Sri Humananda
Advaita Vedanta Tantra Yogi
On Scripture
"He who is aware that both knowledge and ignorance should be pursued together, overcomes death through ignorance and obtains immortality through knowledge."
(Isa Upanishad)
"Most of the so-called holy books we have in English today has gone through some translation process and some original meaning may have been contorted or translated completely incorrectly, perhaps even deliberately so. How can I identify and know true scripture from other writing?"
First, any writing can be scripture, to you. You have been blessed with an investigative mind, an Intellect and an Intuitive sense to help you "recognize" what is Truth and what is not.
But to answer your question; look for any piece of writing that, to you, have these attributes:
- A gross meaning - the "picture" of the story.
- A subtle meaning - an internal quality of meaning, for you
- Directness - it speaks to you directly with great power and relevance
Let us use an example from the Svetasvatara Upanishad:
"Two birds,
united always and known by the same name,
closely cling to the same tree.
One of them eats the sweet fruit;
the other looks on without eating."
The gross meaning is the picture of the lines - clear to almost all people.
The subtleness is deeper - the two birds are like your "public self" and your individual soul, inseparable because they are ultimately a singular consciousness - you. One "part" enjoys the world and partakes in its pleasures, and the other 'silent one' only observes.
The subtle meaning evolves into the Direct meaning which comes to you when the Truth of the whole of the meaning of the writing hits you. The Real and the "not so real" become One, and the implication of that can be staggering.
Does it hit you? If so, then you can see these lines as Scripture. Otherwise, to you, it is not, and you should ignore it, at least for the time being. Sometimes, both the subtle and Direct meanings need to brew inside of you for a while before the meaning crystallizes.
