[Advaita-l] On rationality; was "Vedas are not apauresheya according to the Vedas ?"

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> Humble sAshtAnga praNAms Sri Vidya prabhuji
> Hare Krishna
> 
> But, IMHO, that shruti need not be necessarily should carry the tag of 
> apaurusheyatva always when this status is still open and has different 
> interpretations among different schools of thought. For that matter today 
> majority of people donot have the adhikAra to pursue their sAdhana in veda 
> mArga due to restrictions based on varNa. So, those who donot have 
> vedAdhikAra but eager to get mOksha (ofcourse, every one will have 
> mOkshAdhikAra irrespective of their caste and creed) can still get that 

That different schools of thought have different interpretations is what we have
been discussing. However, in the pUrva and uttara mImAMsA schools, the Sruty
apaurusheyatva is an issue that is taken seriously. Part of the reason for the 
existence of this forum is to enable a discussion that will help us understand
the traditional positions correctly. However, veda apaurusheyatva is not a
function of adhikAra of human beings. I should think that goes without saying.
 
Time and again in these issues, we have to remind ourselves that any stance 
one takes about the veda has to be comprehensive for all of it. While in vedAnta
we concentrate on the upanishad portions, we should not lose sight of the fact
that there is a lot of material in the veda that lies outside of the upanishads. Any
stance we take on what apaurusheyatva means should be consistent for all of it.

AtmajnAna, as conveyed by the Sruti, is unique, in that an approach to jnAna is
also a matter of anubhava. However, there are other kinds of jnAna conveyed by
the Sruti, all vyAvahArika no doubt, all aparA vidyA no doubt, but which are not
a matter of direct anubhava. If accepting apaurusheyatva of the veda is not to
one's liking or if accepting it as ISvara-authored is not to one's liking, then one
has to have a consistent view of what one likes, as regards the entire veda. It
is not right to talk about the issue as if affects only the vedAnta jnAna portion
and that we have a workaround anyway, because of our anubhava.
 
Regards,
Vidyasankar