[Advaita-l] शास्त्रविधानस्य उत्सृजनम् (BG 17.1)

[H S Chandramouli]

Namaste.

Three types of human beings are recognized. First are those who are aware
of the shastras but due to lack of faith in them act according to their own
sweet will and pleasure. They are termed as ones endowed with AsurI
tendencies or asurAs. The second category of human beings are those who
know the shastras and with abundant faith perform actions in accordance
with the same. They are termed as ones endowed with daIvI (दैवी) tendencies
or as daIvIs (दैवी). The third category are those who have no particular
concerns regarding shastras, but have firm faith in their elders and
accordingly perform acts in accordance with whatever their elders were
performing irrespective of whether they conformed to shastras or not. The
traits of both the first two categories are to be found in this third
category in different degrees.

The first two categories are covered in Chapter 16 of BG while the third
category forms the subject matter for Chapter 17.

Thus there is no contradiction between the verses mentioned in the post as
they pertain to different categories of human beings.
Regards

On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 12:51 PM Venkata sriram P via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste,
>
> यः शास्त्रविधिमुत्सृज्य वर्तते कामकारतः।
> न स सिद्धिमवाप्नोति न सुखं न परां गतिम्।।16.23।।
>
> ये शास्त्रविधिमुत्सृज्य यजन्ते श्रद्धयाऽन्विताः।
> तेषां निष्ठा तु का कृष्ण सत्त्वमाहो रजस्तमः।।17.1।।
>
> With reference to above two shlokas of BG vide 16.23 & 17.1, the
> former is "शास्त्रं वेदः तस्य विधिं कर्तव्याकर्तव्यज्ञानकारणं
> विधिप्रतिषेधाख्यम्" ie.,
> "not following the vidhi & nishedhas as per the scriptures and acts as
> per the impulsion of his passion" ; whereas, the later one is
> "शास्त्रविधिम् अपश्यन्तः वृद्धव्यवहारदर्शनादेव श्रद्दधानतया"
> ie., by ignoring the scriptural injunctions who follow as per their elders.
>
> If we go by the former one, one attains happiness neither here nor
> elsewhere.
> Hence, Bhagavan Krishna urges to follow the scriptural injunctions.
>
> If we go by the later one, here also, scriptural injunctions are not
> followed
> but the doer follows his elders and acts as per his sweet will and
> his faith is called स्वभावजा.
>
> When the later is स्वभावजा which is not as per scriptural injunctions
> 'ये शास्त्रविधिमुत्सृज्य यजन्ते श्रद्धयाऽन्विताः' how come Bhagavan
> Krishna says
> "अशास्त्रविहितं घोरं तप्यन्ते ये तपो जनाः" and "अफलाकाङ्क्षिभिर्यज्ञो
> विधिदृष्टो य इज्यते".
>
> Here, अशास्त्रविहितं (न शास्त्रविहितम्) and विधिदृष्टो
> (शास्त्रचोदनादृष्टो) are used.
>
> Are these not self-contradictory & mutually exclusive statements when the
> shraddha itself is 'svabhAvajA' which is based on not following the
> scriptures
> "शास्त्रविधिमुत्सृज्य".
>
> Pls throw some light on the above.
>
> Regards,
> sriram
>
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