Songs of Ramprasad

[Jagannath Chatterjee]

Dear Friends,

Here's another translation. Ravi, I have got your message. The translations
are from the book "Ramprasad, the melodious mystic" by Swami Budhananda. It
is published by the Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi.


O mind, you do not know how to farm!
Fallow lies the field of your life.
If you had only worked it well,
How rich a harvest you might reap!
Hedge it about with Kali's name
If you would keep your harvest safe;
this is the stoutest hedge of all,
For Death himself cannot come near it.

Sooner or later will dawn the day
When you must forfeit your precious field;
Gather, O mind, what fruit you may,
Sow for your seed the holy Name
Of God that your Guru has given to you,
Faithfully watering it with love;
And if you should find the task too hard
Call upon Ramprasad for help.


Ravi, due to servor error I am having to post from the website. So you
forward the mail to the site you want.

Regards
Jagannath

>From  Thu Dec 26 09:15:01 2002
Message-Id: <THU.26.DEC.2002.091501.0800.>
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2002 09:15:01 -0800
Reply-To: venky at oreka.com
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
From: "Venkatesh ." <venky at OREKA.COM>
Subject: Weekly page from Hindu Dharma: Upa-puranas and Others

This week's page from Hindu Dharma (see note at bottom) is "Upa-puranas and Others" from "Puranas". The original page can be found at http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part14/chap6.htm.

Next week, you will be emailed "Itihasas and Puranas" (from "Puranas")

Best regards
for kamakoti.org


Venkatesh
(this email is being sent on an automated basis)

Upa-puranas and Others
from Puranas, Hindu Dharma

      Apart from the 18 major Puranas there are an equal number of Upa-puranas. Among them are the Vinayaka Purana and the Kalki Purana. There are also, in addition, a number of minor Puranas. The Puranas that speak of the glory of various months such as the Tula Purana, the Magha Purana and the Vaisakha Purana are parts included into the 18 major Puranas or Upa-puranas. There are also what are called Sthala Puranas, some of them part of the Puranas mentioned above and some existing independently. The puranas that sing the glory of the Kaveri and the Ganga exist both separately and as part of the major Puranas or of the Upa-puranas. In the Tula Purana, for instance, the importance of the Kaveri is the theme. It mention how auspicious it is to bathe in that river in the month of Tula (October-November).

 If there are Puranas devoted to the deities there are also those dealing with devotees. The Tamil Periyapuranam tells the story of the 63 Saiva saints called Nayanmars. The same is available in the Sanskrit as Upamanyu Bhaktavilasa. Bhakta-Vijaya deals with poet-saints like Tukaram and Namadeva who were specially devoted to the deity Panduranga of Pandharpur.





Note:
Hindu Dharma is a translation of two volumes of the well known Tamil Book "Deivatthin Kural", which, in turn, is a book of 6 volumes that contains talks of His Holiness Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Mahaswamiji of Kanchipuram. The entire book is available online at http://www.kamakoti.org/ .