[Advaita-l] Logical Basis of Apaureshyatva

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> *I met him this summer and he is open to teach me. And plan to reach out in
> December when I will be there. My intent of learning from his was to
> present the gist traditional defenses in a historical context. However,
> from my reading so far, I do not think Mimamsa reasoning will apply in
> modern context because it is based on premises that are not acceptable to a
> modern mind (e.g. eternal varna). Hence my attempt to create a logical
> defense. I am happy to be corrected. *

In which case, I would provide my best wishes and encourage you to make the
most of the opportunity to learn the subtleties of Mimamsa reasoning from the
learned Sastrigal. You might also, if your studies with him progress quickly, want
to ask him to explain how the pUrva and the uttara Mimamsa perspectives differ
on sound and the veda, keeping in mind the sphoTa angle of the grammarians
that is in the background. I think you will be pleasantly surprised how "modern"
the opinions and conclusions of some traditional thinkers can be!
 
> 
> > *By sound I mean that which can be heard by the human ear. Whatever
> > theory you adopt (e.g. quantum or wave), it is possible to show that all
> > the frequencies that you hear are specific instances of the general
> > equation. A clatter of frequencies will be sum of individual frequencies,
> > which as we saw above are specific instances of a a general equation. They
> > are therefore transformable from one another. So, any one of the pure
> > frequencies will be as good as the other as a starting point to
> > create transformations to come up with other frequencies. A pure frequency
> > will be a hum. I can call it the primordial hum but am choosing to call it
> > Om. It is a cultural preference - that is all. The sound itself is a
> > transformation of energy and can be traced back to the very point of origin
> > irrespective of the theory of origin. I am happy to be corrected. *
> 

My angle is this. Any contemporary reconstruction that you may want to do
regarding the veda's status as apaurusheya texts will have to take into account
the contemporary ideas about the origin of the universe, origin of life (if there
was a temporal origin for life post Big Bang) and evolution of human beings.
Unless of course, you only want to address creationists from other religious
backgrounds. Given that human beings with human ears to perceive sound
were not around at the origin of the universe (even in the brAhmaNa and
AraNyaka descriptions, the universe began before men and women were
born to perceive it), you will have a lot of perspectives to cover and tackle.
 
Best wishes,
Vidyasankar
 
ps. If you are interested in pursuing further thinking on the Mimamsa aspects of
Vedanta, one English language author you absolutely need to read is Francis X.
Clooney. He has written a number of papers and books on Mimamsa and I think
you will find a lot of it useful.