download the php file instead of displaying it

[ajbardhan]

I have set up a linux server with Ubuntu 10.04. Apache2 web server is running in this computer. I configure HTML files to access from home directory.that is from <http:>//<server IP address/~<USER_name>/index.html.

But when I try to run <http:>//<server IP address/~<USER_NAME>/test.php or
<http:>//<server IP address/~<USER_NAME>/test.pl my browser want to download the file instead of displaying it. If I run those .php and .pl file from /var/www that is //<serrver IP address>/test.pl my browser displays properly.

But when I try to run <http:>//<server IP address/~<USER_NAME>/test.php or
<http:>//<server IP address/~<USER_NAME>/test.pl my browser want to download the file instead of displaying it. If I run those .php and .pl file from /var/www that is <http:>//<serrver IP address>/test.pl my browser displays properly.

I try to trouble shoot as per ubuntu manual from <http:>//help.ubuntu.com/community/AoacheMySQLPHP but it does not help me.

I try to make a soft link of my public_html folder to /var/www by following command
root@web-server:~# cd /var/www
root@web-server:/var/www# ln -s /home/<USER_NAME>/public_html <User_NAME >

I set permission on all html, php, pl and public_html folder to 0777.
But when I try to access from <http:>//<ser IP address>/<USER_NAME> it shows

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /aditi/ on this server.
________________________________________
Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu) Server at 192.168.0.10 Port 80



Also my /var/log/apache2/error.log file shows
HP Deprecated: Comments starting with '#' are deprecated in /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/imap.ini on line 1 in Unknown on line 0
PHP Deprecated: Comments starting with '#' are deprecated in /etc/php5/apache2/conf.d/mcrypt.ini on line 1 in Unknown on line 0
[Mon Sep 13 18:26:33 2010] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.3.2-1ubuntu4.2 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.14 OpenSSL/0.9.8k mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.1 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Mon Sep 13 18:26:50 2010] [error] [client 192.168.0.2] Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /var/www/aditi
[Mon Sep 13 18:26:54 2010] [error] [client 192.168.0.2] Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /var/www/aditi
[Mon Sep 13 18:30:15 2010] [error] [client 192.168.0.2] Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /var/www/aditi
[Mon Sep 13 18:30:18 2010] [error] [client 192.168.0.2] Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /var/www/aditi



Is any help for:
1) How can I configure PHP and pl file to run from user home directory?
2) How can I solve the Forbidden problem?
Thanks