SRUTI AND SMRUTI--3

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Sruti constitutes the essential core of spiritual truths in Hindu Religion. These spiritual truths are impersonal and not invented or written by any living being(apauruseya), and therefore , universal. They were discovered by the 'scientists of religion', the mystics, the sages,seers(RISHIS,Mantra Drashtas). The authenticity of these truths lies in their being experienced by spiritual experimenters (sadhakas) and in their being capable of re-verification by others. Swamy Vivekananda in his address at the Chicago Parliamaent of religions in 1893 explained the authenticity of the Vedas in the following wordsQuoteBy the Vedas no books are meant; they mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and spiritual relation between soul and soul, and between individual spirit and the Father of all spirits, were there before their discovery, and would remain even if we forgot them. The discoverers of these laws are called rsis(sages), and we honour them as perfected beings. I am glad to tell this

audience that some of the very greatest of them were women.UnquoteThe above-mentioned description of eternal truths is relevant only with respect to the sruti constituent of Hinduism. The one difference between Hinduism and other religions is that this distinction between the universality of the sruti and the limited relevance of the smruti is fully recognised and applied; and that social innovators and religious prophets are honoured and followed. And for this blessing, Hinduism owes it to its immortal literature of the Upanishads, which is all sruti and with no touch of smruti. They are the only sacred books, both within

Hinduism and outside of it, which addressed themselves exclusively to the discovery of spiritual truths and to leading men, irrespective of caste, creed and race, to their realization in human life, and to the creation, in India, of a dynamic and healthy climate of active toleration and harmony as the inalienable characteristic of Indian culture, religion and life.(to be continued)G.Balasubramanian