Sruti and Smriti

Sruti and Smriti

	Sruti	Smriti
1	Sruti literally means what is heard,	Smriti means what is remembered
2	Sruti is revelation	Smriti is tradition
3	Sruti is direct experience. Great Rishis heard the eternal truths of religion and left a record of them for the benefit of posterity	Smriti is a recollection of that experience
4	Sruti is eternal	Smriti is man-made
5	Sruti is primary authority	Smriti is secondary
6	Sruti is the final authority	If there is anything in a Smriti which contradicts the Sruti, the Smriti is to be rejected
7	Sruti commands nothing. It gives direction only	Smriti commands and give punishments if not followed in the form of prayachits
8	Sruti never becomes obsolete	A part of Smriti may become obsolete and require modification or amendment
9	Sruti is never changing and thus permanent	Smriti followed at a given time has necessary changes as required. Smriti is thus dynamic in nature.
10	Srutis are the four Vedas, Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva Vedas and 108 Upanishads.	Manu, Parasara, Yajnavalkya, Gautama, Harita, Yama, Visnu, Sankha, Likhita, Brhaspati, Daksa, Angiras, Pracetas, Samvarta, Acanas, Atri, Apastamba and Satatapa are the eighteen sages who mastered the Vedas with their superhuman power and derived the Smrtis from them. Their works are known after them like Manusmrti, Yajnavalkya-smrti, Parasara-Smrti and so on, and they contain all that we need to know about all the dharmas to be adhered to.