[Advaita-l] Manu smriti

[Ram Garib]

> From: "sthanunathan Ramakrishnan"
> <r_sthanu at yahoo.com>

>    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.

Namaste Ramakrishnan. With due regards to Swami
Paramananda Bharathi I beg to disagree. I do not deny
that there might indeed be some edition where such
verses are absent. However, it is traditionally
believed that such verses are authentic. Moreover, let
us for the time being ignore manusmriti. What are we
goint to do if we encounter similar verses elsewhere?
More likely manu was a compiler rather than author of
those rules and hence similar rules would be found
elsewhere too.

I believe that shying away from discussing the
controversial passages of scriptures cannot lead us
anywhere. Either defending, or attacking manu-- both
are equally useless. Only honest understanding can
show us the way.

--- Viswanathan <viswanathann at al-hassan.com> wrote:

>...I
> stared  feeling that all these things are for
> mundane living and nothing
> more...
> I strongly beleive in  sayings of Astavakra in
> Astavakra Geetha...
> as it is you are pure , you are blissful nd you are
> that....
> Just drop everything that you have acquired in the
> name of religion/culture
> and heritage etc...just drop them and start looking
> deep into you...
> recall what shankara says in 'Bhaja Govindam"....

An important distinction is made by shankara in
transactional and absolute reality. As krishna says,
only one in a million will ever reach advaita
knowledge. For the rest of us there is no escape from
grappling the nitty-gritty of our mundane lives.

With regards,
Ram Garib


		
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