[Advaita-l] How were Vedas seen by our great Seers

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- sidha at omkarananda-ashram.org wrote:

> I'm Bhagavan Shri Adi Shankaracharyas follower to the greatest
> extent. But I
> personally also disagree with a bit of his philosophy and I think
> every
> follower has the right to disagree with his master. Even the author
> of the
> Bhamati commentary Vachaspati Mishra (one of the greatest scholars in
> Shankara's tradition) disagrees with him regarding some details, 

If you note VAchaspati Mishra's commentary, every time he disagrees
with Shankara, he provides **quotes from shruti and smR^iti** that bear
out his view. 

VAchaspati Mishra doesn't say, "I disagree with Shankara because I
don't like what he is teaching", which is blasphemy!

[..]

> neither was Shankara a blind
> follower of
> the scripture,

Can you please provide reasons for the above assertion?

Shankara's teachings are nothing but shruti + smR^iti + logic.

> then why should we be his? We have got out own Sarama
> (the
> goddess of intuition, i.e. buddhi, intellect), which seeks the lost
> rays in
> the dark cave (if said in Rig-vedic terms).

But you do see that if your reasoning goes against shruti and smR^iti,
it cannot be accepted.

> Even when God comes in
> the form
> of a Human, he possesses human qualities, and one among them is to
> ignore or
> forget something, which can lead in to a wrong statement, and that
> can
> happen to everybody. But it is not like this in the case of the
> Vedas,
> because they are not Human utterances, but they are celestial songs,
> voices
> heard out in the universe or inside the body when you close your
> ears, and
> not Human voices.

According to strict pUrva mImAmsA, the chanting of the Vedas is not the
Vedas per se, but is only the "manifestive agency of the Vedas".

-Kartik


		
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