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From: Mani Varadarajan (mani_at_be.com)
Date: Wed Jun 16 1999 - 14:13:43 PDT
Sri Venkat wrote: > 2. the absurdity of equating Vis'istAdvaita with > dogma based theology or irrational idealistic or > atheistic philosophies. I look forward to reading what Sri Venkat has to say, but I must point out that even Visishtadvaita is based on dogma, at least in part. It is axiomatic, for example, that the Veda is a preterpersonal (apaurusheya), flawless statement of reality. Visishtadvaitins will declare this in no uncertain terms. Since no Vedantin of any stripe tries to prove this in its entireity, nor can they, the belief in the Veda has to be accepted as a dogma. Having accepted this axiom, along with certain exegetical principles (mImAmsA), however, the rest of the philosophy can be said to be logically provable. Second, in many ways Visishtadvaita is as idealistic as Advaita. Certainly Visishtadvaita does not propound cosmic illusionism; but Ramanuja's description of the nature of the self and religious knowledge very much tends toward the idealistic. Mani