[Advaita-l] apaurusheyatva of veda-s

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear friends,

May I point out that in  the Quran  some verses have ben abrogated ( ie. replaced by opposing verses at a later date within the life-time of prophet Muhammad) and one cannot know for sure which verses have been replaced by which. This is because the verses there are not in  a chronological order.  Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, Ali said to have compiled one version of Quran in a chronological order. Before  Ali could put forward his compilation another non-chronological version began to be adopted by others and Ali's compilation was side-tracked. Recently some attempts have been made to prepare a chronological text but nobody may be perfectly sure that the perfectly chronological order had been found. Such being the text one has to be extremely careful to interpret such issues from the Quran. In Quran it is written that killing of an innocent person is like killing the entire humanity and this means that no killing of man is ever permitted in
 the Quran, unless one can prove that this verse has been subsequently abrogated. 

Regards,

Sunil K. BHattacharjya

 


________________________________
From: Raghav Kumar <raghavkumar00 at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2011 6:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] apaurusheyatva of veda-s

Namaste
"Do unto others as you would others to do unto you" - this sAmAnya dharma
can be called a  basis for all sadAcAra (right conduct) across all cultures
and needs no scriptural mandate or commandments. Every human being has it
"hardwired" in their system unless there are intervening factors..

But that is not the point I am making. The shruti and smritis make it clear
that certain clearcut future CONSEQUENCES like birth in a lower yoni will
accrue as a result of certain niShiddha karmas. My question is - will these
consequences arise for someone unacquainted with or even ill-disposed twards
the Veda ? I believe it to be so.. For example, a person who reaches out and
helps others unselfishly, acccumulates puNya. This puNya will necessary give
a result sometime either in this or some other birth. This time-delayed
effect of karma cannot be known without being told so by the smritis. Doing
a niShiddha (prohibited) action will result in pApa. This result of a given
karma HAS to arise, says the Veda. (karmaphala is said to be
"avashyam-bhAvI). This cannot be overridden by any other scritpure or by the
mere fact of non-belief in shruti/smriti.

The smritis and shruti also give us knowledge of viShesha dharma - certain
nuances and exceptions to the general principles of sAmA(nya dharma. For
example, a kshatriya has to kill and fight in a righteous war. Such viShesha
dharma also permits certain sacrifices involving animals. (BhAShyakAra
quotes the sUtra - "mA himsyAt tIrthebhyo'anyaH" - abhor violence with
respect to all beings except in the case of the tIrthAs - permitted locii)

Now for an adherent of the orthodox Salafi version of the Quran, a Hindu is
interpreted as being what amounts to a "tIrtha" , an exception (as per their
belief system), to the general rule to shun violence. So one who regards
such an interpretation of the Quran to be his "pramANa" will follow it and
may indulge in violence in order to attain paradise by becoming a "ghAzi".

But will he actually attain paradise in keeping with his own scriptural
mandate. In my understanding the Veda says NO and so I certainly don't think
so at all.,

All of the above is all pretty obvious I think. This entire discussion came
up as a little digression to only say that shraddhA in Veda (including
smriti) is not a sine qua non for vedic vidhi/niShedha (injunctions and
prohibitions)  to apply to any given human being.

Regards
Raghav

On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 4:07 PM, kuntimaddi sadananda <
kuntimaddisada at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Shree Rajaram - PraNAms
>
> Beautiful explanation. I enjoyed reading this. God bless you and thanks.
>
> Vedas start with Dharma - Gita starts with Dharma. What I do not want
> others do to me, I should not do to others and what I expects others do to
> me I should do to others - is simple yet profound dharma to be followed.
> Gita is full of instructions of what human being has to follow to be worthy
> of a human form.
>
> Hari Om!
> Sadananda
>
>
> --- On Sat, 8/20/11, Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The human conscience tells us to speak the truth, not to be violent to
> other
> living beings, be impartial in our judgement, ensure welfare of all living
> beings in our dealings, remove suffering and enhance happiness for all etc.
> We do not derive our morals from textual sources but from our own inner
> voice. Even total atheists have high morals if they listen to their inner
> voice. We silence this inner guide to fulfill our desires. In this
> endeavour, certain religious texts and interpretations thereof come handy.
> Those who are on the path of knowledge wherever they are on the journey
> will
> accept the divine guide. Those who are on the path of destruction will
> reject it.
>
>
>
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