[Advaita-l] How to approach Sankara's Gita Bhasya?,

[Srikrishna Ghadiyaram]

hariH Om !!

--- Ranjeet Sankar <thefinalsearch at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Srikrishna Ghadiyaram"
> <srikrishna_ghadiyaram at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] How to approach Sankara's
> Gita Bhasya?,
> 
> > > > It is worth while if you can read Svami
> > > > Ranganathanda's commentary which is very very
> > > > interesting and seems to flow along with the
> > > present
> > > > day scientific thought.
> > >
> > > Why should we insist that Vedanta should be
> > > consistent with 'present day
> > > scientific thought'?
> > > Why cant we think the other way round??
> >
> > It does not matter whether we say A = B or B = A.
> >
> > Also, the Advaita Vedantic thought is established
> > after debating logically, and analysing in Vedanta
> > Sutras. It is emphasised that if Veda says some
> thing
> > which is contradictory to our direct experience,
> then
> > we should discard Veda itself.
> 
> 
> Veda also talks about the absolute which cannot be
> validated by our direct
> experience. Just take 'jIva-brahma-aikya'. It is not
> the direct experience
> of a mumukshu doing sAdhana. If he discards the veda
> after finding the
> contradiction, then how will he ever
> evolve? So even if direct experience is
> contradicted, he ought to have the
> faith (shraddha) in the scripture and move on.
> 

Here because we do not have a valid means to prove
that what Veda says is incorrect, we exceed to it.
Note, here again we are not merely accepting it. We
have an option to follow  what Veda prescribes
(Sravana - manana - nididhyasana) and come to reaslise
the validity of the Vedic statements. So, here a means
of Sadhana is available. But, if Veda were to tell me
that fire is cool, we naturally have to discard. So,
the authority of Sruti is in the sphere which is not
otherwise accessible.

> > Whatever scientific research is going on is based
> on
> > observation and logic. the pursuit of science is
> to
> > find the truth. It is no different from the goal
> of
> > Vedanta.
> 
> 
> My point is that we have 'our own science' which has
> already found the
> 'Truth'. Why should we use the modern science as a
> yardstick?
> 

A scientist has not yet 'found' the 'Truth' which he
is looking for. There are speculation of
'unification'. Also, science will succeed if it can
somehow deliver it to whoever wants it. 

You need to use scientific investigation as an
essential pre-requisite, because 'Direct Knowledge'
should contradicted by Veda. This is the basic tenet
based on which Vedantic investigation continues.
Modern science is not a 'yard stick' but it can
provide a counter example. A theory can be simply
disproved by citing a single example, irrespective of
the fact that there may be a million examples to prove
the theory.

Om Namo Narayanaya !!

Srikrishna


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