puranic Beliefs and Practices states: “This seems to explain the [Hindu] practice of worshipping stone-blocks as gods, and also well carved out idols.”¹¹

What Will You Choose?

¹³ The Puranas are classed as Smriti by Hindus because these writings are not divinely inspired but are of human origin. So if we earnestly desire God to accept our worship and bless us, we must continue our search for Sruti. What guidance can gurus give us?

[Footnotes]

[Box on page 17]

How do the Puranas measure up to these criteria?

They should:

1. Magnify God and answer our questions about him

2. Teach true doctrines and morals

3. Be free from myths

4. Be free from demonism

5. Provide solutions for our problems and have a good effect on our lives

[Picture on page 16]

Hindu temple worship and religious festivals are based on the Puranas