What if I told you that all the mysteries of existence—the nature of reality, God, humankind and our purpose in life, the meaning of death, reincarnation and enlightenment—had already been solved thousands of years ago?
Indeed, life’s supposed “unanswerables” were unravelled with breathtaking scope and clarity back in India’s Vedic period, dating from 1500 to 500 BCE. The crowning achievement of the Vedic age, the Vedas, are quite unparalleled in the history of the world and represent nothing less than a divine gift to humanity. It is from these ancient scriptures that we find the Upanishads, the primary source texts for Vedanta—and, as we shall see, Vedanta is nothing less than a science of consciousness and roadmap to enlightenment.
The Vedas are a voluminous collection of hymns, prayers, rituals and dialogues which form the basis of Sanatana Dharma, or the “Eternal Truth”. (Today, the term Hinduism is used almost universally, although Hinduism isn’t a religion as such. “Hindu” was a geographical term originally used to describe the people living around the Indus River, or the Sindhu River as it was called in Sanskrit; mispronounced by the Persians as “Hindu”).
It was during this age of antiquity that ancient mystics devoted their lives to understanding and unravelling the mysteries of creation. They did so by purifying their minds and turning their attention inward, meditating deeply upon the nature of God and Reality. The knowledge gained by their intense and profound spiritual explorations gave birth to the Vedas.
The Vedas
The Vedas, which mean “Knowledge”, constitute a science of life, society, duty and metaphysical discourse. Long before the advent of written language, the mantras of the Vedas were recited and shared orally from generation to generation. The sage Vyasa is credited with compiling the Vedas into four distinct volumes: the Rig Veda, the oldest and most pivotal, as well as the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda.
Crucially, according to tradition, these monumental works are not a product of the human intellect. No particular person or group of people authored the Vedas. Rather, they are considered “revealed knowledge”, or divine revelations. The seers, or rishis, who received the knowledge, are said to be intermediaries. Rather like a radio set, they tuned their exceptionally pure, subtle minds into particular sound frequencies and then shared them in the form of Sanskrit mantras. These same mantras have been recited with exacting precision (using certain mnemonic techniques to prevent distortion or alteration) down the centuries and millennia.
A great deal of debate exists over when the Vedas were composed, with some dating the Rig Veda to around 11,000 BCE, while more conservative scholars suggest 1,000 BCE. Either way, the knowledge is considered timeless. While much is specific to Vedic culture, its ultimate message speaks of the nature of God, Reality and humankind and, as such, transcends time, place and culture.
Back at a time when humankind lived in much closer alignment with the natural world, the elements and forces of nature are personified as deities, such as Agni, god of fire, Varuna, god of the sky, rain and water, and Surya, the sun deity. While some might dismiss this as primitive, the Vedas are, in fact, highly complex and advanced, displaying a remarkable understanding of the cosmology of the universe, the workings of nature as well as human psychology and even health and physiology.
Among other things, the Vedas outline the stages of life, or ashramas, that all humans must go through. The first is the student stage, in which education and learning are a priority, followed by the householder stage, in which a person pursues a career and typically starts a family. In time, this leads to the retirement stage in which one gradually withdraws from social life and obligations, followed by the final and highest stage of human development: the quest for enlightenment.
Also outlined are the varnas; four divisions of vocation based upon a person’s constitutional and psychological makeup. The priest class is considered the highest, highlighting the immense regard Vedic culture had for spiritual knowledge as the guiding light for all of society. Next up, are the administrative class; government leaders, advisers and the people who defend the society. Then come the merchant class and the labour class, who are essentially the arms and legs of society.
A key understanding of the Vedas is dharma, a topic we will later explore in some detail. The word has multiple meanings depending upon the context, but essentially refers to the inherent, essential nature of a given thing. All things were created to contribute to the Creation a certain way, including human beings. Dharma means to follow your own nature and to adhere to the underlying cosmic order; to do the right thing at the right time in the right way. Clearly, this is an involved and nuanced topic, and a key component of the Vedic teaching is learning to recognise and play your appropriate part in the game of life.
The Upanishads
The Vedas can be broken into two particular sections. The first section deals with the first three human goals we outlined earlier: security, pleasure and dharma. These sections offer countless prayers and rituals to be employed in daily life to help us achieve various ends relating to worldly living, success and enjoyment.
The final section of each Veda is exclusively devoted to the fourth and final human goal: enlightenment. This takes the form of the Upanishads.
The word Upanishad literally means to “sit by the feet of” the teacher, or guru, and thus allow the sacred Knowledge to flow from adept to disciple. The Upanishads, like the Vedas, take the form of Sanskrit mantras and, through various dialogues and poetic stories, explore a range of topics, including the nature of Consciousness, God, the individual soul, the process of Creation, life and death, reincarnation, meditation, worship and, of course, enlightenment.
Over two hundred Upanishads are known, of which a hundred and eight are considered canonical and ten are deemed “major”, or primary, Upanishads.
These primary Upanishads are the Katha Upanishad, Kena Upanishad, Mandukya Upanishad, Isha Upanishad, Prasna Upanishad, Mundaka Upanishad, Chandogya Upanishad, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Aitreya Upanishad and Taittiriya Upanishad.
The primary topic is Brahman, or the Self; the singular, all-pervading Reality from which form and differentiation has its root and eternal basis. The highest truth of the Upanishads is the inherent oneness of Reality and the non-difference between the individual and God. In other words, all things are divine, even if not all things outwardly express that divinity. The purpose of life, according to the Upanishads, is to realise our own divinity and oneness with the Self and, by doing so, resolve all worldly bondage and sorrow.
Vedanta: The End of Knowledge
The Upanishads are synonymous with and, indeed, form the very basis of Vedanta. The term Vedanta is a compound taken from the words Veda (knowledge) and anta (the end of). Vedanta can be taken to mean “the end of the Vedas” because the Upanishads comprise the end portions of each Veda. It can also be translated as “the end of knowledge”, for it is, in fact, the knowledge to end all knowledge; that by knowing which, one understands the essence of all things.
Vedanta might be considered the systematic distillation of the teachings of the Upanishads. It deals primarily with the question of self-identity and finding liberation from worldly suffering through Self-Knowledge; which is to say, knowledge of our inherent divinity as pure, limitless, unchanging Consciousness.
In addition to the Upanishads, two other sources form part of Vedanta’s “triple canon”. The first is known as the Brahma Sutra, or the Vedanta Sutra. This work is credited to Badarayana, who lived sometime between the 5th century BCE to the 2nd or 3rd century CE. A somewhat involved and intricate treatise, the Brahma Sutra summarises and clarifies the main teachings of the Upanishads and seeks to resolve various arguments and conflicts with other teachings.
The third primary source text of Vedanta is the Bhagavad Gita. This famous and highly beloved scripture is a part of the quasi-historical epic Mahabharata. Composed by the sage-scribe Vyasa, the Mahabharata remains one of India’s crowning achievements; a sprawling tale covering an immense span of time and detailing a momentous civil war between two powerful families.
The Bhagavad Gita forms a brief but central part of the Mahabharata narrative, and follows the dialogue between the warrior-prince Arjuna and his divine avatar mentor, Krishna, on the eve of a bloody battle. Dealing with topics of action and duty, meditation, devotion and the true nature of the Self, the Bhagavad Gita is a perfect manual for both daily living and the attainment of enlightenment. Shankara believed that if a person was to only read a single Vedantic text, it ought be the Bhagavad Gita.
While the Upanishads, Brahma Sutra and Bhagavad Gita form Vedanta’s primary source texts, a range of sutras exist expounding the teaching in short, simple verse form. These secondary scriptures help unfold some of the more complex and intricate aspects of the teaching using an economy words and many make excellent teaching texts.
The Visionary Shankara
One of the most pivotal contributors to Vedanta was, without doubt, the 8th century visionary Adi Shankara, also known as Adi Shankaracharya (acharya being Sanskrit for “great teacher”).
Shankara was an unparalleled reformer, who responded to an element of corruption and distortion that had crept into the priest cast and lineage holders at that time. Displaying a revolutionary intellect, Shankara’s commentaries on the Vedantic texts, and his own contributions, are considered landmark works.
Shankara took the teaching and consolidated it into a clear and fully realised vision in a way nobody had done before. He traveled the length and breadth of the country, establishing schools, engaging in public debates, countering the rise of Buddhism and re-establishing the Vedas as the primary spiritual and religious heart of India. Indeed, the decline of Buddhism in India and the resurgence of Sanatana Dharma and Vedanta, is attributed to Shankara’s razor sharp intellect and profound spiritual writings.
While a few other schools of thought later emerged based upon the Vedantic teaching, including dualistic interpretations, Shankara’s school, Advaita Vedanta (Advaita literally means “not-two”, or Non-dual) remains the primary lineage of Vedantic thought and is considered by many to be the most accurate interpretation of the Vedas.
Shankara stressed the Non-dual nature of Reality. In spite of appearance, which makes us seem to be living in a world of subject-object based duality, all experience, perception and knowledge presupposes a perceiver; a Self that experiences and knows the various objects presenting themselves in the world of form.
The nature of this Self, Shankara stresses, is pure Consciousness.
This Consciousness is not personal, but universal in nature. A helpful metaphor is to think of the sun. The very same sun shines upon all the reflective surfaces in the world. If we see only the reflection, we might assume that the light shining on a window is different to the light shining in the puddle or the lake. However, although the reflecting mediums are many in number, the light is actually one. So, too, with the Self.
This universal Consciousness, which animates and enlivens all the bodies and minds, is called Brahman in Vedantic terminology—or the Eternal Self. This Self, without limit or differentiation, is of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and the Bliss of limitlessness.
While the world of form exists as a kaleidoscope of perpetual change and motion and our bodies and minds are subject to constant modification and eventual death, the Self is eternal and unchanging. It is unaffected by anything in the world of form because it occupies a different order of Reality.
The full realisation of this Self and the shifting of our centre of identification from the limited body and mind to this limitless Consciousness liberates the individual from worldly suffering. This freedom from bondage is called enlightenment or liberation; the highest goal available to humanity and the ultimate purpose of life.
The Three Stages of Vedanta
Vedanta is taught in a precise and carefully structured way. The teaching progresses through a certain sequence of logic and it’s important to fully grasp each step before moving onto the next. We start small and gradually expand to the bigger, full picture.
There are three essential stages to the teaching: listening, reasoning and contemplation. Let’s take a brief look at each.
1. Listening
The first stage is simple enough, at least in theory. All that you require is a qualified teacher and an open, reasonably calm and focused mind. The teacher will teach from a core Vedantic text and the student listens. Simple though it is, that alone can pose a significant challenge to many.
Vedanta isn’t for everyone. A certain degree of mental preparation is necessary. As with many things in life, whether a university course or a particular job, certain qualifications are necessary. Once the entry requirements have been satisfied, all you need to do is to sit down, clear your mind of preconceptions and listen as the teacher unfolds the teaching from beginning to end.
Bear in mind that it’s necessary to have a teacher; one well versed in the teaching methodology and established in their true nature as the Self. Ideally, the teacher should be part of a recognised lineage and not some kind of lone gunman. A lot of modern teachers mix and match elements of the teaching, borrowing a little from this and a little from that, attempting to cobble together their own teaching. That rarely works, for it’s all to easy for subjective biases to creep in and distort the purity of the teaching. The Vedanta tradition has carefully guarded the teaching throughout the centuries in an attempt to keep it pure and fully aligned with the vision of Shankara and the visionaries who transcribed the Upanishads.
People often think they can go it alone and read their way to enlightenment. Again, that rarely yields fruit. The reason is simple. Your own pre-existing ideas, assumptions and prejudices—not to mention the issue of confirmation bias and the mind’s tendency to simply want to confirm what it already believes—will almost certainly trip you up. It’s vital that you approach Vedanta on its terms and not your own.
It’s essential, then, to approach both the teacher and the teaching with a mindset of openness and humility. It’s necessary to discard your pre-existing notions in order to fully hear what is being said. Don’t make the mistake of measuring the teaching against what you think you already know. Harsh though this might sound, if your knowledge was already on point, you’d no longer be seeking enlightenment; you’d be there already. Vedanta works when you approach it with what the Zen tradition calls a “beginner’s mind”; when you are open to listening with a mind that’s keen and eager to learn.
