Q. Which is the best Vedic textbook?
A: For beginners Bhagwad Gita and for learned people Yogavashistha.
Q. Why Bhagwad Gita?
A: Bhagwad Gita is simple to read, easy to understand. It is the essence of Vedas. Therefore it is liked by most individuals. On the other hand Yogavashistha goes deep into Vedic philosophy and talks in detail about the creation of nature and the illusions of prakriti. While Yogavashistha talks more of gnana marg, Bhagwad Gita merges all the paths of yoga into one.
Yogavashistha, talks about vairagya (dispassion), moksha (liberation), utpatti (creation), sthithi (illusionary aspects of all manifestations), Upanishad (quetitude of mind), and nirvana (aatma gyan).
Q. Yogavashistha comes under what classification shruti or Smriti?
A: I think it's a shruti. Rishi Vashistha was one of the seven rishis known to have produced shruti literature.
Q. Out of which Vedic philosophy you believe: adwaita, qualified dualism or Dwaita?
A. Adwaita. It talks about oneness. It says that universe is a single unified reality and consists of Brahma alone. All others are illusions. This now can be well understood using the principles of quantum mechanics of physics.
Q. How come Buddha is included as the ninth avatar of Vishnu?
A: Probably people wanted to show that Buddha belongs to India. Buddha was a great philosopher of Adwaita philosophy.
Q. People say that Adi Shankaracharya's Adwaita philosophy has an influence from Buddhism. Is it true?
A: May be, to some extent it is correct.
Q. Do you feel that soul can be compared as the operational software of computer as against learning as application software?
A: The soul is non-local and cannot be compared with anything, which is local or defined. People start defining soul with the technology of the era they are living in, but the soul is non-local, ever pervading and is beyond time.