[Advaita-l] आप्त वाक्यम् - a new thread for discussion

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Sriram prabhuji
Hare Krishna

After reading the thread "An interesting episode", I thought a new thread on 'आप्त वाक्यम्' 
should be initiated.  

As per the definition of आप्त वाक्यम्  vide तर्क संग्रहः, it is 

आप्त वाक्यं शब्दः । आप्तस्तु यथार्थवक्ता  

ie., the Apta vAkya are the words of a trust-worthy person and a trust-worthy person is one who always speaks the truth and never speaks incorrect statement.  He is free from illusion, carelessness, defects of sense organs and desire of cheating others.

>  You may disagree with me but IMHO, first of all  acceptance of someone as Apta and he is free from ALL defects is itself purely subjective.  I am afraid there is no universal law which is acceptable to one and all to consider one particular person as 'Apta' or not.  Who else is the best Apta other than our Acharya bhagavatpAda for us, the advaitins?? But alas!! According to some dualists his avatAra is itself suspicious with malicious intentions !! our bhagavatpAda for them mere 'mAyAvAdi' philosopher with an intention to delude the people and he is no more Apta in their books.  Likewise we, the advaitins,  have our own reservations against the Apta-s of dualist schools :-) Hence, it is purely subjective conclusion.  And normally we tend to believe vAkyaM from these Apta-s are trustworthy only and only if these vAkyaM-s are in accordance with Agama pramANa.  And Apta vAkyaM which goes against this agama pramANa cannot be given any credentials due to the simple fact that there is no provision to trust the vAkyaM which is not in line with shruti pramANa in our orthodox vaidika tradition.  For that matter, if I am right, Apta vAkyam is NOT an independent pramANa if the vAkyM  is NOT stated in Agama / shAstra pramANa.  So, again the definition of Apta i.e.  Aptastu yathArthavaktA is a subject for good debate :-) 

Now, can the words of mahAtmAs be taken as आप्त वाक्यं even though they are beyond the read of our logic and rationality?

> mahAtma-s??  who and how daringly and sarcastically questions who have little obligation of tradition.  For him logic and rationality more important than 'andha Shraddha' in Apta vAkyaM.  

Can the आप्त वाक्यं be compared to "giving benefit of doubt" to whom we respect most?

>  again answer depends on taste and tendency of an individual who supposed to answer this question.  BTW the Apta vAkyaM and its pramANatvaM comes under which category of 6 types of pramANa i..e pratyaksha, anumAna, upamAna, arthApatti. Agama and anupalabdi ??  just curious to know. 

>  Having said all these I am not doubting the neelavarNa of nArAyaNa and blue ksheera sAgara as explained by HH with a practical example...but trying to understand the limitations of it  if it is seen with a limited frame of mind.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar