remarks on interpretation of scripture and Gita etc

[Swami Tyagananda]

At 11:41 AM 3/19/01 -0500, Lynken Ghose wrote:
>- However, I think that there is a middle ground between the extreme
>scholarly distance of "objectivity" or "dispassion" and the extreme
>"passion" of the type of theologian who puts forth theories in order to
>justify his or her particular slant on things. In my opinion, this middle
>ground is what we should strive for.
>

Greetings. I appreciate the "middle ground" idea and feel that this is the
best that can be hoped for specially with regard to those texts/matters
which deal with the themes that transcend the intellect. The insights
arrived at as a result of a supersensuous or mystic experience cannot
always be verified or judged merely through the tools of logic and textual
analysis. The transcendent experience may not contradict reason but it is
often inaccessible or unintelligible to it. Wisdom lies in realizing that
reason can take us far but not far enough. There are matters whose truth
can be verified only through personal experience. So long as the
possibility of that experience is not denied to any person, it is
unreasonable to dismiss it only through intellectual tools.

Swami Tyagananda
Vedanta Society, Boston