[Advaita-l] Apaurusheyatva of Vedas.

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

someone on this list equated sraddha in vedas with that in other
systems of thought or religions. I wanted to point out that the
existence of heaven and hell cannot be verified while living but jivan
mukti can be. this is a non-trivial difference. the second major
difference is that you cannot get the commandments or quran revealed
to you. but you can access vedic knowledge without the aid of books or
formal teachings. there are contemporaries who have done that and been
kind enough to share their experience. totakacharya is a classic
example.

On 12/09/2011, Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 10 Sep 2011, Omkar Deshpande wrote:
>
>> Just to clarify, I do accept evolutionary theory, and my point was that
>> even if we set it aside, as long as we accept the earth had a finite
>> origin in the past (as people who accept modern science will say they
>> believe independent of any scripture), one will need to be explicit
>> about how the Vedas were first transmitted to the earth.
>
> Why?  All we need to know is the transmission occured.
>
> In popular culture we have many notions about the Rshis but the Mimamsakas
> themselves are silent on how or why the they "saw" mantras.  They did
> that's all.
>
>> This means that there is no fundamental
>> difference between accepting apauruSheyatva or accepting revelation in
>> some other specific way (as done in other traditions/religions) in terms
>> of the amount of faith needed.
>
> In theistic traditions (including "Hindu" ones like nyaya-vaisheshika as
> was pointed out.) _who_ does the revealing is of paramount importance.
> The key difference here is we don't particularly care.
>
> Maybe some primordial molecules combined to form more complex ones which
> began self-replicating which became bacteria which became plants which
> became animals which became mammals which became primates which became men
> who saw mantras.  It's as good an explanation as any.
>
> --
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>

-- 
Sent from my mobile device