Disclaimer: This piece by Dr. Pingali Gopal is with permission from Chittaranjan Naik.  The article is a summary of a five-part article written by Chittaranjan Naik on an online forum for discussing Advaita. The ideas and the themes solely belong to the latter. Dr. Pingali Gopal claims no expertise or primary scholarship in the subject matter. The purpose of the article is to hopefully stimulate the readers to explore further. One can access the full article here:

APAURUSHEYATVA OF THE VEDAS BY CHITTARANJAN NAIK

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Continued from Part 2

NYAYA AND MIMAMSA – UNCREATEDNESS AND THE PREDICATION OF EXISTENCE

Both schools believe that the Vedas have no human author. However, as a subtle difference, while Mimamsa believes the Vedas to be eternal, Nyaya holds them to be non-eternal. This difference arises essentially from the difference in the meaning of the term ‘existence’ as seen by the two schools. Mimamsa is based on satkaryavada (on the pre-existence of the effect in the cause) while Nyaya is based on asatkaryavada (on the prior non-existence of the effect). Mimamsa is Vedic Vakhyarthavidya and its object is Brahman and the Eternal Law that exists in the Nature of Brahman. Its specific aim is the revelation of Vedic sentences. Nyaya is pramana-vidya based on normal language, and its aim is to reveal the nature of the pramanas and the nature of word meanings in accordance with these pramanas. 

Therefore, Mimamsa and Nyaya, being based on Vedic and ordinary languages, respectively, have a natural opposition between them. In Nyaya, a word is non-eternal because it has a beginning and an end. Mimamsa would not only say that the Vedas are eternal but would also be sympathetic to Nyaya, which by the very nature of its darshana, bound as it is by ordinary language, has to say that the Vedas are non-eternal. 

COHERENCY AND THE ONUS OF PROOF

There exists an unbroken tradition coherent with the conception of the Vedas as the ‘seen’ and not authored. The idea of apaurusheyatva of the eternal Vedas exists in all the branches of traditional learning across a vast geographical stretch of land. Based on this coherence of the beginningless tradition, it stands established that the Vedas are eternal and beginningless. One may object by saying that a single dissonant element can rupture this coherency. However, what is the nature of this single element disproving the coherence? Is it a claim of a historical event of a person claiming to be the author of the Vedas? If so, it is the veracity of the claim of a single claimant and not the veracity of the many that need questioning. There is yet to be such a claim too. 

If the disrupting element is something other than a historical event, then the objection is groundless. When beginningless is established by the existence of the tradition and by the coherency of the various elements of the tradition, the onus is on the claimant to prove a counterclaim. The existence of the word ‘rishi’, the existence of mention of multiple rishis for the same mantras and suktas, the existence of mention of the apaurusheyatva of the Vedas in grammar, in etymology, in all the traditional philosophies, in the dharmashastras, in the puranas, are cognized facts. The onus is clearly on the person to prove how these cognized elements have manifested. 

One might say that the Charavakas, the Buddhists, and the Jainas disagreed with the tradition, so the coherency does break. However, disagreement is not a condition that breaks the coherency; there must be perceptible facts that contradict the coherency. For if mere disagreement is the ground for falsification of a thesis, every thesis in the world will stand disproved. Those who disagree will need to provide perceptible facts like showing: the beginning of the tradition, the word ‘rishi’ has a different origin, and the nonexistence of statements holding the Vedas to be apaurusheya in the various texts.  Moreover, the tradition has always stood on multiple people dependent on an independent scripture (Veda), unlike in the case of other scriptures that have had human origins and were dependent on the authors. On the contrary, in the case of the Vedas, there has been no point in time when the scripture has been dependent on a single person. The onus of proof of a contrary thesis to explain the perceptible and coherent facts has always been with the one who disagrees with the tradition. And no one, so far, has provided such contrary proof. So, the beginningless of the tradition stands established as it has stood for all time.

