This is an important point right here below. Smriti is where the rubber hits the road.
By totally ignoring them because we find certain aspects in them problematic we are slowly and steadily inching towards "anything goes" Hinduism.
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By totally ignoring them because we find certain aspects in them problematic we are slowly and steadily inching towards "anything goes" Hinduism.
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Was reading these lines from Adi Shankaracharya's Bhashyam of Brahmasutra (3.1.25) the other day. It got me thinking. One often encounters such lines in multiple places in traditional literature. Krishna says the same in Gita as well on Sastras.
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In here Shankaracharya's Bhashyam is clear on the primacy of Sastras/Scriptures in deciding what is Dharma and what is Adharma.
Check the attached picture from Swami Gambhirananda's translation of Shankara Bhashya.
Advaita Ashrama/RK Math publication
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Check the attached picture from Swami Gambhirananda's translation of Shankara Bhashya.
Advaita Ashrama/RK Math publication
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Translation in Telugu by Acharya Pullela Sriramachandrudu. Needless to say the Telugu commentary is a lot more palatable to me.
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So while we carelessly use the word Dharma as a catch-all word today in various contexts tradition has a clear guidance on deciding what is Dharma and what is Adharma
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Sastra primacy is for real. Not to confuse with book religions though. We have multiple interpretations, revisions and Sastra-Lokachara samanvaya (Harmony / Synthesis between laws and customs)
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Nevertheless it is clear that it is not "anything goes".
There are so many Adi Shankaracharya fanboys on this side of Hindu discourse who also "cancel" Sastras in the same breath as later day distortions or interpolations by wily evil Brahminical hegemony.
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There are so many Adi Shankaracharya fanboys on this side of Hindu discourse who also "cancel" Sastras in the same breath as later day distortions or interpolations by wily evil Brahminical hegemony.
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By calling constitution as a Smriti and saying Dharma is Individualism (Muh Dharma Muh Choice) we are only making a joke of our own tradition.
For the love of God let us not use the word Dharma to describe our current way of life!
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For the love of God let us not use the word Dharma to describe our current way of life!
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This is a big giant sized hole in contemporary Hindu discourse. We are all over the place on this.
High time we engage with our own Acharya Parampara and high time traditional Acharyas also engage on this with equal rigour.
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High time we engage with our own Acharya Parampara and high time traditional Acharyas also engage on this with equal rigour.
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We have to wriggle out of this together or resign to the fact that Sanatana Dharma is outdated. However ridiculous that may sound. We should just accept that Sanatana Dharma is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for what we consider as good life today and move on!
/End
/End
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