Excerpts from Sarva-samvadini on sastra and reasoning

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ISKCON Cultural Journal

A commentary on the culture, views and progress of the International Society

for Krishna Consciousness.

 

June 28, 2004

Excerpts from Sarva-samvadini on sastra and reasoning

 

What follows is excerpts from Sarva-samvadini of Srila Jiva Gosvami along

with a translation [1] and my notes.

 

These excerpts deal with reliability of sastra and the role of (human)

reasoning vis-a-vis accepting knowledge from the sastra.

---

 

There are some statements in sastra which appear to contradict human sense

perception. Srila Jiva Gosvami first presents a sample of such statements:

 

TEXT: nanu vede 'pi "gravanah plavante", "mrd abravid apo 'bruvan"

ity-adi-darsanad anaptatvam iva pratiyate.

 

TRANSLATION: [One might ask:] "We see even in the Vedas [satapatha Brahmana

6.1.3.2, 4] statements like 'The stones float' and 'The ground spoke and the

water spoke,' which seem to indicate that the Vedas are unreliable."

 

NOTE: In other words, the statements of sastra seem to contradict our sense

perception. So aren't these statements indicate that the Vedas are

unreliable? The answer, as we shall see is "no". All statements of the

Vedas, including the above quoted ones, are reliable. How it is so will be

explained here.

 

TEXT: ucyate, karma-visesangi-bhutanam gravnam virya-vardhanaya stutir iyam.

 

TRANSLATION: This we answer -- this praise of the stones is for the purpose

of increasing the potency of the stones, which serve a role in a particular

ritual.

 

TEXT: sa ca sri-rama-kalpita-setu-bandhadau prasiddhatvena yatha-vad eveti

na dosah.

 

TRANSLATION: And this is indeed feasible, since it is well known that the

same sort of address to stones occurred in such contexts as the building of

the bridge which was arranged by Sri Rama. Thus there is no fault in this

praise.

 

NOTE: In other words, the statement in sastra, "the stones float" is true as

is proved in particular cases such as when Lord Ramacandra built a bridge of

floating stones. In other words, Lord Ramacandra proved the truth of the

Vedic statement, "The stones float."

 

TEXT: tatha, "mrd abravid apo 'bruvan" ity-adau tat-tad-abhimani-devataiva

vyapadisyata iti jneyam.

 

TRANSLATION: And in statements like "The ground spoke", "the water spoke,"

we should understand that the demigods presiding over these elements are

being referred to.

 

NOTE: This is commonly known among sampradayic scholars of sastra.

 

 

To see the rest of the text see:

 

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