Highlights of Vedanta Philosophy
 
Vedanta means "end of the Vedas". The Upanishads, the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras are the pillars of the Vedanta. Total Upanishads are 108, out of which principal Upanishads are 11. They elaborate on how the soul (Atman) can be united with the ultimate truth (Brahman) through contemplation and mediation, as well as the doctrine of Karma i.e. the cumulative effects of a person’s actions. In the Brahma Sutras is the essence of the philosophical and spiritual ideas of the Upanishads. Shrimad Bhagavad Gita is the dialogues between Sri Krishna and Arjuna held in 3102 BC during war among Kauravas and Pandavas in Krukshetra, Haryana. It is cream of Vedas and Upanishads, in most simple Sanskrit language.
 
Vedanta is live. Many sub-traditions, ranging from dualism to non-dualism developed based on different but logical interpretations over period of time. These sub-traditions include Advaita Darshan, established by Adi Shankara, Vishishtadvaita Darshan established by Ramanujacharya, Dvaita Darshan established by Madhvacharya, Bhedabheda (or Dvaitadvaita) Darshan established by Nimbarkacharya, Shuddhadvaita Darshan established by Vallabhacharya, Achintyabhedabheda Darshan established by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Akshar-Purushottam Darshan established by Shastriji Maharaj.
 
Vedanta establishes three fundamental categories viz. the ultimate reality or Brahman or Isvara, the individual soul or self or Atman and the Prakiriti or Jagat or matter. If we compare the three fundamental categories with the Electric Powerhouse, Brahman is powerhouse; Atman is Power supply and Prakriti is electric appliances. Without electric current, no appliance will work. The major highlights of the Vedanta are mentioned as under:
 

1. Brahman or Isvara – The universal consciousness or God or Brahman is Satchitananda, the ultimate reality. Sat which is existence absolute or permanently exist i.e. absolute truth; Chit which is knowledge absolute or complete knowledge and Ananda which is bliss absolute or permanently blissful. God is one. There are different aspects or ways of looking at God in different Religions.
2. Atman or Soul – Atman is atomic in size, eternal and inactive.  It becomes active when connected with mind, buddhi etc., identifies itself with body and mind and feels pleasure or pain. Atman, as agent of Brahman sacrifices and performs all acts i.e. good and bad deeds done in previous births. Body is changing with age; mind is changing over time but soul in not changing.
3. Five Sheaths of Atman - Atman or soul is hidden in five coverings of gross body & finer sheaths of body, energy, mind, intellect and bliss which are called as Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vigyanamaya and Anandamaya Kosh respectively. The body is seen; the energy runs the entire body which manifests in form of breath; the mind is world of thoughts & sensory inputs, the intellect is knowledge, analytical power & awareness and the bliss is reflection of atman. The body has senses; mind has desires and attitudes.
4. World – World is sum total of individuals. Brahman is sum total of souls.  
5. Twenty Six attributes of Divinity - Fearlessness, purity of heart, steadfastness in knowledge and yoga, alms giving, control of senses, performing sacrifices, reading scriptures, austerity, uprightness; non-injury, truth, absence of anger, renunciation, tranquility, absence of calumny, compassion to beings, lack of covetousness, gentleness, modesty, steadiness; Boldness, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of hatred, absence of pride; these belong to one born to achieve a divine state. (Gita XVI, 1-3).
6. Sanskars and Sufferings - Every action leaves an impression in our mind (samskara), which creates a tendency for the action to be repeated in the present or future life.
7. Karma theory –According to Karma theory everyone has come with its own bundle of karma. The impressions or sanskars are ultimately the cause of sufferings or enjoyments.
8. Re-birth - According to the law of Karma, it is not the parents who choose their children; it is children who choose their parents. A soul is to be born. So it looks around-“where shall I go”? Now if he did some meritorious work before, he should be born perhaps as a rich man’s son. But if he did evil actions, he may be born in a rich family but as a sick man’s son. One cannot explain the present life without admitting the previous life.
9. Free will - The person is free to act, but only within the radius determined by his physical and mental circumstances. 
10. Sufferings – lessor the one is body conscious, lesser the sufferings. As sufferings come, one can say, ‘I am not the body, so the suffering of the body is not mine. The more one can believe, or rather, the more one is convinced of this, the freer he will be from hold of the body. Our sufferings and enjoyment are based on the idea of identification or sense of possession, either I am identified with an object or it belongs to me. If the sense of possession is too strong, it brings pain.
11. Wisdom v/s Ritualism - The Vedic rituals i.e. yajna are done mainly with the aspirations of fruits or to get heaven. The Vedanta stressed on spiritual wisdom and gods were idealized into Brahman. Adi Shankaracharya established the superiority of wisdom over ritualism. 

 
Shrimad Bhagavad Gita has harmonized the Vedic rituals and spiritual wisdom of Upanishad. Shri Krishna in chapter 3 has explained that virtually any action can be transformed into yajna if it is done in the spirit of sacrifice, or offering to God. By seeing all elements of the act of offering (including the offeror himself) as nothing but Brahman (Supreme God), he attains Brahman. Even the old Vedic rituals can be performed without an eye on the results, but with a desire for the social and cosmic good.  

1. Para & Apara knowledge – There are two types of knowledge: Para and apara, supreme and relative. Supreme knowledge is the knowledge of real nature of things, Say gold bars, gold jewelry, gold necklace etc. all is basically gold. When we remove name and form, we get the abstract idea. Relative knowledge is the knowledge which is acquired through books, experiments etc.  
2. Unity of existence i.e. Brahman – when one is rooted in this idea, you become moral, sympathetic, philanthropic and ethical as there is a feeling of presence of the same divine in all.
3. Liberation or Salvation - Salvation is the goal of life.  There are four methods of attaining freedom viz. Karma yoga (detachment), Bhakti yoga (Surrender), Jnana yoga (only Brahman) and Raja yoga (Dhyana or Meditation).
4. Meditation - Senses take to the external world. To experience inner world, we need to hear inner voice. When we close our eyes, it is first step towards it. The object of meditation is to be calm, tranquil in mind. When one is fundamentally clear and focused, thoughts & distractions reduce. When the mind is absolutely calm, automatically one will know atman. But to feel the bliss of the Atman, the mind need not be absolutely calm. Even if it is partially calm, one will feel it. Because the real nature of the atman is that Bliss, so when the obstacle are removed, that blissful nature of the atman comes out. It is natural joy. 

 
Reference: Vedanta & Vivekananda by Swami Swahananda
 

Ramanujacharya was born near Chennai, Tamil Nadu and lived during 1017–1137. He composed philosophical works and committing to writing the special views that were being developed orally by Yamunacharya (the grandson of Nathamuni, the great Alver) and his predecessors, gave the system a solid foundation to the Vasishtadvaita or qualified non-dualism, one of the great Hindu Philosophies. He established Lakshmi-sampradaya, also known as Srivaishnavism.  

​Vasishtadvaita Philosophy:
He propounded the philosophy so called as “Vasishtadvaita” or qualified non-dualism. Under the system, he proclaimed that the unity is not the sublation of all diversity but the subordination of diversity to unity. World, jiva and God (the absolute one) are true and liberation from bondage is also factually true.
 
He refuted the Advaita doctrine of Shankara that the Brahman, the absolute as the non-dual being in whom the world of many is mere appearance ascribed by ignorance and not actually existing. Ramanuja questioned locus of ignorance, if it is in Brahman; Brahman is loaded with evil and becomes unworthy as a spiritual goal.
 
Brahman (God):

1. Brahman is not featureless, attribute-less, indefinite and vague presence unsuited for worship and adoration.
2. It seeks to equate divine personality, known under different sacred names of Purushottama, Narayana, Vasudeva, Krishna etc., with Brahman, the absolute of the Upanishads.
3. The Supreme Being is the person with attributes. He can take any form, pervades every being as their indweller and container. He has fivefold characteristics in his inherent nature (Svarupa) which distinguishes Him from finite beings viz. Satyam (Truth unconditioned and changeless), Jnanam (all comprehending knowledge), Anantam (Infinite or excellances unlimited by categories, time, space etc.), Ananda (immeasurable & immitigable Bliss) and Amalatva (stainlessness or incorruptibility i.e. freedom from the hold of karma). His auspicious qualities (Svabhava) are countless but most important identified are six viz. Jnana (omniscience), Bala (omnipotence), Aishvarya (lordship), Shakti (creative power), Virya (immutability) and Tejas (splendor). Others are Gambhirya (inestimable grandeur), Audarya (generosity) and Karuna (compassion).

Jiva (Soul) & Jagat (Nature):

1. He claimed the plurality of Jivas (Atmans) and changeful order of the Nature are real. Jivas & Jagat (Nature) always exist as a part of Brahman as His body or mode.
2. Jivas and Nature have no existence apart from Brahman and are in inseparable relation. Jivas & Nature are inseparably dependent (Aprathak-siddhi) on Brahman and Brahman is not dependent on Jivas & Jagat (Nature). The cosmic Body of Jivas and Jagat cannot at all be separated, as their dependence on Brahman is eternal. The dependence is not reciprocal. God id controller and Jiva-Jagat form the controlled. God is master and owner and Jiva-Jagat is subservient to God and forms his disposable property.
3. The relationship of Brahman & Jivas has analogy of Human Body which is composed of millions of individual cells. The cells of different organs are distinct in function and have its own individuality. Together, they are bound as the body and they exist and function solely to serve the interest of the individual will, the life energy of the body.  
4. It is karmas, the result of actions of Jivas in previous embodiments that causes the good and evil, enjoyments and sufferings of karma which have necessarily to be enjoyed or suffered.

Jivas are hold of oppressive Karma that generates the spiritual blindness of ignorance and impurity. God is untouched by karma and therefore absolutely pure.
 
Srishti & Parlaya:

1. The mode constituted of the Jivas and nature may undergo change. This is only contraction and expansion, which is called Parlaya (dissolution) and Srishti (Projection). In dissolution the Jivas and Nature exist undifferentiated from Brahman but they do not lose their entity in so far as they have the potentiality to manifest again at the time of Srishti or creation.
2. In the creative process, the Jivas which have become almost one with insentient Prakriti in Parlaya, gain their separate identity and bodies suited for their embodiment according to their deserts in the light of their Karma.

 
Liberation:

1. The forgetfulness of Jiva that he is servant (Sesa) of God (Sesi) is due to karma-born ignorance. When this is removed by enlightenment and the Jiva realizes himself as the eternal and natural attendant of all powerful, all perfect and all blissful Being. Jiva only derives the highest bliss.
2. It is self-awareness of the Jiva as entity distinct from body-mind and its dependent status with the Isvara, generates true devotion (Bhakti).  
3. Salvation or release from the hold of karma does not mean the merging of jiva in Brahman, but attaining to the status of an eternal servant of His, which alone can give unalloyed bliss to the jiva. 

 
His Teachings:

1. Never be slaves to your senses.
2. Go on reading repeatedly the books dealing with the greatness of God and wonders of His creations.
3. Enjoy the utterances of the names and glories of God’s devotees with much relish as the utterances of God’s names and glories.
4. Dedicate yourself to the service of God and His devotees.
5. Devote a portion of the day, at least one hour, to the contemplation of the greatness of your spiritual preceptor and some time every day to the reading of the sacred writings of the Alvers or the Acharyas.
6. One should surrender oneself at the feet of the God. Those, who have surrendered, should not bestow any thought on his future, which is entirely at His disposal. His present life is entirely determined by his past karmas; so it is not proper to grieve over it.
7. The prime cause of salvation is the grace of God; the aspirant has to deserve it at least by seeking it or asking for it.  

 
Reference: Bhakti Schools of Vedanta – by Swami Tapasyananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.
 

Path of spiritual wisdom requires renunciation (त्याग) and Shiv ji is Acharya of path of spiritual wisdom.

1. Slightest desire for sensual pleasure is hindrance in spiritual wisdom and enlightenment.
2. Sensual pleasure of sense organs should be diverted in driving enjoyment in almighty.
3. Think of the bliss of enlightenment or attaining spiritual wisdom again and again. Thinking of almighty constantly will reduce desires for sensual pleasure.

By following the path of Spiritual Wisdom, Gyani experiences that body and jivatma, both are different. Gyani does not have attachment to anything or anybody. He does not accumulate things. His birth is for tapas. By tapas, one gets purified.

Role of Satsang:
To attain spiritual wisdom, satsang is necessary. Hence, satsang should be every day. It purifies manas (मन). Saints always remember-meditate on the almighty.
 
Yoga vashisht Ramayan has explained seven stages / roles of wisdom viz.

Great desire of auspiciousness (शुभेच्छा), Positive investigation (सुविचारणा), Tanumanasa (तनुमानसा), Sattvapatti (सत्वापत्ति), Dissociation (असंसक्ति), Pdarthbhavini (पदार्थभाविनी) and Turiga (तुर्यगा).  These are explained as follows:
 

1. Great desire of auspiciousness – For the well-being of self, great desire of vision of jivatma. For this purpose, one goes in the refuge of enlightened guru and as per his guidance; he studies scriptures, reflects and develops great desire of vision of jivatma.
2. Positive investigation – to investigate the instructions of enlightened guru and contemplation of the scriptures on moksha.
3. Tanumanasa – By listening, meditating and practicing, detachment towards sensual pleasures and Savikalp Samadhi, one attains spiritual ability to receive subtleness. The mental ability of subtleness is Tanu (minute, thin) Manas (मन) a (mental, spiritual). 
4. Sattvapatti – By attaining the first three stages, the unconquerable experience of unconquerable Brahman and soul, that is, Brahm Swaroopaikatattva is the fourth role of Satvatti.
5. Dissociation – By practicing Savikalp Samadhi, the state of mind in which it is unconnected with the activities of ignorance (avidya).
6. Pdarthbhavini – the firm detachment of substances.
7. Turiga - The four stages / roles viz. Sattvapatti, Asansakti, Pdarthbhavini and Turiga are called Brahmavid, Brahmavidwar, Brahmavidvariyan and Brahmavidarishta respectively. When the person is free from Sattvapatti, Asansakti and Pdarthbhavini, it is Turiga. In Turiga, the person experiences parmatma as Self and undivided.

 
The first three roles in the seven roles are “instruments or means excellence” (साधनकोटि) and the remaining four are “wisdom excellence” (ज्ञानकोटि). During first three stages, one need to meditate over Brahman with attributes i.e. personal god. Reaching to fifth stage, the chord between body and consciousness (jivatma) starts breaking and one starts experiencing jivatma. At this stage, one dissociates more and more from body presence. 
 
The great Saints of Spiritual Wisdom:

