heres something that might help

[Guest guest]

Although both groups of scholars have studied Sanskrit the problem occurs when the indologists/orthodox Hindus are not able to understand the verses and therefore interpret them in a faulty way. Vaisnavas on the otherhand read the verses and interpret them as they are written.

 

Let us look at the process of reading a verse: firstly one opens a page, 2. reads a verse, 3. translates its meaning and then 4. applies their own knowledge to interpret it. Now the problem occurs inbetween point 3 and 4. Usually after translating the verse if the reader does not have a proper holistic understanding of the Vedas then they get confused and at point 4 they provide a faulty interpretation of the verse. If the indologists and orthodox Hindus accepted the verses as they are then they would not be able to explain them since they lack the holistic vedic understanding. The holistic vedic understanding is documented in the darshanas such as Vedanta by Krsna Dvaipayana.

 

Let me give you an example of a verse with a idea of how the two groups of scholars will conclude.

 

// hari om // agni midhe purohitam yajnasya devam rtvijam hotaram ratna dhataram // Rg Veda Samhita 1.1.1 //

 

The above is the first verse of the Rg Veda Samhita section. Agni midhe means I propitiate the fire who is purohitam the agent of yajnasya devam the Lord of Yajna. Rtvijam hotaram means that the sacred fire is the chief amongst all priests because it directly offers our sacrifice to Yajna Purusha who is bedecked with a jewelled crown.

 

Now when the indologist/orthodox Hindus read this verse they will get confused because they will say how is it possible that Agni’s only job is to carry oblations to Yajna Purusha because Yajna Purusha is Vishnu and He is only one of the Gods. How about all the other gods?! What will happen to the business of doing fire sacrifices to all the other gods! So since they cannot accept the fact that Yajna which is another name of Vishnu is the only Supreme Lord as recipient for fire oblations they will interpret the verse as saying agni is the sacred fire that takes ones oblations to the gods. However, the word devam is in singular and not plural. If it was plural then the word will be devan. The reason why the word devam or God is in singular is because the verse states yajnasya which is singular word for yajna in shashti case meaning possessive, hence yajnasya devam means the God of Yajna. That will be how a Vaisnava would argue to explain how the verse is correct in that Lord Visnu is the Lord worshipped by the sacred fire and not others. And further we would explain then how Visnu is the Supreme Lord and it is not that other gods should be worshipped through the Vedic yajnas.

[maadhav]

very good post!

 

pleae pick a username. it helps.