[Advaita-l] Apaurusheyatva of Vedas.

[श्रीमल्ललितालालितः]

*श्रीमल्ललितालालितः <http://www.lalitaalaalitah.com>
lalitAlAlitaH <http://about.me/lalitaalaalitah/bio>*



On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 01:07, Omkar Deshpande <omkar_deshpande at yahoo.com>wrote:

> as long as we accept the earth had a finite origin in the past (as people
> who accept modern science will say they believe independent of any
> scripture), one will need to be explicit about how the Vedas were first
> transmitted to the earth. Whether it happened within the last 5000 yrs or
> much long ago is not the point. The event of first transmission will require
> invoking some supernatural entity/powers in the Rishis who saw the mantras
> and/or the devatAs who gave the mantras to the Rishis. This means that there
> is no fundamental difference between accepting apauruSheyatva or accepting
> revelation in some other specific way (as done in other
> traditions/religions) in terms of the amount of faith needed. That is why I
> said I don't agree that the Mimamsakas/Vedantins came up with some argument
> requiring less faith. I have heard that Mimamsakas considered the world
>  to be eternal, and if that's true, then from their perspective, they may
> have been making less assumptions by pushing back the date of the Vedic
> paramparA indefinitely as they did not think the earth had an origin back in
> time. However, modern science today puts a constraint on that because the
> existence of such a parampara cannot be pushed back indefinitely as the
> earth (according to modern science) originated around 4.6 billion years ago.
> So the question about the first transmission of Vedas to the earth is going
> to arise, at which point one will have to appeal to revelation or some
> supernatural vision.
>
> Thus, I am unable to understand how using the apauruSheyatva route requires
> less faith than other routes (used by other traditions/religions).
>

You are correct.
But, you were taught wrong thing.
Actually, svataH-prAmANya-vAda removes every barrier and apauruSheyatva is
just need to save it. So, apauruSheyatva is not the sole cause of prAmANyam.
prAmANyam is innate to pramANa-s.
Now, as authority of veda-s and every other pramANa is innate, when one
comes with a doubt about authority of veda-s it is removed by
apauruSheyatva, eternal relation of word and meaning, etc. to save the
innate thing.

And for our friend supporting view of faith as cause of prAmANyam :
I didn't wish to reply to shatter away your belief-system, but as you are
thought as an advaitin, I expect you to provide exact words from any
scripture(including your favorite vedAnta-paribhAShA) to support your view
that any pramANa(not only shabda) needs faith. Your free view have no value
as I already showed flaws in it. Reading my previous posts will be helpful.