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

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>Dear Abhilash Shatryji,
>
>Suppose Sri Srinivasa Murthyji says 'yes' to your querry, would you believe
>him?  If not it becomes clear you do not believe him even before you wrote
>him the question.  If the answer is yes, of course, your question was
>superfluous!
>
>Regards,
>Anbu

Although you have addressed this to Abhilash Sastry, let me step in for a 
moment here. I think you are missing the point. It is not a question of one 
person believing or disbelieving another. The question is, "in what sense do 
we believe Sruti?"

"Sruti reminds of us truths about our own self, which are to be realized by 
oneself" - thus far, we are making a statement about the nature of Sruti. 
Others are free to agree or disagree with this, based on their own belief 
systems. When we further say that these truths "are to be cognized by 
adopting methodologies as prescribed by Sruti only" that calls for an a 
priori belief in Sruti and its teaching.

There may or may not be a moment when a person cognizes the truths taught in 
Sruti. Till that moment arrives, we take it on nothing other than 
faith/belief, that Sruti does teach us truths about our own self. As for the 
prescription that the *only* methodologies to be used are those prescribed 
in Sruti, what is that based on, if not belief/faith?

By the way, when we use the above English words, we tend to cast the debate 
in terms that are foreign to advaita vedAnta. The key Sanskrit word to be 
used in this context is SraddhA. And as is often said, "SraddhAvAn labhate".

Best regards,
Vidyasankar

_________________________________________________________________
Catch suspicious messages before you open them—with Windows Live Hotmail. 
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_protection_0507