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I would like to know how have those things happened as stated in the puranas. For example,

In Shiva Puranam, we talk about mother Parvathi's kalyanam (marriage). How did it take place? Did both Shiva and mother Parvathi take the shape of a humans like Lord Rama and Goddess Sita? Mother Parvathi is considered nature and Shiva is the energy which operates that. Now how can we imagine their marriage?

And how can I imagine Goddess Shakthi getting into fire and Lord Shiva removing the nose of Goddess Saraswati and punishing several other gods for not doing anything?

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    please could you provide reference for these stories, so that people can look into it and try to give you an interpretation :). Thanks!
    – Sai
    Nov 7, 2014 at 17:25

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The Puranas are Smriti they are not Sruti. The Puranas are first meant to teach us lessons, whether you accept them as historically true is unimportant. If they conflict with Sruti they should be rejected. Smriti was written by man, Sruti by God. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said: "The one thing you need to do is realize God. Why do you bother so much about the world, creation, 'science', and all that? Your business is to eat mangoes. What need have you know how many hundreds of trees there are in the orchard, how many thousands of branches, and how many millions of of leaves? You have to come to the garden to eat mangoes. Go and eat them. Man is born in this world to realize God; it is not good to forget that and divert the mind to other things. You have come to eat mangoes. Eat the mangoes and be happy."

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  • @Swamiji, do you want to say that we should just pray god and should not try to explore about them. If yes then I don't agree with you. When you are dedicated to a someone, you are interested in getting to everything about that someone. So, similar is the case here. Secondly, even if you are not dedicated then also knowing more about the gods will just encourage the people to getting more inclined in God. These communities are a kind of 'Shastrarth', where we are actually trying to find the real meanings of the texts as compared to what is being interpreted till now.
    – Aby
    Nov 28, 2014 at 8:03
  • @Aby 'Lectures are for the learned not for liberation'-Sankaracharya. Studying scriptures is ok for some, and not for others. All paths are different. There are many interpretations to the scriptures- all can lead you to God. Find out from your guru what is your path. Your guru can tell by looking at your face what is your path. Trying to interpret the scriptures without your guru is the blind leading the blind, and both fall into the ditch. If communities lead you to the path to learn love of God, they are good; if only useless facts, they are evil. It is how you individually use it.
    – Swami Vishwananda
    Nov 28, 2014 at 11:23
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If you have read Shiv Purana, you must have got your answer. There are stories in the book that says that Shiv is present in both physical form (kind of human form that lives on Kailash parvat) and the other form is the invisible form having no shape, etc. Similar are the forms of Shakti as well. The stories of marriage, death, etc are related with the physical form.

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