[Advaita-l] Sastra's Ability To Remove Ignorance

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

The self is self-evident. We all know it and  that is why we go about
getting clarification from the sastras. Now, the sastras remove our
ignorance about the self. We may start with the assumption that the self is
formed at the time of birth and destroyed at death. The sastras teach that
the self is eternal. We accept it on the belief that sastras form a valid
pramana and our acharyas interpret them right. Now, sastras say that the
self is nameless, formless, attributeless etc. We accept all these on the
basis that sastras tell us. Now, how do sastras know that the it is the
right thing to negate names, forms etc.? They should have a positive
knowledge of brahman just as we know that rope is real and snake is simply
superimposed on the rope but that is not possible for sastras because
brahman is not an object of knowledge like the rope. Hence the question.
On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 9:25 AM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

> My question is how can sastras have a positive knowledge of Brahman so
> that they can teach us what is and not Brahman?
>
> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> shAstra does not teach brahman as such & such a thing!!  it only removes
> the ignorance that jeeva has on brahman due to avidyA.  shAstra just
> removes the avidyA and as soon as this avidyA goes self-evident Atman
> shines on its own.
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar