Some Vedic sacrifices of this century

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Anand Hudli <anandhudli at HOTMAIL.COM>

>  People who hold that ahiMsA has to be practised in all contexts,
>  even in yajnas, as well as people who hold that meat-eating can be
>  justified in any context are both wrong!

I'd like to add just one more thing to Anand's excellent post. dharma
is what is said by the veda-s. If the veda says that dharma involves
sacrificing animals and entails it, then that _is_ dharma. According
to pUrva mImA.nsA, the veda is an independently authoritative pramANa
in matters regarding dharma, brahman etc. According to the logicians,
veda is a pramANa _because_ it teaches dharma. Note the difference in
positions here. There is an implicit subordination of the veda to
inference which is unacceptable.

This point is lost among many Western educated Indians, who think that
the veda can be subordinated to reason. Or, many even fallaciously
think that anything can be arrived at by reason and that the veda
would/should corroborate that. SureshvarAchArya says it the best: each
pramANa is authoritative in its own sphere. Thus sha.nkara says that
hundred of shruti vAkyas cannot make fire cold (since this is in the
sphere of pratyaxa). However, regarding dharma, nonduality, etc,
shruti alone is the means of knowing.

As Anand mentioned, it is the vaishhNava schools which do not accept
sacrifice of animals. But, we should remember that these schools are
heavily influenced by unvedic texts like the pA.ncarAtra, which should
be discarded.

Rama

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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