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Re: Indian Legends (Was: Re: Shiva and Vishnu)
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To: alt-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: Indian Legends (Was: Re: Shiva and Vishnu)
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From: mpt@mail.utexas.edu (michael tandy)
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Date: 21 Jul 1995 05:56:04 GMT
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From news@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu Fri Jul 21 01: 44:13 1995
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
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References: <3um2r2$r53@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
In article <3um2r2$r53@babbage.ece.uc.edu>, Anshuman Pandey <apandey@u.washington.edu> says:
>It seems that most of the quotes given by those pushing Vaisnava
>philosophy always put the word Visnu or Krsna in paranthesis after the
>word brahman or prajapati or some other supreme being appears.
You may have heard of the Vishnu-sahasra-nama-stotram;
Vishnu has at least 1,000 names, and one of them is 'Isha.'
Prajapati is also one of these. Is there a problem?
One strange thing I've noticed is that
>my copy Isopanishad - which is from ISKCON - makes no mention of Krsna
>or Visnu, but does so only in the summaries presented by Prabhupada.
That is the language typical of the Upanishads--neuter
pronouns. It isn't wrong because Krishna is also the
Brahma and atman mentioned in the Upanishads. Judging
from the language alone, one could easily conclude that
no such being as Krishna even exists. Many half-educated
dabblers in Hinduism do just that, but authoritative
Hindu tradition is different; one must receive knowledge
from a time-honored tradition of saints--only then can one
be assured of an accurate understanding of the Upanishads,
or for that matter, any other literature.
Since every tradition has its siddhanta, or philosophical
conclusion, it is natural that each will approach the text
in question through the eyes of that traditional conclusion.
This is not only proper, but in fact imperative, for we have
little authority to independantly meddle in that which can
hardly be fathomed even by the greatest of sages. So it shouldn't
be surprising if that is how Srila Prabhupada comments upon a
text like the Isha Upanishad; he is faithfully representing the
parampara that has given him his authority.
Who is your sponsor, and what is your claim to authority?
Respectfully,
-m