[Advaita-l] Acceptance of the validity of shruti is only *faith*

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

Summary: Sri Bhaskar wants to know if Sruti is a hypothesis, or an article
of faith (faith); whether we should blindly accept something like
'tattvamasi' or verify it (accept it and internalise it); the basis for
considering Sruti as antya-pramANa (it is axiomatic); and whether faith is
Sruti is essential to understand Sri Sankara's teachings (yes).

praNAms Sri Siva Senani Nori prabhuji
Hare Krishna

It seems you are giving your answer to my questions in brackets...right??
But frankly, let me tell you, this is the first time in advaita saMpradAya,
I am hearing that we should have ONLY BLIND BELIEF (faith) in scriptures.
I'd like to know the opinion of other advaita philosophy followers as well
in this regard.

If you ask me, I humbly say that I wont subsribe to the view that we should
have *blind belief* in scriptures...IMHO it is only fanatic approach
towards shAstra....See,  if we accept the authority of our scripture
merely  out of faith (coz. it is apaurushEya, divine origin etc. ),
followers of other schools who have *faith*  in their respective schools'
texts ( like quran, bible etc.) also have equal rights to claim that their
accepted revelation also has the divine origin and has the very authentic
statements!!!  In case of a conflict of these two blindly accepted
scriptures, a disagreement will naturally arise as to which of the two
revealed texts is more valid & authentic..The representatives of those
schools, as you know definitely biased against other school's texts & try
to uphold their own fanatic theory against others...This type of attitude
towards scriptures ends up in slogans like  *my daddy strongest*  & as a
result there is no common valid & accepted premise where you can validate
the verdicts of these scriptural statements...To avoid these confusions,
after granting sole validity status to vEda-s with regard to dharma
jignAsa,  shankara adopted a unique principle while considering the
validity of the vEda-s with regard to enquiry into the Atman and declared,
in brahma jignAsa NOT ONLY shruti is pramANa but intuitive experience etc.
also pramANa (means of knowledge)....coz. the tattva embedded in shruti can
be intuitively realized HERE & NOW...

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar