आगमे विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

Intro

Beliefs, injunctions and practices of various Hindu traditions have contradicted each other without major conflicts (partially due to limited applicability and agreement in other matters). (Eg: rejection and acceptance of animal sacrifice in vedic sacrifices, appropriate rituals at life occasions such as birth, paths to spiritual liberation, the correct way of pronouncing the vedas, grammatical correctness etc..) This geographic and temporal variation is expressly allowed by several commentators.
तर्कोऽप्रतिष्ठः श्रुतयो विभिन्नाः नैको मुनिर्यस्य वचः प्रमाणम् । धर्मस्य तत्त्वं निहितं गुहायाम् महाजनो येन गतः स पन्थाः ॥ -व्यासः।
As an example, consider Samskara_Ratnamala, (supposedly by someone ~400 years ago) which is replete with statements of mutually incompatible opinions of baudhāyana, āshvalāyana etc. (on everything from timing to the details of the ritual).
Moral dilemmas (dharma-sankaTa) and controversies are rife in the Hindu epics (eg: arjuna’s dilemma over whether to fight the war, vAli questioning rAma-s decision to kill him, rAvaNa deciding whether the messenger Hanuman should be killed or mutilated).
Hence, from the point of view of an individual and the society, the idea that an injunction or explanation in a given shAstra (even if it is put in the mouth of a respected deity) is just one opinion is solidly established. One can espouse and follow whatever opinion one sees fit to a great (though not absolute) extant.

Unimportance signalling

शब्द-प्रमाण-प्रयोगे श्रीमद्-वेङ्कटनाथार्यः

“न प्रधान-विरोधः स्याद्
ईदृशानवधारणे” ।
इति शिक्षयितुं शिष्यान्
प्राचां क्वचिद् अनिश्चयः ॥