What is Advaita Vedanta

What is AdvaitaVedanta?

A Short Introduciton by James Swartz

Vedanta contends that human beings find themselves limited in many

ways and continually strive to rid themselves of limitation. People pursue

wealth, pleasure, and merit because they believe it will free them from all

manner of physical, temporal and psychological problems. Vedanta

presents freedom from limitation as the most desirable goal of human life.

The Upanishads, the source of Vedanta, say that before this creation was,

the self, limitless being, was. It further says that this self continues to exist

outside of time and is therefore eternal. And it states that no action one can

perform will ‘gain’ this self, even though it is an ever-present reality...

because actions are limited while the self is unlimited. Therefore it is at

odds with Yoga on this issue. The discovery that one is the limitless self is

presented as liberation or enlightenment by Vedanta.

We cannot dismiss the Yoga view completely because untold millions

of truthful persons have ‘experienced’ the self over tens of thousands of

years so we need to look for a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon.

One possible explanation lies in the imprecise use of language. It may be

that ‘the experience of the self’ is actually a shift from the individual’s point

of view to the self’s...in which case it would be more accurate to say that the

self experiences the ego, which is how it actually is. Because the shift is so

subtle and language evolved in the experiential world, it is ill equipped to

describe this shift accurately so it is forced to formulate the new vision in

terms of an ego’s experience of an object.

There is no Advaita Vedanta

The words Advaita Vedanta, like the word Hinduism, are a misnomer

because they imply other Vedantas. The word ‘Advaita’ means non-dual and

implies the concept of duality. Indeed, those who view Vedanta as a school

of thought speak of Dwaita Vedanta, dualistic Vedanta, VishistAdvaita

Vedanta, qualified non-dualism, and even Bhakti Vedanta, devotional

Vedanta. Or they compare it with philosophies or religions that present

similar ideas.

The word ‘Advaita’ is not an adjective meant to modify a particular

type of Vedanta but a word that describes the nature of the Self. Keeping in

mind that words are always symbols, although non-dual implies dual, it is

more appropriate to refer to the Self as non-dual than as one since one is a

number that implies two, many, and even zero, nothing. Furthermore, it

would be inappropriate to label Vedanta, which is merely a means of

knowledge, as non-dual because it is in fact a dualistic device operating in a

dualistic situation, one that ironically delivers non-dual knowledge.

The ultimate source of Vedanta’s teachings are the Upanishads,

documents appended to the concluding portion of each Veda. In fact the

word Vedanta is a compound. Veda means knowledge and anta means end.

Although Vedanta is often erroneously accused of being an

intellectual discipline, it operates differently from them because it does not

leave concepts behind in the mind once it has been handled by a teacher. It

uses concepts to destroy false concepts about the nature of the Self. And in

the process both the correct idea and the erroneous idea disappear into the

vision of oneself as the Self. Since the emphasis is on removal of doubt, any

interpretation of a mantra can be applied to remove the doubt, irrespective

of other interpretations. For a given person one interpretation may be

appropriate while the same interpretation may be inappropriate for another

because he or she entertains a different doubt or formulates the doubt in a

different way. Irrespective of the interpretation, Vedanta acts as a means of

knowledge if it removes one’s ignorance of one’s limitless nature.

Advaita is the path to liberation from limitation. Start by understanding what it is: Read the entire article , What is Advaita Vedanta,  by James Swartz by clicking here