Point of View!!!

[Neeta Pasrija]

Hinduism does not have the answer for every thing. YOU DO.

The answers are all inside you, and the answers will reveal themselves to you
exactly when you are ready for them.  Not a moment too soon not a moment too
late.  Religion, philosophy, books, life experiences (both sweet and bitter)
are only facilitators or triggers for us to find the answer.

Keep asking the questions however.

Our true nature is not pettiness, infirmity or cruelty.  It is love and pure
bliss.   So Bhakti, Karma and Jnana are ways to help us get back to our true
nature - love and pure bliss.

Om Shanti Om
>From ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU Wed May 14 16:39:54 1997
Message-Id: <WED.14.MAY.1997.163954.0700.ADVAITAL at TAMU.EDU>
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 16:39:54 -0700
Reply-To: "Advaita (non-duality) with reverence" <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
To: "Advaita (non-duality) with reverence" <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <vidya at CCO.CALTECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Apaurusheyatvam of Sruti (was Re: non-reality of free will)
Comments: To: Multiple recipients of list ADVAITA-L <ADVAITA-L at tamu.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970509141747.25747B-100000 at hartnell>
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This post is meant to clarify terminology. For transliteration, check
<http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~vidya/advaita/transliteration.html>.

Sruti: literally, that which is heard. It is a term used particularly
with respect to the Vedas in mImA.msA and vedAnta literature. Sruti is
held to be apaurusheya, i.e. not composed by a human or a divine author.
It is always valid, although it has to be interpreted.

The Vedas are four in number (Rg, yajus, sAma and atharva). Each veda has
a samhitA, a brAhmaNa and AraNyaka. The upanishads occur mainly in the
brAhmaNa and AraNyaka portions of the vedas, e.g. bRhadAraNyaka, aitareya
etc. However, some are also found in the samhitA portions, e.g. ISa, while
some upanishads straddle the samhitA and the AraNyaka portions, e.g.
taittirIya.

It is not correct to look at the four vedas as four separate texts, each
reading from end to end like a book. The vedas may be better looked upon
as a compilation of different kinds of textual material, relating to
ritual, liturgy, theology, mythology and philosophy, among other topics.
Most of the hymnal content of the four vedas is found in the Rgveda. The
sAmaveda consists mainly of Rk verses that are sung, instead of chanted.
Only some 70 odd hymns of the sAmaveda are unique to it. Similarly, the
atharvaveda also has a lot of Rgvedic material in it, and sections like
the purusha sUktam are found in all the vedas.

Although the vedas are learnt only through oral instruction, written
manuscripts of the vedas started appearing in later times (i.e. near
the 10th century). Older traditions specifically prohibit the writing of
the vedas, but that restriction was gradually relaxed. However, the
oral and auditory nature of the transmission of the vedas has continued to
date, and has been achieved by various means. Indian tradition has
preserved the character of the vedas as Sruti, through a complex means of
recitation. That the vedas are supposed to be *heard* is taken seriously,
and vedic instruction is largely recitational in nature. In order to
preserve the integrity of the orally transmitted text, various complex
recitation patterns were evolved. For example, if the straight reading
(known as padapATha) of a line had the syllables abcde, different schemes
were desgined in which these syllables were rearranged, e.g. ab-ba, or
abc-bcd-cde, etc. These different kinds of schemes are called kramapATha,
rathapATha, ghanapATha etc. Recitations were also done in groups, so that
self-correcting mechanisms were built in. For example, ghanapATha must be
done with three reciters.

SAkhA: The vedas were transmitted through different schools called SAkhAs.
More than a thousand such SAkhAs are recounted by tradition, but only a
few of the most widespread ones survive to date. For historical reasons,
the traditions of the vedic SAkhAs have been better preserved in
Maharashtra, Gujarat and all of south India, as compared to North India.
In the north, outside a few crucial centers in Uttar Pradesh, the vedic
SAkhAs have died out much quicker. The complete absence of the atharva
veda SAkhas in the south is probably why they have almost died out
completely nowadays.

