[Advaita-l] Pratyaksha is more powerful than Sruti and Smruti?

[Keshava PRASAD Halemane]

namastE. praNaams Sri Siva Senani ji. 
Your clarification regarding the relative preference ordering among/between the various karmas is excellent. 
Another point that i noticed was about the SrAddha falling on Ganesha Chaturthi day every year just because the actual day of the departure of the soul happened to be on a Ganesha Chaturthi day of a particular year. And the concern was whether one would miss the Ganesha Chaturthi vrata/festival etc. 
IMHO: 
This may or may not be true, depending on how we determine the day for the SrAddha as against how the Ganesha Chaturthi day is determined.  I think there may be differences in tradition regarding both of these determinations based on the community and the region. 
In our community in our region, the SrAddha is determined based on a matching done between the time/day of departure of the soul and the day of SrAddha by matching the three parameters - (1) sidereal month, (2) [Sukla/kRShNa] pakSha and (3) the availability of the tithi in the aparAhNNa of the day of the SrAddha. For example, for my father-in-law, it is on Suddha/Sukla panchami of the Simha maasa [although the day of actual departure of his soul happened to be on the day following the Ganesha Chaturthi festival day in that year] which is on 19-08-2015 for this year, that happens to be the second day of the simha maasa this year. 
However, the day for GaneSha Chaturthi vrata/festival is based on the (1) lunar month of bhAdrapada (2) Suddha/Sukla pakSha (3) chaturthi (at sUryOdaya) day.  This year, it is on the kanyA-samkramaNa-day, that is the last day of simha-maasa, on 17-08-2015 this year. 

praNaams.  
 - Keshava PRASAD Halemane  mOkShakaamaarthadharmah  janmanaa jaayatE jantuḥ |  samskaaraat hi bhavEt dvijaḥ ||  vEda-paaThaat bhavEt vipra |  brahma jnaanaat hi braahmaNah ||  


     On Monday, 17 August 2015 10:09 PM, Siva Senani Nori via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
   

 First, the meaning of मातृदेवो भव may be clarified. It does not mean that mother is a god: it means "be (भव) a person to whom mother is a god (मातृदेवः)". In other words,  mother (father,  teacher and guest) should be treated as if they were gods - i.e. they are not gods. 

Second, there is a pratyakshadeva: Sun. He is also called pratyakshanaaraayaNa.

Third, pitRkArya is like a debt. Devapuja is a nimitta karma, something done on an occasion. If a nimittakarma is done, one gets puNyam, otherwise there is no harm. If a debt is not repaid one gets paapam. Therefore, a karma which repays debts gets a higher preference. It may also be noted that the nitya karma related to gods - sandhyavandanam, tanDulahoma and brahmayajna is done before SrAddha. 

Finally this may be distinguished from the practice of Vaishnavas who postpone a SrAddha falling on ekAdaSI but will not break their upavAsa. In Telugu we have a saying that Vaishnavas are karmabhrashTas (since they uphold ekAdaSI-vrata and postpone Sraaddha) and that Smaartas are vratabhrashTas (since they break ekAdaSIvrata, but perform Sraaddha). 
For Smaartas, vratas have a lower preference compared to Karmas.

Regards 
N. Siva Senani 
 
      From: Venkatesh Murthy via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
 Sent: Monday, 17 August 2015 10:52 AM
 Subject: [Advaita-l] Pratyaksha is more powerful than Sruti and Smruti?
  
 Namaste

I am trying answer a difficult question. Kindly help me.

In our Sastras they say Pitrus are Pratyaksha Devatas reference
'Maatrudevo Bhava Pitrudevo Bhava' and so on. Our Pitrus are visible
Gods. They are seen with Pratyaksha Pramaana. The Gods like Brahma,
Vishnu, Maheshwara are not Pratyaksha but known in the Sastra like
Purana, Veda and so on.

But what happens when there is a contradiction? My friend's father
expired on Ganesha festival day. When his yearly Sraddha comes on
Ganesha festival my friend has to do Vaarshika Sraddha only. There is
no Ganesha festival for him and his family. This means Pratyaksha
Pitru Devata is more important than Apratyaksha Devata like Ganapati.

Dvaitis can say this is showing Pratyaksha is more powerful than other
Pramaanas like Sruti and Purana. This is the Dvaiti's pet theory. If
Adaviti is saying Sruti or Smruti Purana is more powerful the Ganesha
festival must be celebrated on yearly Sraddha day. But only Sraddha is
performed and Ganesha festival is not celebrated.

How to answer this?



-- 
Regards

-Venkatesh
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