THE LAW OF PARSIMONY

One may now object that the entire phenomenon of the existence of the beginningless tradition might have had a historical origin during the development of human thought. The reply would be that the law of parsimony (first mentioned by the sage Gautama) would demand that we go by the tradition rather than by any such historical explanation. For any such historical explanation would necessarily have to falsify the various elements presented here and any attempt to falsify these elements on such a large scale would amount to stating that the tradition is a grand conspiracy concocted by some people who had somehow managed to get these elements into the various texts. 

They, moreover, managed it on such a large scale as to implant these elements across a large geographical stretch of land over a time period spanning into many eras or eons. Finally, these conspirators somehow instituted the universal practice of learning the chanting of the Vedas under the belief that it is unauthored and faultless. The onus is again on the counter claimant to explain credibly how such a large conspiracy was possible in incorporating the notion into so many diverse texts and in instituting practices that no one under ordinary circumstances would be willing to adhere to. The entire proposition is enormously cumbersome and far-fetched and has no ground to stand on. 

The objector may now say that it may not be a conspiracy but a kind of hallucination arising in the minds of these people due to some peculiar condition of the human mind. The reply is that whether a thing is a hallucination or not is determined using the pramanas and not by mere assertions. The truth of a statement asserting a thing is bound by the nature of the thing itself- that, which it is. The free flight of imagination, which is not so bound to the truth, or to the nature of the thing, is infinite and many. If all these coherent elements of the tradition are the products of hallucination, then, the onus is to show how the coherency has come about. Hallucination is not bound by truth or by any pramana and is likely to be varied and diverse. But if one should accept that coherency is a mark of truth, then it would be corroborative with the statement: the actual existence of a beginningless tradition combined with the coherency of the various elements in the tradition points to the beginninglessness of the tradition of handing down the Vedas from teacher to student in all eras and in all cycles of creation.

The pramanas themselves may be based on mere conditions of the mind, the objector might say. In such a case, the assertion that the tradition is based on a hallucination is also liable to be based on a hallucination. One who does not accept the pramanas and says that they are based on hallucination has no ground to make any kind of assertion, as it denies all grounds for assertions of truth and means of acquiring knowledge.  

Thus, from the fact that: there exists a beginningless tradition of the Vedas being handed down; the tradition forms a tightly coupled coherent system in which one cannot deny a single element without throwing the onus of proof on to the denier; and any alternate hypothesis needs rejection on the law of parsimony, the Vedas are eternal, beginningless, and Apaurusheya.

THE FORMAL PROOF 

The pramana for establishing the unauthoredness of the Vedas is anupalabdhi- non-apprehension of a thing capable of apprehension if it should have existed. The definition of the capacity of anupalabdhi to lead to knowledge of the non-existence of a thing is as follows: “The capacity of non-apprehension is the fact of its being a non-apprehension whose counter-positive, viz., apprehension, may be assumed from the existence assumed in the substratum.” To make this clear, the pramana here is anupalabdhi, or non-apprehension of an author. The pratiyogi is authorship which is a knowable thing. The substratum is the beginningless tradition. The yogyata is the capacity of the author to have been known, if an author had existed, in the form of memory of the author due to the existence of the beginningless tradition. The prama is the resultant knowledge that arises from the fact that the Vedas have no author; from the fact that no author is known, despite there being a beginningless tradition in which the memory of an author would have been known if there had been an author.

SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

The seers say that the Vedas are eternal because they are the very words that created the universe.  Shankara states in the Brahma Sutra Bhashya states: “How again is it known that the universe originates from words? From direct revelation (Vedas) and inference (Smritis). Both of them show that words precede the creation. Brahma created the gods by thinking of the word ete; He created men and others by the word asgram; by the word indavah the manes; by the word tirahpavitram the planets; by the word asavah the hymns; by the word visvani the shastras; and by the word abhisuabhagah the other beings'(Rg.V.IX.62).” We shall look at the other traditions of the world and see how they connect the Universe and the Eternal Word, something similar to the Vedas. 

