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Introduction
Advaita: Non-Dual Spirituality - from Ancient India to our Global Age
ArshaBodha - Swami Tadatmananda
750,622 views Apr 14, 2019
This documentary traces the evolution of Advaita - from the ancient rishis to saints like Shankara and modern teachers like Ramana Maharshi and Swami Vivekananda - and examines whether or not modern teachings have maintained the power and clarity of the ancient traditions from which they evolved. The rishis, the sages of ancient India, discovered the underlying reality - brahman - because of which everything exists. The taught this in the Vedic scriptures (shastra), particularly in the Upanishads, which were expanded upon by later generations of teachers, gurus, acharyas, sadhus, and saints. In more recent times, a lack of understanding of the Sanskrit language of the scriptures opened the door to various re-interpretations of those scripture and two modern schools of thought neo-Vedanta and neo-advaita.
0:00 Introduction
6:28 The Age of the Rishis
21:56 The Age of Teachers
46:38 The Global Age
Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: https://www.arshabodha.org/
Chapters
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Introduction
0:00
The Age of the Rishis
6:28
The Age of Teachers
21:56
The Global Age
46:38
Chapters
View all
Introduction
0:00
The Age of the Rishis
6:28
The Age of Teachers
21:56
The Global Age
46:38
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Transcript
Introduction
0:40
According to the rishis, the sages of ancient India, the world that appears before us has
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a mysterious hidden dimension, a dimension that’s not visible to our eyes, yet it’s
0:55
immediately present in every experience.
1:03
The physical world is said to have an underlying foundation or substratum, a fundamental reality
1:12
that’s the very fabric of existence out of which the universe is woven, like the threads
1:21
out of which embroidery is woven.
1:32
The rishis said, everything in the world, including you and me, derives its existence
1:39
from an underlying fundamental reality, a reality they called brahman.
1:47
The rishis taught that the world we experience is a mere appearance or form of brahman, like
1:56
this cloth is just a form of threads or this pot is a just a form of clay.
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And, if everything in the world is merely a form or manifestation of brahman, then there’s
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only brahman; nothing else truly exists.
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That’s why these teachings are called advaita, which means not two or non-dual.
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The word advaita negates the existence of anything else other than brahman.
2:35
The ultimate goal of Advaita’s teachings is to lead you to personally realize non-dual
2:44
brahman as the essence of your being, as your own true self.
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Gaining this magnificent wisdom can radically transform your life.
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When you discover your essential nature to be unborn, limitless, complete, and utterly
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untouched by all the afflictions of daily life, then you’ll enjoy inner peace and
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contentment that never wavers, even at times of crisis or loss.
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This is called enlightenment. Advaita is considered to be the epitome of Indian spirituality, the most profound of
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all the teachings to come forth from a land so famous for its great saints and sages.
3:40
Over a span of 2500 years, the teachings of Advaita evolved on the Indian subcontinent
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as generations of deeply contemplative thinkers explored the truth of non-duality.
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In our own times, the teachings of Advaita have undergone further evolution due to the
4:04
historic encounter between Indian spiritual wisdom and modern scientific thought.
4:13
In this presentation, we’ll explore Advaita and trace its journey through the ages and
4:20
across the oceans. Our exploration will delve into three periods of time; first, the Age of Rishis, the great
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mystics and seers who first realized the truth of non-dual brahman and expressed their extraordinary
4:40
revelations in Sanskrit texts. Then, in part two, the Age of Teachers, we’ll discuss how great scholars like Shankara brought
4:53
the lofty vision of the rishis down from the misty heights to create a comprehensive and
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systematic body of teachings, the teachings that we now call Advaita Vedanta.
5:09
Finally, in the third part, the Global Age, we’ll reflect on how contemporary teachers
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have adapted Advaita to our present-day values and attitudes.
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We’ll evaluate these adaptations to find out whether or not they managed to retain
5:30
the power and clarity of the ancient traditions they’re based on.
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It’s impossible for a short presentation like this to fully convey the radical, life-changing
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truth of Advaita. Generally, such wisdom is gained only with personal guidance from a competent guru.
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Instead, our purpose here is to understand how the teachings of Advaita have evolved
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over the centuries, and how those changes have enhanced or impaired Advaita’s unique
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ability to lead us to realize the highest truth.
The Age of the Rishis
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The earliest expressions of Advaita are found in the ancient Vedas, the scriptures that
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are the basis for all the religious practices, beliefs, and teachings that we now call Hinduism.
