[Advaita-l] Scholarly Article on Why Vedas are Valid

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> Sri Vidyasankar ji
> What you wrote is logically unexceptionable. However if I may try to
> understand the source of the question and a way of answering it that
> may offer some help ...it may be as follows.
> There is no need to establish logically the validity of the Vedas -
> they stand on their own strength.

I didn't think what was being asked pertained to a statistical analysis. It
is up to those who want to go down this line about the veda-s, to clarify
exactly what it is they expect.
 
> "Mr.Scientist, you cannot with your analytical tools and matter-based
> theories account for this strong correlation no matter how much you
> try to explain it away. For example, any explanation along the lines -

A scientist thrives on coming up with multiple hypotheses to explain an
observation and goes with the one that makes most sense. Now therein
lies the crux of the issue. What makes sense to one depends a lot on
what one's assumptions are. 
 
> If we come to think of it, how does a scientist get away with his
> theories which are full of fundamental internal contradictions
> (between quantum physics and relativity, say) and axiomatic
> incompleteness - because he keeps most of humanity happy in their
> artha-kAma pursuits by giving them toys like ipads and stuff. So

There is science and there is technology. What keeps humanity happy
is technology. More often than not, science leads to sleepless nights
for a negligibly small percentage of that humanity! There is a sort of 
arthakriyAkAritva involved in how people relate to science and its
effects on human society.
 
> Questions of the kind raised in this thread will only go on increasing
> with time unless the other parts of the overall Vedic tradition which
> gives alaukika means (yaj~na-s) for laukika ends (artha-kAma ends) are
> not revived or rediscovered and the utter weakening of the
> kalpa-tradition is addressed. The vedantic dialectic process alone can
> never adequately address the deeper source of such questions.

Yes, which is why, at least to me, focusing on the apaurusheyatva or
otherwise of the veda-s and talking about their status as a pramANa
for right knowledge, and addressing everything at only a philosophical
or an intellectual level is a futile exercise for the kinds of purposes that
people seem to want. Addressing the weakening of the kalpa tradition
and other such ends are not achieved through a lot of talk and lengthy
essays on why the veda is valid. It requires people to take the veda as
valid, as a given, and then to work to strengthen those aspects of its
ancillary traditions that are within their ambit. This cannot be achieved
through a constantly defensive attitude towards what exactly Sruti
addresses and how it relates to our lives today.
 
Regards,
Vidyasankar