what is vedanta?

[Guest guest]

Vedanta involves no means and ends. It just throws light upon what is.

Throwing light upon what is, is called 'knowledge'. Knowledge is just seeing

what is. Vedanta lights up the fact. Whether Vedanta talks about the

world, or about creation, or about God - the creator, or about the devatas

or about any other subject, all discussion only throws light upon one basic

fact: that there is no difference between the individual, the world and God.

This non-dual fact of the identity of me, God and the world is tattva, the

basic, irreducible Truth of everything. And, it is this tattva, Truth,

which is unfolded by the teaching of Vedanta.

 

'That thou art' is the vision of Vedanta. The entire Vedanta

scripture is about oneself, about 'me', - about what I am. When the sastra

(scripture) talks about the world it is talking about me; when it talks

about creation it talks about me; when it talks about worlds other than this

world (heavens and hells to which I may go), it talks about me. The purpose

of the Upanishads (Vedanta scriptures) is not to throw light upon means and

ends, but to illuminate the truth of all means and ends.

 

The whole teaching of Vedanta is in the form of words; therefore,

one must necessarily see what the words used are meant to unfold - one must

see neither more nor less but exactly what the words are meant to unfold.

Using the words of Vedanta to 'see' myself is like using my eyes to see

color. If with my eyes open and focused I find that there is not enough

light to see color (or to see it clearly) the light should be increased.

But the need for more light does not mean that it is the light which does

the 'seeing'. The eyes remain the instrument that does the 'seeing'.

Similarly, the words and sentences (of Vedanta scripture), like the eyes,

are the means of 'seeing'. To use these means I must throw light upon the

words and sentences, analyze them, discover the exact meaning as unfolded by

the scripture.

 

Vedanta scripture is studied to answer one's questions about the

individual (jiva), the world (jagat), and the Lord (Isvara). In the

beginning of study, these three topics are seen as a triangle with each

topic enjoying its own identity, occupying its own position. But as study

progresses (as the scriptual words and sentences are analyzed in order to

understand the nature of each of these entities) the 'triangle' disappears.

The three are seen one. The student discovers that jiva (individual),

jagat (the world), and Isvara (the Lord) have their being in one thing - one

absolute non-dual Reality - and that One : tattvamasi('That thou art').