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Most Vedic teachings are clearly dualistic in nature, but a small section of each Veda,
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called upanishad, is dedicated to the non-dual wisdom of the rishis.
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Among the upanishads, the Chandogya is one of the oldest; scholars think it’s about
7:15
2800 years old. The famous saying, tat tvam asi, that thou art, comes from its sixth chapter.
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In that same chapter, there’s a wonderful story about Uddalaka, who was a pious and
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wise rishi with a 12-year-old son named Shvetaketu.
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Uddalaka sent his son off to school to learn the Vedic scriptures.
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In those days, students lived with their teachers for 12 years to learn the Vedas properly.
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They memorized the texts through a rigorous process of chanting and repetition.
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At the age of 24, Shvetaketu returned home to his father.
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By then, he had grown to become an arrogant young man. He was full of pride owing to his elite Vedic education.
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Uddalaka noticed his son’s smugness and wanted to instill some humility in him, so
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he asked, “During your studies, did you learn that by which everything that’s unknown
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becomes known?” Uddalaka was referring to the non-dual, fundamental reality, brahman.
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Shvetaketu dismissed his father’s question flippantly, saying, “How could there be
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such a thing?” Uddalaka answered with a metaphor, “Dear son, by knowing clay, all that’s made of
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clay is known. By knowing gold, all that’s made of gold is known.”
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What did Uddalaka mean by that? Well, consider this pot.
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We say that this pot is made of clay, but really speaking, pot and clay are not two
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different things. This pot is simply a form of clay.
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It’s just clay, in the shape of a pot. If it weighs a few ounces, how much of that weight is due to clay, and how much is due
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to the pot? The pot adds nothing.
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Pot is merely a name and a form; it’s not an independent thing like clay.
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Clay can exist without this pot, but this pot can’t exist without clay.
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That which exists independently, like clay, is said to be satyam, real.
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And something like this pot, that has no independent existence, is said to be mithya.
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The same is true for this gold chain. This chain is a just form of gold.
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Gold can exist without this chain, but this chain can’t exist without gold.
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So, we say that gold is satyam, real, and this chain is mithya; it’s existence depends
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on gold. Uddalaka was using clay and gold as metaphors to represent brahman.
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By knowing clay, all these pots are known. By knowing gold, all this jewelry is known.
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And by knowing brahman, the non-dual substratum of all that exists, the entire universe becomes
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known.
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Brahman is satyam and the world is mithya because its existence is entirely dependent
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on its underlying reality, brahman.
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To help his son understand this, Uddalaka explained, vac-arambhanam vikarah namadheyam.
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Vikara, any form or shape, like a pot or chain, is vac-arambhanam, it’s based merely on
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words, on ideas or concepts. Similarly, namadheyam, any name, like the name pot, is also based merely on words or
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ideas. Therefore, mrittika, clay, ityeva, alone, is satyam, is real.
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Names and forms, that we refer to as nama-rupa, are not tangible things.
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They’re ideas or concepts rooted in thoughts and words, not in physical reality.
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To say that this pot is merely nama-rupa means that it has no physical existence whatsoever
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unless it’s associated with a substance like clay.
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When this metaphor is extended to the entire world, its implication is astonishing.
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Everything we experience is merely name and form, nama-rupa.
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The world is only an appearance or form of the underlying fabric of existence, non-dual
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brahman. Consider this table. It’s made of wood, so we can say, this table is just a form and wood is the substance.
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But, the wood in this table is made of cellulose fibers, so we can say, wood is merely a form,
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and fibers are the substance. But then, those fibers are made of microscopic cells, so fibers are only forms, and cells
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are the substance. But then again, cells are made of various kinds of molecules, so cells are simply forms,
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and molecules are the substance. But those molecules are made of individual atoms, so molecules are merely forms, and
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atoms are the substance. And, those atoms are themselves made of subatomic particles - protons, neutrons, and electrons.
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So, atoms are only forms, and subatomic particles are the substance.
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But then, subatomic particles are made of six kinds of quarks.
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So subatomic particles are simply forms, and quarks are the substance.
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But then, what are those quarks made of?
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Eventually, scientists will tell us that quarks are made of something else.
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And they won’t stop there. They’ll continue to probe deeper and deeper, searching for the fundamental substance from
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which everything is made. Will they ever find it?
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Many researchers think this scientific inquiry will continue indefinitely because whatever
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is discovered can be further subdivided.
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If science can never find a truly indivisible, fundamental substance, then, can we conclude
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that there’s really no underlying reality because of which the world of names and forms
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exists? Well, no form can exist without some kind of substance.
