[Advaita-l] apaurusheyatva of veda-s

[Shyam]

Pranams

Some thoughts in response to some varied posts that have appeared on this thread.

Dharmic living needs to be differentiated from ethical living. The inner voice/ an innnate sense of right vs. wrong may well be capable of guiding people to lead a life based on a strong ethical foundation but by itself such a life does not constitute Dharma. What is Dharma can only be known from Scripture. What is "ethical" to my limited intellect need not be dharmic and what is dharmic can well be perceived as unethical, based on one's temperament. The MahABhAratA is replete with multiple such examples of personalities and events that blur the boundaries between virtue, morality and Dharma. What, as an extreme example, is ethical about pouring molten lead down someone'e ears? Even from a practical standpoint, seldom is anyone in conflict with a black and white right or wrong decision. In fact in some ways it was Arjuna's inner voice of reason that almost deluded him into an adharmic and abject surrender. 

Now what is the Scriptural basis for DharmA can only relate to that heritage that one finds oneself placed. A devout Jew - who has faithfully followed the tenets of his Dharma - and led a scripturally-sanctioned lifestyle - will with certitude reap the benefits of all the purushArthas that his Scripture promises - for such is the Lord's resounding reassurance - Yo yo yAm yAm tanu bhaktah shraddhayArchitum icchati; tasya tasya achalAm shraddhAm tAmeva vidadhAmy aham - Whatsoever may be the mode that a seeker approaches me with, I reward -how? by strengthening that very shraddhA, for shraddhA alone secures a seeker deliverance. "sa taya shraddhayA yuktas tasyArAdhanam Ihate; labhate cha tatah kAmAn mayAiva vihitAnhi tAn" - Endowed with that faith, that I Alone bestow, he reaps 
the rewards of the worship he renders, again by My Grace alone. 

The following is an excerpt from the SutaSamhita/Skanda PurAnA 
"Listen with faith, O sages, to what I say as to the truth of the various paths. Vedas, DharmaShastras, ...all these and many more Shastras the Omniscient Divine Being has made in brief. The wise say that each of these sastras is intended for a particular class according to the individual qualification, not all for one. As all streams ultimately empty themselves into the ocean, so all these paths ultimately lead to the Mahesvara Himself. Worshiped in whatsoever form by people - as ordained in their respective scriptures - He assumes that form and takes the devotee on to the next higher step. By His Grace man attains to superior paths. The Divine Being worshiped in the form in which He is represented in these paths takes the devotee step by step onward to the path of the Veda....Wherefore the different paths are useful to the different individuals for whom they are specially intended. Whenever other paths are opposed to the Vedanta in their theories,
 those theories, to be sure, have been furnished not because they are absolutely true in themselves, but because they serve, by holding out some legitimate pleasures, to ultimately bring them round to the right path; Thus these paths, laid out as they are by Shiva, are all of them true and serviceable. How can Shiva be a deceiver? He is supremely merciful, omniscient, and altogether stainless"

It is thus clear that, in IshwarA's ever-perfect Order, every Scriptural tradition has an internal validity for its faithful, that is uninfluenced by, and lies beyond the speculative parameters of, any tradition that is outside its gamut and scope. 

Also with regards to "we cannot look at the situations presented in the Vedas as having occurred in history at any point because somehow that brings in the prospect of human mediation in the Veda" - such need not necessarily be so, because just as the VedAs are eternal, the events depicted there-in have also faithfully recurred in every kalpa since beginningless time. In the words of Kanchi MahAperiyavA - "The same events are repeated kalpa after kalpa. According to our sastras, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata, the Dasavatara (the story of the ten incarnations of Visnu) and the Puranas are re-enacted kalpa after kalpa." Which may then explain why certain personalities occur in more than one place or context or that often the Upanisad seems to freely interpose, different names to the same person such as Vajasravas and Uddalaka, almost presupposing a literal and intimate familiarity, and the very same is then found referenced in the
 Mahabharata in relation to Sage Dhaumya.

 
Hari OM
Shyam  




--- On Mon, 8/22/11, Raghav Kumar <raghavkumar00 at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Raghav Kumar <raghavkumar00 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] apaurusheyatva of veda-s
> To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Date: Monday, August 22, 2011, 6:36 AM