[Advaita-l] to Satish ji Re: All should read the Vedas

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Not to mention the fact that Al Beruni visited India around 900AD and
records 18 mahA and upapurANas.

In any case, sha.nkara quotes the mahAbhArata and the gItA repeatedly,
which are accessible to everyone. Everyone seems to have forgotten
that. Sha.nkara is quite emphatic that it's not the vedas alone, but
also smR^iti which can lead to enlightenment. smR^iti is after all an
authoritative means of knowledge, providing information beyond what
pratyakshha, etc., can offer. Since smR^iti is derived from shruti,
sha.nkara does not explicitly mention it in many places. But in the
sUtra bhAshhya, he is fairly explicit.

Rama

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 12:09:35 -0800 (PST), S Jayanarayanan
<sjayana at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- sidha at omkarananda-ashram.org wrote:
> 
> > Dear Satish ji,
> > Most of the Purana's are comparatively modern. One can know that if
> > one
> > looks at the language used in them. None of them is even as old as
> > the
> > Upanishads, what to say about the Vedas. Acharya Shankara himself
> > didn't
> > quote any purana accept Vishnu purana.
> 
> That's not true. Shankara quotes the Agneya purANa as well as the kUrma
> purANa:
> 
> 1) Shankara quotes the Agneya purANa in his commentary on Brahma sUtra
> 3.4.41:
> "For him, who lapses after taking the vow of Naishthika Brahmacharin, I
> see no expiation by which such a suicide can be cured." (smR^iti)
>