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A pot can’t be made of nothing. And if that’s true for a particular form, then it must also be true for the entire series
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of forms that we saw when we examined this table.
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Without some kind of underlying reality, this table could not exist.
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If it’s just a bunch of forms, which are ideas and not physical things, then how could
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I rest my hands here? In this way, we can infer the existence of an underlying substance or reality because
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of which all these forms exist. And that underlying reality is what the rishis called brahman.
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After listening to his father, Shvetaketu revealed his arrogance once again, saying,
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“My teachers never taught this to me. They probably didn’t know anything about it.”
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Hmm. The fact is, knowledge of brahman was taught only to specially qualified students, not
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to those like Shvetaketu. Yet, he was afraid that his father might send him back to school to learn what he missed,
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so, he swallowed his pride and asked his father to teach him the truth of non-dual brahman.
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Uddalaka began, sad eva somya idam agre asit.
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Somya, dear son, agre, in the beginning, idam asit, all this, this entire universe was,
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sad eva, existence alone.
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Everything in the world emerged from an underlying reality called brahman, which is ekam eva,
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one alone, and advitiyam, non-dual. When Uddalaka said, agre, in the beginning, he was describing brahman as the primordial
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first cause, the uncaused cause, the fundamental reality because of which the world exists.
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Finally, Uddalaka expressed the ultimate truth. tat satyam, that reality, non-dual brahman, the fabric of existence, sa atma, that is
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the true self, the self of all, the essence of all that exists.
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O Shvetaketu, tat, that, that reality, non-dual brahman, tvam asi, thou art.
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You are utterly non-separate from brahman, the substratum of the universe.
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Tat tvam asi, that thou art, is called a mahavakya, a declaration of the highest truth taught
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by the rishis. This mahavakya can lead you to recognize your true non-dual nature, thereby freeing you
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from suffering and establishing you in a state of perfect contentment.
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But this kind of radical transformation can occur only when you’re able to fully grasp
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and assimilate the mahavakya’s profound implications.
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Not surprisingly, Shvetaketu couldn’t grasp its meaning, so he asked his father, “Sir, please teach
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me again.” Then, after Uddalaka explained it a second time, his now-humbled son asked once more,
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“Sir, please teach me again.” Only after Shvetaketu was taught nine times did he finally become enlightened.
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The last part of this story suggests that personal realization of non-dual brahman can’t
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be gained quickly or easily. Usually, aspirants must first become thoroughly prepared and gain the capacity to grasp the
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highest truth. Bear in mind that the rishis were spiritual geniuses.
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They were extremely adept at contemplating these subtle truths.
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But for us, their lofty revelations are often difficult to understand.
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That’s why so many commentaries and independent texts were later composed by great scholars
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like Shankara, to whom we turn in the next part, the Age of Teachers.
The Age of Teachers
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Long before Shankara and others composed their brilliant works on Advaita, the ancient rishis
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had already revealed the highest truth, the truth of brahman.
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Nothing greater can be taught. Then, what could later teachers possibly add to this?
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If you add something to a well-established formula like e = mc2, your addition won’t
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be an improvement; it’ll be a corruption. Well, the revelations of the rishis couldn’t be improved upon, but later generations of
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teachers could certainly explain those revelations more clearly and thoroughly.
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They could bring the lofty vision of the sages down to our level.
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Among the very first to do so, were Gaudapada and Shankara, who was the grand-disciple of Gaudapada.
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Other teachers of Advaita had come before, but unfortunately, none of their works survived
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the passage of time. On the other hand, the exceptional works of Gaudapada and Shankara are widely available
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today. Gaudapada composed a profound exposition on the Mandukya Upanishad.
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Shankara wrote important commentaries, filled with crucial insights, on ten Upanishads and
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Bhagavad Gita, in addition to the many independent texts he composed.
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Their works thoroughly unfolded the non-dual wisdom of the rishis gathered in the upanishads.
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Since the upanishads are found at the end or anta of each Veda, the entire body of non-dual
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teachings developed by Gaudapada, Shankara, and later teachers is known as Advaita Vedanta.
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Now, since all this is based on the revelations of rishis, who were ancient seers and mystics
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about whom we know very little, one could argue that Advaita Vedanta has a weak foundation.
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How do we know whether or not we can trust what the rishis taught?
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How are their revelations any different from those of prophets like Moses, Isaiah, and
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Mohammad? Fortunately, Advaita Vedanta isn’t based on revelation alone.
