[Advaita-l] Scholarly Article on Why Vedas are Valid

Rajaram Venkataramani rajaramvenk at gmail.com
Tue Oct 18 04:15:29 CDT 2011


Shri Omkar, while Prof. Witzel, Prof. Madhavrao Deshpande are
anti-Hindu and work with missinary agenda, there are a number of
academicians who are objective and even pro-Hindu. There are
academicians at Oxford who are Hare Krishna devotees.

But even for those who are objective, there is no scholarly paper
defending the traditional position that Vedas are valid as a source of
knowledge and not just the opinion of few rishis in the past.

On 17/10/2011, Omkar Deshpande <omkar_deshpande at yahoo.com> wrote:
> <<< Based on historical , astronomical,textual and lingusitic analysis, many
> scholars have argued that they are
>
> less than a few thousand years old.... On this topic, the best argument,
> albeit naescent, isthe axiomatic truth concept proposed by Shri
> Vidyasankar >>>
>
> I agree with this comment. ApauruSheyatva is not justifiable from more
> fundamental self-evident premises using modern methods of logic and
> evidence. But I don't agree with this:
>
> <<< If you can write a
> scholarly article and debate successfully in front of anti-Hindu professors
> at Harvard, Oxford etc....>>>
>
> While the need for a scholarly article is there, it would not be correct to
> generalize that professors at Harvard, Oxford, etc are anti-Hindu. I'm not
> sure if you have particular examples in mind, but I suggest that to
> reconsider the above generalization, you can look at Oxford faculty Nick
> Sutton's lectures online from the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, or read
> Harvard faculty Diana Eck's books (or Mark Muesse's recent textbook on The
> Hindu Traditions). I have heard many lectures from the Oxford Centre for
> Hindu Studies by different faculty and guest speakers, and they are quite
> sympathetic to Hinduism in nature (many scholars from there are also
> practitioners of some kind). Now, some of them may not be sympathetic to
> advaita in particular, or to specific doctrinal beliefs in various
> traditions (apauruSheyatva being a good example) but this does not mean they
> are all 'anti-Hindu'. Hinduism is a diverse family of traditions, and it is
> generally not so
>  easy to take a stance that goes against ALL Hindu traditions. Of course,
> it's difficult to find a tradition that is fully compatible with the
> evolutionary theory, but then, those who give evolutionary accounts don't
> give it because they are "anti-Hindu". They give it because they find it a
> good scientific theory, and there are certain contemporary Hindu gurus who
> accept evolutionary theory, as well as a recent origin for the Vedas,
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Omkar
>
>
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