This first stage of Vedanta might last months or years. You simply expose your mind to the teaching over and over again until it gradually, over time, begins to click. Don’t be in a hurry to rush to the end. Be patient, for you have all the time in the world. Don’t skip over the bits you don’t find as interesting, eager to get to the “juicy” stuff. Each topic feeds into the next as the teaching is unfolded in a carefully considered, sequential manner.
A traditional Vedanta teacher uses Vedantic scriptures as the basis of the teaching. This may include beginner texts such as Shankara’s Tattva Bodha (Knowledge of Truth), or the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads or any number of secondary texts such as Alma Bodha, Vivekachudamani and Panchadasi. Each verse is recited and then explained in some detail, allowing the student to gradually build their understanding and knowledge.
2. Reasoning
The next stage, which can actually run concurrently with the first, is to make sure that you understand what is being taught.
It’s not enough to simply listen and accept things on faith alone. Vedanta isn’t about blind faith. Of course, a certain degree of faith is required in order to commit the necessary time and energy. If you don’t trust both the veracity of the knowledge and the skill and integrity of the teacher you won’t get far at all. It’s not, however, a case of simply taking somebody’s word for it. You must actively contemplate what has been said and ensure that you understand the logic of what’s being taught.
This is where you begin to see the necessity of a teacher. You need somebody to guide you and help you work through any blocks or misunderstandings. Regardless of your education and mental prowess, you can guarantee there will be concepts or ideas that you struggle to “get”, at least to begin with. Doubts are a silent killer and must be resolved. It’s important to be able to dialogue with your teacher and ask the necessary questions. Be honest and open; they are there to help you.
Believe it or not, there are no questions that haven’t already been asked and resolved by Vedanta teachers over the centuries. Just about every conceivable doubt or objection has been dealt with in advanced texts such as the Brahma Sutra. If you find yourself stumped at any point, either keep listening because there’s a good chance any questions will be resolved as the teaching progresses—or simply ask. Vedanta teachers don’t bite, as a general rule!
3. Contemplation
The third and all important final step is to convert your newfound Self-Knowledge into conviction. For until the knowledge has been fully assimilated it won’t lead to liberation from suffering; which is, of course, the end point of the teaching and the very reason Vedanta exists. If you’ve been studying Vedanta for some time and understand everything that’s been taught but still aren’t experiencing the fruits of that Knowledge, it’s a sure sign that you need to devote more time to this final stage: the deep contemplation of the basic truth, “I am Awareness”.
This contemplation takes the form of Vedantic meditation; the art of reconditioning the mind to dis-identify with the false self, the body/mind/ego, and claim your identity as pure Awareness or Consciousness. A mere intellectual understanding of the teaching is insufficient. Until this Self-Knowledge is fully integrated into the mind, heart and psyche, there’s no escaping the emotional and psychological problems inherent to identification with the ego-self.
This isn’t a one-time task, either. It may take considerable time to rewire the psyche and to shift the locus of your identity from the aggregates of body, mind and ego to the vast and limitless Awareness in which they appear.
The key is to keep applying Self-Knowledge to the mind until all the old conditioning and patterning of ignorance is eradicated and replaced by a full appreciation of Truth. Much more will be spoken of this essential third stage in part four of this book.
In summary, Vedanta works by listening, reasoning and then contemplating the Knowledge until it overwrites the old patterns of ignorance that have kept you bound in samsara.
Neo Advaita and The Necessity of a Complete Teaching
Even if you know little about Vedanta, it’s likely many of the concepts and ideas will be familiar to you. Indeed, a great many modern spiritual teachers have appropriated the key elements of Vedanta and repackaged them into what often gets termed “Neo Advaita”.
Given that Neo Advaita is generally seen as a pejorative, you won’t find any teachers who advertise themselves as Neo Advaitins. They’re more likely to call themselves teachers of Non-duality or Advaita and they are, to be frank, ten a penny (which is to say, exceedingly common) in the spiritual marketplace. These teachers generally teach by satsang, whereupon they perhaps offer some inspiring words and then simply answer questions from the audience. Some of them are even quite good at what they do.
