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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00043 Sep 2006

 
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according to the puranas there are lakhs of species of humans and they come from manu. the rishis who revealed the vedas come from the mid of brahma. they are not normal humans or ones who come from manu. on the other hand other traditions are proposed by normal humans - some times a lot below normal as in the case of mohammad.
 
vedas are apoureshya because they dont have mundane authorship. the rishis reveal the vedas but they are not the creators. we do see that without training, great saints are able to reveal vedic knowledge proving that it is internal and eternal.
tatachar@xxxxxxx wrote:
Dear Sriman Sudarshan,

Thanks for sharing your observation.
I have couple of comments:

FIRST on the apourusheyatva concept:

We have made too much out of apourusheyatva of the Vedas.
If we use the word revelation- they understand apourusheya better.
After all every mantra in the Rg Veda has a RSHi associated with it.
It is considered inappropriate to utter a mantra without also invoking
RShi's name.
It was revealed to them in deep contemplation.

Our religion is served in at least 6 modes:
1. Taught directly by God in person (example: Bhagavadgita).
2. Revaled to aspirants in their deep contemplation (example Vedas +
numerous ashareera vANis).
3. Recollected by aspirants (Brahma Sutras, Puranas, itihasas, etc.)
4. Open dialog/discussion between aspirants in a close setting
(Upanishads)
5. Through the works of Innumerable number of Gurus
6. Intuition (Ramakrishna Pramahans, RamaNa MahaRshi, Rajaneesh...)

However, if we consider only Prasthana thrayas (Gita, Brahma Sutras,
Major Upanishads) they arrived by Route #1,3, and 4.

In contrast to this:
Old testament arrived by route #2; Thus Judaism by Route #2
New Testamnet arrived by Route #1: Thus Christianity by Route #1 and #2
Koran by route #2 (Just one aspirant)

Seems to me that apourusheyatva is true more so for the Abrahamic
religions than for our religion!

Thus by giving examples from their own tradition, we can explain
apourusheyatve of the Vedas.
Whole of Koran was revealed to prophet Mohammed. It is word of Allah
and
not of the Prophet. So the Prophet here is just like our Vedic RSHi.
They offer prayers to Allah and not to the Prophet.
Likewise Moses and host of Prophets in the Bible. God spoke to them
(revealed to them). Like their Ten commandments were given to moses by
Jehova
and Moses put it to pen (he wrote the first 5 books of the Old
Testament).
They don't bow to Moses or Abraham, rather to God of Abraham!
Jesus is God in flesh who taught. He is the only example in the
Abrahamic
religions. We have Krishna, God in flesh who gave us Bhagavadgita,
we do have numerous other instances of god appearing in flesh.


SECOND on their ignorance an dour wide knowledge:

>>>In comparison, the average
Indian mind's knowledge of Christianity or Buddhism, I
would venture to say, is almost encyclopaedic.<<

Just another way of looking at the situation!

My general observation is that the Hindus on the whole have very little
comprehension of any religion,
including Hinduism. We know Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, Christmas, Id etc.,
because Muslims and Christians were
our masters. A dAsa naturally knows more about the master, than the
other way. For quite some time, we are
only preoccupied with defending our lands, even as we speak, let alone
not conquor any new territories.
When they say Christmas, Id or Hanukkah, we say festival of lights!
Now we wonder how come we Hindus know Christmas,
but the Westerbers haven't heard of Deepavali, Srijayanti or Andal
ThiruvAdipooram.

An average Muslim, Jew or Christian at least has better understanding
of essentials of their respective faiths.
They can explain to anybody in under 5 minutes the essentials of their
faith, without making excuses
or sounding defensive. Try to get a Hindu explain Hinduism in a
comprehensive manner and do justice to Hinduism
at the same time. Let alone common folks, even our best scholars and
Achaaryas can not do this. At the best they
may be able to explain a particular sub sub-sect of Hinduism and
proclaim that as the whole truth. Even
that they can not explain to a novice.

There are more noteworthy Western scholars of Hinduism (including the
few you have mentioned), whom we
quote widely, than you can find a noteworthy Hindu scholar of Western
religions. M.K. Gandhi said he did not
see any difference between Koran and Bhagavadgita (many run of the mill
Hindus echo this conclusion);
I have never heard a Muslim, Christian or Jew or any western scholar
who makes such claims!
Thus, you may say that Hindus have a broader knowledge even if it is
wrong.
I would any time take a Muslim, Christian, or a Jew who says he has not
heard of Vedas or Bhagavadgita
than a Hindu who says there is no difference beyween Vedas, Gita, Bible
and Koran.

I have pondered on how to explain Hinduism in a concise manner to
anybody and have put together
three levels of presentations.
1. HINDUISM PDF
2. AEIOUY PDF
3. Hinduism presentation PDF

Hope the bhagavathas will find it beneficial.
This is a working document- any feed back to improvise it i smuch
appreciated.

dAsan

K.S. tAtAchAr





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