Are Bible and Koran considered to be smriti?

Thank you very much. So, now, if we look at the Bible and the Quran, they are in general religions of the world are divisible into broad categories.
There are the Dharmic religions and there are the Abrahamic religions. The Abrahamic religions, except Abraham is one of their founding prophets. So, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, they share some historical roots.
They are called the Abrahamic religions. And Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, these are Dharmic religions. Now, there are many differences.
One of the fundamental differences is the Abrahamic religions are history centric and the Dharmic religions are principle centric. That means the Abrahamic religions focus a lot on a particular moment in history. So, Christianity centers on Jesus coming and Jesus spreading the message and then Jesus comes and then the whole Mahabharata is a search for understanding what is that.
So, the whole Ramayana is a search for understanding whose life is human being. That is the question which Narayani is asked about. So, these are the various scriptures focus on principles which are to be understood.
It’s a foundational existence and with which we need to harmonize. So, dharma, the conception of dharma, what is dharma, that conception can be different with Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism. But the point is a search for dharma.
That is the primary focus. So, in that sense, the history centric religions and the trans-historical religions, the principle centric religions, they have a difference, a categorical difference. Although they are very similar also.
So, let’s look at these three books quickly. Now, because of short work, I will be making some general statements which in a more elaborate class I would have qualified in your interest. But if you look at the Old Testament, which is the sacred book of the Jews, it is primarily a narrative of God’s chosen people.
Now, there is no description of who God is, what God looks like. Now, God just appears once to Moses as a burning bush. And the bush keeps burning and burning and burning and it doesn’t get burnt.
Fire doesn’t get exhausted. And then God interacts other times by doing some miracles, by parting the rivers, by causing festivals. So, the enemies of God are the chosen people, the Egyptians at that time.
But there is no direct description of God. And there are not even too many words of God directly. Yes, there are some prophets who are supposed to speak the words of God.
But primarily it is the activities of the people who are supposed to be chosen by God. And in the Old Testament, there is not much philosophy. It’s primarily activities and moral lessons and some devotional ruminations based on their experiences.
If you look at the New Testament, New Testament is the sacred book of the Christians. Now, they, what do they have? They are primarily, there are four law schools, which are by four municipal disciples of Jesus. They describe the life and the teaching of Jesus.
Now, Jesus spoke mostly in parables. Now, there are, there is some philosophy, but there is not much metaphysics. Because of the ultimate question.
Jesus spoke in parables and gave certain basic lessons for living in this world. It’s not about the ultimate purpose of life. And then there is a large part of the New Testament is Paul’s epistles.
The instructions that Paul gave to various people. Paul was like a primary missionary for Jesus. And the epistles that he wrote to various people whom he met, or whom he instructed, by Elias evangelizing.
This also, it contains more of moral codes than any philosophical notions. Now, if you come to the Quran, the Quran is basically supposed to have been revealed to Mohammed. Now, Mohammed was an illiterate person.
Till the age of 40, practically, he did not have much of his informations. He was born orphan, and then he, he was always orphan, he was a child who was raised by his uncle, and then he was working as a sort of a secretary for a wealthy woman who was almost 20 years older than him. And then he married her.
And then at the age of 40, once he was in a cave, at that time, suddenly he heard a voice that, you know, right. And he said, I can’t tell you, it’s a right. I can’t tell you.
He says, right. And he says, this is the angel Gabriel speaking. And then he, you are going to see the mouth of God.
And then, I had a different time since, from the age of 40 till he died around in the 60s. He, at different times, suddenly would seem to go in a trance, and some revelation would come to him. And what he would speak, whoever was there at that time, they would try to write it down.
And he said, this is a revelation. And there are a couple of times when he spoke something, and it was a revelation, and afterwards he said, hey, that was not a revelation to God. That was a Satan’s taking through, to cancel it out.
And that’s how there is this book by Salman Rushdie, Satanic Verses. The verses which do not come from God, they come from Satan. And then, several years after Mohammed died, then his followers, from whatever sources they knew, they compiled it all together.
And that’s the Quran. Now, the Quran, by its very more, it’s a very unidirectional sort of revelation. There are no philosophical questions asked.
Because, it’s just revelation. It’s just attributed to revelation, it’s come from. So, if you look for philosophy, it has to be a chain of influences by which you can make a philosophical conclusion.
So, in that sense, we see that the Upanishads contain a lot of philosophy. And that type of philosophical innovations are not found in the Abrahamic scriptures. Now, in one sense, we could call it Smriti.
But Smriti is not just reflections or recollections. Smriti is recollections based on revelation. So, actually, Christians who follow the Abrahamic religions would classify their scriptures as revelations.
But actually, in one sense, in the framework of Smriti and Smriti, these scriptures don’t fit in very neatly. The scriptures of the Abrahamic religions don’t fit in very neatly because Smriti and Smriti have particular harmony, particular way of understanding. But, even if that is the case.
Now, when I gave this narrative of the origin of the Abrahamic religions and their scriptures, this is not to minimize them. Our Acharyas have accepted this point that God is not the monopoly of any particular religion. And God can speak in different voices to different people.
And we accept the principle that God has guided humanity through John Jesus, through Mormon, and through the scriptures. And they have helped people to rise to a higher level of consciousness. Now, how much higher people have risen? Whether they can rise to the highest level? How many people have risen? These are serious questions we need to discuss more carefully.
I have a whole set of seminars on East or West. Krishna Consciousness is the best. That is a different subject.
But, sometimes we say over here, we accept the principle that there is God’s message coming to different people at different times. And God has given a comprehensive list of instances. And if you look at the recipients of the knowledge in the case of these Abrahamic religions.
Now, God’s word which came through Moses, that there were slaves over there. And they got people slaved in Egypt. Now, most of Jesus’ disciples, they were native people.
Mohammed and his followers, they were all, not even merchants actually. They were, when they were living in Mecca, actually they were merchants. But, when they had to go from Mecca to Medina, Medina was a place where all farming was issued.
And farming was hard work. So, these merchants were not suited for farming. So, what they would do is, their primary occupation, their source of livelihood was raiding.
Now, all the merchants would go along that route. They would attack and tax them for money. Those who would not pay the taxes, they would raid.
So, the point is that the audience to whom they spoke, they were not a very elevated audience. And if you look at the big audience, I mean, it’s not just a self-congratulatory analysis. Because we have followed them with us.
We are saying, our knowledge is the best. It’s an objective analysis. Look at the sages, look at the lifestyles, look at the nature of the questions that they are discussing.
You see, it’s a serious metaphysical discussion that’s going on about the ultimate purpose of life. So, in terms of philosophical content and in terms of historical context. Two things.
Philosophical content. Look at the content. What is there in the books? And historical context.
When was it spoken? To whom was it spoken? In both these terms, we can see that the Vedic scriptures contain much deeper knowledge. But yes, there are moral principles. There are some spiritual principles also in the scriptures.
And by following them, you can be elevated. If you can rise towards God-consciousness and somebody is sincere, then sincerely you can take that great heights of God-consciousness also. So, we accept the principle of God speaking.
But through the various scriptures, various religious scriptures also. As long as the basics are concerned, there is not much philosophy. There is not much systematic knowledge.
And there is not a very clear analysis in terms of what is the ultimate purpose of life and how that is to be achieved.