What is the basis for the classification of scripture as shruti smriti and nyaya?

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Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Question, where does the classification of scripture into Shruti, Smriti and Nyaya come from? Answer, it is coming largely from Shankaracharya’s systematization of the Vedic literature and the Vedic tradition at large. So, before Shankaracharya, Buddhism had spread, Buddhism and Jainism had spread quite a bit over India and Vedic culture had lost its influence.
Still it was widespread, but in terms of most, many of the kings being Buddhist or Jain, it had lost power, influence. So, Shankaracharya reunited the broad Vedic tradition and he systematized it. So, it was he who commented on these three books.
So, traditionally, there were six systems of philosophy in India. So, Vedanta became quite prominent. There were debates among the six systems of philosophies also at times.
Shankaracharya made Vedanta quite common, quite prominent and he established how Vedanta actually is the conclusion of the Vedas. The six systems of philosophy all accepted the Vedas as authority, but they arrived at different interpretations of what the Vedas mean. Now, Shankaracharya established how Vedanta gives the conclusion of the Vedas and then how does one understand what actually is the import of Vedanta.
So, for that, there can be different opinions about that also. So, for that, he said that these are three books which are prominent and these are the books which should be commented on. Now, it is not that he made those books prominent.
Those books were prominent already, but he established a hermeneutic for understanding them, for understanding their import. Hermeneutic means a way of understanding or interpreting a secret book, a scripture. So, okay, so, there are the Vedas over here and there are six systems of philosophy which have come out, which claim to be based on the Vedas.
Shankaracharya proves that actually Vedanta gives the actual import of the Vedas. So, Mimamsa, Yoga, they also give some import of the Vedas, but not the conclusive import. So, now, Vedanta is a school of philosophy.
Now, how does one justify or explain or substantiate the particular philosophy of Vedanta? So, just like when we want to establish a particular point, there are so many books, we may quote from Bhagavad Gita, we may quote from Bhagavatam, we may quote from CC. So, which books do we quote or quote to establish a particular point? So, those are the primary canon. So, for Vedanta, he said that if we look at the content of the books, if we look at their importance, if we look at their relevance, then the Shruti, Smriti and Nyaya are the primary books by which we can understand the import of the Vedanta, which in turn uses the import of the Vedas.
So, therefore, among the Shrutis, of course, we have the Upanishads, among the Shrutis, we have the Puranas and Itihasas, of course, and then we have the Nyaya, which is primarily the Vedanta Sutra. So, this is called as Prasthanatrayi, the three foundations and a system of Prasthanatrayi as a hermeneutic for understanding the import of Vedanta and of Veda was established by Shankaracharya and the basic hermeneutic that he established, hermeneutical principle that he established was accepted by subsequent Acharyas also. Although Shankaracharya’s interpretation of what Vedanta Sutra means, of what Upanishads mean, what the Smritis mean, that was countered strongly by the Vaishnavacharyas, but that particular structure was accepted by subsequent Acharyas also and that’s how the system went on and Ramanacharya, then Madhvacharya and his followers, Ramanacharya and his followers and then Na Sampradaya Baldevidya Moksha, they’ve all commented on this Prasthanatrayi and that’s how they established the authenticity of their Sampradaya.
Thank you.