What they lack, however, is a complete teaching. They take the ultimate truth of Vedanta; our identity as Awareness or Consciousness and skip the rest of the teaching. This doesn’t really work. Much of Vedanta sets up the foundations and you truly need a solid foundation if you want any hope of enlightenment. It’s not enough simply to wax lyrical about the nature of the Self as Consciousness. You also need to understand the universe and cosmos and how the Eternal Self relates to the apparent self; the body/mind/ego entity.
It’s not enough to focus exclusively on the destination. You need to know how to actually get there and how to understand the world of form and its relation to Consciousness.
Vedanta alone provides all these answers. It works by offering multiple teachings, each with a slightly different way of looking at and understanding Reality.
Ignorance is a stubbornly tenacious beast; you can guarantee it won’t resolve in a single battle. It’s an ongoing war and you need the appropriate weapons with which to fight this war. The tendency of modern Advaita teachers is to simply declare “you are Awareness—you need to just get it!” “Getting it” may not be nearly as easy as it sounds owing to the vast amounts of conditioning and ignorance governing the psyche. You have to be in this for the long term and you need the appropriate tools in your arsenal; something only Vedanta provides when it comes to Self-Knowledge.
That’s why it’s best to find a teacher from a recognised Vedantic lineage and one who can wield the teaching with some skill and effectiveness. There’s certainly no lasting harm listening to non-traditional teachers. It can prime people to enter the spiritual arena and go on to find an actual Vedanta teacher. It can also, however, waste tremendous amounts of time on dead-end teachings that simply aren’t enough to ferry you to true Self-Realisation and liberation.
Always check the credentials of a teacher. After all, you would only go to a fully qualified doctor about a medical condition and not somebody who simply learned bits and pieces online and cobbled together their own understanding of medicine.
Similarly, a teacher of enlightenment must be properly qualified and have a firm understanding of the intricacies of Vedanta. It’s easy as pie to simply talk about the Self and affirm that’s what you are. Mere talk is rarely enough, however. A teacher needs to be able to guide students through every nuance of the teaching; to recognise the pitfalls and blindspots and help them to understand and contextualise the relationship between the Self and this world of form we all experience. That’s not as easy as it sounds. It requires great subtlety and skill.
So, don’t sell yourself short by accepting the first Advaita teacher that comes along. Make sure they are well versed in the scriptures and are actually capable of wielding this means of Knowledge as opposed to just offering pleasant, flowery words of encouragement and little else. You owe it to yourself to make sure that you are in capable and competent hands.
This article is an excerpt from an upcoming book titled “Enlightenment Made Simple”. (It replaces this older article, “What is Advaita Vedanta?”)
Further Resources
If you’re keen to explore Vedanta further, I highly recommend the work of my teacher, James Swartz.
James’s books ‘How to Attain Enlightenment’ and ‘Essence of Enlightenment’ are must reads. The former was my first real exposure to Vedanta beyond the talks of Nisargadatta and Ramana Maharshi and it changed my life. Both these books lay out the entire teaching from more or less A to Z in a clear, accessible and systematic way. They are a great place to start (note: of the two, some people have told me they find ‘Essence of Enlightenment’ an easier read to begin with).
My book, Bhagavad Gita – The Divine Song features extensive commentary, unfolding the core principles of Vedanta is a simple and hopefully accessible way.
James Swartz has an entire series of seminars for free on youtube where he covers the entire teaching https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6y1kywnAG1wxuv1HSqJPzUQ2Jl89MBnJ I suggest watching this fantastic series while working your way through the books.
I also highly recommend Swami Paramarthananda’s introductory talks on Vedanta – accessible at the bottom of this page – http://www.vedantavidyarthisangha.org/talks.html
The late, great Swami Dayananda has two excellent books for beginners: ‘Introduction to Vedanta’ and ‘The Teaching of the Bhagavad Gita‘.
Another book I recommend is ‘Vedanta: The Big Picture’, not least because I edited it 🙂 It’s based on talks by the wonderful Swami Paramarthananda, and is a fantastic and concise primer, covering all the main topics of Vedanta. You can buy it in ebook format from James Swartz’s website, Shiningworld, or in paperback on Amazon.
