Scriptures: What do they mean?
Scriptures are a source of great inspiration and also of great enduring controversies. Many people have based their criticism of religion on the scriptures of that religion. What is the status of scriptures in hinduism? Are they something written in stone? or can they be 'adopted' to suit the society at the current times?
First of all, let me state two things that have been proved by many scholars (once I give the facts I can prove, then I can talk of my opinions!)
One, not all scriptures are equal. For example, all the scriptures are categorised into two classes : shruti and smriti. Of these, shurti(those which are handed down based on set metre, word order etc etc..in presence of a teacher and have an exact word order and intonation which cannot be modified under any circumstances..therefore upanishads(means one which is instructed by sitting close) belong to this category) are considered higher than smriti (one which are passed down based on recollections hence by implication, they could be modified according to the people reciting them). All upanishads and vedas belong to shrutis category. One of the most famous smritis is manu smriti..the book that lays rules for conduct of man.
Two, hinduism views dharma as being of three kinds. Sanatana dharma(one that is eternal and remains valid under all states of universe), Yuga dharma (One that is valid for that particular yiga or time period) and Kala dharma(one that is valid for the specific circumstances).
Whenever there is any conflict between the teachings/rules, sanatana dharma takes precedence over yuga dharma which overrides kala dharma. Further more, santana dharma is the smallest set and leaves a lot of specific things unanswered. Yuga dharma expands on them and kala dharma is still more expansive. See the logic here? Its kind of nucleus around which layers of definitions are added.
No, by discussing the dharma, Iam not digressing here..the scriptures are meant to be a guide to dharma therefore it is important to understand what shrutis and smritis address.
Shrutis address the sanatana dharma, whereas smritis deal with the issues of yuga and kala dharma.
Now when we look at the scriptures in this light, we can realise that we cannot criticise the whole of hinduism just because of some scriptures. Manusmriti for instance strongly advocates a caste based system and also discriminates heavily against women. Because it was told for someother time in history, we will be stupid to exactly follow all those things in the present society when we need different set of rules. But the teachings of upanishads (shrutis) still remain valid no matter where we are and what we become.
One of the other things that comes to my mind is the rule in some shastra(again a smriti) that forbids Brahmins(priestly class in the four class society of Manu) from going overseas! They say since ocean is an untouchable (I dont know where on earth this came from) a brahmin is not supposed to travel in ocean! But then, older texts extoll those very waters as the life giver and talked gloriously of people going overseas! I think this is an example of people subverting the shastras for their own mean purposes.
When dealing with smritis it is important to remember one other fact: Many medieval works used older sanskrit and superimposed their work on some older person in an older epic to derive authority. For all we know, some of the smritis might have been written much later than they claim to be!
After all this, these days I dont read any smritis. I just fall back upon my favourites...Upanishads. But wait a minute, does that mean we can junk all the smritis and start teaching shrutis to everyone? I dont think so...the process of gaining spiritual knowledge(Entirley different from becoming spiritual!!) I strongly believe, is like education we obtain. If you show differential equation to a third grade kid, all that he will see is a bunch of alphabets and some +,-,/ and = signs. But show the same thing to a XII class fellow, he will see a differential equation. Now show the same thing to a prof(I mean a good prof!) he will see a description of a physical system in that equation. Similar is the case with religious knowledge.
Hence, I feel it might not be prudent to talk about all the abstract concepts of shrutis (upanishads etc) with everyone you meet!! You might be given the look of a bewildered third grade kid who might think you have gone crazy!
First of all, let me state two things that have been proved by many scholars (once I give the facts I can prove, then I can talk of my opinions!)
One, not all scriptures are equal. For example, all the scriptures are categorised into two classes : shruti and smriti. Of these, shurti(those which are handed down based on set metre, word order etc etc..in presence of a teacher and have an exact word order and intonation which cannot be modified under any circumstances..therefore upanishads(means one which is instructed by sitting close) belong to this category) are considered higher than smriti (one which are passed down based on recollections hence by implication, they could be modified according to the people reciting them). All upanishads and vedas belong to shrutis category. One of the most famous smritis is manu smriti..the book that lays rules for conduct of man.
Two, hinduism views dharma as being of three kinds. Sanatana dharma(one that is eternal and remains valid under all states of universe), Yuga dharma (One that is valid for that particular yiga or time period) and Kala dharma(one that is valid for the specific circumstances).
Whenever there is any conflict between the teachings/rules, sanatana dharma takes precedence over yuga dharma which overrides kala dharma. Further more, santana dharma is the smallest set and leaves a lot of specific things unanswered. Yuga dharma expands on them and kala dharma is still more expansive. See the logic here? Its kind of nucleus around which layers of definitions are added.
No, by discussing the dharma, Iam not digressing here..the scriptures are meant to be a guide to dharma therefore it is important to understand what shrutis and smritis address.
Shrutis address the sanatana dharma, whereas smritis deal with the issues of yuga and kala dharma.
Now when we look at the scriptures in this light, we can realise that we cannot criticise the whole of hinduism just because of some scriptures. Manusmriti for instance strongly advocates a caste based system and also discriminates heavily against women. Because it was told for someother time in history, we will be stupid to exactly follow all those things in the present society when we need different set of rules. But the teachings of upanishads (shrutis) still remain valid no matter where we are and what we become.
One of the other things that comes to my mind is the rule in some shastra(again a smriti) that forbids Brahmins(priestly class in the four class society of Manu) from going overseas! They say since ocean is an untouchable (I dont know where on earth this came from) a brahmin is not supposed to travel in ocean! But then, older texts extoll those very waters as the life giver and talked gloriously of people going overseas! I think this is an example of people subverting the shastras for their own mean purposes.
When dealing with smritis it is important to remember one other fact: Many medieval works used older sanskrit and superimposed their work on some older person in an older epic to derive authority. For all we know, some of the smritis might have been written much later than they claim to be!
After all this, these days I dont read any smritis. I just fall back upon my favourites...Upanishads. But wait a minute, does that mean we can junk all the smritis and start teaching shrutis to everyone? I dont think so...the process of gaining spiritual knowledge(Entirley different from becoming spiritual!!) I strongly believe, is like education we obtain. If you show differential equation to a third grade kid, all that he will see is a bunch of alphabets and some +,-,/ and = signs. But show the same thing to a XII class fellow, he will see a differential equation. Now show the same thing to a prof(I mean a good prof!) he will see a description of a physical system in that equation. Similar is the case with religious knowledge.
Hence, I feel it might not be prudent to talk about all the abstract concepts of shrutis (upanishads etc) with everyone you meet!! You might be given the look of a bewildered third grade kid who might think you have gone crazy!
posted by atma_tripta at 7:58 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home