[Advaita-l] apauruSheya ?

[Ram Garib]

--- Gerald Penn <gpenn at cs.toronto.edu> wrote:


> A particular proposition is deemed to be true,
> because it
> can be traced back through anumana to a statement
> from
> the Vedas.  The statement from the Vedas is in turn
> deemed to be true because the Vedas are apaurusheya.
> Now if, at the very end of this discussion, the most
> we
> can say is, "we have to accept this last bit on
> faith,"
> then the preceding argument, and along with it a
> very large swath
> of ancient Indian philosophical literature, would
> have
> just been reduced to a colossal waste of everyone's
> time.
> Now there's got to be something more than this
> behind Sri
> Sankaracharya's view of apaurusheyatva, hasn't
> there?


OK. I should have been more careful:-) 

shankara does not in fact treat it as "faith" but as
"faith which can be verified subsequently through the
fruit of jivanmukti". His position would have been
untenable if the "moksha" were an unverifaible state.
However, according to shankara, jivanmukti is
available here and now and hence verifiable.
Therefore, "apaurusheyatva" is more of a postulate
which can be confirmed by following the prescribed
path and hence not a blind faith.

That said, it is obvious to any student of shankara
that his treatment of "apaurusheyatva" of vedas is
very un-shankara-like. It leaves scope for future
interpretations and lacks the rigor of logic applied
elsewhere. 

With regards
Ram Garib 



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