[Advaita-l] Manu smriti

[sthanunathan Ramakrishnan]

Dear Shri Ram Garib,

   Once I asked Swami Paramaananda Bharathi (in
Bangalore) about this, after one of his lectures,
where he said that the Shastras are the source of good
for all living beings, not just human beings alone. 

   His answer was that some of the "violent"
statements in Manu smriti seemed to be interpolations,
because he had seen an 1860 (or so) publication of the
Manu Smriti (or Shankara's commentary on it, I forget
which), in which such verses were absent. 

   That such violent punishments were never meted out
(atleast as far was we know) seems to suggest the
latter day origin of such verses.    

   The lack of community pride, pride in the religion
and role models is indeed a very serious issue and
must be dealt with.

  Also as Advaitins, our dependence on Shastras and
its validity is high indeed. We need to be convinced
that the Shastras are intrinsically good before we can
continue along the prescribed path. And surely such
statements are an obstacle to that belief.


regards
Sthanu

> >Take for example rules of manu. No self-respecting
> non-dvija can ever
> relate to those >rules. I understand that no one
> today is insisting
> for imposition of those rules, but the >sanction of
> them by a
> religious scripture attacks at the very core of ones
> value as a >human
> being. As a non-dvija, it makes you feel worthless
> as a human being.
> 


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