Hare Krishna
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada
Dandwat Pranam
What do signs on feet of Lord mean and if someone has more auspicious symbols on their feet are they more God like Sri Rama had 22 symbols on his feet where Sri Krishna and Radha Rani have 19 symbols respectively why Sri Rama has more symbols on his feet and does Brahma Vaivarta Puran have indecent content and is it reliable and authentic pls clarify these two questions
Hare Krishna
Radha Radha
Haribol
Replies
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
The meanings of the symbols on the lotus feet of lord indicate that He is lord. Not much literature is there explaining the meaning. More number of signs doesnt mean greater God. If you see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityanand Prabhu's lotus feet, the number of signs are much more than those of Radha Krsna.
The purpose is - when we begin the chant, we should remember the signs on the lotus feet of the lord and their positions on the feet and meditate on each of them, with whatever little is mentioned about each sign. Then chanting is also much better.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
The meaning of these signs isn't much elaborated, afaik. They are auspicious signs to be worshiped and meditated on, as Visvanatha Cakravarti says in his Rupa Cintamani, where he lists them for Sri Sri Radha-Krisna. The position of various visnutattvas is not categorized by the number of foot-hand signs but by the bhava. Madhurya bhava is the topmost.
What "indecent content" do you mean? Reference is needed.
In general, the indecency accusation against some sastras and art usually comes from Western scholars who knowingly or unknowingly use the Abrahamic tradition's standards which may not always fit the Vedic standards.
Brahma Vaivarta Purana is one of the Mahapuranas in the rajasika category as per Padma Purana Uttara khanda 236.18-21 but its last part with Krisna-lila is sattvika. I'm not aware of any authenticity problems related to it although it may differ to some extent from Srimad Bhagavatam, our standard Purana to follow. Differences in lila descriptions are usually attributed to so-called kalpa bheda (the lilas may differ in various kalpas a bit).
Hari Hari
ys J.