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It’s built on a rock-solid foundation that has three sturdy pillars: shruti - scripture,
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which contains the revelations of the rishis, yukti - reasoning, rational inquiry and logical
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analysis, and finally, anubhava - experience, the experience of enlightened masters, as
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well as your own personal experience. According to Advaita Vedanta, a teaching can be accepted as true only when it’s supported
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by all three pillars - scripture, reason, and experience.
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The revelations of the rishis are necessary because non-dual brahman lies completely outside
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the scope of conventional human knowledge. The rishis were uniquely blessed to perceive truths that others could not.
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But, if we mindlessly accept these revelations as being true, or if we dogmatically insist
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on their acceptance, then we’d be following the narrow and rigid path that’s usually
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associated with religious fundamentalism. The fundamentalist’s approach to scripture is to stress the importance of blind faith,
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and to shun any kind of independent thinking or reasoning.
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Yet, the rishis themselves made extensive use of reason and logical analysis.
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They employed reason as a powerful tool for spiritual inquiry.
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They also used reason as a touchstone to test the validity of any teaching.
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For example, the rishis rejected the idea that heaven and hell are eternal because anything
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that begins must eventually come to an end. Only that which has no beginning can truly be timeless and eternal.
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So, based on this reasoning, the rishis taught that heaven and hell are finite lifetimes
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of pleasure and suffering. But, even though their teaching about finite heaven and hell might be reasonable, Advaita
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Vedanta still doesn’t accept it as being absolutely real or true.
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Why? Because it’s impossible to experientially confirm the existence of heaven and hell.
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For any teaching to be unconditionally accepted, it must not only be consistent with reason,
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but it also has to be experientially confirmed or validated.
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Scriptural revelations can never contradict or overrule our experiences.
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Shankara himself said, Even if hundreds of scriptures say that fire is cold or dark, they cannot be accepted.
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So, only when a scriptural revelation is both consistent with reason and confirmed by experience
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can it be accepted as true. These three pillars form an unshakable foundation.
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If any of them were missing, the teachings of Advaita Vedanta would come crashing down
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to the ground, so to speak, and crumble into the dust.
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Fortunately, everything taught by Gaudapada, Shankara and later generations of teachers
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was solidly based on this three-fold foundation.
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As a result, their teachings have been able to withstand challenge after challenge by
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opposing schools of thought. Over the centuries, Buddhists, dualists, materialists, scientists, and others have all tried to reject
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the truth of Advaita, but these non-dual teachings continued to stand firm, unscathed by those
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attacks.
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Advaita Vedanta makes extensive use of scripture, reasoning, and experience to address a crucial
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issue, which is, “How could this world of duality in which we live possibly emerge from
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a non-dual substratum, brahman? How can duality arise from the non-dual?”
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The rishis didn’t say too much about this, except for a few tantalizing references to
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a mysterious power they called maya. We saw how the Chandogya Upanishad suggests that the world’s creation is like many pots
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being made from one lump of clay. But, this metaphor doesn’t explain how the world emerged from a non-dual substratum.
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To make a pot, a skilful potter is required in addition to clay.
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But to create the world, there was no separate maker and material; there was only brahman,
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which is ekam eva advitiyam, one alone, without a second.
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It was left to later teachers to explain in detail how the world of duality arose from
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non-dual brahman. Their explanations provided powerful insights, including this amazing declaration of Gaudapada:
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“The world never really emerged, nor will it undergo dissolution.
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There’s really no one who’s bound, no one seeking enlightenment, and no one who
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becomes enlightened. This is the highest truth.”
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That’s a remarkable assertion, but how could Gaudapada so blatantly deny the reality of
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our everyday experience? There seems to be a huge gap between the lofty truth of Advaita and our everyday experience
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of duality. To resolve this apparent discrepancy, we’ll have to dive deep into the teachings of Advaita
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Vedanta. What we’re about to explore might seem a bit complex at first, but it’ll soon become
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clear. Advaita Vedanta distinguishes three independent levels or orders of reality.
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The lowest order is projected reality, the level of imagination and illusion that you
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experience in your dreams each night. The middle order is empirical reality, the level of your everyday experience of the world
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when you’re awake, like right now. And the highest order is the level of non-dual brahman, which corresponds to the state of
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dreamless sleep. In deep sleep, your consciousness, your capacity to be know whatever’s happening in your
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mind, continues to be fully present. In deep sleep, you’re actually fully aware, but there’s nothing to be aware of -- because
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your mind is perfectly silent. It’s like being in a perfectly dark room with your eyes wide open; your eyes can still
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see, but there’s nothing at all to be seen.
