Eternity and apaurusheyatva of vedas

[Shrinivas Gadkari]

On Thu, 6 Mar 2003 18:11:09 +0000, kalyan chakravarthy
<kalyan_kc at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>I think most of the major hindu traditions consider the vedas to be
eternal.
>I dont understand how this can be true. For example, the Katha Upanishad
>could not have been there before the birth of Nachiketa. Another thing is
>the apaurusheyatva of vedas. Is it not illogical to consider the vedas to
be
>apaurusheya? I am sorry if I sound ignorant. I would appreciate any help in
>this matter.
>

Namaste,

apaurusheya: not created by a MANIFESTED being (this excludes devatas
too, including the trinity).

Consider this: Newton's Laws of motion are apaurusheya, and Newton is
the RShi of these laws. If you can understand this you will not encounter
any problem with the concept of apaurusheya.

Best regards
Shrinivas Gadkari
>From ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG Sat Mar  8 16:14:18 2003
Message-Id: <SAT.8.MAR.2003.161418.0500.ADVAITAL at LISTS.ADVAITAVEDANTA.ORG>
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 16:14:18 -0500
Reply-To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
From: Vidyasankar <vsundaresan at HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: caste

Sanjay Verma <sanjay1297 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>Furthermore, in the practice of Vedanta, why does it really matter how
>caste is determined? Is this not a moot point in modernity? If the Vedas
>are not to be taught to anyone but the dvijas, then many of us would have
>have had access to them. It is because of modern techology, mass printing,
>and foreign translators (especially the Europeans during the 19th Century)
>that we have access to the shruti texts. The issue of access is a moot one
>one -- they are avialable to anyone who seeks them 9on the internet, in
>Indology bookstores, and elsewhere). The issue of access to genuine
>understanding of the shruti texts is also a moot one -- no matter what
>one's backgroung by birth, unless one has the right spiritual makeup, one
>will not undersand the shruti texts no matter how much time one invests in
>the study of them.

I agree largely with the above sentiments. Instead of getting bothered about
the exact assignment of caste to individuals and about past societal wrongs,
real or imaginary, we should take into account the impact that modern
technologies have had on human society. Lest we start worrying about whether
translations can be read by anybody or only by a few, may I also draw the
attention of readers to a significant statement by the previous
Sankaracharya of Sringeri? He specifically told an interviewer that printed
editions of Upanishad translations can be read by anyone. And if we pause to
think about it, the original texts in Sanskrit have always been available to
those who have been interested enough to read them and make the translations
in the first place. Except for Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, none of the well-known
translators in the 19th-20th centuries was a Brahmana by birth.

Vidyasankar