The Purana – Samhita

THE PURANA – SAMHITAtc "THE PURANA – SAMHITA"

Vyasa’s eighteen Puranas have their origin in the Purana – Samhita,  the Aadi Purana, just as his four Vedas have their origin in the Aadima Veda.

Maha Rishis like Atri, Angirasa, Parasara knew the Purana – Samhita as evidenced by the Puranas. It is claimed for this Ancient Book that it unrolls a vast canvas of spiritual knowledge dealing with all branches of knowledge. It is like the autobiography of the universe in the words of Dr. Veda Vyas.

The Russian Yogini, Madame Blavatsky, after seeing this Aadi Purana, says in her book, The Secret Doctrine, that along the Altyn-Toga ridge in the Himalayas, there is a Monastery or Ashram with an old temple in a deep gorge. Here she came to know of the Aadi Purana as a collection of books that had long been preserved under the temple, kept in the custody of a Yogi.

There is adequate evidence to show that such an Ancient Book exists. Besides the evidence of Madame Blavatsky, there is the British astrologer and plamist, Cheiro, who saw it. He says in his autobiography that in the Himalayas this Book is kept guarded by a Yogi and that its pages are made of human skin. This Book, he says, enlightened him much in the field of astrology. The Russian Yogi, Gurdjieff, also saw it as he himself said.

The Purana – Samhita is much older than the Vedic age. Vyasa, in his Matsyapurana, says that there used to be such a book of Universal History. There are some great souls known as Paramaguruvulu or the Masters of Wisdom as Madame Blavatsky calls them. They have taken the responsibility of preserving this ancient book. Dr. Veda Vyas tells us that they have kept this book – it is still there – in the Himalayan ridges.

Madame Blavatsky says in her book, The Secret Doctrine, that this ancient book is the source of all the religions of the world. Many religious books were derived in times past from this ancient book, the collection of which is known as Kia-Ti. India’s Puranas, the Chaldean Book of Numbers and the Pentateuch are also derived from “this same parent volume”, the ancient book. That is the view of Madame Blavatsky.

As the Maha Rishis of the Vedic period did constant spiritual research to unmask the secrets of this universe, so too Vyasa, much earlier, at the beginning of the Kaliyuga, had pondered over the same questions. This is confirmed by the Aadi Parvam of the Mahabharat where he recounts the course of this creation.

It is not easy to discard the spiritual knowledge of the Purana – Samhita as a superstitious sediment of man’s thinking. In this modern age of scientific adventures into the secrets of space and the atom, is there any urgency or does it merit our serious attention to study or atleast to acquaint ourselves with this Ancient  Book?

One can find one’s own answer. None can convince our minds as they have their own resisting idiosyncrasies. But we must respect knowledge, scientific or spiritual, as both constitute our heritage.