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When you’re awake, you experience the duality of the empirical world.
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When you’re dreaming, you experience the duality of the dream world that your mind
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projects. But in deep sleep, your experience of duality comes to an end.
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Each night when you dream, your mind creates a world full of people, buildings, trees,
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and streets. Then, when you wake up, you leave that projected dream world behind and return to the empirically
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real waking world. As long as you’re deeply immersed in your dreams, the world projected by your mind seems
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very real. But as soon as you wake up, you realize that everything in the dream was merely a projection.
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Nothing in the dream world truly existed.
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Waking up out of a dream is a metaphor often used to describe enlightenment.
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Due to the sleep of ignorance, you become deeply immersed in the empirical reality of
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your day to day life, and you assume that everything there is absolutely real.
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But, when you wake up from the sleep of ignorance, when you realize that the empirical world
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is nothing but nama-rupa, name and form, then, you’ll no longer consider it absolutely
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real. You’ll know that nothing in the empirical world truly existed because it’s merely
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a form of the underlying reality, brahman.
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Gaudapada wrote from this lofty perspective, the level of absolute reality, when he so
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boldly dismissed the reality of our everyday experiences.
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This dream metaphor also leads to a brilliant answer to the question, “How can the world
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of duality arise from a non-dual substratum?”
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Consider this: in dreamless sleep, your consciousness is completely free from nama-rupa, name and
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form. There’s only consciousness, and nothing else.
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That happens to be a non-dual state. And your consciousness remains in that non-dual state until you either wake up or you begin
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to dream. When you dream, a dream world arises from your non-dual state of consciousness and you
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experience a multitude of things; you experience duality.
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But in fact, everything you experience in a dream is actually nothing but your own consciousness.
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After all, the trees and buildings in your dreams aren’t made of wood; they’re made
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of consciousness. Just like a dream world arises from non-dual consciousness, so too, the empirically real
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world emerges from non-dual brahman.
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And just like everything you experience in a dream is actually nothing but consciousness,
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so too, everything you experience in the world is actually nothing but brahman.
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Your dreams arise from non-dual consciousness due to the creative power of your mind.
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In a similar way, the world emerges from non-dual brahman due to a creative power or capacity
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that the rishis called maya. To translate maya as illusion in this context isn’t very helpful.
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Here, maya refers to the immensely powerful, intelligent force that gave rise to the infinitely
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complex universe in which we live. Simply put, maya is the power of creation.
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But, there’s a logical problem here.
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If maya is an independent creative power that’s separate from brahman, then how can brahman
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be non-dual, one alone, without a second?
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The non-duality of brahman excludes the possibility of an additional entity like maya.
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But, for Shankara and other teachers of Advaita Vedanta, maya is like the eighteenth elephant.
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Elephant? There’s a delightful story about a king who retired to live in the forest, after leaving
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his entire kingdom to his three sons. To his eldest son, he left half the kingdom.
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To his second son, he left one-third. And to his youngest, he left one-ninth.
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The kingdom’s territory and everything in the treasury was divided into three parts,
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according to this formula. The king happened to own 17 elephants.
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When his sons tried to distribute the elephants, they fell into a huge argument because the
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number 17 can’t be evenly divided according the king’s formula.
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The king’s minister stepped in to resolve the dispute.
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He arrived with his own splendid elephant and unexpectedly gave it to the three sons.
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They now had 18 elephants. The minster told them to divide up the elephants and take their rightful share.
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The eldest took half, nine elephants. The middle son took one-third, 6 elephants.
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And the youngest took one-ninth, two elephants.
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The distribution was complete, but one elephant remained, the minister’s elephant, which
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he led away as he returned home.
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Maya is like the eighteenth elephant; it’s the answer to an otherwise unsolvable problem.
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To use a mathematical metaphor, maya is like a numerical constant or fudge factor needed
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to balance both sides of an equation. “A fudge factor?”
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I can almost hear you object to this. Yes. Let me explain.
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Non-dual brahman alone is absolutely real. The world, on the other hand, belongs to the empirical order of reality, the level of your
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waking experience. So, the world is not as real as brahman.
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The teachings of Advaita belong to the empirically real world, like everything else here, so
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they’re not absolutely real like brahman.
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That means, Advaita is not the ultimate truth; brahman alone is the ultimate truth.
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The teachings of Advaita are an empirically real solution for an empirically real problem.
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The problem of human suffering is actually located in the mind.
