[Advaita-l] Apaurusheyatva of Vedas.

[Ramesh Krishnamurthy]

On 13 September 2011 19:53, Omkar Deshpande <omkar_deshpande at yahoo.com>wrote:

>
> <<This goes back to my point that as in the Yoga school, it's experience of
> some kind that you're claiming as the foundation here, not shabda itself.
> I'm not objecting to such an epistemological stance,>>
>


Sorry to barge into your discussion with Rajaram. I would only like to point
out that there is no such thing as "experience being the foundation" as far
as advaita-vedAnta is concerned. The Atman is never unknown but that this
Atman is nirvisheSha brahman is known only through the mahAvAkya and is not
something that is later "verified" through "experience" or any other means.
There is a certain difference between shabda pramANa for (say) svarga and
the mahAvAkya pramANa, in the sense that Atmaj~nAna is direct and immediate
(aparokSha) whereas the former is indirect and mediate. This is well
illustrated through the famous tenth man example. The tenth man does not
need any further verification once he knows that he himself is the tenth man
he was seeking. So the whole idea that jIvanmukti can be or needs to be
"verified" is a misunderstanding. One's status as a nitya mukta is known
from the mahAvAkya. Period.

Also, experience (anubhava) has a role in exegesis of the shruti and not in
verifying it. Atmaj~nAna is not a particular experience but an understanding
that the non-dual Atman is the very content of *every* experience or
cognition. This is really what is meant by aparokSha j~nAna or
aparokShAnubhUti.