The Religious And Philosophical Traditions Of Greece 

The ancient literature of Greece says that in the beginning there was Chaos, and Prometheus fashioned the world out of this Chaos through Logos (The Word). In ancient Greece, chaos meant an ‘undistinguished form’ in which all things lay united with one another. In the Vedic tradition, this ‘chaos’ corresponds to avyakta, from which the universe evolves through the differentiating power of words (logos). The philosophy of Heraclites says that the universe is the Logos, always and for all eternity, and that it is the word by which things divide into the many. Though the Greeks held Logos to be the source of creation, there is no mention of the what or where of this Word.  Socrates says that the Greek language came from an older language than that of Greece and also referred to the wisdom of Egypt. Several Greek philosophers and thinkers, such as Pythagoras and Plato, had their education in Egypt.   

The Religion Of Egypt

The oldest civilization known to us today is perhaps the civilization of Egypt. Despite attempts by Christian missionaries and modern scholars to paint a picture of Egypt as a pagan land, the Egyptian religion was, beneath its outward persona of polytheism, essentially monotheistic. The Papyrus of Ani, the chief scribe of the Pharaoh, says: Men do not live once, in order to vanish forever. They live several lives in different places but not always in this world, and between each life there is a veil of shadows. Our religion teaches us that we live for eternity. In the eyes of men, God has many faces and each swears he has seen the true and only God. Yet it is not so, for all of these faces are merely the face of God. Our Ka, which is our double, reveals them to us in different ways. 

The ancient Egyptians believed in one God without a name, gender, shape, or form and they called this God Emen-Ra (the Hidden Light), Atum-Ra (the source and end of all Light) and Eaau (the Power that has expanded to create the universe).  One of the central books of Egyptian religion is ‘The Book of Coming Forth by Day’. The creation of the universe from the Word is in this book in the Chapter on Creation: At first, a voice cried against the darkness,… It was Temu rising up – his head, the thousand-petalled lotus. He uttered the word and one petal drifted from him, taking form on the water… Out of himself he created everything else – in a word: the skies, the oceans, the mountains, the plants, the gods, and men, and he named them. In another chapter occur the words: “I am eternal…. I am that which created the Word…I am the Word.” The Egyptians believed the original Word to have been Sound with the potency to create the world. But where is this Sound preserved? Nobody knows for sure, though the Egyptians believe that it was there, once in a remote past, in Atlantis. 

The Religions Of Babylonia And Mesopotamia

Most of the gods and goddesses of Egypt, Babylon, and Mesopotamia were the same, though they bore different names in their respective languages. Today, some of the literature of Babylon and Mesopotamia, such as the Epics of Gilgamesh and the Epic of Creation, are popular in English. In all versions of the Epic of Creation, we find the idea of the creation of the world through names. These scriptures (of Babylon and Mesopotamia) speak of the creation of all beings through the act of naming them, which supports the idea of the universe having been created from the Eternal Word.

The Religion Of Zarathustra 

Zarathustra marked the advent of the Prophets that were to found new religions.  There is no specific mention in the Avesta, the Holy Book, of the Word by means of which God created the universe. But the Avesta mentions the Ahunavairya as the Sacred Word through which came the Religion of Zarathustra. 

The Avesta consists of a number of books, or nasks, along with the commentaries (the Zends). Then there are the Yasnas and Yashts, hymns, chanted at the sacrifices. The Gathas and the Yasnas/Yashts are in a language very similar to Sanskrit, and the meters of the Yashts bear a close resemblance to the Vedic meters. It is difficult to say what the Scriptures of Zarathustra talk about the Eternal Word, from which God created the universe. The only observation is that the religion of Zarathustra is based on the revelations of a single prophet, in a language that is close to, but different from, Sanskrit, in contrast to the case of the Vedas, which are based on the visions of multiple rishis who all saw it in the same language, Vedic Sanskrit. 

The Abrahamic Religions 

Judaism

Abraham, the descendent of Noah, walked steadfastly in the path of God, and when he was over ninety years old, God chose him to make a covenant with. Jews and the Christians claim to be the Chosen Ones and in which case why should the Hindus consider themselves special in having the Vedas as their Scriptures?  Both the books of the Jews and the Quran mention that there have been other prophets sent to the people by God and other religions instituted by God. However, the Religion of Abraham is the only religion founded by means of an Explicit Covenant with God. So, that answers what the term ‘Chosen Ones’ means. 

There are two primary traditions in Judaism: the Written and the Oral. The Written Tradition (Tanakh) was later incorporated into the Christian Bible as the Old Testament. The Oral Tradition, which revolves around the Torah, goes under the name of Mishnah. The commentaries and subsequent discussions on the Mishnah were the Gemara. The Mishnah and the Gemara together is the Talmud. Now, with regard to the Word, in the very first lines of the Tanakh, in the chapter called ‘Genesis’, we find: “AND GOD SAID, LET THERE BE LIGHT; AND THERE WAS LIGHT.” (Genesis.Ch1, 1-3). This directly points to the differentiation of the formless void through Speech. Another direct reference in the Psalms: “BY THE WORD OF THE LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” (Psalms 33.6) Interestingly, the Psalms also mention the breath of God, corresponding to the description of the Vedas in the Indian tradition as the breath of Brahman. The newer versions of Tanakh effaces references suggesting the role of words, but the old Aramaic version reads: “I, BY MY WORD, have made the earth and created man upon it…” So, here too, in the Religion of Abraham, we find the idea of the world’s creation by the Word. The doctrine of the Word seems to have been familiar to the Jews because we find references to it in the writings of one of the greatest Jewish philosophers, Philo. 

Christianity

In the New Testament of the Bible, in the Gospel according to St. John, we find the following words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The same was at the beginning with God. “All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” (St. John. Ch.1, 1-3). The Christian Church has taken a very narrow view of these words as referring to Jesus only. While the Word does refer to Jesus, it also has a broader connotation because the same Bible also mentions that God, through the Word created the universe. And moreover, the words of the Gospel of St. John say immediately after speaking of the Word that all things came out of him. This would seem to be out of context if we take the Word in a narrow sense to mean only Jesus. A part of the problem with the Church was that it had made the concept of the Trinity – the oneness of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit-as the central decree that every Christian had to express his faith by. 

Christianity does not have an adequate philosophy to explain the Trinity satisfactorily. In the Vedic tradition, the explanation of the Trinity (the avatarhood of God wherein God is the same even in His descent) is by the doctrine of vivarta (of the Grammarians) and the Vaishnava doctrine of the Lord’s Svarupamsa as distinct from the jiva’s Vibhinnamsha. The Word in the New Testament has the same connotation as in the Old Testament, and the restrictive meaning accorded to the Word by the Christian Church is due to their inability to explain the nature of the Trinity satisfactorily. 

Islam

Prophet Mohammad says that he was restoring the Religion of Abraham in its pristine form, the Original Law given to Ibrahim (Abraham) and Moosa (Moses) in times long past. Therefore, even though there is no specific mention of the Word in the Qur’an, the idea of the world created through the Word should be no different in Islam than it is in Judaism. But we have a peculiar situation in Islam. The Muslims claim that the entire Qur’an is apaurusheya representing the Final Seal of the Prophets.

In what way may it be said that the Qur’an is apaurusheya? According to the Muslims, the evidence for the eternality of the Qur’an comes from its incorruptibility, as mentioned in Sura 15.9, and its eternality preserved on a tablet in Heaven, as mentioned in Suras 85:21-22 of the Holy Book. The Muslims point to another set of Suras (43:2-4) to show that the Qur’an is the Mother of All Books: 

“By the Book that

Makes things clear – (43.2)

“We have made it

A Quran in Arabic,

That ye may be able

To understand (and learn wisdom) (43.3)

“And verily, it is

In the Mother of the Book,

In Our Presence, high

(In dignity), full of wisdom.” (43.4)

“We have made it a Qur’an in Arabic” is the key to interpreting the true status of the Qur’an. Now, the significance of the Apaurusheyatva of the Vedas comes from it being the Eternal Sound and not from it being merely a scripture that reveals knowledge. There are other scriptures, the Smritis, that are eternal, albeit as words derived from their seeds in the Vedas. It is possible to conclude that the Qur’an (as well as the original scriptures of the Jews, of which the Qur’an is a copy in Arabic) is an eternal scripture. Unlike Christianity, Islam is predominantly a religion of the world — of how to live one’s life in this world in accordance with the Law. It is equivalent to the Vedic Dharma Shastras, and deeper scrutiny of the Qur’an (as well as the Talmud of the Jews) indeed reveals a striking similarity with the Manu Dharma Shastra if one makes allowance for the prevailing traditions of Arabia (and ancient Israel). The Manu Dharma Shastra itself makes such provisions for the existing traditions of the land. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the Qur’an is the Eternal Law in the form of Vishesha-Dharma for the peoples of Arabia, and hence the words ‘We have made it a Qur’an in Arabic’ indicate that the Law which is ‘Verily in the Mother of the Book’ has been given to you in the Arabic language.

