On Oct 16, 2008, at 1:49 AM, nablusoss1008 wrote:
The "buddhists" on this list do not want to hear that the Vedas are
the eternal song of nature.
They want books to cling on to, keeping them occupied with
hairsplitting analysis.
I always liked the way Alain Danielou, a lineal descendent of Guru Dev
put it:
"The Sacred Books
As we have seen, writing is an urban phenomenon, characteristic of the
Kali Yuga. To freeze the teachings of "prophets" in books regarded as
sacred is to paralyze the spirit of research; it fixes so-called
established truths and tends to create blind faith instead of the
search for knowledge. The nature of knowledge is to evolve. Like other
aspects of the human being, it knows periods of progress and decline.
The teaching of the Rishi(s) is a living thing that enables the
species to realize its role at various stages of its evolution. It can
only be transmitted by initiation through qualified individuals. The
fixation in writings of the visions and perceptions of Seers, which
represent the forms of knowledge necessary at a certain moment of the
evolution of the species, whether it be a matter of cosmological,
scientific, religious, or moral ideas, presents grave risks. The
sacred book valid for all time and all people is a fiction.
The new Sâmkhya sometimes replaces the word Agama (tradition) by the
word Veda (from the root vid, knowledge) to represent permanent
information (akshara), the plan that is at the basis of all aspects of
creation, the object of all research, all science, all metaphysics,
all true knowledge. Taken in this sense, the word Vedä has nothing to
do with the religious texts known by this name. The notion of Vedä
represents the belief in a universal law, the object of knowledge.
This implies the acceptance of the idea that there exists divine order
of the world of which it is possible to have a fragmentary glimpse, an
"approach" (upanishad), even though this order remains on the whole
unknowable. No one can pretend to possess the "truth" in any domain. A
dogmatic teaching can be neither scientifically nor philosophically
nor morally justifiable.
The advent of writing has allowed for the substitution of conceptions
of religious or social reformers, in the guise of inspired prophets,
for the teachings of the Seers. This has oven birth to the religions
of the book that characterize the Kali Yuga.
The superstition of the written word is an obstacle to the
development of knowledge in the domain of scientific or religious
information. The religions of the book have been one of the most
effective instruments of man's decadence during the course of the Kali
Yuga and have been used by urban oligarchies, both religious and
secular, as instruments of domination.
To take texts, whether called Vedä, Bible, or Koran, as an expression
of reality or of divine will is puerile and dangerous. This is part of
the antireligion which lowers the concept of the divine to the human
scale."
I couldn't agree more (boldface, mine).
