A Unified Vedantic Platform from Ramakrishna Math & Mission
The concepts of ‘substance’ and ‘attribute’ are fundamental building blocks in all of philosophy. Understanding what we mean by ‘substance’ and ‘attribute’, and then probing into the nature of ‘substance’, are important steps for every student of Vedanta. While the terms might…
Who can study Vedanta? What are the prerequisites that a student of Vedanta must possess, in order for their study to result in the desired outcome of full spiritual realization?
When we say ‘I’, what do we typically mean? We usually think of our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our sensations, all of these internal states put together makes the ‘I’. Things in the external world are shared amongst all of us - we can all see these physical objects and…
Look around you right now. What can you see? If you are outdoors, you can perhaps see people, cars, animals, trees, clouds in the sky - the various things that make up the external world. Gently close your eyes - what do you see now? Your thoughts and memories (perhaps chattering…
You must have encountered this situation before - you are traveling in a bus or a car down a long highway on a very hot day; you see a glimmer on the road ahead of you, some distance away. Seems very much like water. How come there is so much water on the road, you wonder - that…
Every system of philosophy must clearly define the permitted modes of accumulating knowledge about anything; in other words, the clear rules that we must follow while building our knowledge system, brick by brick. If these guidelines are not clearly defined, then anything might…
Have you seen one of those videos where a person’s life is shown in fast-forward? From a baby to a mischievous toddler to a scraggly teen to a full-bodied adult. And then the hair begins to turn white; wrinkles begin to appear around the eyes at first, and then across the face…
The fundamental quest in all philosophical inquiry is to understand the nature of reality. ‘What is real?’ or simply ‘What is?’
In the beginning of the Mundaka Upanishad, Saunaka, who was driven by the quest for knowledge, approaches the great rishi Angirasa and asks, ‘Revered sir, what is that by the knowing of which all this becomes known?’
Causality is the most obvious and seemingly indisputable fact of the world - we cannot function coherently as individuals and as societies if we do not assume causality to hold true. At the same time, on closer examination, it appears shaky and filled with questions.
Have you ever been flooded with the realization that the world is deeply mysterious? Have you tried examining the world closely, only to find paradoxes at every turn and infinite regresses wherever you look? Have there been times when the sheer absurdity of the world struck you…
You are being chased by a fierce tiger. It is right on your heels; you can hear its snarl. Your heart is pounding uncontrollably. You have been running for many minutes, and your legs are starting to give in. But you are pushing yourself forward by sheer will. You reach a steep…
The Avastha Traya Viveka is a simple but powerful framework in Vedantic inquiry, using which we can examine our common, everyday experiences - whatever experiences you are having right now - to get a deeper understanding of the Ultimate Truth.
As you discover and explore various concepts in Advaita Vedanta, it might seem like this is a complex and daunting philosophical system. There seem to be so many nuances and technicalities, each more subtle than the other. ‘How am I ever going to comprehend Advaita philosophy?’…
Every night, we close our eyes and drift into a world of sleep. It might be light sleep at first, where some of the sounds from the ‘outside’ world are still present at the edges of your awareness. You might then drift into a world of dreams, which, very much like the waking…
One of the central questions in philosophy is - ‘How do we get our knowledge of anything?’, or simply ‘How do we know about anything?’ Associated with this is the question - ‘How do we know that our knowledge is true?’ Unless we can answer this question satisfactorily, we will…
Advaita Vedanta is at the same time a philosophical system and a spiritual-religious system. In Hinduism, the philosophical and the religious are not kept in separate compartments - philosophy, religion, art, science, and everyday life come together to create the magnificent…
The word ‘Yoga’ signifies union with the Absolute; any practice that takes one closer to the Absolute is Yoga. The four paths or paradigms of Yoga are Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, and Raja Yoga. In reality, spiritual practice will involve a combination of these paths;…
In the Vedantasara, Sadananda begins by providing an invocation to Brahman, in which he describes it as ‘avanmanasagocharam’, ‘That which is beyond the reach of words and thought’. The 7th verse of the Mandukya Upanishad, which provides perhaps the most piercing pointer to…
Of all the primary concepts in Hinduism, Karma is perhaps the one that has made its way farthest into common parlance. Not just in India, but around the world, the word ‘Karma’ is used by people in various situations everyday. And while people might indeed have some grasp of the…
From the moment our distant ancestors first looked up at the stars, the idea of God has been the central animating force for humanity. It has driven Man to conquer the world, to build advanced civilizations, to construct the most magnificent architectural structures, to create…
As you go through these pages, you will come across the terms Pure Consciousness, Pure Subject, or ‘Nirguna’ multiple times. And in our pages on Isvara and Bhakti Yoga, you would have been introduced to the Vedantic idea of God or Isvara. Brahman is often termed Nirguna - in…
The word Yoga, in its truer sense, indicates union with the Absolute. All spiritual practices are thus nothing but Yoga in various forms, as attempts to approach the unchanging Reality. We generally divide the entirety of spiritual practice into four categories or paradigms, one…
Ethics is a very important aspect of any philosophical system. What is morally right and what is morally wrong? What is the value system that we should have as a benchmark? What are the guidelines for us to make the morally correct choices at each point, both individually and as…
Full of compassion for the jivas suffering in the tormenting fires of samsara due to their abysmal ignorance, Bhagavan Dakshinamurti, sitting still under the banyan tree, left His silence and descended to the earth in the form of Shankaracharya to redeem them by imparting…