[Advaita-l] Re: logic and shastra

[V. Krishnamurthy]

Namaste

Congratulations to Amuthan Arunkumar for a very good post 
http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2005-June/015403.html
summarizing the discussion so far. 

The following paragrahs are excellent.

"only the axioms can be tested (indirectly). but the
undefined terms, by their very nature, cannot be
understood by this analysis for obvious reasons.  

now, applying the above "scientific" method to the
vedAnta, it is enough to note that the undefined terms
here, however greatly we may delude ourselves to the
contrary, are "Atman", "brahman", "chit", "mAyA" etc.
(i have not really attempted a formal axiomatic
construction of vedAnta and hence i don't claim
completeness in the above list. nevertheless, the
terms above which are stated as undefined seem correct
to me.) the axioms of vedAnta are the Sruti vAkya-s.
the logical analysis of the Sruti uses the 5 pramANa-s
that have been mentioned by SrI mahesh ursekar (and
quoted above). given this, the last sentence of the
previous paragraph, the impossiblity of understanding
the undefined terms like "Atman" etc. through such a
method  of logical analysis, is clear. this should be
a sufficient response to SrI mahesh's view (quoted
above) "
"to conclude, the best method(-this is again a personal
view) to test the Sruti vAkya-s to check if it can be
"thrown out of the window" is by direct experience
through self-introspection (Atma vichAra) and not the
use of logical analysis alone, though the latter can
be used as a tool to convince (or more precisely, to
delude :-) ) oneself in the process". 

PraNAms to all seekers of Truth
profvk



Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

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