[Advaita-l] Logical Basis of Apaureshyatva

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

Shree Rajaratnam - PraNAms
 

I thought I gave logic for saying the statements are not logical.
 
Here again.
 
Logic cannot stand as pramANa by itself. It requires dRiShTanta for establishing the vyaapti for the anumaana. The dRishTanta for loukika has to loukika only and not aloukika. For aloukika anumaana one can use the scriptures. For apourusheyatvam it becomes a circular argument to establish aloukika aspect involved in the apourusheyatvam using again scripture as a basis. Faith in the scriptures becomes a basis for both not the logic here.
 
You need to prove your logic by establishing a vyaapti with dRiShTanta. The ball is your court. Miimaamsa does not provide you vyaapti that you need to establish the apourusheyatvam on logical grounds - On Scriptural grounds, Yes I believe that! If belief of the scriptures to establish the apourusheyatvam then we are having a circular arguments. The belief that they are apourusheyatvam is just sufficient- no need to establish using miimaamsa for that. That is what I called as self-fulfilling prophesy. 
 
Next how is Vedanta pramANa and not the other scriptures? Vedanta is pramANa because it provides mahaavaakya that equates aham as Brahman - without these mahaavaakyaas- there is no liberation as Shankara says in VivekacUDAmaNi - 
na yogena saankheyna karmaana no na vidyayaa
bramhaatmaikatva bodhena mokshaH sidhyati na anyathaa||
If any Scripture that provides the equitation jivo brahma eva - then that becomes a pramANa only. No other scripture other than Vedanta does that. Hence Faith in Vedanta which I call as science of absolute reality is required to discover the true nature of oneself. It is not just who am I investigation and also involve what is this world and the identity of oneness of subject-object duality. Hence Advaita stands tall even among the other Vedic matham. For that faith or Shraddhaa is required - shraddhaavan labhate jnaanam.
 
Yes you can take it as my opinion, if you wish. For me apourusheyatvam is not needed to have a faith in the statement tat tvam asi. It is not illogical (not saying it is logical),
Hari Om!
Sadananda



--- On Sun, 11/6/11, Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:


If shraddha alone is enough, then all faiths will be equally valid. As
differents faiths are mutually contradictory, none of them can be
considered true. Both Islam and Christianity, for example, assert they are
the only path. Both of them cannot be true. Or we have to take a position
that all faiths are valid for its followers. Then the question will be if
all the followers are equally qualified. If the answer is yes, then there
cannot be two faiths. If the answer is no, then all faiths cannot be equal.
Then we are again forced to grade faiths as relative truths. This counters
our original proposition stated above that all faiths are equally valid.

I do not know if you consider your position to be that of the traditional
acharyas. In my opinion, it is not the case. Our traditions have defended
the Veda Dharma with impenetrable fortress of logic. Specifically with
respect to apaureshyatva, it was defended with logic to deal with
objections raised at different points in time.

If you agree that my statements are logical and irrefutable, then you
cannot say that logic cannot be applied to defend apaureshyatva. If you say
that my statements are illogical, you have to show what is the flaw in the
logic. A mere assertion on your part will not dismiss the defense.

*There is a lot of work to do in this if I have to publish this as a
paper.  Once it is done, I hope schools in the US and Europe as well as
India teach Vedas are apuareshya instead of the current indological view
point. I hope that this discussion proceeds is in the right direction. *
**
Best Regards
Rajaram Venkataramani