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Advaitins believe that scriptures teach monism.

Are they real or unreal? The first cannot be, for it would be imply duality. The second also can't be, for it would imply that scriptures were produced and thus contradict Brahma Sutra(1.3.29) ata eva ca nityatvam "Therefore the eternity of the Vedas is proved"

How do Advaitins defend this argument?

Krishna Varna
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    Could I please have the source of the above lines? –  Apr 21 '19 at 10:19
  • Advaitins believe scriptures are eternal only from the point of view of an ajnAni. Once jnAna dawns, scriptures get sublated. –  Apr 21 '19 at 11:25
  • they are eternal. they are put into a potential, i.e. seed, form between kalpas as are all things manifest. – Swami Vishwananda Apr 22 '19 at 05:42
  • I think the argument in your question is not correct. Your argument says that the scriptures cannot be unreal because they would be temporary. That's not what Advaitins believe. They believe scriptures to be unreal and eternal. – brahma jijnasa Apr 23 '19 at 00:17

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I don't think you understand what advaita is. Everything that can be understood by the mind is unreal. Only the things beyond the mind is real. This is not only the teachings in the philosophy of advaita but also what Krishna says and means when he calls the world maya. It is also important to understand that although the importance of Vedas is high, the real can't be expressed in words, hence the Vedas may talk about what is real (like praising God and stating that he has innumerable qualities, he is infinite and so and so) but the texts itself cannot be real. Hence it must inferred that the eternity of the Vedas refer to the 'truthfulness' of the Vedas in context to (maya) world. I maybe wrong though (high probability).

Edit: For source, I will direct you to the first answer of According to ShankarAchArya in Advaita, is the universe "unreal" or "unworthy"?

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    When answering please do cite scriptural reference !! Its mandatory rule on this site! – Agamas Tantras Apr 21 '19 at 10:40
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    It must also be seen that all texts, even the one you are quoting and the one we are talking about are unreal and illusory and cannot be trusted for real knowledge. Even a liberated man can't express the real in words, it must be experienced (again, real can't be experienced because it is beyond experiences but we can't express it in words). –  Apr 21 '19 at 10:43