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Re: Animal-Killing, and Soul-Merging Condemned
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To: soc-religion-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Re: Animal-Killing, and Soul-Merging Condemned
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From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <vidya@cco.caltech.edu>
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Date: Sun, 11 Feb 1996 06:24:19 -0800
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
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References: <4f6deg$ea3@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4f93d6$d25@babbage.ece.uc.edu> <4fj60c$kii@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
Hari Krishna Susarla wrote:
>
> In article <4fecr0$7jm@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
> gmadras@pinto.engr.ucdavis.edu (Giri) wrote:
>
> >>>1. According to the Vedas, Shankara was an incarnation of Lord Shiva.
> >
> >>This is mentioned in Shiva and Padma Puranas.
> >
> > PuraNas are not vedas.
>
> Puraanas are not to be to be thought of as less than the Vedas, however. In
> Chandogya Upanishads, they are considered by Naarada Muni to be the Fifth
> Veda. In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Puranas, along with the Itihaasas and
> Vedas are said to have been breathed out by the Absolute Truth.
>
Here we go again. It is wholly ungrammatical to translate the chAndogya
upanishad to mean that the puranas are the fifth veda. Narada in the
chAndogya, says no such thing. "vedAnAm veda:" means "the veda
(knowledge) of the vedas" i.e. that by which the vedas are understood,
meaning vyAkaraNa - grammar. As for the br.hadAraNyaka, the whole
universe, whatever that exists, is considered to be breathed out by the
Absolute Truth, in the sense that "sarvam khalvidam brahma". There is no
reason why you should take this to mean that the Puranas are given some
special status along with the vedas. The specific reference in the
br.hadAraNyaka also mentions a bunch of other things that were breathed
out of the Absolute Truth.
If you want to understand what is veda i.e. Sruti and what is not, and
what is the status of itihAsapurANam, you have to go back to the
mImAmsA- and brahma- sUtras. Nowhere within the centuries old tradition
is the name "fifth veda" given to a specific Purana or to the whole
collection of Puranas. On the other hand, "fifth veda" is a courtesy
designation of the Mahabharata, which is not a purANa. A courtesy
designation of "fifth veda" is also sometimes given to such diverse
fields as Ayurveda, music and archery in order to eulogize something. It
has no significance in granting this courtesy "fifth veda" the status of
revealed scripture.
S. Vidyasankar
