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Re: ARTICLE : Sikh view of Hinduism
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar@braincells.com> wrote in article
<ghenDy9FtM.80J@netcom.com>...
> > Secondly, the stories are not imaginative. They are fact. The orthodox
> > schools of Vedanta consider them to be historical, and this is the same
> > claim made by these scriptures themselves.
> >
>
> I should point out here that the orthodox view is that any statement in
> the shastras which is not a command (vidhi) or prohibition (nishedha) is
> arthavada which may or may not be true. Certainly down the line most if
> not all Acharyas have viewed events described in the shastras as history.
> But the purpose of the shastras is to teach dharma not history and one
> should beware of reductionist views that turn dharmashastras into mere
> history books.
As far as I can tell, this seems to be the case only in your tradition.
Perhaps I should have said, "the orthodox schools of Vaishnavism regard the
Puraanas and Itihaasas as historical (or at least, the sattvik ones)." I
was under the impresssion that this was the case in Shankara's school,
though I could be wrong.
Within Puraanas such as the Bhaagavatam, you don't find this idea of
differentiation between history and dharma or philosophy. From a Vaishnava
standpoint, the pastimes of the Lord and His devotees are important, not
just to teach us how to live, but also because they are supremely
relishable by the devotees. These scripture glorify Him, and to say that
they are merely mythological would be to say that all the glorious
activities of the Lord recorded in the scripture is simply imagination.
Also, within the Bhaagavatam itself, there are some allegorical narratives
nested within the overall plot. These nested narratives are explicitly
stated to be allegorical, so you would not expect the whole thing to be
allegorical if expicit mention was not made of that.
Finally, you have to wonder about the qualifications of someone who is
willing to present mythology as if it were history. If the events recorded
did not in fact happen, then the author would be a liar and one would have
to question the wisdom in following his teachings.
regards,
-- Krishna
