[Advaita-l] ***UNCHECKED*** Re: On evidence for and against Yugas of Indian chronology

[V Subrahmanian]

On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 6:21 PM, Praveen R. Bhat via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste Raghavji,
> ​​
>
> On Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 4:56 PM, Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > On 13-Nov-2017 4:52 PM, "Raghav Kumar Dwivedula" <
> raghavkumar00 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > ​
> > I am also not too sure the time scales are merely an arthavAda for
> > ​ ​
> > inculcating vairagya. I am trying to take itihAsa (iti ha aasa - thus it
> > ​
> > happened ) as having atleast some historical basis. Sri Kanchi Periyava
> for
> > ​
> > one took them quite literally and seriously.
>
>
> ​As ​you and others rightly said that many Vedantins have no interest in
> yuga dates, etc, which may be taken as mere stories or related to anAtma
> and thereby landing on the moral of the stories instead. However,
> traditionalists such as Kanchi Paramacharya have no pressure to agree to
> so-called scientific conclusions and appear modern or rational to
> scientists. The reason I call it so-called is because, its a work in
> progress which will always be a work in progress! Even science agrees that
> absence of proof doesn't mean proof of absence. There may be a new
> scientific means available down the "yugas" which may give earlier dates.
> Vedas are alaukika upAya for laukika gains also. No science can disprove
> it, just as we cannot prove it. So it remains as shraddhA in shAstra that
> is not logical or illogical but alogical (not subject to logic).


Very well said.  Shankara cites a Mahabharata/Vishnu purana verse:
अचिन्त्याः खलु ये भावा न तांस्तर्केण योजयेत् । प्रकृतिभ्यः परं यच्च
तदचिन्त्यस्य लक्षणम्’ BSB 2.1.27.  While this is about the jagatkāraṇam
that is beyond prakriti, even about the prakriti kāryam that is the jagat
Shankara says:  अस्य जगतो नामरूपाभ्यां व्याकृतस्य अनेककर्तृभोक्तृसंयुक्तस्य
प्रतिनियतदेशकालनिमित्तक्रियाफलाश्रयस्य मनसाप्यचिन्त्यरचनारूपस्य  BSB
1.1.1.2.

Thus, whether it is Brahman or the jagat, no brain-work would succeed in
determining the true nature.

regards
subbu


>
>