20 Jan 2016
Dr. Nikhil asked: If you give highest importance to logic than scripture, will it not lead to loss of faith in the scripture?
Shri Swami replied: What is scripture? Scripture is defined as the word of God, which is the knowledge given by God for the sake of welfare of humanity. All agree to this. But, to give word, which is preaching of knowledge, God must have mouth and throat. We have established that God is unimaginable because the substance with which God is made and the original form in which God exists are unimaginable. In such case, how can you say that God has told this or that? Even the Veda, believed as the composed scripture by God, mentions the names of sages as the composers (Rushi) of each part. This clearly shows that the sages have composed the Vedas. Lord Buddha, one of the human incarnations, also told that the Vedas are composed by human beings (devoted sages) only and hence the Vedas are called as ‘Paurusheyas’. All this is perfectly correct as one side of the concept. The other side of this topic is to believe the Vedas as scriptures composed by God and hence the Vedas are called as ‘Apaurusheyas’. There is a controversy between Buddha and Hindu tradition in this point. Instead of bringing controversy up and to conclude that Buddha and Hindu tradition differ with each other, it is always better to show the correlation between these two opposing views. The correlation is that God revealed this knowledge called the Veda to the devoted sages and these devoted sages expressed that divine knowledge in their own statements. The composer of knowledge is God and the composer of the statement expressing that knowledge is the devoted sage.
In the angle of God, the Veda is Aparusheya and in the angle of the devoted sage, the Veda is Paurusheya. Both views are correct without any contradiction. But, the meaning of statement is knowledge and this is the most important essence by which alone humanity is benefited. The language acts as a vehicle of communication only and is not so important as the knowledge. The goods in the vehicle is knowledge and the vehicle is the language. Both are necessary. The payment for the transport by vehicle is very little compared to the payment for goods indicating values.
The scripture itself says that you should analyze every statement of the scripture through scientific analysis. This does not mean that the scripture doubts about its own genuine value. The idea of the suggestion of analysis by the scripture itself is to test its every statement to ensure that it is said by God (Knowledge wise) and not inserted by some wrong scholar. Reserve Bank asks every bank to test every note of the bundle to ensure that all notes belong to Reserve Bank only. For this purpose, every note must be checked. If a note is found to be genuine note printed by Reserve Bank, the Reserve Bank should not feel that it is insulted because even the genuine note printed by it is tested! Once we found the note to be genuine, we will not test that genuine note again and again doubting the Reserve Bank itself. We know that the Reserve Bank will not print a fake note and that God will not say illogical knowledge to sages. A preliminary and final test of each note is essential to find whether the note is genuine or fake. If you get the bundle of notes directly from the press of Reserve Bank, there is no need of test. But, since the notes printed by Reserve Bank have gone in to market facing rotation for a long time, we cannot believe that every note is genuine and should not be tested by analysis. Similarly, we have not received the scripture straight from the devoted sages. The scripture given by God to sages and subsequently delivered by sages did not come to us straight from the mouths of sages. Long time has gone before we received the scripture delivered by sages. In this long time, so many insertions might have entered the scripture.
The printing technology did not exist during this long period so that we can say that the scripture delivered by sages was immediately printed and no insertions could take place. Even if it is orally preserved through recitations from generation to generation, we cannot rule out totally the possibility of insertions. If the scripture is totally genuine without any insertion, it will pass out through the test of analysis like Sita passing out the test of fire. Why should you fear for the test if it is genuine? After passing through the test of analysis, nobody will dare to say that the scripture is believed blindly by the conservative followers. This unnecessary blame on the scripture as well as on the followers can be avoided by the test. Such test will reinforce the faith in every follower especially in the absence of doubts and blames. Even the scripture like the Gita told by the human incarnations, has equal possibility of insertions and hence analysis was recommended by the Gita itself as the last word. Scripture of no religion is an exception of this concept.
Sun, the first student of the God, fell towards North,
Elder scholars praise this as precious time henceforth,
The sense lights become dim, if even precious lives sink,
Hurry, clear all your doubts as loans now and then think.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★