Stories from the Markandeya Purana by Purnaprajna Dasa

There are 18 major Puranas: Brahma, Padma, Visnu, Siva, Linga, Garuda, Narada, Bhagavata, Agni, Skanda, Bhavisya, Braham-vaivarta, Markandeya, Vamana, Varaha, Matsya, Kurma and Brahmanda Purana. Markandeya Purana consists of nice thousand verses. The Puranas are divided into 3 modes. There are Puranas in the mode of goodness, passion and ignorance. Markandeya Purana is meant for those in the mode of ignorance, but still it is full of interesting stories, that give us glimpse of bygone ages and it also provides explanations of why certain events occurred.

Markandeya Purana begins with the sage Jaimini asking 4 questions:"Why did Lord Vasudeva, the original creator, maintainer ans destroyer of the Universe, who is devoid of material qualities, assumed a humanlike form to descend upon the earth and engage in pastimes with His devotees? For what reason did Krsna, the daughter of King Drupada, become the common wife of the five Pandavas? How is it, that Lord Baladeva, the first expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, went on a tour of holy places of pilgrimage so as to become freed from the sin of killing a brahmana? And, how is it that Draupadi's five unmarried sons were killed after the great battle at Kuruksetra, as if they had no protector?" You will find the answers to these questions in this Purana.