VEDANTA 

           one of the six systems of Indian philosophy, that forms today the strongest rational basis of Hinduism. The word Vedanta etymologically means the concluding portion ( anta ) of the Vedas, which contains the Upanishads, comprising the knowledge contained in the later Vedic literature as opposed to the ritualistic practices of the earlier part of Vedic literature. That is why Vedanta is also known as Uttara-Mimamsa (Reflections on the Latter Part of the Vedas). The Vedanta philosophy springs from interpretations of the three great texts ( Prasthanatraya ) of Hinduism, the Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita, and the Brahma-sutras. These interpretations by Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, and others have resulted in 12 schools of Vedanta of which 3, the Advaita (monistic) Vedanta of Shankara, the Vishistadvaita (qualified monism) of Ramanujacharya, and the Dvaita (dualism) of Madhva, are better known. Among the Upanishads commented upon by the great masters, the older ones like the Chandogya, Brihadaranyaka, Katha, Isha, Kena, and Taittriya deserved greater attention. The Bhagavadgita, the most popular religious text of Hinduism, combines the essence of all the three schools of Vedanta, and has emerged as the scripture for translating Vedic principles in active life. Badarayana wrote the Brahma-sutras, terse aphorisms expounding the Vedanta philosophy and systematizing the teachings of the Upanishads about the fundamental truths of life, existence, and the universe. Advaita means "non-dual", one without a second; Advaita recognizes Brahman (the Absolute) as the only reality, the one without a second and ( Ekamevadvitiyam: Chandogya Upanishad), and denies permanent reality to the phenomenal world or to individual souls. The ultimate reality in Vedanta is called Brahman, which is existence ( sat ), consciousness ( chit ), bliss ( anandd ), and the absolute. It has also been described as eternal ( saswata ), immortal ( amrita ), as illuminated reality ( bhrupah: Chandogya Upanishad) and the exceedingly beautiful or sublime ( atisundaram - Ashtavakra Gita). The soul inside the individual beings ( jiva ) is called the atman. As AbsoluteConsciousness, Brahman has interpreted everything in this universe as sentient and insentient. Advaita (non-dualistic) Vedanta, in its most abstract form, owes its first expression to Gaudapada's (seventh-eighth century AD) interpretations ( karikas ) on the Mandukyopanishad. Shankara's (eighth-ninth century AD) commentaries in the Prasthanatraya , as also a few independent treatises, elaborated the Advaita philosophy. Shankara sums up Advaita Vedanta in his well-known dictum: "Brahman alone is real and the world of many is not real. The individual soul is one with supreme Self or Brahman". For Shankara, the action of creation in space-time is not real but only apparent ( vivarta ). He calls it adhyasa or adhyaropa (superimposition) by the veiling power of avidya (nescience or ignorance) or maya. The unreality of the world is explained by the well-known Advaita simile of the perception of the snake in a rope (a rope which appears as a snake, an optical illusion). And this superimposition ( ahyasa ) or wrong perception is due to maya. Maya is a phenomenon that defies description. The snake perceived is neither real ( sat ) nor unreal ( asat ). It is not unreal since at the point of time it is actually perceived. But it is also unreal since it disappears as soon as the substratum, the rope, is perceived as it is. To explain such a peculiar phenomenon Shankara creates a third type of reality, which is sad-asadvilakshana (different from both the real and the unreal). The cognition ( khyati ) of maya is, therefore, precise definition described as anirvachaniya , or incapable of any precise definition.

 The Brahma-sutras define Brahman as the self-willed cause of evolution, sustenance, and dissolution of the universe. Brahman is both the material ( upadana ) and instrumental ( nimitta ) cause of this world, and it has also interpreted phenomenal universe. The three fundamental factors of consciousness are: I exist, I know, and I am blissful. Combining with mind, ego, and intellect, the One Cosmic Consciousness manufactures the feeling of existence, knowledge, and love in individuals. That absolute knowledge of Brahman percolating through the brain of man becomes his intuition, reason, and instinct. Owing to nescience or avidya or maya, Brahman is called the atman or jiva in individuals. Maya is stated to be anadi or without beginning. According to later Vedanta schools, maya functions at the cosmic level and avidya at the individual level. Shankara accepts three degrees of reality. The first, pratibhashika-satya (apparent truth, or illusory appearance), is illustrated in the wrong perception of a snake in a rope. The second, vyavaharika-satya , is illustrated by our day-today sensory experience. And the third is the mystical-intuitive perception of one reality everywhere ( paramarthika-satya ). Gaudapadas interpretation of Mandukya Karika , and later Vedantic texts like Drik-Driya-Vineka held that Advaita (the nonduality) is the highest reality and that the immanent springs from the transcendent turiya , which is beyond the senses. It is our consciousness that creates the external world. This idea later crystallized into the theory of Drishti Srishti Vada (Creation is simultaneous with our perception of the reality outside).

 Advaita Vedanta equates Brahman (the consciousness) with atman (the individual self), and therefore exhorts the seekers of Reality with mahavakayas (great sentences) like tat warn asi (That thou art) or aham brahmasmi (I am Brahman) to attain the state of final fulfilment, infinite bliss, and also immortality beyond the mortal life of man. All Vedanta schools accept the idea of the transmigration of the soul into rebirth according to the desires and fruits of action by the individual, and the goal is to transcend the cycles of birth and death. Among the well-known post-Shankara Advaita philosophers are Sureshvara (ninth century), Padmapada (ninth century), Vachaspati Misra (ninth century), and Madhusudana Sarasvati (sixteenth century).

 The Vishistadvaita Vedanta (qualified monism) philosophy, which Yamuna (eleventh century) and Ramanuja evolved out of the more ancient teachings, holds the world, which is a transformation ( parinama ) of Brahman, as real and not illusory. It accepts only one reality (Advaita), but with attributes or modes (Vishishta). It accepts three entities, Brahman or Ishvara, jiva or chit, and prakriti or achit , as the ultimate realities. Brahman is the absolute, independent reality, whereas the other two are dependent realities.

 The Dvaita Vedanta system of Madhva (thirteenth century) accepts Brahman as God, the creator-destroyer of this universe, and does not reject this world of sensory experience as mithya (illusion) since it is of universal and direct experience. Brahman or God alone is svatantra (independent and absolutely free reality) and controls others, including the individual souls and prakriti or nature, which are asvatantra (dependent categories). The individual self is a reflection of God and gets a faint colouring of some of His attributes. In Dvaita Vedanta, nature (prakriti), the ultimate source of the physical universe, is eternal but insentient. The three gunas, the three human attributes or qualities - sattva (knowledge and calmness), rajas (intense activity and restlessness), and tamas (inertia and delusion) - are regarded as its first products. From them emerge in succession the mahat (intellect), ahankara (egoism), manas (mind), the indriyas (sensory organs) and the five bhutas (elements - earth, water, fire, air, and ether). The Dvaita system postulates an avyakrita-akasha or unmodified space, from which this universe evolved as a fundamental and permanent category, coeval with God.

Ramakrishna, the latest authority on the Vedantic view of reality, accepts all three schools of Vedanta as three gradual stages of mans understanding of the ultimate reality, and they all ultimately culminate in the realization of unity or Advaita which is the final goal. Vedanta as expounded by Ramakrishna and his disciple Vivekananda, therefore, unifies and harmonizes all religious paths to one Godhead and accepts all religions as only different ways and stages of man's approach towards the one Godhead. While Shankara's view accepts the One (Brahman) as real and the Many (the phenomenal world) as unreal, in the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Vedanta, the phenomenal world is not unreal. It is real and God is in everything. Maya is regarded as the energy (shakti) of Brahman, "Brahman and Shakti are one". "Maya is the energy of the universe, potential and kinetic", says Vivekananda.

 Many are only manifestations of the One Reality and more emphasis is laid on man's essential divinity ( Jiva Brahma eva na aparah ). Vivekananda puts this idea of man's essential divinity into practice through a philosophy, which has given birth to the concept of "Practical Vedanta" based on service to God in the poor, the sinner, the needy, the diseased, and the ignorant. Shankara established Advaita Vedanta against the contemporary nihilism of the Buddhists, the materialism of the Charvakas, and the ritualism of the early Veda literature ( Purvamimamsa ). Vivekananda established Advaita Vedanta in the face of the scientific materialism and the rationalistic atheism of the nineteenth century; he interpreted Vedanta as a philosophy capable of satisfying modern scientific rationalism through his lectures on jnana yoga . Some of the fundamental concepts of Vedanta may be harmonized with modern scientific thought. The Atman-Brahman reality is the outcome of today's particle physics as shown by Fritzof Capra in Tao of Physics. Nobel laureate Schrondinger mentioned the same equation as the solution to the problems of consciousness in modern physics in My View of the World and Mind and Matter. The fundamental uncertainties in defining reality is the outcome of Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Organic behaviour of microcosmic and subatomic particles is the idea that emerges out of Max Borh's probability wave theory.

 Jitatmananda