SWAMI SIVANANDA VANI

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ESSENCE OF VEDANTA

 

Vedanta is expressed in the mahavakhyas (great sentences) of the

Upanishads as Tat twam asi " " thou art that " ; " Aham brahma asmi " " I

am the self. " Vedanta says, " 0 little man! Do not identify yourself

with this perishable body. Give up 'Iness' and 'mineness'! Do not

hate your neighbour or brother. Do not try to exploit him he is your

own self. There is a common self or common consciousness in all. This

is the same in a king and a peasant, in an ant and a dog, in a man

and a woman, in a cobbler and a scavenger. This is the real immortal

entity. Mind is the dividing principle. It tempts and deludes. Kill

this mischievous mind. Control the indriyas (senses) which drag you

out to the external objects. Fix the mind in the source. Rise above

body and mind. Eradicate desires. Learn to discriminate the real from

the unreal. Identify yourself with this immortal, nondual,

selfexistent, self-luminous essence. Behold the one self in all. See

the one in many. All miseries will come to an end. "

 

Vedanta speaks of the one atman or Brahman or self who exists in the

past, the present and the future, who has no beginning, middle and

end, who is the support for everything, who is the embodiment of

wisdom, peace and bliss. The seers of the Upanishads have expressed

their realisation in glowing terms. They have given out their inner

experiences after long research and mighty struggle. All these have

been collected in the form of the Upanishads. This constitutes the

subject of vedanta philosophy.

 

Although vedanta is the direct royal road that takes one to the goal,

it should not be prescribed for all in a wholesale manner. There are

four types of aspirants. They are the karmic (active) type, the

bhakti (devotional) type, the mystic type and the rational type.

Karma yoga should be prescribed for people of karmic tendencies for

the busy and active men who have mala (impurities) in the mind;

bhakti yoga for men of devotional temperament - in whom the emotional

element predominates; raja yoga for men of mystic temperament;

vedanta yoga for men of reason and will for people of intellectual

temperament.

 

Vicara (enquiry, " Who am I? " ) can only benefit that aspirant who is

free from impurity and tossing of the mind, who is endowed with bold

understanding, gigantic and tremendous will, sharp, subtle intellect

and the four means. It is certainly not meant for all it is meant

for the select few only who can really understand and realise the

full significance or import of vedanta and reap the fruits.