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VEDANTA
Vedanta does not promise a salvation to the soul. In its vision, the soul is already free from any limitation. Freedom from limitation, moksa, is a fact and the release of the individual from this sense of limitation is the outcome of understanding the equation. Vedanta means "End of the Vedas". Vedanta was born in the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, more precisely in the Upanishads, the culmination of the Vedas, a revelation of the Universal Truth. Vedanta teaches that our real nature is divine, that the true object of human life is to realize this divinity, and that truth is universal. This can be achieved by the eradication of ignorance - the belief that the illusory multiplicity of the world is read, and by attainment of the knowledge of BRAHMAN, the absolute Self. Vedanta accepts all the religions of the world and reveres the great prophets, teachers, and sons of God, because it recognizes the same divine inspiration in all. The basic teaching of Vedanta is that the essence of all beings and all things--from the blade of grass to the Personal God--is Spirit, infinite and eternal, unchanging and indivisible. Vedanta emphasizes that man in his true nature ( ATMAN) is this divine Spirit (BRAHMAN), identical with the inmost being and reality of the universe. There is, in short, but one reality, one being, and, in the words of the Upanishads, "Thou art That." Vedanta asserts that the universe perceived by the senses is not real. This is called Maya. Maya just means out that the perception of a person not 'self-realized' is not real because such a person associates himself with his emotions, and his ego. Since we are unable to perceive the world as a superimposition of the One reality (which is unchanged in time and space) and thus that all beings are inter-related, the vedantist says that the world we perceive is an illusion. Beneath all this illusion, lies the Supreme Reality. The Supreme Reality, Brahman, cannot be described; the most one can say of it is that it is Sat-Chit-Ananda--Absolute Existence, Consciousness, Bliss. Vedanta recognizes, however, that the absolute Brahman becomes manifest in various aspects and forms and is known by various names. In other words, Brahman, or God, is both formless and with form, impersonal and personal, transcendent and immanent. Vedanta declares that one can realize God in whatever aspect one wishes, and, further, that one can realize him directly and vividly in this life, in this world. Such realization constitutes spiritual freedom and contains in infinite measure the fulfillment of all man's ideals and aspirations; it is indeed the true purpose of human life. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Vedanta in Hinduism is owned by Kalyani Subramanyan. Permission to republish Vedanta in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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