[Advaita-l] apaurusheyatva of veda-s

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 1:46 PM, Raghav Kumar <raghavkumar00 at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> i asked "if a terrorist believes he will get paradise by killing "hindus
> and
> jews" with intense faith in the prophet and the quran, will he get that
> paradise as per his faith and belief or will get some hellish tiryak-yoni
> in
> accordance with the law of karma, which i presume applies to all human
> beings"
>
> he asked "since he does not have faith in the law of karma or veda pramANa,
> our notions of pApa-puNya and karma-phala do not apply to him. he will get
> a
> birth in keeping with his belief in his qurAn-pramANa not as per our veda
> pramANa (with smritis) which is the pramANa for the karma-siddhAnta"
> frankly, i was shocked by the above idea and am unable to accept it. don't
> you think there is a problem in certain types of faith and belief which
> makes it not fit to be referred to as "shraddhA".


Srila Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON gives these arguments. "The child
does not know that the fire will burn and perhaps thinks it is something
dazzling. Nevertheless, fire will burn the child if it touches it. If you do
not know the laws of country, that is not an excuse to escape punishment as
per the laws of the country. Like that one cannot say that I dont know the
Vedic laws of karma and commit sins in the name of materialism or sins. The
reaction will nevertheless be there."

The human conscience tells us to speak the truth, not to be violent to other
living beings, be impartial in our judgement, ensure welfare of all living
beings in our dealings, remove suffering and enhance happiness for all etc.
We do not derive our morals from textual sources but from our own inner
voice. Even total atheists have high morals if they listen to their inner
voice. We silence this inner guide to fulfill our desires. In this
endeavour, certain religious texts and interpretations thereof come handy.
Those who are on the path of knowledge wherever they are on the journey will
accept the divine guide. Those who are on the path of destruction will
reject it.