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As we saw in the first part, you suffer when you fail to recognize your essential nature
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to be unborn, limitless, complete, and utterly untouched by all the afflictions of daily
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life. Ultimately, suffering is the result of ignorance which is in your mind.
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The teachings of Advaita Vedanta are meant to remove the ignorance that causes suffering.
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Properly understood, Advaita Vedanta is a collection of teaching methods or modes of
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instruction called prakriyas.
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These prakriyas are carefully designed to lead qualified aspirants to realize the truth
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of non-dual brahman like the rishis did.
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There are hundreds of these prakriyas. They’re like an assortment of tools you might find in a tool box.
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Each tool serves a particular purpose, and each prakriya serves a particular role in
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leading you to realize brahman. But, if Advaita Vedanta is not the ultimate truth, if it’s just a collection of prakriyas,
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teaching methods, then how can we trust it? How do we know it’s prakriyas aren’t defective?
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Well, you can verify that a particular tool works by using it.
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And in the same way, you can verify the effectiveness of these prakriyas by using them in your personal
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spiritual practice. The teachings of Advaita Vedanta are like a finger pointing to the moon.
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Even though the moon shines brightly, you might not spot it in the vast expanse of sky
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above you. A finger can point your attention to the moon, which is already present, but not yet seen
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by you. So too, Advaita Vedanta can lead you to recognize non-dual brahman, which is already present,
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but not yet fully realized as being your true nature.
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One last observation: a finger doesn’t need to physically touch the moon to point it out.
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It only has to direct your attention to the right place. Similarly, the teachings of Advaita don’t have to somehow grasp or reach non-dual brahman.
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They only have to correctly direct your mind towards brahman.
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can point the way to non-dual brahman just as effectively as the traditional teachings
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of Advaita Vedanta.
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Beginning with Gaudapada and Shankara, an unbroken lineage of teachers passed on the
The Global Age
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non-dual wisdom of the ancient rishis from one generation to the next.
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Each new generation studied the Sanskrit texts and commentaries written before, and then
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they elaborated on those works by writing their own texts and commentaries.
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The manuscripts of especially brilliant new works were transcribed by large numbers of
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students who wanted copies for their own personal study, and eventually, those manuscripts spread
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to every corner of the Indian subcontinent. But, some newly composed works lacked clarity and depth, or were inconsistent with the teachings
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of the rishis. These works were largely ignored and gradually fell into obscurity because students weren’t
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inclined to make copies for themselves. In this way, the teaching tradition of Advaita Vedanta protected itself against deterioration
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and against the introduction of defective material. As a result, this body of wisdom maintained an exceptional degree of integrity and consistency
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as it evolved over the centuries. Yet, it met with several unprecedented challenges with the arrival of our modern Global Age.
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With the invention of the rotary press and offset printing, handwritten manuscripts like
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this one were replaced by printed books.
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These books made Advaita Vedanta’s teachings much more accessible, but regrettably, this
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had an unintended consequence. Newly composed works that lacked clarity, depth and consistency, works that would previously
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have fallen into obscurity, now began to find their way onto the printed page.
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Such books were widely distributed and their teachings soon became intermixed with traditional
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teachings that had been conserved so carefully over the centuries.
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In this way, Advaita Vedanta was invaded, in a manner of speaking, by material that
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traditional teachers considered defective. This process of decline was hastened by a growing lack of Sanskrit scholarship in modern
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India. Study of Sanskrit came to be regarded as being old-fashioned and irrelevant.
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Yet, to gain full access to Advaita Vedanta’s precious body of wisdom, thorough study of
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Sanskrit language, scriptures, texts and commentaries is essential.
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This study usually involves years of learning under the guidance of traditional teachers.
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An increasing number of contemporary teachers lacked this rigorous training, and as a result,
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they became estranged to some degree from the teaching tradition of Advaita Vedanta.
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In particular, without knowing Sanskrit, they had no direct access to the vision of the
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rishis, as found in the upanishads and explained in commentaries and texts.
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They had to rely on translations instead. Unfortunately, the mystical poetry of the rishis and the extraordinary precision of
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Sanskrit grammar and vocabulary are largely lost in translation.
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For me, reading even the best translations is like looking through frosted glass.
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You can see what’s there, but everything’s blurry and indistinct.
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In comparison to the superb clarity of the original Sanskrit, translations seem vague
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and confusing. Sadly, the breathtaking vision of the rishis gets dimmed by the process of translation.
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By the 19th century, the teaching tradition of Advaita Vedanta had already deteriorated
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to a considerable extent. In that century, two remarkable men were born who would help revitalize the tradition, but
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whose legacies became the source of new challenges, as we will see.
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Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharshi were highly influential spiritual teachers,
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celebrated around the world as great saints and mystics.
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Their unique lives definitely deserve to be known in full, but here, we’ll consider
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just a few details that are relevant to our discussion.
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Ramakrishna was a simple temple priest from Bengal whose intense devotion and powerful
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mystical experiences led him to the heights of spiritual attainment.
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He underwent no formal study of Sanskrit language or scriptures, but with the help of several
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teachers he met, he learned about Advaita Vedanta, Tantra, Vaishnavism, and other traditions.
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What Ramakrishna later taught his disciples seems to have been based more on his own spiritual
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experiences, rather than on any particular spiritual tradition.
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He attracted a number of highly-educated followers from Calcutta, including the famous Hindu
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monk, Swami Vivekananda. After Ramakrishna died in 1886, Swami Vivekananda and his fellow disciples founded a monastic
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organization, the Ramakrishna Mission, and they began to disseminate the wisdom of their
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beloved master. Swami Vivekananda lectured extensively, both in India and in the United States.
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His lectures were transcribed into books and widely read.
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Before meeting Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda had already studied the Upanishads, Bhagavad
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Gita, and other scriptures. As a result, what he later taught combined the mystical insights of Ramakrishna with
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the traditional teachings of Advaita Vedanta. In this way, he created a new system, a system that scholars now call Neo-Vedanta.
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We’ll discuss Neo-Vedanta further after we briefly explore the life and teachings
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of Ramana Maharshi. While he was still a teenager, Ramana ran away from home to live at the foot of a sacred
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mountain in South India called Arunachala. There, he immersed himself in meditation and was profoundly transformed by his extremely
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intense practice. As his fame grew, seekers and scholars from all over the world came to meet him.
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From discussions with those visiting scholars, Ramana learned the teachings of Advaita Vedanta.
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As a result, what he taught was partly based on his own meditative insights, and partly
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based on Advaita Vedanta. His teachings were compiled into small books and widely circulated.
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Among those who sought Ramana’s wisdom was H.W.L. Poonja, a former army officer from India’s Punjab.
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Poonja was to play a significant role in how Advaita would later be taught in the West.
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He met with Ramana several times during the 1940’s and those encounters changed the
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course of his life. Years later, Poonja settled in Lucknow where he was eagerly sought out by young spiritual
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seekers, mostly of Western origin. He taught them using an informal question-answer style known as satsang.
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With his encouragement, those students began to conduct their own satsangs in the West.
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They propagated their own unique system of non-dual teaching that’s often called Neo-Advaita.
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These two newly derived systems, Neo-Vedanta and Neo-Advaita, are now taught around the
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world and draw many dedicated students.
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They have certainly helped the teachings of non-duality appeal to a wider range of people.
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But an important question to address is: are these two new systems as effective as traditional
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Advaita Vedanta in imparting the truth of non-dual brahman?
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Are these offshoots as good as the original? All three systems teach the same non-dual brahman, but there are significant differences
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in how these systems convey that truth. They use different methods of teaching.
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In the prior part we discussed how Advaita Vedanta is actually a collection of teaching
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methods, called prakriyas, that are carefully designed to lead qualified students to realize
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the truth of non-dual brahman. A careful examination of Neo-Vedanta and Neo-Advaita can show several instances in which they have
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apparently modified or discarded prakriyas that are central to Advaita Vedanta.
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For example, a common Neo-Vedanta teaching of Swami Vivekananda is that you can gain
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enlightenment by following any one of four yogic practices or paths, the path of jnana
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yoga, spiritual knowledge, the path of bhakti yoga, devotion, the path of karma yoga, selfless
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service, or the path of raja yoga, meditation.
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Neo-Vedanta encourages you to choose the practice that’s most suitable for your temperament.
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Now, as we saw before, non-dual brahman is already your true nature, but that truth remains
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unrecognized because of ignorance. Your true nature is as-though covered by a veil of ignorance which can be removed only
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by knowledge. Devotion, selfless service and meditation are not sources of knowledge, so can’t remove
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ignorance on their own. That’s why Shankara said so emphatically, jnanam eva mokshah, moksha or enlightenment
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is gained through spiritual knowledge alone. Why?
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Because that knowledge can remove the ignorance that covers your true nature.
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But don’t think for a moment that Shankara ever dismissed the importance of devotion,
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selfless service, and meditation. He himself insisted on the performance of these practices.
