[Advaita-l] Ramana's method

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Subbu prabhuji 
Hare Krishna

The problem lies in what one understands by the term 'shAstra'. 

>  shAstra here is veda-s which is shruti not smruti texts, though it is 
(smruti) pramANa it is not called as shruti. 


Even those who do not have vedAdhikAra are not barred from studying the 
BhagavadgItA
which is one of the prasthAnatraya. 

>  I agree, but you have not answered my query, whether Sri mani dravida 
shAstrigaL is recommeding prakaraNa granTha for those who have 
vedAdhikAra.  Can a vaidhika (or a vedAdhikAri) skip vedAdhyayana and do 
the brahma jignAsa with prakaraNa granTha-s??

 Supposing a person studies the gitA
along with the Acharya's bhashya, will that not be called
shAstrAdhyayana/upadesha? 

>  smruti, itihAsa, purAna etc. also valid for the aspirants who donot 
have vedAdhikAra.  I am not questioning that, my question is too specific 
to Sri Mani dravita shAstrigaL's observation. 

The 'antyaprAmANya' will happily apply to this
too. 

>  I dont think so, untya pramANa status can be attributed ONLY to the 
shruti-s i.e. veda-s in general, vedAnta in particular. Since smruti is 
paurusheya it cannot be called as untya pramANa, though it is one of the 
pramANa grantha. 

In fact one will get more clarity of the Upanishadic literature from
the Gita and the bhashya since the smRti is admitted to be following the
shruti and a kind of vyAkhyAnam of the shruti. 

>  yes, but when smruti goes against shruti, shruti is untya pramANa, we 
should not try to interpret shruti holding smruti as pramANa, it should be 
other way round.

The Bh.Gita has enough
content to address and even engender true brahmajijnAsA. 

> yes, hence it is called geeta shAstra but it is NOT a substitute for the 
shruti which is untya pramANa in brahma jignAsa. 

'tadviddhi praNipAtena pariprashnena sevayA., upadekShyanti te jnAnam 
jnAninaH
tattvadarshinaH.'  Shankara even goes to the extent of adding here that 
the
'tattvadarshI' is an aparoksha jnAni.

>  Yes, to know or to realize that tattva shruti is the pramANa.  As long 
as smruti or paurusheya texts goes in line with shruti purports there is 
no problem in accepting smruti as pramANa.  But it is not an alternative 
for the vedAdhikAri-s to say smruti or some prakaraNa text is enough for 
the realization. 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar