How Authentic Are the Scriptures?

Many people ask this question, and there are various theories and opinions about this topic. All scriptures are very old books, some going back thousands of years; we don't even know when they were compiled for the first time. I think it's a waste of time to argue about their authenticity; we don't have enough data about it. I think whatever scriptures we have are very useful and are full of knowledge and lessons about life (the Bible, Qur'an, Guru Granth Sahib, the Gita, the Upanishads, and many more). They cover almost every aspect of life, and discussions in them cover topics about most of the problems we face in day-to-day life, and also offer possible solutions. Most of the time, the messages in these scriptures are delivered through many stories with a lot of interesting characters and themes. It's very easy to deliver a complicated message via an interesting story; people understand it in a much better way and also remember the message because of that story. Our ancestors realized it, and that's why most of these books contain a lot of interesting stories. We still use this technique of storytelling to teach our kids; we tell them a lot of bedtime stories that have some lesson embedded in them, the same way these scriptures try to convey their message to us.

People debate whether the incidents mentioned in the scriptures really happened or not. Is this debate going to make their content better or worse? These books are the source of knowledge, and if we don’t want to take any lessons from them, then it's better to just ignore them. These things (scriptures from all religions) are gifts to us from our ancestors, and we must value them. One can definitely raise questions and argue about the theories and philosophies mentioned in them. It's necessary to validate and test any information we receive; we should not believe anything blindly. This process of analysis will surely help us to realize how wonderful these texts are; they teach us so much, but only if we are willing to learn. Mostly, these scriptures are concerned with spiritual knowledge; some of them do talk about many scientific things but mostly they are about spirituality and the meaning or aim of human life. If someone is not interested in things discussed in these books, they are useless for them, and it's a simple fact to understand for both those who believe in them as well as those who don't believe. It’s as if you are not interested in movies or engineering or chemistry, then anything related to that subject will not appeal to you, or rather will sound very boring and complicated, and it’s quite natural to feel like this, nothing wrong in it.

All these books have been there for centuries, and there are also different versions of them. As these books are very old, there are some doubts about the authenticity of their contents, and many of these questions are reasonable. There are also many theories about who wrote these books, whether the original contents were modified or not, and if modified, then to what extent. I think all these questions are interesting from a historical perspective and archeological research; there is a lot of research done in this area. The results of that research are very interesting and are published in various journals and books. Naturally, not all devotees agree with these findings, as it hurts their feelings, and also many think that, as these books are sacred, they should not be criticized or analyzed. I personally think they should not be disturbed by these findings because they do not reduce the importance or significance of these books. We should study them, and if possible, also (many people did that in the past, but for some reason, this process was discontinued). Because of the sacred status of these books, it's almost impossible to challenge anything written in them or edit anything (even if it's outdated or wrong). All these books were written in certain eras, and many things written in them were according to that era and socioeconomic conditions. When people or devotees insist on following everything in these books as it is, it creates problems, as some of the things are not relevant in today's world. If people who claim these books as their property (by associating them with a particular religion or sect) want to preserve the good messages and teachings mentioned in these books, then they need to show some flexibility and broad-mindedness. Knowledge is not stationary; it's always evolving, and every day new information is generated; it's a continuous process.

Many people also argue about whether Ramayan, Mahabharat, or people like Ram, Krishna really happened.  Devotees who believe in God reject these doubts altogether and want to stick to their beliefs. This is expected from devotees. In this process of argument, both sides miss the actual benefit that one can get from these books. One side considers these characters and books as sacred and worships them blindly without trying to understand the true meaning of their messages, and the other side rejects them just because of some technical gaps. Arguments like whether Jesus was God or not, or whether Krishna was real or not, are endless; it’s not these people who are important, but their teachings are. If you don’t agree with their teachings, then they don’t exist for you; it’s as simple as that. For me personally, the question of their authenticity doesn't matter; I don't worry about it. I consider these books and these people as sources of knowledge and useful information. I read all these books like many other books I read. I don't associate any of these books with any particular religion; for me, they are all the same. I take from them whatever I feel is relevant to my situation or whatever appeals to me and leave the rest. If I find anything in them that sounds somewhat wrong, I don't hesitate to raise a question about it or even criticize it. I share my beliefs and whatever I understand from these books, and people who hear or read them are free to agree or disagree with them. I have my opinions and beliefs (and they can change over time), and people can have theirs; there is nothing wrong with it. The problem is not with anyone's beliefs but when they become really aggressive about their beliefs (almost dictatorial) and start projecting them as 'facts' and are not willing to listen other side of the story. I think that our society has evolved enough to understand that there can be more than one truth, more than one way to reach the same destination, and also realize that many religions and beliefs can coexist peacefully.

Thanks for reading, and your comments are always welcome.

Reference:

1. Interesting read for some information about the Bhagavad Gita and historical facts about it, http://www.vvshirvaikar.de/Dnyaneshwari/PROLOGUE.html 

2. http://www.biblica.com/bibles/faq/3/

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Quran

(Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing)