[Advaita-l] Fw: How shruti is antya pramANa in advaita vEdAnta??

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

To cut a long post short, * FAITH * in Sruti - as opposed to courtesy or
pride that our fore-fathers worked out the system and as a mark of respect
we grant that collection of gems of wisdom the highest status.

praNAms Sri Siva Senani Nori prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Kindly pardon me I have never questioned the authority of scripture in
shankara vEdAnta.  My doubts are there with a genuine interest to know what
exactly does it mean when we say *shruti is the antya pramANa*....If I take
your words & say it is ONLY blind faith in scriptures just coz. it is our
fore fathers collection of gems in their highest status.  It leads to the
conclusion that shAstra has to be believed to be an authority just as we
put faith in the declarations of champions in that field..In other words,
that would imply the dependence of the scriptures on some other source of
right knowledge for its efficacy.  What does it mean??  if some Rishi
cautions us that there is a big giant on the other side of the country, the
truth of that statement either should have to be believed blindly or that
statement would have to be investigated by actual perception or through
some other means of knowledge...If our case is former, then we are *blind
followers* of shruti, if our case is later, the vEdic declaration would
require subsequent verification by some other accepted means of right
knowledge!!! In that case it is not an antya pramANa. As said earlier,
after hearing the truth in scriptures, there is some work still pending to
verify truth behind this declaration....

Anyway, thanks for your time & patience to answer my queries prabhuji.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar