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VedantaVedanta (Ved?nta, ???????, pronounced as //vé: d?:n t?//) means the anta or culmination or essence of the Vedas. It is a principal branch of Hindu philosophy. As per some, it is a form of Jnana Yoga(one of the four basic yogapractices in Hinduism; the others are: Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga), a form of yogawhich involves an individual seeking "the path of intellectual analysis or the discrimination of truth and reality." As per others, Vedanta encompasses all the four yogas. The sage Badarayanais supposed to be the proponent of this philosophy and author of the Brahma Sutrasbased on the Upanishads. In late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Vedanta was propounded voraciously in the West by Vivekananda. He was followed by many other Indian sages in due course, including Yogananda, and others who came to North America to preach Vedanta and make it popular in the West. The concept of Brahman- the Supreme Spirit or the eternal, self existent, immanent and transcedent Supreme and Ultimate Reality which is the divine ground of all Being - is central to Vedanta. The concept of Godor Ishvarais also there, and the Vedantic sub-schools differ mainly in how they identify God with Brahman. Mimamsa is one of the three major divisions of Hindu theistic philosophy. It is further divided into Purva Mimamsa, also simply called Mimamsa, which deals with explainations of the fire-sacrifices of the Vedic mantrasand Brahmanas, and Uttara Mimamsa, also called "Vedanta", which explicates the esoteric teachings of the Aranyakasand the Upanishads. The school of Vedanta is further divided into six main sub-schools.
Sub-schools of Vedanta
Except Sankara, who also propounded the Sm?rtadenomination, all other acharyas are strongly Vaishnavite. The epistemology of Advaita, Vishishtadvaita and Mimamsa (ie, purva-) is common. Roots of VedantaAll forms of Vedanta are drawn primarily from the Upanishads, a set of philosophical and instructive Vedicscriptures which deal mainly with forms of meditation. "The Upanishads are commentaries on the Vedas, their putative end and essence, and thus known as Ved?nta = 'End of the Veda'. They are considered the fundamental essence of all the Vedas and although they form the backbone of Vedanta, portions of Vedantic thought are also derived from some of the earlier Aranyakas. Indian pre-Shankara Buddhist writer Bhavya in the Madhyamakahrdaya Karika describes the Vedanta philosophy as "Bhedabheda". The three branches of Vedanta best known in the West are Advaita Vedanta, Vishishtadvaita, and Dvaita. Each of these Vedantic divisions was founded by Shri Adishankara, Shri Ramanujaand Shri Madhvacharya, respectively. Also of note, historically, in order for a guruto be considered an acharyaor great teacher of a philosophical school of Vedanta, he was required to write commentaries on three important texts in Vedanta, the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras. Accordingly, Adi Sankara, Ramanuja and Shri Madhvacharya have written commentaries on all three canonical texts. The three schools they conceived are the most prevalent, however, proponents of other Vedantic schools continue to write and develop their ideas as well, although their works are not widely known outside of India. Swami Chinmayananda, of the Chinmaya Mission has been a great modern day exponent of the Advaitanon-dualistic tradition of the Vedanta. More information on related text and literature are available at (http://www.chinmayamission.org/html/swami_chinmayananda.php3). Transition from Vedic to Vedantic religionWhile the traditional Vedic 'karma kanda', or ritualistic components of religion, continued to be practiced through the Brahminsas meditative and propitiatory rites to guide society to self-knowledge, more jnana- or knowledge-centered understandings began to emerge. These were mysticalstreams of Vedic religion that focused on meditation, self-discipline and spiritual connectivity rather than on rituals. Etymologically, veda means "knowledge" and anta means "end", so the literal meaning of the term "Ved?nta" is "the end of knowledge" or "the ultimate knowledge" or "matter appended to the Veda". In earlier writings, Sanskrit'Ved?nta' simply referred to the Upanishads, the most speculative and philosophical of the Vedic texts. However, in the medieval period of Hinduism, the word Vedanta came to mean the school of philosophy that interpreted the Upanishads. Traditional Vedanta considered scriptural evidence, or shabda pramana, as the most authentic means of knowledge, while perception, or pratyakssa, and logical inference, or anumana, were considered to be subordinate (but valid). FormalizationThe systematization of Vedantic ideas into one coherent treatise was undertaken by Badarayanain the Vedanta Sutra, or Brahma Sutra. The cryptic aphorisms of the Vedanta Sutras are open to a variety of interpretations, resulting in the formation of numerous Vedanta schools, each interpreting the texts in its own way and producing its own sub-commentaries claiming to be faithful to the original. Consistent throughout Vedanta, however, is the exhortation that ritual be eschewed in favor of the individual's quest for truth through meditation governed by a loving morality, secure in the knowledge that infinite bliss awaits the seeker. Near all existing sects of Hinduism are directly or indirectly influenced by the thought systems developed by Vedantic thinkers. Hinduism to a great extent owes its survival to the formation of the coherent and logically advanced systems of Vedanta. Vedanta and scienceAdvaita Vedanta has influenced modern scientists. Erwin Schrödingerclaimed to have been inspired by Vedanta in his discovery of quantum theory. According to his biographer Walter Moore: "The unity and continuity of Vedanta are reflected in the unity and continuity of wave mechanics. In 1925, the world view of physics was a model of a great machine composed of separable interacting material particles. During the next few years, Schrödinger and Werner Heisenbergand their followers created a universe based on superimposed, inseparable waves of probability amplitudes. This new view would be entirely consistent with the Vedantic concept of All in One.". Additionally, Fritjof Capra's book The Tao of Physicsis one among several that pursues this viewpoint as it investigates the relationship between modern, particularly quantum, physics and the core philosophies of various Eastern religions, including Hinduism, Buddhismand Taoism. Unfortunately, such writings by western authors often run the risk of oversimplifying and ignoring important differences between Eastern religions. For instance, pre-modern Vedantins argued for the existence of an eternal self, or atman, while Buddhists have denied this possibility. However, in recent times, the availability of an increasing number of accurate translations of Vedantic works, commentaries by Western scientists like Schrödinger and Capra, and easier access to original texts have made it possible for modern students of Vedanta and Physics to overcome the semantic gap arising due to cultural differences and approach their study in a more informed manner. Major Vedantic GurusPre-modern Vedantins:
Modern Vedantins:
See also
ReferencesFor non-western sources a good starting point is Modern Physics and Vedanta by Swami Jitatmananda, a monk of the Ramakrishna Order. In the preceding title Amaury de Reincourt's The Eye of Shiva (New York, William Morrow & Co. 1981), is often cited along with The Dancing Wu Li Masters, by Gary Zukav; The Philosophical Impact of Contemporary Physics by Milic Capek; Mysticism and the New Physics, Michael Talbot; The Cosmic Code, Quantum Physics as the Language of Nature, by Heinz R Pagels; Philosophical Aspects of Modern Science, by C.E.M. Joad; The Holographic Paradigm; David Bohm's Causality and Chance in Modern Physics; Huston Smith's Forgotten Truth: The Primordial Tradition. More scholarly treatments include Theology After Vedanta, by Francis X. Clooney, Sankara and Indian Philosophy, by Natalia Isayeva, A History of Early Vedanta Philosophy, by Hajime Nakamura, and volume III of Karl Potter and Sibajiban Bhattacharya's Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. External links
Topicsin Yoga
Topicsin Hinduism
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