Journey of the Soul

[Giri]

Namaste. Please don't take this as a criticism, but if no body knows the
journey of the soul, why is it described in great detail in SHRUTI
(upanishhads) and why does Shankara devote nearly a chapter in his brahma
suutra bhashya ?

        If the Shruti is "written" by sages who were talking about things
that they had no idea about, and Shankara also did not know what he was
talking about, maybe we should not believe in advaita itself since the
whole crux of advaita is based on the faith on vedanta (with reason). Of
course, one can say that understanding the journey of the soul is not
required for "attaining" jnana, which is fine. But if Shruti is just
babbling in the journey of the soul, why should it be correct in other
matters ? Then maybe we should not trust Shruti at all. In which case,
there is no vedanta. And if we don't believe in what Shankara says, then
why should we place any importance to the sayings of the successors of
Shankara ?

        I am not sure what other members think of advaita vedanta. But, as
far as I know, the advaita vedanta position is that vedas and upanishhad-s
are ETERNAL. And can never be irrelevant. One can argue what a statement
in upanishhad means with reason (not with handwaving). There may be a
feeling that certain portions of the upanishad are outdated. In which
case, why don't we say aham brahmasmi is outdated also ? Who decides which
is outdated ? Were the sages who wrote the upanishhad-s (ok, so it was not
written) ignorant ? If Shankara, and the upanishhad-s are not to be
believed, why should we believe in Ishvara, jiiva, maya etc. ?

        I may be wrong about the advaitic position that upanishhad-s are
eternal. In which case, I am sure readers like Vidya, and Rama who have
been brought up (in some sense) in this tradition will correct me. I am
not saying understanding the journey of the soul in any way reflects on
one's jnana, but to give a statement that no one knows sounds too
far-fetched. Atleast that's what I think.

AUM.
>From ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU Mon Apr 28 11:20:00 1997
Message-Id: <MON.28.APR.1997.112000.PDT.ADVAITAL at TAMU.EDU>
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 11:20:00 PDT
Reply-To: "Advaita (non-duality) with reverence" <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
To: "Advaita (non-duality) with reverence" <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
From: Raghavendra <hsraghav at MINDWARE.SOFT.NET>
Subject: Question.
Comments: To: "ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU" <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>

Namaste,
              Since there is only one Sri Shankara,why do people refer to
him as Adi Shankara ? I do understand that several of his successors in
the different Mathas all over India have been called Shankaracharyas.
                         Thank you,
                                          Raghavendra.