Hindu Philosophy

1. UNDERSTANDING
VEDANTA
Pavithra Narasimhan

2. Vedanta?
◦ Vedanta” is a combination of two words: “Veda” which means “knowledge” and
“anta” which means “the end of”.
◦ Vedanta is one of the world’s most ancient spiritual philosophies and one of its
broadest, based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India.
◦ It is the philosophical foundation of Hinduism; but while Hinduism includes aspects
of Indian culture,
◦ Vedanta is universal in its application and is equally relevant to all countries, all
cultures, and all religious backgrounds.

3. Vedantic Principle
• The oneness of existence .I.e. - God is infinite existence, infinite consciousness, and
infinite bliss
• The divinity of the soul, and
• The harmony of all religions.
• Vedanta further affirms that all religions teach the same basic truths about God, the
world, and our relationship to one another. Thousands of years ago the Rig Veda
declared: “Truth is one, sages call it by various names.” The world’s religions offer
varying approaches to God, each one true and valid, each religion offering the world a
unique and irreplaceable path to God-realization.

4. Four Yogas or path
• Vedanta teachings there are four paths we can follow to achieve the goal of
understanding our divine nature. These paths are known as the Four Yogas.
• Bhakti Yoga is the path of love and devotion
• Jnana Yoga is the path of knowledge.
• Karma Yoga is the path of selfless work
• Raja Yoga is the path of meditation.

5. Nature of Atman (Self)
◦ Self in Vedanta
◦ Self, is both immanent and transcendent. i.e It
is both personal in that it is intimately known
to us as the essence of who we are, yet
impersonal in that it is universal.
◦ The Self is eternal, immortal, infinite one and
nondual .
◦ It is Self-evident. Its existence and its
unchanging continuity are fact.
◦ It is identical with the Absolute Reality(God)
◦ The objective world is a projection of the Self
and hence is only apparently real. It is the
datum of all experience and knowledge.
◦ Self in Vedanta
◦ Self is your ordinary, everyday awareness. It’s
the awareness that has been looking out of
your eyes your entire life and in which every
sight, sound, object, thought, emotion, desire
and fear has been experienced.
◦ Self brings the body and mind to life. The
gross(flesh & bone) and subtle (psyche)bodies
function, therefore, with the reflected
consciousness of the Self.
◦ Self is not dependent upon the body but,
rather, the body is dependent upon Self.

6. Relationship of Ataman and Brahman
◦ In Vedanta the Brahman and the Atman are one and the same.
◦ The Atman is that part of the Brahman that is embodied, imprisoned in a body-mind complex.
The Brahman is a super-consciousness.
◦ The Atman is the consciousness of an individual being. It is like air that is everywhere, like air
in a balloon. For instance, it looks like the air in the balloon is different from the air that is
everywhere.
◦ But the moment we remove the air from the balloon, we realize that, that air merges with the
air everywhere - so does the Atman merge with the Brahman.

7. Perception in Vedanta
◦ Main Considerations :
◦ The Vedantic theory of perception is that the mind comes out through the eye and assumes the
shape of the object outside.
◦ The mind goes out assumes the shape and form of the object (Isomorphism in Gestalt
Psychology) and envelops the object.
◦ Mental image coupled with the external something is the object, for whatever objects we see
outside have got their own images in the mind.
◦ Thus, interpretation of the external object as impression or Vritti

8. Illusion /Maya
◦ Māyā etymologically refers to “magic” or “illusion” in Sanskrit
◦ Māyā has the power to establish a bondage to the empirical world, obstructing the uncovering
of the true, unitary self—the Cosmic Spirit also known as Brahman.
◦ Māyā is used to explain the empirical reality in Advaita.Samkara asserts that the perceived
world, people and other existence, is not what it appears to be.
◦ It is Māyā, they assert, which manifests and perpetuates a sense of false duality or divisional
plurality.
◦ The mortal world comes from Māyā only and the only reality is Brahman in whom Māyā is
present. He is the one without a second

9. Nature of Maya
Brahmasraya - That which has Brahman as its substratum
 Trigunatmika - Made up of the three guans (sattva, Rajas and Tamas)
Anirvachaniya - Indescribable
Jnana Virodhi - Antagonistic to knowledge
 Bhavarupa- Positive
Viksepa&Avarana Sakti – Projecting and concealing powers and
 Anadi –Beginningless

10. Moksha - Liberation
The universe is created by the Mahamaya of God.
◦ Mahamaya contains both Vidyamaya, the illusion of knowledge and Avidyamaya, the illusion of
ignorance. Through the help of Vidyamaya one cultivates such virtues as the taste for the holy
company, knowledge, devotion, meditation, love, and renuncition. It includes discrimination and
dispassion (Viveka and Vairagya) - i.e. God is real and the world illusory”.
◦ ‘Avidyamaya consists of the five elements and the objects of the five senses viz.sound, touch, form,
taste and smell (shabda, sparsha, roopa, rasa and gandha). These make one forget God.’
◦ A question was raised if the power of Avidyamaya is the cause of ignorance, then why has God
created it? The reply given by the sage was ‘That it is His play. The glory of light cannot be
appreciated without darkness. Happiness cannot be understood without misery. Knowledge of good
is possible because of knowledge of evil.’

11. Glossary
 Atman - The divine Spirit in man, the Self which is one with Brahman, the all-pervading divine
existence, the Ground of the universe.
 Avidya - Ignorance, individual or cosmic, which hides the nature of the supreme Reality from our view.
 Brahman - The absolute Reality, the Unity of all that exists, the formless, attributeless Godhead.
 Maya is the power of Brahman, the creative aspect of God. It is also the cosmic illusion that creates
ignorance and veils the vision of Brahman. Due to the power of maya, Brahman, the one Reality, is
perceived as the manifold universe.
 Raja Yoga - Literally the “royal yoga,” raja yoga is the path of meditation. It is the spiritual path by
which one attains union with the Absolute through control of internal and external forces.
 Rajas - The guna which expresses itself as restlessness, activity, and passion.
 Sattava - The guna which expresses itself as calmness, purity, and wisdom.
 Tamas - The guna which expresses itself as dullness, stupidity, and inertia.
 Upanishads - The sacred scriptures which appear at the end of the Vedas and constitute their
philosophical portion. The Upanishads form the philosophical basis of Vedanta.
 Yoga - “yoke”—the act of yoking or joining together. Yoga is union of the individual soul with the
ultimate Reality. It is also the method by which this union is achieved. There are four yogas: bhakti
yoga, the path of devotion; jnana yoga, the path of knowledge and discrimination; karma yoga, the path
of detached work, and raja yoga, the path of meditation.

12. References
◦ https://vedanta.org/what-is-vedanta/
◦ https://www.unbrokenself.com/the-self/
◦ https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/theory-of-perception-in-vedanta
◦ Dr. Netai Chandra Das, INTERNATIONALJOURNAL Of
MULTIDISCIPLINARYEDUCATIONALRESEARCH ISSN:2277-7881, :VOLUME:9, ISSUE:12(7),
December:2020