Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Veda Apoursheyatva - eternality of veda

Vyam Vedvyasaya Namaha
Sri Gurubhyo namaha
Sadagamaikvignyeyam samateetksharaksharam
Narayanam sada vande nirdoshasheshasadgunam
Why only vedas should be considered supreme authority?
Sadagamaikvignyeyam :
Bramha can only be known through Vedas .The word sadagama refers to vedas , pancharatra , moolramayana , and mahabharata and purana and other treatises which are in sync with the above.
For every work the anubandachatushtaya must exist. what are they
1. vishaya (subject of enquiry) 2.prayojana ( goal) 3.sambandha (relationship between previous two) 4.adhikarin (follower)
here 1.Narayan is the vishaya , 2.knowledge of Narayana and attaining liberation(Moksha) through this knowledge is the proyojana. 3.sajjana -all good souls are the adhikarin and relationship among these is 4.sambandha.
Vedas declare themselves as supreme authority in conveying Narayana.
some statements are:
"He who does not know Veda etc sacred scriptures will not be able to comprehend the Supreme Who possesses infinite auspicious qualities and is all pervading . Veda teaches on to attain Moksha" -------- Taittiriya Shruti
"The Knowledge of the Supreme cannot be obtained by Logic nor can it be removed by logic if already obtained . This knowledge when imparted by competent teacher leads to Vision of the Supreme" --------------------Kathak Sruti
"Nor the senses nor the inference can help comprehend Bramha , Vedas can alone enable one to comprehend HIM"----------------Pippalada Sruti
Vedas are not compositions of any individual. ie. They do not have an author.
Let us examine this statement.
Vedas as recited by learned in kashmir and the one in Kanyakumari or somewhere in Assam/ bengal or far west in Gujarat will be same. There will not be any disagreement with the vedic passages among these scholars though these scholars might never have met each other .
And all these scholars unanimously accept that there never was an author to these passages and they have been handed down revealed from time immemorial from father to son / guru to shishya etc.
In this world of copyright every single piece of useful info is patented and meticulously assigned ownership to author. and least to say how many cases are being fought in the name of royalties to known algorithms. sometime stolen or copied from others.
In such a practical scenario a content with enormous value to human being has not been claimed authorship definitely augments the case of non composition by the Humans.
But some people argue there cannot be single statement which is not composed by a Human.
Let us explore a bit more ;
The society needs moral laws . There has to be code for Dharma Adharma etc. These laws are beyond sense perception and are accepted by all religious philosophers and thinkers.
If anyone says my philosophy has nothing to do with dharma adharma , then this teacher is without any subject and a purpose. Because if people believe there is no dharma adharma, then they will become aggressive and calamity will befall society. in such situation any harm done to very teacher himself will not be considered wrong . whats' the use of such teaching which brings no good to teacher himself.
But at the same time a person cannot claim complete knowledge of dharma adharma all by himself without drawing authority from some source. else he will have to postulate many attributes like non ignorance and non deception etc unto himself. Ignorance and defects of death and birth and diseases are seen everywhere . so such a postulation is not observed in the real world. Hence concepts of dharma adhrama etc should come from a source that is not composition of individual or humans.
On the other hand if this is accepted nothing has to be postulated to accept vedas as source.
Vedas are self evident ( svatah pramana)
Knowledge is registered in our system , this is cognition.
what is validity of cognition?
A true knowledge /right knowledge is self evident!
i take a hot water bath , i feel 'hot' do i need anything else to validate this feeling of HOT!
it is self evident .
On the contrary a faulty cognition requires another agency to validate it being faulty. sometimes through inspection. Hence scrutiny is required only for invalid cognition . Valid cognition does not require validation.
Vedas are self evident its only the mind/ due to faulty thinking finds fault in it . scrutiny is required to remove certain faults of thinking (ie invalid cognition).
Vedas are eternal
Finally in sanskrit akshara ( a aa e ee u uu etc ) are eternal . they are neither created nor destroyed. sequence of these aksharas are also fixed they are not formed as a probability.
These sequences are sentences which are of fixed nature . they exist in the mind of GOD. These fixed sequences are what known as Vedas. They are revealed to the seers sages in their penance.
Sound(shabda) syllable(akshara) is the manifested in space(Akasa) -is well known. hence it can be seen .Thus this revealed knowledge is self evident because they are imperishable and covey only truth because of their impersonal nature due to lack of authorship.
Narayana is the chief purport of Vedas he is above living(jeeva) and non living(jada) being and conveyed only through Vedas - Sadagamaikvignyeyam.

in the next post we shall examine the nature of Brahma as given in Vedas

OM Om shastra yonitvat OM

srikrishnarpana