The Advaitist

  If you're on a journey of self-discovery and feel drawn to the wisdom of Hindu wisdom and especially Advaita Vedanta , here are some hard-learned insights to guide you. These suggestions come from experience and are aimed at helping you avoid common pitfalls. 1. Don’t Be a Casual Reader of Sacred Texts Avoid treating texts like the Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads as if they were casual bedtime reading or a novel. Simply "reading" them without proper guidance often leads to superficial understanding, if not outright misinterpretation. Why? The wisdom of these texts is in the context and explanation that only an authentic teacher or tradition can provide. Avoid: Don't be the mudha (fool) who say, “I’ve read the Gita, Quran ad Bible and find that all religion preach the same message." Or worse, the trap of equating Gita with a self-help guide and  parroting pop interpretations from slick management gurus who write books like "My Gita." 2. Be Anchore...

What is Advaita-vaad in a very practical sense? It is the ability to know that which is common in all things. A gold-maker does not see bangles, or necklaces or ear-rings. He sees only gold. He will look at them and say 2-bhori, 1-bhori and 3-bhori on inspection. He has developed through training the ability find out the essence, which is gold in his field. Similarly a doctor is able to find out the root cause of a disease from symptoms. And so on. Better still are those people who can abstract out the essence from multiple domains of knowledge, and re-use and re-contextualize that knowledge in a different field. Extracting the essence is the path of Advaita-vaad. There is a difference between knowing something and becoming one with the knowledge. Advaita teaches us how to relate to knowledge, rather than simply knowing. This can be achieved through bhakti, karma and gyana margas simultaneously. Through repetition and sadhana, over time one develops the ability to visualize the ess...

These notes on Vedantic Theory of Perception are based on the 2 part video lecture series of a Guru Poornima talk delivered by Shri L Ramaswamy of Vedanta Institute Kolkata on 10-Aug-2015.

Thinkers/ Philosophers/ Scholars 1. gauDapAda (also known as gauDAchArya) 2. shrIdhara of vardhamAna a. nyAya kandali (988 C.E) b. advaya siddhi (lost) 3. jayadeva (lakShmana sena's reign) a. gIta govindaM 4. shrIdhara svAmin (~ 1300 C.E) a. commentary of shrImada bhAgavata 5. Madhavendra Puri 6. Ishvari Puri 7. Keshava Bharati 8. Maladhara Vasu (also known as Gunaraj Khan) a. shrIkriShNa vijaya (1573 C.E), a Bengali adaptation of Shrimad Bhagavata 9. chanDi dAsa a. shrIkriShNakirtana 10. Madhusudana Sarasvati of Faridpur (~1550 C.E) a. advaitasiddhi 11. viGYAna bhikShu a. viGYAnAmRRita bhAshya, a commentary on Brahmasutra 12. Ramprasad (~1750 C.E) Shyama Sangeet 13. Kamalakanta Bhattacharya (~1800 C.E) A Bengali Shakta poet Later thinkers and philosophers inlcude Raja Ram Mohun Roy, Devendranath Tagore, Keshab Chandra Sen, Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. General Texts 1. Obscure Religious Cults (1946, 1962) by Dr Shashib...

Atman is identified with Purusha - it is the Supreme Spirit which serves as the instrumental cause of the manifest world. It is formless, action-less, changeless, and without the power of agency. Maya (delusion) is the dividing force in nature, the finitising principle, that which measures out the immeasurable and creates forms in the formless. It is not a substance but only a means of operation. It conceals the real and projects the unreal. Maya is identified with Prakriti, Universal Matter, for it exists as the material cause of the Unieverse. In equilibrium state, Universal matter is called Prakriti, but in first motion it is known as Maya. When Maya operates on mind, it is called Avidya (ignorance in the spiritual sense). It is the subjective aspect while Maya is the objective aspect. Maya is that force in the consciousness of individuals that produces the phenomena of illusion.

