1-Brahm Puraan,  2-Padm Puraan,  3-Vishnu Puraan,  4-Shiv Puraan,  5-Bhaagvat Puraan,
6-Naarad Puraan,  7-Maarkandeya Puraan,  8-Agni Puraan,  9-Bhavishya Puraan,
10-Brahm Vaivart Puraan,  11-Ling Puraan,  12-Varaah Puraan,  13-Skand Puraan,
14-Vaaman Puraan,  15-Koorm Puraan,  16-Matsya Puraan,  17-Garud Puraan,  18-Brahmaand Puraan
 

Shiv Rahasya

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While traveling through an orchard, a girl Auvaiyar noticed a Jamboo fruit tree. As everyone knows, Ganapati's favorite fruit is Jamboo. Thinking of this, she had an inkling to eat the fruit. She noticed a young boy perched on the tree. She asked him to give her some fruits. The young boy asked "Do you want hot Jamboo fruits or cold Jamboo fruits?" Auvaiyar was stuck, she did not know that there were two kinds of Jamboo fruits. She prayed to Lord Ganesh for help, but the "all intelligent one", the one who clears all obstacles refused to answer. When one does not know the answer, one should say so and not pretend that we know the answer, but, Auvaiyar did not want to admit defeat to a young boy, so, she pretended to know the answer and asked for "Cold fruit" and when the boy shook off some fruits and dropped them she picked up one ripe fruit and began to blow air over it to shake off the sand; it was then, the boy confronted her - " You asked for cold fruit. Why are you taking Hot Fruit and blowing air over it to make it cool? (Cold Fruit means ripe fruit and Hot Fruit unripe fruit). There are no Hot or Cold Jamboo fruits. There are only ripe and unripe Jamboo fruits." Auvaiyar immediately recognized that this was no ordinary boy who had come to teach her a lesson in humility. Then she sang a song in the honor of the boy, the boy revealed himself to be Lord Skand.

Kaarttikeya, said to her in his sweet voice - "Grandmother, I was just pulling your leg. I wanted to hear your voice and wisdom. I have four questions for you. Please answer them for the benefit of the world. What is hard? What is sweet? What is big? What is rare?" Auvaiyar replies to each of this in a long song. In short:

What is hard? - "Poverty is hard, harder still is poverty in young age, harder is a faithless spouse, and the hardest is to take food from a person who does not love you."

What is sweet? - "Solitude is sweet, sweeter is worship of Lord, sweeter than that is the company of the Guru and still sweeter is the abiding in the Self day and night."

What is big? - "Oh, the Lord with Vel (Divine weapon of Lord Skand), if you ask what is big, world is big. But the world was created by Brahmaa Jee. Brahmaa Jee was born from the navel of Vishnu. Vishnu sleeps in the ocean. The ocean was drunk by Agastya. Agastya was born from a pot. Pot is a small grain (in size) in this Earth, but this Earth is held by the serpent on his just one head like a mustard seed. But that serpent is a small ring in Umaa's finger. Umaa is only a part of Shiv, Shiv is in the heart of the devotee. So the greatness of the devotee is great to explain."

What is rare? - "Rare is the human birth, rarer still is the human birth interested in wisdom, still rarer is one who is interested in wisdom and possessed of charity and penance."