One path or many paths?

[Vaidya N. Sundaram]

Namaste.

 WIth regard to the discussion on One or many paths pointed out in the
Scriptures I wish to point out a few verses from the Manusmriti.
 In chapter two is discussed the importance of ordained laws and customs.
I briefly state a few I think are relevant.

II 10)
 (But) by the Sruti is meant the Veda and by the Smriti is meant the
Institutes of the sacred law. Those two must not be called into question
in any matter, since from those two, the sacred law shone forth.

II 14) (But) when two sacred texts (Sruti) are conflicting, both are
held to be law; for both are pronounced by the wise to be (valid) law.

 Some examples are then given in the verses that follow to show that the
ordained times for the performance of sacrifices are stated differently
in different sections, and that all of them are holy Law and to be taken
as such.

 I would also like to draw attention to verses in the Bhagavat Gita, where,
Lord Srikrishna states:(BG 8.6)

                                yam yam vapi smaran bhavam
                                  tyajaty ante kalevaram
                                 tam tam evaiti kaunteya
                                sada tad-bhava-bhavitah
"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his present body, in
his next life he will attain to that state without fail."
 In a simialr fashion, we are aware of the story where King Bharata
renounces the world and is medidating but gets attached to a little deer
and is born as a deer in the next birth, and then later on born as a
human and has the firm reesolve to not even utter a single word his
entire life. This storg will is not some thing that came by itslef. It
was the resolve of the previous births.
 So, inclination to Advaita or Dvaita is not some thing that just
pops out of nowhere. It is a result of several previous attempts at
comprehending Brahman.
 I think this clarifies that although we perceive apparent contradictions
in the different paths, they are to be taken as such as Law and that each
one of us should follow the doctrines we are most comfortable with for we
are comfortable with it and for the very reason that we have probably
spent several life times following one or the other of these paths.

Vaidya.