[Advaita-l] apaurusheyatva of veda-s

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sat, 20 Aug 2011, Venkata sriram P wrote:

>  
> Now, if we take the case of AraNyaka / upaniShad bhAga, there are the dialogues
> between the Seer (Acharya) & Disciple and there are also the mention of human
> relationships.   But Sampradya says that Upanishad is also "shruti" which is
> apaursheya.  In what way?  Because, the upanishad-pratipAdya tattva is
> apaursheya.  We have no other option than believing in "sabda nityatva vada"
> because it is the only pramANa to know the unknown.

The alternative which is discussed elsewhere in this thread is that those 
people mentioned are not historical.  After all, the film "Star Wars" 
mentions human relationships but we have no reason to believe people 
called "Luke Skywalker" or "Darth Vader" actually exist.

>  
> Here is the opinion of another learned friend of mine:
>  
> ////////////////

...
   
> This brings us to the major question: why do modern Hindus,
> while according high respect to the shruti, fail to understand what is in it?
>  
> //////////////////
>  

I think your friend is grabbing at straw men a little.  The idea that the 
Vedas mention animal sacrifices and meat eating is not at all 
controversial to any Vedic scholar I know atleast among the Smartas. 
Vegetarianism is a shishtachara among certain castes and a voluntary tapa 
to others.  The kind of Hindus who get outraged about this are typically 
the revivalist types who don't understand concepts like apaurusheyatva 
anyway.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>