I am interested to learn more about Shiva. What are the puranas to follow? Apart from puranas, are there other works which are authoritative and talk about Shiva? Are there any epics which have him as the core subject?

Please note that I didn't add images from some other external source but uploaded screenshots in the answer, i.e. image links are created by stackexchange itself, so how they can become dead after sometime? Sample answers: https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/23603/12304 https://hinduism.stack...

As per below post, a philosophy called "Eternal Return" states that all events are repeating infinitely & hence predetermined. Does "Free Will" really exist, even if universe repeats itself in perfect pattern? However, one cannot remember what's going to happen or happened in the past, unless on...

Most of every acharyas accepted Bhagavad Gita is best medium to attain Moksha and gave their commentary on it. And Bhagavad Gita is also accepted as authenticate holy book in Most of every Vedanta Schools. So, Here my Question on this Sloka of Shrimad Bhagavad Gita: बहूनां जन्मनामन्ते ज्ञान...

If mother dies within 12 months of father's death, when the final ritual will happen for father & mother?

What is the purpose, modality and purported benefits of the above Vedic/Yagnyas/procedures handed down to us ? Are they performed in the exact Yogic way in modern times too? The Soma Yagnya is in appeasement/worship of Shiva and the latter is to Indra but that is all one gets to know..

I lot of Puranas talk about the creation of the universe after Sr i Brahma is created (which is again different basis different puranas). THe puranas also talk about the life span of a Brahma deity. So, is there any mention of previous or next Brahmas in the scriptures.

Puranas mention that one Deva day (day and night) is one year on the mortal world. What does this actually mean? Does this mean that time itself slows as a result of various (unknown) factors by applying Einstein's theory of relativity or does it mean devas to spend 360 human days (in terms of r...

for example the anantapadmanabhaswamy temple in kerala http://www.sreepadmanabhaswamytemple.org/pooja.aspx you can see that worship services for Sree Sastha Agrashala Ganapathy are offered. https://templesinindiainfo.com/adayar-sri-anantha-padmanabha-swamy-temple-time-pooja-and-price-...

Madhusudhan Saraswati, the author of the famous work, Advaitasiddhi was one of few Vaishnavas belonging to the Shankarite sect. A great devotee of Shri Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he is said to have been initially against Advaita but later accepted it to be the highest truth. I want to know...

Please cite evidence from the sutras, smritis for your inference

Normally we consider Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh as the Supreme God and as stated below all souls are part of this Supreme soul. yathā sudīptāt pāvakādvisphuliṅgāḥ sahasraśaḥ prabhavante sarūpāḥ tathā'kṣarādvividhāḥ somya bhāvāḥ prajāyante tatra caivāpi yanti [Mundak Up. 2.1.1] Meaning...

https://books.google.com/books?id=c08qf7d2TZQC&pg=PA212&lpg=PA212&dq=padmanabhaswami+bilva+leaves&source=bl&ots=H_coynp5WF&sig=-BllRbFE_mc1ICh-bP3O0kaMt3c&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiCicvvwPHYAhWL7FMKHQmuA1wQ6AEITjAI#v=onepage&q=padmanabhaswami%20bilva%20leaves&f=false this book says (page 212) "the ...