Guest guest Posted December 2, 1999 Report Share Posted December 2, 1999 Namaste, Jaishankar Narayanan. This is wonderfully clear prose! What's your website URL? Namste, -- Max --------------------------- DAILY NEWS @ http://www.PhilosophyNews.com FREE EMAIL @ http://www.Philosophers.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 2, 1999 Report Share Posted December 2, 1999 Dear Friends, I am posting a portion of my website here for you all to read. with love and prayers, Jaishankar. How do we look at the Vedas? The vedas are looked upon as a 'Pramanam'. 'Prama' means valid knowledge. So Pramanam is 'Prama karanam' - a means of valid knowledge. 'Pramanam' is translated as 'Authority' by many scholars and this translation totally misses the point.Now let us see what is meant by Pramanam or means of knowledge. We all know for knowledge to take place, a Knower should be there first. Then the object to be known also should be present. Now if the Knower and Known are there, will knowledge take place? No. A third factor is necessary which is called a means of knowledge. For example let us consider that you are facing the computer monitor. Will you automatically see the words on the screen? No. You have to have a properly working eye looking at the screen. Then knowledge will take place. So eyes are the means of knowledge for seeing colors and forms. Similarly Nose is the means of knowledge for smell. Ears for sound. Tongue for taste etc. The Knowledge gained through our sense organs as a means of knowledge is called Perception. Based on Perception we can also infer different things and this Inference also is a valid means of knowledge. Like we know there is fire when we see smoke. Science as a body of knowledge is nothing but perception and different kinds of inference or Reasoning. Now there are certain important things to be understood about these pramanams or means of knowledge. 1. A means of knowledge reveals a unique field of knowledge to me. For example colors are revealed only by the eyes. No other Pramanam has access to color other than the eyes. The ear or Nose cannot prove or disprove the fact that the font you are seeing is of brown color. Now what is the implication of this? If a pramanam reveals a unique field of knowledge not accessible to other means of knowledge then there can be no proof for what it reveals. why? If no other means of knowledge has any access to what is revealed by a particular means of knowledge then how can anyone prove it. For example if your eyes reveal the color of this font as brown, there is no other proof for proving that your eyes are seeing properly. Your ears cant prove nor your tongue nor your nose etc. What about somebody else's eye? But what is the proof he is seeing correctly? This looking for proof will become regressive. In fact if we look for a proof for any cognition then no cognition can be called as knowledge because you wont find any proof and you will end up with regression. But then we do conduct our day to day life on the basis of the cognitions gained through our senses. When you see something you see that thing and also you know that you see that thing. The cognition is clinched. That means we have knowledge as soon as we see something. We dont look for any proof for the validity of that cognition. Therefore we say any cognition is valid until it is disproved or negated. This is called Self validity of knowledge. 2. A pramanam should not contradict any other known body of knowledge. If it contradicts then it loses its status as a pramanam with respect to that cognition. For example you saw a snake when the light was dim. But when you brought a torch light, it turned out to be a rope. Now with respect to the snake cognition your eyes are not a pramanam because it was negated by a later and more lasting cognition of rope. Similarly in the case of the cognition of blue sky, Stationary earth etc. We use lot of logic while analysing the Vedas only to show that what is revealed by the Veda is unique and it can neither be proved nor disproved by any other means of knowledge. There is a discipline called Miimaamsaa in our traditional studies. Miimaamsaa means Analysis. In English they call it Hermeneutics. What they do in Miimaamsaa is take each and every Vedic sentence and analyse whether what it reveals is already known. If it is already known through some other pramanam then Veda is only restating and it is called Anuvada. In this case Veda is not a pramanam. But suppose Veda is revealing that there is heaven. This statement is a 'pramana Vakyam ' or 'revealing Sentence' because Heaven is not available for perception or Inference. With respect to Heaven veda is a pramanam because heaven can neither be proved nor disproved by any other means of knowledge. When Veda is revealing the nature of the Self as limitless there are other contentions that 'Self is limited' or 'Self is of the size of the Body' or 'Self is Shunyam or non-existent' etc. Now we use logic extensively to show that all these statements are illogical. Anything illogical cannot be knowledge. But what Veda reveals is not available for logic. So we conclude that it is knowledge. Again to start with, you should have shraddha to give the status of a pramanam to Veda. Finally the proof of a pramanam is in using it and finding out for yourself whether what it reveals is true or not. It is true for every pramanam right from your eyes. I will explain this with an example. A congenitally blind person was performed an eye transplant operation and the day when they have to remove the bandage came. The patient said to the Doctor who came to remove the bandage 'Doctor, I will allow you to remove the bandage only if you can prove that my eyes will see because I cant bear the disappointment otherwise.' Can the doctor prove that the patient's eye will see? No. He can only say 'You use your eyes and see. If it sees then you see'. Similarly you use the Veda as a pramana and see. If you see then it is a Pramanam and there is no reason why you should'nt see what the veda reveals. Giving this status of Pramanam to the veda is very important because otherwise what it reveals wont be knowledge and it will only be a speculation. And with speculations you cant gain Moksha - Freedom from limitations, but with knowledge you will. But it is upto you to use the Veda as a Pramanam. That is why Krsna says " Shraddhaavaan labhathe jnanam' - 'The one with Shraddhaa gains knowledge'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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