Each SAkhA of a given veda maintains more or less the same samhitA, but
different SAkhAs transmit different upanishads and AraNyakas. Some SAkhAs
take their names after a noted teacher from ancient times. The names of
the various texts may originate with the names of the SAkhAs, or it may be
that some SAkhAs also derived their name from the texts that they
specialized in. Thus, the taittirIya AraNyaka is specifically associated
with the taittirIya SAkhA of the (kRshNa) yajurveda, while the Satapatha
brAhmaNa was studied specifically by the kANva and madhyandina SAkhAs of
the (Sukla) yajurveda. The kANvas and madhyandinas are together known as
vAjasaneyakas, after yAjnavalkya, and the Sukla yajurveda samhitA is also
known as vAjasaneyI samhitA. Similarly, the praSna upanishad is associated
with the paippalAda SAkhA of the atharvaveda. Variant readings are
sometimes noticed in different transmissions of the same text in different
SAkhAs. Differences in chanting conventions are also found. Check
<http://www.synflux.com.au/~mohan/articles/vedicrecitation> for a detailed
article about sAmavedic recitation.

Agama: literally, that which has come. This term is also used to denote
the vedas, although it has broader applicability. In the mANDUkya kArikAs,
for example, the title of the first book, Agama-prakaraNa, refers to the
veda, while in the word Saiva Agama, the word Agama refers to a non-vedic
text. Most of the texts that are specifically called Agama (Saiva Agamas,
pAncarAtra Agamas, etc.) are attributed to divine authors. Different
schools of thought existed on whether these kinds of texts were Sruti or
not. For example, in south India in the 9th-10th centuries, the validity
of the pAncarAtra Agamas was hotly contested. Most of the orthodox
thinkers denied it equal validity with the vedas, whereas yAmunAcArya, the
preceptor of rAmAnuja (visiShTAdvaita school) wrote the "Agama-prAmANya",
arguing for their validity. This controversy still simmers, with the
section known as vaikhAnasa, which follow the vaikhAnasa sUtras,
continuing to deny a firm status to the pAncarAtra Agamas.

In a strict sense, the word Sruti is used only to describe the four vedas.
However, some writers (e.g. kullUka bhaTTa) holds that there are two kinds
of Sruti, vaidika and tAntrika, and accommodate the Agama literature as
Sruti also.

smRti: literally, that which is remembered. This term is used to describe
a wide variety of texts, which are considered to be subordinate to the
four vedas in their authority. This is because the smRtis are admitted to
be of human authorship. The majority of the dharmaSAstra literature
is covered under this term. Let us take a representative example,
Apastamba, the formulator of traditional codes followed by a large section
of yajurvedins. There are three texts: the Apastamba Srauta sUtras,
Apastamba gRhya sUtras and the Apastamba dharma sutras ascribed to
Apastamba. The Srauta sUtras deal with the public Srauta rituals, the
gRhya sUtras with the private gRhya rituals, and the dharma sUtras deal
with various matters, including individual samskAras, rules of
inheritance, law, polity etc. All three are considered to be smRti.
Similarly, there are the various texts of baudhAyana (yajurveda),
ASvalAyana (Rgveda), jaiminI (sAmaveda), gobhila (atharva), hArita,
hiraNyakeSin, vasishTha, parASara, vaikhAnasa, manu etc.

>From the mImAm.sA perspective, these books are the prime candidates to be
considered smRti. However, the term smRti is somewhat plastic in nature,
and other texts can also be legitimately be included under this category.
For example, from the vedAnta perspective, they are still smRti, the
bhagavad-gItA takes special significance as smRti. The general rule
regarding smRti is that it is valid where it does not contradict Sruti.
This covers a rather broad range of human interests, and also allows for
flexibility in interpretations, customs and manners.

prasthAna: can be thought of as "canon". Since Sankara's times, and
possibly much earlier too, the vedAnta has been considered to rest on
three sets of canonical texts - the upanishads, which are the Sruti
prasthAna, the bhagavad-gItA, which is the major smRti prasthAna, and the
brahmasUtras of bAdarAyaNa, which constitute the nyAya-prasthAna. vedAnta
is therefore said to be based on the triple foundation provided by Sruti,
smRti and nyAya (here the brahmasUtras, not to be confused with the
developed school of the same name). Hence the term prasthAna trayI.