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 Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SriRangaSri/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: SriRangaSri-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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