Hari OM
'Freedays' are the 'gather our thoughts' days; Q&As; a general review of the week so far…
The point about the origin of the scriptures came up in yesterday's post on the SadaacharaH. It can be a contentious point, what is given 'by God' and what is merely the work of Man, albeit at a very high level. The speciality of comparison here at AV-bloggy is between the Sanskrit and the Biblical teachings. Let us look at these.
The books of the Bible are known to be authored. It is a continued argument among apologeticists, archaeologists and academics as to the writing of the Pentateuch (first five books) regarding how much was written by Moses, who is generally considered to be the author of these. Biblical devotees, Jews and Christians, believe that the words were 'dictated' to Moses by God on Mt Sinai. There are many references in other books of 'inspiration of God' being given for the laying down of laws or writing the books. Careful study of semantics, though, tends to point to the writing of the books of the Bible in a historical context; the third person, past tense and so on. This includes the Pentateuch.
Without fail, the references to God are also in the third person. God is seen as an entity separate from all that is seen. There is an authority given to God which is purely human in nature.
In the New Testament, the teachings of Yeshu point strongly to his having spent his missing fourteen years in India learning the philosophy of Vedanta, and He obviously understood it was universal and could be utilised to help His own people to live differently, and to view their relationship with 'God' differently. For those who were spiritually advanced enough, it could be found that the 'kingdom of the Lord' referred to moksha/nirvana. For those not yet ready, it was still a desirable goal, couched in terms of heaven. When He offered the bread and wine as tools by which to remember Him, he was pointing to the Eternal Presence of Aatman. The thing is, though, Yeshu didn't author any of the books which tell His story; that was done by the disciples and sometimes a long time after events.
The point here is that the Bible fits into what in Sanskrit would be called 'smRti' - 'remembered words'. The writings are produced by Man, albeit with some inspiration. Inspiration itself might be considered to be the 'voice of God', but at all times it is apparent throughout the Bible that ownership is taken for the writings by one or other human.
SmRti texts in Sanskrit are items such as the Dharma-suutra, Mahaabhaarata and the Ramaayana (the last two also being classified as itihaasa, 'histories'. These are still considered scriptural insofar as they provide sound advice on the practical matters of daily life. Authorship is known and attributed.
Shruti - 'given words' - are the Vedas and, specifically, the Upanishads. In these are contained the Sacred Knowledge of That which is All. The Higher Existence - HE. At no time in any of the shruti is the HE given gender or even a material representation. OM is the only form. However, for Mankind to find its way to this extreme principal of existence, there needed to be representations with which it could identify. Thus the different levels of 'God', resulting in an apparent plethora of gods. There are no authors nor any attributions of the shruti. Not even to 'God'.
The shruti just 'is', in the same manner that HE just 'IS' (Inner Self).