1. Shukdev ji – Shukdev ji son of sage Vyasa, was the great sage who preached Shrimad Bhagavad Mahapurana to Raja Parikshit. Once, Shukdev ji and Narada ji went to royal assembly of Raja Janaka. Both were celibates, wise and great. Raja janaka could not decide between the two, who is better. Then Rani Sunayna decided to examine them. Rani Sunayna called both and asked to sit on a swing. Later, she came fully adorned and sat between them. Narada ji being celibate since childhood became hesitant. He shifted little away. But Shukdev ji remained unperturbed and without any feeling. Rani Sunayna decided Shukdev ji is better. One who has no differentiation between male and female, he sees almighty in all. Till differentiation between male and female remains, sexual desire persists. It is easier to be celibate but difficult to have divine wisdom.
2. Rishabhdev – Rishabhdev was incarnation of spiritual wisdom. He gave sermons that the human life is not for pleasure but for tapasya (asceticism). He used to roam around naked, eat while standing such as cattle’s eat. If somebody beat him, he believed that body is beaten as body and jivatma are different.
3. Sri Ramana Maharishi - He was born on December 30, 1879 in Tiruchuli, Tamil Nadu, India and died on April 14, 1950. At age 16, he had a "death-experience". He was suddenly overcome by the feeling that he was about to die. He lay down on the floor, made his body stiff, and held his breath. He said to himself, "but I am still alive." In a flood of spiritual awareness he realized he was the Self and he became spontaneously self-realized. Six weeks later he ran away to the holy hill of Arunachala. Main teachings of Sri Ramana Mahrishi are as under:
4. To attain that natural happiness one must know oneself. For that, Self-Enquiry, ‘Who am I?’ is the chief means.
5. Existence or Consciousness is the only reality. Consciousness plus waking we call waking. Consciousness plus sleep we call sleep. Consciousness plus dream, we call dream.
6. Where there is not the slightest trace of the ego, there is the Self.
7. If you enquire ‘Who am I?’ the mind will return to its source. By intense enquiry, the desires and tendencies comes to rest around “I” thought. Then, “I” thought will disappear and self-awareness appears. When 'I'-thought never rises again, it is Self-realization or liberation.
8. Complete surrender is another name for jnana or liberation.
9. The Gyani does not think he is the body. He does not even see the body. He sees only the Self in the body. 

 

Asvala was the hotri priest of Raja Janaka. Yajnavalkya was acclaimed rishi or scientist in those times. During a debate held in the court of Raja Janaka, Asvala raised several questions relating to Vedic Ritual to Yajnavalkya. The debate has been mentioned in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

Vedic Yajna or fire-sacrifice has four priests viz. Hotri, Adhvaryu, Udgatr and Brahma who pronounce Rig, Yajur, Sama & Atharva Vedic matras respectively.
 
Yajnavalkya explained the technical matters of the ritual, modalities and benefits of fire-sacrifice or Yajna. The questions rose by Asvala and explanations given by Yajnavalkya are mentioned as under:
 

1. Everything is subject to death. Everyone is capable of being destroyed by death, one day or the other. The sacrifice also will die. The one who causes the sacrifice to be performed will die. The materials used in a sacrifice are perishable. Therefore, the results that accrue from the sacrifice will also be subject to destruction. How can one escape death under these circumstances?

 
Answer: It is not possible to escape death as long as the sacrificer considers himself as a human being. As long as this assertion of individuality is there and the Truth behind this individuality is not known, one cannot escape death. There should be, simultaneously, together with the sacrifice, a meditation. It is not enough if you merely offer oblations into the sacred fire during Yajna or give material objects in charity. Internal contemplation is necessarily to be associated with the sacrifice. All are four priests in a fire-sacrifice i.e. yajna and Yajmana cannot escape death unless they meditate that the principle of speech which is responsible for the recitation of the Mantra and the human beings.  This knowledge is liberation. This is called Mokṣha. This is freedom from the trammels of death.
 

1. Everything is conditioned by the revolution of days and nights. Time   appears as day and night. How can the conductor of the sacrifice free himself from this condition imposed upon him by the movement of time in the form of day and night? What is the way?"

 
Answer: All perceptions are Yajnas are performed through the senses. The time factor is in the process of day and night. The moment you become one with the seeing principle i.e. sun, you are freed from death. And the time factor in the process of days and nights will not work there. In the sun, there is no day or night. This is how freedom from the operation of days and nights and the time element is achieved. This is freedom from the death.
 

1. There is a difference of the bright fortnight and the dark fortnight in the lunar month, and everything is involved in the movement of the moon causing the distinction between the bright half and the dark half of the month. How can one free one-self from this involvement?

 
Answer: The breath, the vital force, with the operation of which the chant of the Sama is made possible, should be regarded as the real chanter of the Sama. The reciter of the Sama Veda, can identify himself with the principle of breath and vital energy inside, and that vital energy be identified with the Cosmic Vital Force, in other words, if the meditation on Hiranyagarbha be conducted simultaneously with the sacrifice, then the priest can be freed from death.
 