As far as the Word is concerned, there is no reason to believe that the Islamic version is any different than the one that exists in Judaism. 

The Qabalah

All Jews do not consider the Qabalah to be part of the Judaic tradition. But it nevertheless exists as an esoteric tradition among a section of the Jews, and it is a tradition that is deep. The Zohar is the primary text of the Qabalah. But unlike in the more popularized form of Judaism, God in Qabalism is not merely the Father, but he is both the Father and Mother. According to the Qabalah, God is the Absolute. The first principle and axiom of the Qabalah is the name of the Deity, Eheieh Asher Eheieh, which translates as “I am He who is”. It points to the indescribable inner Self rather than to an expressible Being. One may see its close similarity to Advaita.  Qabalism text (Sefer Yetsirah) explains how God created the world by means of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the ten numbers (digits) known as the Sefirot. Phonemes do not belong to any language; it is only when phonemes form a set known as the alphabet that it belongs to a language. 

It would therefore be proper for us to first consider the meaning-bearing capacities of phonemes as they exist independently of any language so that it may throw light upon the things that the Qabalah is speaking about.  Such a science exists in the Shaiva and Shakta traditions of India and the Qabalah bears an unmistakable and striking similarity to the Tantric traditions of the Shaivas and Shaktas. The Trika System of Kashmir Shaivism bears such a striking similarity to the Qabalah. 

There are three distinct paths in the Trika System known as Shivopaya, the path of Shiva as explicated in the doctrine of Pratyabhijna; Shaktopaya, the path of Shakti as explicated in the doctrine of Mantras; and Anavopaya, the path of the Atomic soul as explained in the doctrine of Kundalini Yoga. The first is very close to Advaita Vedanta; the path of Shakti, known as the Science of Mantras, is the doctrine that shows us the way to interpret the meaning of the Qabalic doctrine of letters. At the heart of Shaktopaya is the doctrine of Matrika. It is the science of phonemes. It explains the meaning of each phoneme starting from ‘a’ to all the fifty-one phonemes including both the vowels and the consonants. It is these fifty-one letters that constitute the Sanskrit alphabet.  The science of the alphabet is known as Matrikachakra, and it reveals that Shiva creates the entire universe from His Shakti, Devi, as constituted of letters. The first letter ‘a’ denotes chit-shakti, the primordial Shakti in the form of Shiva’s unwavering Light. The second letter ‘aa’ denotes ananda-shakti, the energy of Shiva in the form of bliss. The third and fourth letters ‘e’ and ‘ee’ represent iccha-shakti, the Will of Shiva in its two forms as unmoved Will and creative Will. And so on for all the remaining vowels.  The Matrikacharkra also explains how the rules of grammar arise as well as how the mantras arise and how they obtain their potency. The Matrikachakra also explains the relation of mantra, the potent combination of words, and yantra, the object (the secret figure) which contains the potency of the mantra.  

Shaivism and Matrikachakra are not antagonistic to the Vedic tradition. According to Grammar, the Vedas are undivided strings of words. In other words, the Vedic vakhyas are the fundamental units of speech, and words and phonemes are abstractions. Therefore, the doctrine of Matrika does not contradict the Vedas but explains the Vedic vakhyas without causing any detriment to them. And this is the way the Qabalah too seeks to explain the words of the Torah.

