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Since Ramakrishnan is taking a vacation, let me answer on his behalf for
the time being. I'm sure he will answer you in detail after he comes
back. There is no contradiction in his viewpoint. If you quote most
often from the Puranas, you will never know whether you are
contradicting the Vedas or not. It is up to those who quote Puranas to
back up their contentions by a proper exegesis of Sruti. If the Purana
quoter does not want to learn Sruti first, there is no reason to explain
about mImAmsA to him.
That Puranas may be acceptable so long as they do not contradict the
Vedas does not confer the same legitimacy to the Puranas as enjoyed by
the Vedas. Any genuine Vedantic school has to first abide by Sruti, and
only then may smRti be referred to. A school which quotes more often
from Puranic texts than from the Upanishads is rightfully held in
suspicion regarding its claim to being Vedanta. You may recollect that
even other Vaishnavas did not consider that Gaudiya Vaishnavism was
Vedanta, which prompted Baladeva Vidyabhushana to write a commentary on
the Brahmasutras. Ramakrishnan's comment is just an observation that
Gaudiyas tend to stick more often to Puranas than to tenets of Vedic
exegesis. In my opinion, his comment is quite warranted. Frankly, I
don't see why every Vaishnava needs to be a Vedantin. The two terms are
not synonymous, you know. You can quote extensively from Puranas and be
a Vaishnava or a Saiva or a Sakta or a Tantrik. But you cannot give
Puranas an equal footing as pramANa with the Sruti, and be a Vedantin.
> In order to make that assertion, you would have to conclusively
> show that such reliance on the puraanas leads to conclusions which are in
> contradiction to the Vedas, as per your definition of the "position of all
> genuine vedantic schools."
Not so. The burden of proof is on the one who only quotes Puranas, not
the other way round. You have to show that quoting from a Purana does
not lead to contradiction of Sruti. Ramakrishnan does not have to show
the opposite. Please also remember that your classification of Sattvik
Puranas vs. others is not worth much when talking about agreement with
Sruti. For those who want you to base yourself upon Sruti, all Puranas
are at an equal footing; whether you call one particular text Sattvik or
not is immaterial.
S. Vidyasankar
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