Posted on: 06 Oct 2020
[The weekly spiritual discussion (satsaṅga) in English took place online on October 3, 2020 with about 45 members. Dr. Nikhil, Devi, Surya, Ganesh, Anil, Pavan, Suganya, Bharat, Lakshman, Ajay etc., participated and their questions were answered by Swami directly. Some of them are presented below.]
[Among Śruti (Veda), smṛti (secondary scriptures), yukti (logic) and anubhava (experience), which is the highest? Can You also please provide the justification for the same?]
Swami replied: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! Logic is the highest authority. Even experience cannot be taken as the final authority because a person having a defect in the eyes sees two moons in the sky (Netrataimirika-doṣasya dvicandra darśanavat). But of course, that cannot be taken as authority because logic says that the experience of many people having no defect in their eyes alone should be taken as the authority. Even Śaṅkara mentioned logic among the four necessary qualities for a spiritual seeker (Sadasadvivekaḥ). He did not mention the other authorities because it is logic that proves what is the truth and what is not the truth. If you logically analyze whatever you have heard from scripture or from the divine preacher and arrive at the conclusion, your inner consciousness gets perfectly convinced. Instead, if you just accept something without logic, even if it is the statement of God as recorded in the Veda, there is some force in that acceptance. Your consciousness does not get completely satisfied in the absence of logical analysis. Even God Kṛṣṇa told Arjuna to analyze the entire Gītā told by Him before accepting it (Vimṛśyaitadeśeṣeṇa...). Self-satisfaction comes only through self-analysis. If you are incapable of carrying out the analysis independently, you can always take the help of some scholar in the analysis.
One possible objection is that logic too is not perfect and that it has its own defects.
Sage Vyāsa explains that the main defect of logic is that it does not remain constant with time (Tarkā'pratiṣṭhānāt...—Brahma Sūtram). Today, one person establishes a concept and tomorrow somebody else discards it and replaces it with better logic. But because of that you cannot not say that logic is not a standard authority. If you leave logic, what is the basis for finding the truth? Which other authority can you use to find out the truth? Tomorrow, when some person discards today’s theory and establishes the truth, that person too is using logic alone after all! It only means that today’s theory was the result of an imperfect logical analysis.
If you take science, which is also basically logic that is backed with experimental proof, established theories keep changing over the course of time. Until the truth is found, the logical analysis should continue. That is called research. Even though we know that today’s theory might not be final and that there is a possibility of it being disproved tomorrow, there is no need to reject or doubt it. Until it is disproved, we have to believe the latest theory. Do we not know that while travelling in a train there is a possibility of meeting with an accident? Do we stop travelling by train because of that? Moreover, there are some theories, which are not proved to be false even after a very very long span of time. Is it not possible that the present theory might belong to that category and may stand true forever. One should not be a doubting Thomas!
Another idea is to consider the Veda has the highest authority since the Veda has been given by God and it is the most uncorrupted among all scriptures. It has been preserved by passing it from generation to generation through oral recitation.
We perfectly agree with this idea because God is omniscient and His words are most true. The issue is that the same words of God can be interpreted in different ways by different scholars. The words of the Veda were certainly transferred from one generation to the other, over a very long time without corruption. But the true meaning of those words, as given by God, was not transferred. If that true interpretation had also been transferred, we could have simply followed that interpretation and treated it to be the ultimate authority! The Veda means knowledge (vidul-jñāne) and not mere words as the the atheistic Pūrva Mīmāṃsakas think (Vedavādaratāḥ pārtha nānyadastīti vādinaḥ—Gītā). So, the debate between various interpretations of the Veda through logical analysis is inevitable. Hence, logic alone stands as the final authority. Kṛṣṇa and Śaṅkara too acknowledged this fact, as told above.
Keywords:
| Shri Datta Swami | Which is the highest authority in spiritual knowledge among the Veda, other scriptures, logic and experience? | Shruti Netrataimirika doshasya dvichandra darshanavat Vinrishyaitadesheshena Sadasadvivekah Vinrishyaitadesheshena Gita Giita GiitaaTarkaapratishthanat Brahma Sutram Vedavaadarataah paartha naanyadastiti vaadinah vidul-jnaane Krishna Shankara