Dear Sri Kasturi Rangan, I have a small suggestion here based on my little analysis. Kindly see if it makes any sense. If you really only go by number of hymns dedicated to praise of Indra in say Rigveda, as we understand it today, Indra should be ultimate god of Vedas. Obviously there should have been a reasonably strong theistic tradition existing today which has Indra as the ultimate diety. There doesn't seem to be one. There does not seem to be evidence of one such tradition existing at least since composition of Mahabharata. Same is the case with many other dieties of Vedic pantheon. This strikes me odd. Probably it may mean that it was not the way our ancestors understood Vedas. Another important point one should keep in mind, in my opinion, is that there has always been an unbroken chain of interpretative tradition existing in learning and propagation of Veda and its supplimentary texts.Exposition of meaning of Vedic texts has always been in the context of this interpretative tradition. As I see it the interpretative tradition of Vissitadvaita/ Srivaishnava as expounded by SriRamanuja goes back to Bodhayana who was a direct disciple of Sri Vedavyasa. My humble opinion is that if we have to really find how our Purvacharyas upheld Narayana paratvam one should probably explore the roots of our tradition (assuming one needs to do this at all). I feel that any other way of trying to decipher Vedic texts only from the meaning of Sanskrit words as we know today may not help much. By the way, I do not have any special grudge against western indologists (hidden agenda does not trouble me much), except that they have definitely not given due importence to interpretative tradition of Veda and Vedanta in their quest to understand Vedic texts. This does not look really scholarly to me. By the way, I feel that our Purvacharyas conviction of Narayana paratva is based more on Upanishad texts than the Samhitas.May be one can see whole thing only in the light of Vedanta as we any way believe that importence of karam mimansa is more in karma. I know I have not really made any body wiser by this note. Just to share some stray thoughts. Adiyen Srinivasadasa --- amshuman_k <amshuman_k@xxxx> wrote: > Dear Shri Nappinnai, > > "Did the question arise due to the doubt in your > mind or someone > else's mind? " > > Very much in my mind. On a side note, I discovered > similar issues > discussed by Shri Mohan Sagar in the old archives of > Bhakti list. > > Back to the central question: > "Back to square one: Do you have a problem in > believing the Supremacy > of SrimanNarayana " > My point as always :-) - No I don't, from my heart. > However, I have a > problem when we (as in Shri Vaishnavas) claim that > this is attested > in Vedas. > > Regards, > Kasturi Rangan .K > > > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com
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