22. Vedanta – An Interpretation from Vivekananda’s lectures

Sanatan dharma has many traditions. But none evokes as much interest and intrigue as Vedanta.

Swami Vivekananda called Vedanta a grand idea. He thought so because as per Vedanta the same goal can be reached by different path – work, love, psychology, and knowledge. While all systems of dharmic philosophy are inherited from the Vedas, Vedanta is special in unifying “the doctrine of the Vedas, more than the previous systems did.”

Dharmics can be divided into two groups – astik and nastik. Those that accept the Vedas as they are, and acknowledge the concepts there in, primarily the brahman and the atman are the astik. While those who rest their philosophy on the Vedas only in as much as it seems rational to them, or needed, are the nastik.

Buddha and the Jain Dharma are nastik schools of dharmic philosophy, along with Charvaka and Ajivika schools. Sankhya, Naiyayika, and the Mimansaka are the three astik schools of dharmic philosophy. The first two failed to birth any sect, but Mimansaka did and its followers are known as the Vedantis or Vaidika. Almost all dharmic sects of India follow the Vedanta school and accept three cardinal principles:

• Brahman
• Cyclicity of creation
• The projection of maya through Prana acting on Akasha.

There are three sects of Vedantis (followers of Vedanta):

• Dualists
• Qualified Non-Dualists
• Non-Dualists

Brahmachari Vrajvihari Sharan has highlighted why, with the basis in Upanishads, Vedanta does not “give a unified position on the understanding of a few crucial principles, chief of which is the identity and relationship of three major ontological categories: Brahman (supreme soul), Jiva (individual soul), and Jagat (creation).” The Upanishads give us divergent answers to questions such as, “Are the supreme soul and the individual soul one and the same, or are they different?” “Is the universe an illusion and therefore not really existing, or does it exist but is just temporary?”

To the big questions “the seeker must be honest with themselves, and develop the maturity needed to embrace variety, eschewing a zealous grip on any philosophy that professes to be the only path”, reminds Brahmachari Vrajvihari Sharan. This is why Vedanta is still evolving.

The testimony to the greatness of Vedanta, the simplest of traditions, is that the agnostic Buddhists and the atheist Jains do subscribe to Vedanta philosophy to build on their ideas.