Ishwa helper Reged: 03/03/02 Posts: 553

Re: Karma [Re: Ishwa] #13578 - 03/17/02 03:53 PM Edit Reply Quote

To understand older Hinduism, one can use these tools: 1. recent popular Hinduism and project these into the older system. 2. recent neo-Hinduism transplanted to older systems. 3. recent scientific discoveries and project that to older systems 4. 'foreign' opinions with a different (sometimes hostile) agenda in mind 5. carefully examin recent and older systems Without thorough knowledge of Sanskrit one can never understand properly what the ancients meant. Sanskrit is the basis, but you need also a socio-historical reference of the period involved. Besides these one has to understand the inter- and intratextual relations within the timeframe. Multidisciplinary approaches are needed, but never without a thorough knowledge of the Sanskrta Bh�sh� at the least and knowledge of the works involved. Otherwise all the remarks are personal or interpretations from second or third sources. This counts for Mantra-Sanskrta, but also for prose Br�hmana-Sanskrta towards Ved�nta-Sanskrta, also for Shrauta-Sanskrta (Ved�nga) which was finally written down by P�nini and also hereafter the K�vya-Sanskrta and Sh�stra-Sanskrta (Sm�rta) of the respectively later and latest parts of the epics and Pur�nas.