What is the relation of the Qabalah to the Vedas? The first thing we observe is that the Hebrew alphabet has only twenty-two letters, whereas Sanskrit has fifty-one. This is an indication that the Religion of the Torah in terms of twenty-two letters is a particular aspect (vishesha-dharma) of the universal religion of the universe. This is due to the fact that the religion arose as a Covenant made by God with Abraham in a specific place and specific time for a specific people. “I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King”. The land is Israel, the Holy Land. Everywhere in the Old Testament, the Lord is the Lord of Israel. The word actually used in the original texts of the Torah is not ‘Lord’, but it is ‘Tatragrammaton’, the same word used in the Qabalah to refer to God.  Later editions of the Bible replaced it with the word ‘Lord’. 

So, it leads us to the conclusion that the Torah is of the same nature as the Qur’an, preserved in the eternal scheme of God’s creation, but just as the Qur’an has “been made a Qur’an in Arabic” for the peoples of Arabia, the Torah has “been made a Torah in Hebrew” for the people of Israel. Islam and Judaism are branches of the same religion; the Qur’an actually claims to be a recovery of the religion of Abraham in the Arabic language. 

RELIGIONS AND THE WORD

Every major religion of the world speaks of the Word as the instrument of the creation of the universe.  Apaurusheyatva seems to be a universal doctrine held by all the major religions of the world. The Eternal Word preceding creation appears to be a universal doctrine. We now have the question: “Which of the Scriptures of the world, in any, is the Eternal Word?” 

The religions of Greece, Egypt, Babylon, and Mesopotamia vaguely point to the Eternal Word without being able to say where the Word exists. The religion of Abraham and Christianity speaks of the Eternal Word, but there is no indication in its scriptures of what this Word is. Christianity focuses on the doctrine of the Trinity, whereby the Word becomes flesh in the form of Jesus without diluting the Unity of Godhead and Jesus. It is only in the Qabalah that we find a reference to the universe proceeding from letters but we have shown that this pertains to the Science of Matrika which purports to explain the deeper significances of scriptural sentences rather than point to any set of sentences as being the Original Word. 

Vedic Religion which has Veda as its central scripture is not based on the revelation of a single Prophet but on the Eternal Word seen by multiple sages- ‘rishis’. It is a religion built entirely around the Eternal Word; that has an immense body of diverse scriptures having their seat and ground in the Eternal Word; that has its Grammar and Etymology derived from the Eternal Word; that has different philosophies performing different roles and functions as laid out by the Eternal Word; that has human actions, stages of life, and religious laws determined by the Eternal Word; and that has a name Eternal Religion – Sanatana Dharma.  It is a Religion that still exists and thrives in the world under this very name. So, which of the world’s scriptures is the Eternal Word, the very Word from which God fashioned the universe by uttering them? It is unmistakably the Vedas.  

There is evidence in the other scriptures and traditions of the world that points to the apaurusheyatva of the Vedas. The Old Testament tells us how different languages arose in the world. In the days of yore, much before the time of Abraham, much before the institution of God’s Covenant with Abraham, and much before the time of Zarathustra, there was only one language on earth.  “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.” (Genesis 11:1). 

There is only one language that has all the marks of belonging to a beginningless line from creation: uncreated; a perfect grammar; an etymology in which all words trace; known as the language of the gods (Deva bhasha); a script called the town-script of the gods (Devanagari); and the source of all knowledge and vidyas. This is the language of the Vedas—Sanskrit. Moreover, Sanskrit is a language that has fifty-one letters in its alphabet, which explains the entirety of the creation. Would it be unreasonable then to conclude that the Hebrew language, with an alphabet containing twenty-two letters, came from a Mother Language having fifty-one letters of a universal language, and that the Vedas are the seed out of which the Manu Dharma Shastra in Sanskrit and the Torah in Hebrew and the Qur’an in Arabic have come out like sprouts in their respective languages, as Vishesha Dharmas, for those specific peoples of the earth for whom God meant them to be the Governing Laws to abide by? 

The Vedas as the Eternal Word, and Sanskrit as the Mother Language, provide the Syncretic Ground in which all the religions converge to make a meaningful pattern. The pattern constitutes evidence not only to show that the Vedas are Apaurusheya but also to point to the truth that all religions have a common source and would form a family of universal brotherhood (and sisterhood) if only the human mind would be rid of its petty bigotries and sectarian dogmas.

Continued in the concluding fourth part