[Advaita-l] Re: Advaita-l Digest, Vol 26, Issue 2

[Mahesh Ursekar]

Pranams:
 I realized that I did only a 'Reply' instead of a 'Reply All' in my last 
posting due to which the answer to Jaldhar's question would not be available 
to all. So here it is again:
  
Reference: S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, Vol 2, Publisher Oxford 
India Paperbacks, 

Chapter VIII, The Advaita Vedanta of Samkara, page 517

 He states:

"Samkara recognizes the need of reason to test scriptural views. Whenever he 
has an opportunity, he tries to confirm scriptural statements by rational 
argument [3], Reasoning (tarka) which works as an auxiliary of intuition 
(anubhava), is commended by him. Reason with him is a critical weapon 
against untested assumptions and a creative principle which selects and 
emphasizes the facts of truth." 

 [3] See Samkara Bhasya on Gaudapada Karika iii. 27. In commenting on iii. 1 
of Guadapada's Karika, Samkara says: "It is asked whether the Advaita is to 
be taken as proved only on the evidence of sruti and whether reason cannot 
possibly demonstrate it and this chapter shows how the Advaita can be 
demonstrated by reason". For a fuller discussion of the relation of reason 
to revelation in Samkara's philosophy, see two articles by Mr. V Subramanya 
Aiyar in Sanskrit Reasearch of July 1915 and Indian Philosophical Review of 
April 1918 and Mr. Suryanarayanan's paper on "Critical Idealism and the 
Advaita Vedanta" in the Mysore University Magazine for November 1919. 
 In the meantime, I also managed to locate Swami Krishnananda's article that 
tries to arrive at the noumenon via reason. The discourse is titled "*MAN'S 
DESTINY IN THE UNIVERSE*" but many of the arguments contained therein would 
apply to the subject of this thread. Find the link below:
 http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/disc/disc_81.html
 Regards, Mahesh

 On 6/8/05, Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com> wrote: 
> 
> On Tue, 7 Jun 2005, Mahesh Ursekar wrote:
> 
> > Pranams:
> > > Another point is that I believe S. Radhakrishnan in his classic two
> > volume book on Indian philosophy makes > a reference to the fact that 
> Adi
> > Sankaracharya managed to achieve this feat.
> > I fear my text was interpreted incorrectly possibly due to the incorrect
> > juxtaposition of sentences. What I wanted to say was that S. 
> Radhakrishnan
> > in his book (and I confirmed this yesterday) mentions that Adi 
> Sankaracharya
> > arrived at the necessity of Brahman by pure logical arguments without
> > recourse to the Upanishads. He did indeed do this in his Bhasya on the
> > Gaudapada Karika.
> 
> Can you post what Radhakrishnan wrote and what part of the Karikas he is
> refering to?
> 
> 
> --
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
>