1. How can the priest, Brahma and Yajmana, be free from death? How can the performer of the sacrifice go to heaven when there is no ladder from the earth to the heaven? What is the meditation the last priest should conduct? His work is merely to observe through the mind. He does not chant anything.

 
Answer: If a sacrifice is merely a performance without a meditation, death cannot be escaped. But if the meditation is done simultaneously with the performance of the sacrifice by which the performers get identified with the deities at once, there would be a final harmonious adjustment of all the four conductors, in a unity of purpose which will culminate in the realization of the one Divinity, which is the aim of the sacrifice, and then, there will be no death.
 
5.   In this sacrifice, how many Rig verses are used, and what types of verses are used? What is the purpose of this chant? What does he gain by it? Do you know what he will gain by the recitation of these Mantras which are of a very comprehensive nature?
 
Answer: The Hotr, the Rig Vedic priest, uses three types of verses viz. the introductory verses, the principal Mantras which are connected directly with the offering of the oblations and the Mantras which are having their concern with the results of the sacrifice, the glorification of the deity of the sacrifice called Sasya. These Mantras are forces which are released by a method of recitation, and these forces are directed to all those objects which can be regarded as living or non-living. So it is an all-powerful chant which can exercise a control over all beings and gain everything.
 
6.   How many oblations are offered in the sacrifice the Adhvaryu, the Yajurvedic priest? What are those Mantras and what is the connection between these Yajurvedic Mantras that he chants and the results that he expects from the performance of the sacrifice?
 
Answer: There are three oblations which are offered along-with three types of Mantras. These will produce three kinds of effects. First type of Yajurvedic Mantras when recited causes the flames to flare up vertically in the direction of the sky or the heaven. Second type of Mantras in the Yajur Veda will cause the flames to make a roaring noise and they rush upwards as if a lion is opening his mouth. Third set of Yajurvedic Mantras will make the flames go down and bury themselves in the Yajna Kunda. When he recites Mantras which are capable of flaring up the flames vertically, they will produce a force which will take him to the celestial region. The celestial region shines like the flames that go upto the sky, deva-lokah; When he chants Mantras which will make the flames roar with gusto, they will produce a strength and a force and potential by which he will gain the Pitr Loka, or the world of the ancestors and When he chants Mantras which will make the flames go down and bury themselves in the pit, they will produce another kind of vibration which will make him a good human being in the next birth i.e. manusya-lokah.
 
7.   Which is the deity, by the power of which Brahma, the Atharva Vedic priest protects this sacrifice? How many gods are there whom he resorts to for the protection of this Yajna that is being performed here?
 
Answer: There is only one God i.e. the mind of the Brahma, the priest. He conducts his mind in such a manner in respect of the purpose of the sacrifice that it becomes a force by itself. The mind can assume infinite forms through the functions that it performs. So the mind is identical with what is known as a group of celestials called the Visve-devahs (deities of universe). These are the protectors of the sacrifice. As a matter of fact, every god is nothing but one function of the mind. The Atharva Vedic priest raises himself to the status of an all-comprehensive force, by the very concentration that he practices.
 
8.   What are the set of Mantras which the Udgatri, the Sama Vedic priest chants here and the purpose?
 
Answer: The Sama Vedic priest chants three types of Mantras – the introductory, the oblationary and the laudatory i.e. the Prana, the Apana and and Vyana respectively. He must meditate in a manner by which the vital breath within becomes the deity of the Samaveda. The whole earth can be governed by him, by the force generated by the introductory chant. The atmospheric world can be controlled by him by the recitation of the middle one. The heavenly world can be gained and controlled by him by the recitation of the third chant, namely, the laudatory one.
 
Asvala felt that every question was answered and that he could not put any further questions.
 
Reference:

1. https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/brdup/brhad_III-01.html
2. http://www.upanishads.kenjaques.org.uk/Brihadaranyaka_Upanishad
3. https://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/upanishads