[Advaita-l] apauruSheya ?

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006, Dr. Yadu Moharir wrote:

> Dear All:
>
>  I have a generic question -
>
>  Why were veda were classified as being "apauruSheya"?
>
>    Was it because we could not understand them? and/or our inability to 
> to admit our ability to understand them objectively?
>

No.  apauruSheya means without authorship (human or divine.)  The Rshis 
were literally See-ers of the mantras (mantradrashta is the dictionary 
definition of rshi.) not the authors.  A comparison can be made to 
"Newtons" law of gravity.  Newton didn't invent gravity, he was merely the 
first to explain it.  Even if a man named Isaac Newton had never been born 
we would still have gravity.  In the same way if the names of certain 
persons are attached to certain mantras, it only means that person was the 
first to see it.  You can infer nothing about a mantra from the 
personality, history etc. of its seer.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>