I am dumb struck at the curse thrown in the face of dissenters of Veda. It smacks of fanatic arrogance implied in this statement of Jnaanasambandhar. He was waging a war against ‘Samanars’ ( Jains ). The Pandiya king put to death about 8000 Seminars, says Subramanya Bharathiyaar. He was, let us remember, a convert to Saivism by Samnandar
There has been great reformers in Indian History like Bhasavappa, founder of Lingayath saivite rebels. He declared that Vedas are not sacrosanct. They are only a collection of philosophical thoughts of the times.
Dear Sankar The Rig veda is not a static document. Upanishads were attempts to understand the Vedas. Maybe, the upanishads were created by Indo-Aryans. "Shva"means brightness; the sun. Then came Shiva, sawant, shwant etc Out of this is saivism, based on zoroastrianism, encouraged by the Pallavas. Shaivism is a Tamil edition of zoroastriansim. Evolution is the strength of Hinduism
In fact Lord Krishna also critisises people who are stcuk to ONLY Vedas. - Good point
Vedas are just a starting point... one who stays covered with them never goes beyond a point. Many legends imply it in a subtle way! Thirupugazh quotes many verses asking us to go beyond it.
The Veads themselves saying " Cross Us and Go beyond us"
The Upanishads also say the same to serach inwards rather than " in them"
That is the essence. But at the same time.....
Basava or for that matter Sri Krishna, Adisankara are all criticising not Vedas or Vedic Followers but people who are STRUCK only to Vedas and DONT GO FURTHER.
One need to do MASTERs but doing MASTERs w.o BASICs is fatal.
That is it. That is what peple like Appar who gave so much imporatnce to Vedas, Vedic sacrifices, Visiting temple, Singing them, doing Uzhavarappapani
insisted people to cross them by saying -
" gangai Adil en kaviri adil en" ( but please note that he even took piligiramage to himalayas but all those were preparations )
" thedik kandu Konden ennule yan" the lord whom even Brahma and Vishnu could not find by physically searching.