[Advaita-l] Pratyaksha and anumana as applied to science

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

Shree Siva Senani Nori - PraNAms
 
Interesting article. 
 
Not sure where he got the quote of Shankara. He writes: -Shankara also said: “Scripture is
not any word of God, but consists entirely of perceived truths. This perception
can be from karma (actions or
empirical facts) and jnana (gnosis or
thought) through reflection or deduction.” And most significantly for our
purpose, he also claimed: “Any attempt to connect the Absolute with its
manifestations in the shape of the world must end in failure, for no relation can be imagined beyond the
sphere of duality.”
 
Obviously the above statement is in relevance to apourushetva of Vedas discussed in the separate heading.
 
We have actually three orders of reality, not two, in Vedanta. 1. Paaramaarthika, 2. Vyaavahaarika and 3. Praatibhaasika. Western scientists have not looked at the dream and deep states as part of the analysis while Mandukya Upanishad centers on it in the analysis of what is real and what is apparently real. 
 
Obviously the pramANa or the tools that we use to discover the absolute vs. relative realities are different and there lies Vedantic approach as the means to inquire.
 
Most of the emphasis of the discussions on the Vedanta pramANa seems to center on its being apoursheyatva aspect which again based on one's belief in the system; yet from my appoint, it is not the apourusheyatvam per sec but it is nature of oneness that is being pointed out via various analogies like dream etc that cannot be known by pratyaksha and anumaana which the article emphasizes.
 
I am not sure the author is completely correct in giving credit to Madhva in terms of the explanations of the two orders of reality; the whole of Shankara advaita doctrine rests on this only. 
 
My 2c
 
Hari Om!
Sadananda
 

--- On Sat, 9/17/11, Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani at yahoo.com> wrote:


From: Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Advaita-l] Pratyaksha and anumana as applied to science
To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Saturday, September 17, 2011, 11:51 PM


Reproduced (with due permission) below is a radio-talk by Dr. N. S. Rajaram. His take on how pratyaksha and anumana apply to science is well stated and I thought it might be interesting to some readers. The article is about 2,300 words long and would take about 10 minutes to read.
 
Regards
Senani