Brahman is the Ultimate Principle: "He, from whom proceeds the creation, preservation, and reconstruction of the universe". Brahman is the instrument and material cause of all manifest phenomena. It is the Uncaused Cause and eternal. In its transcendental aspect, which is beyond the comprehension of human mind, it has two states - one in which it is at rest, and one in which it is active. Its passive condition  is called Asat (non-being) or  that subtle condition of nature when the infinite varieties of forms are submerged in in the eternal source. This is Pralaya, the condition of universal dissolution. Its active condition is called sat (being) when it has three attributes - sat (being), chit (consciousness), Ananda (bliss). The immanent aspect of Brahman has two inseparable form: Nirguna - without qualities existing as pure spirit (Atman) Sagua - with qualities existing as pure matter (prakriti)

The Ultimate Principle as per Vedanta is Brahman, that which human intellect can never fathom. Brahman can be known only by direct intuition and never by logical inquiry and analysis. Reasoning is meant only for secular matters; not for things like existence of God, salvation or release. Such truths can only be known by direct intuition or from the Shruti or Vedic literature where the ancient Seers have recorded their experience. Towards this ultimate goal a four-pronged approach is necessary: i. viveka - right discrimination between real and unreal ii. vairaghya - renunciation of all desires to enjoy forever the fruit of actions iii. satsampat - right conduct iv. mumukshutva - the earnestness to know the Ultimate Principle "What is the cause of Primal Motion  in Nature?", that is what Vedanta tries to answer. Vedanta postualtes an Intelligent Agent, called Brahman, that guides and directs the workings of the subtle forces of the universe. Only this would explain the myster...

shaMkara founded the Advaita Vedanta (monism) where he contends that there is only one Ultimate Principle and everything else is an illusion (mAyA). His thesis was based on firm logic and not any other means like intuition. He founded four mathas/ monasteries i. Sringeri in Mysore ii. Puri in Orissa iii. Dvarka in Gujarat iv. Badrinath in the Himalayas His important texts were: a. commenaries on the prasthAnatraya b. vivekachUdAmaNi c. upadeshasahasrI d. AptavajrasUchI e. Atmabodha f. mohamudgara g. dashashloki h. aparokShAnubhUti

vedAnta was founded by bAdarAyaNa. It is an inquiry into the nature of the Ultimate Principle (Brahman). Vedanta aims to show that there is only one Ultimate Reality which presents itself to the sense as an illusion (mAyA). It shows that the universe with its various forms is only an appearance and that all things are but different manifestations of one and the same. Three related schools of thought developed from the vedAntasUtra i. advaita or non-dualism founded by shaMkara (~8th century C.E) ii. vishiShTAdvaita or qualified non-dualism founded by rAmAnuja (~11th century C.E) iii. dvaita or dualism founded by madhva (~12th century C.E) Advaita contends that there is only one Ultimate Principle and phenomenal existence is an illusion or like a projection. Vishishtadvaita contends that there is only one Ultimate Principle but in the objective world it has a dual manifestation. Dvaita beliefs in a separation of Ultimate Principle and Spiritual Principle.

Astika (आस्तिक) and nAstika (नास्तिक) are technical terms in relation to Hindu philosophy indicating whether the philosophical schools accept the Vedas as the supreme authority or not, respectively. The six Astika schools (also known as sad darshana) are: nyAya Vaisheshika Samkhya Yoga Mimamsa Vedanta The common theme of all the schools of Hindu Philosophy is the same - to understand the Ultimate Reality - the difference lies in the depth and level of interpretation of the Ultimate Reality. Each of these schools focus on a particular aspect of the whole and answers specific questions. nyAya answers the question "What are the means by which I may gain knowledge about the Ultimate Reality?" vaisheShika (वैशॆषिक) answers the question "What are the various things to be known about the Ultimate Reality?" sAMkhya (सांख्य) is a metaphysical doctrine and tries to answer about the fundamental nature of Existence yoga (योग) links this metaphysical doctrine to t...

Introduction Hindu Philosophical thoughts have their origin in antiquity - for example, as early as the 10th book of Rk Veda,  in the Nasadiya Sukta (RV 10.129), we find the Seer contemplating on the Origin of Universe. However, by the Upanishadic age, dvelopment of various philosophical schools were in full swing. Differences in Philosophy Development Style in East and West Development of philosophical ideas in India, were quite distinct from the way it happened in the Western World. In Greece for example, a philosopher propounded his views. He himself or someone else, documented the ideas and others debated on it. The next philosopher entered the scene and did the same thing and so on. Thus a clear chronology of philosophical ideas is available to the student of history and philosophy. In India, things were different. First of all, there were different schools of philosophy as opposed to a single person, and the inter-school rivalry was intense. Secondly, the entire phil...