draft of "Primer for Beginners in Advaita" part 3/4

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Hari Om,

 

 

Please find below the part 3 of the draft of the Primer. The 2 earlier parts

dealt with Religion and Hinduism. The present draft has less than 500 words.

 

 

VEDANTA SIMPLIFIED

13) Hindus believe that Vedas are timeless and eternal. There are four Vedas,

namely Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva Veda. Each Veda consists of sections namely

Samhita (containing the hymns) and Brahmana (significance of the hymns),

Aranyakas (interpretations) and Upanishads, which are metaphysical dialogs.

Vedanta means “found at the conclusion of the Vedas” and is an outline of the

underlying philosophy with emphasis on individual spiritual quest. The knowledge

and understanding of “Upanishads, Brahma Sutra and Baghvat Gita.” together is

now termed as Vedanta. The 3 Acharyas, Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhava have

written commentaries on all three texts.

 

14) Vedanta as a philosophy, has three main anchors. The first is the all

humans’ real nature is Universal divinity. The second is that the aim of human

life is to realize this divinity. The third is an elaboration of why it is so

difficult, given the human nature and other phenomena which create “ignorance”

in humans and suggestions. Vedanta asserts that the universe perceived by the

senses is not real and beneath this outward changing body lies a fundamental

reality which is supreme, called Brahman. This is the 'Sat-chit-ananda (being-

consciousness- bliss)

 

15) Vedanta states that the individual human soul(jiva-atman) originates and

merges with the Brahman. Some Vedantists differ on whether this Atman is

essentially the same as Brahman. Advaita philosophy says that everything is

Brahman and that only Maya prevents us from seeing that. The other philosophies

differ from this contention. But all of the Vedantists agree that Atman and

Brahman are 'related' and the aim of the human life is self-realization. Mere

study of scriptures is not enough, self–realization has to be experienced with

Vedanta providing a route map.

 

16) While Vedanta is a total philosophy, Upanishads are specific texts,. Of the

numerous Upanishads, 108 of them are considered genuine. Upanishads means 'to

sit down near' because they were explained to the students sitting near the feet

of their teacher. Of the eleven major Upanishads, one is from Rig Veda

(Aitareya), five are from Yajurveda (Katha, Taitiriya and Shvetashvatar from

Krishna , Ishavasya and Brihadaranyak from Shukla), two from Sam Veda (Ken and

Chandogya) and three from Atharvaveda (Prashna, Mundak and Mandukya).

 

17) The Brahma Sutra written by Badarayana discusses knowledge of Brahman. The

first chapter of the Sutra describes Brahman as the central reality and creator

of the world and the individual souls. The second chapter answers objections and

explains the world's dependence on God and its evolution back into Brahman. The

third chapter suggests ways of knowing Brahman, and the fourth chapter indicates

the rewards or fruits of knowing this Spirit.

 

18) Bhagavad-Gita meaning the Song of the Lord, is considered by Hindus as

the working manual on spirituality. Desires are the root cause of deaths and

births. Work done without any desire for personal gain or with renunciation of

the gains from such actions, becomes spiritual action. The 3 paths of Gyana

Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Bakhti Yoga are explained.

Pranams

P.B.V.Rajan

 

 

 

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