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Shankara made it clear that non-dual knowledge can be gained only by a qualified student,
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a student who’s fully prepared for this knowledge. It’s like in college where it’s necessary to complete certain prerequisites before taking
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an advanced course. The prerequisites for knowledge of non-dual brahman can be gained through devotion, selfless
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service, meditation, and other practices.
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Only with proper preparation can the teachings of Advaita finally lead you to gain non-dual
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knowledge. Shankara explained all this using the example of cooking rice.
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The heat of a fire does the actual cooking, so fire is called the primary means.
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But, without a pot and some water, you can’t cook rice.
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Pot and water are also necessary, but because they themselves don’t do the actual cooking,
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they’re called secondary means. So, fire, pot and water are all necessary, but they serve two different roles.
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Like fire is the primary means for cooking rice, so too, knowledge of non-dual brahman
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is the primary means for enlightenment. And just like you can’t cook rice without a pot and water, so too, you can’t gain
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knowledge of brahman without first becoming prepared through practices like devotion,
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selfless service, and meditation. If any of these are left out, non-dual knowledge can remain out of reach.
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The approach of Neo-Vedanta, where you’re encouraged to choose just one spiritual practice,
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is like trying to cook rice with just a pot, or just water, or just fire.
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This is an example of a defective prakriya.
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Now that we’ve examined one aspect of Neo-Vedanta, let’s turn to the system of Neo-Advaita.
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Teachers of Neo-Advaita often say, non-dual brahman is already your true nature, so there’s
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nothing you can do or need to do. Performing various spiritual practices only serves to strengthen the illusion that you’re
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separate from brahman. So, you should give up any kind of practice except for self-inquiry.
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By turning your attention within and seeking spiritual knowledge, you can dispel the illusion
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that your ego and the world you experience are real, and you can realize the truth of
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non-dual brahman. That’s a really brief summary of Neo-Advaita’s approach.
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Note that it emphasizes self-inquiry alone and dismisses the value of other practices
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like devotion, selfless service, and meditation, practices that are usually considered necessary
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to become fully prepared for gaining non-dual knowledge.
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Figuratively speaking, they’re trying to cook rice with the heat of a blazing fire,
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but without a pot or any water. They embrace self-inquiry as the primary means for enlightenment, but they reject the secondary
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means like devotion, selfless service and meditation.
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This is another example of a defective prakriya.
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From the standpoint of traditional Advaita Vedanta, other defective prakriyas can be
1:05:29
found in Neo-Vedanta and Neo-Advaita.
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But that doesn’t make them wrong or useless.
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After all, they teach the same non-dual brahman. Yet, we can’t ignore the consequences of using defective prakriyas.
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After all, they’re the actual teaching tools used to remove the ignorance that covers your
1:06:02
true non-dual nature. They’re like the tools used by highly-trained sculptors in India, known as shilpis.
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This shilpi is carving a beautiful deity for a temple altar.
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He would say that the deity is already present inside the rough block of stone; his job is
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to remove all the stone that hides it.
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Just as he uses a hammer and chisel to skillfully remove the stone that covers the deity within,
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in the same way, you can use the traditional prakriyas of Advaita Vedanta to skillfully
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remove the veil of ignorance that covers your true, divine nature, already present within
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you. Also, this shipi probably underwent years of training before he was fully prepared for
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this work. In the same way, you might require years of spiritual practice to become fully prepared
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for gaining knowledge of non-dual brahman. Now, suppose this shilpi had only dull or broken chisels available for his use.
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How could he complete this work? Using damaged chisels is like using defective prakriyas - in both cases, achieving the desired
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result isn’t very likely. But with proper tools, a shilpi can fashion an exquisite work of art.
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So too, with proper prakriyas, you can realize your true nature as non-dual brahman.
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Now, it might be possible to carve a deity out of a block of stone using dull or broken
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chisels, but only if those tools are in the hands of an extraordinarily skillful shilpi.
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This metaphor suggests how a truly extraordinary person might be able to realize non-dual brahman
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without using the traditional prakriyas of Advaita Vedanta.
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Without doubt, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Ramana and Poonja were all extraordinary individuals.
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They were spiritual geniuses who didn’t need much help to gain enlightenment.
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The greatness of these teachers can’t be diminished in the least by any seeming limitations
1:09:12
that might be attributed to Neo-Vedanta or Neo-Advaita. Personally, I have enormous reverence for each of them and I’ve benefitted a lot from
1:09:31
their teachings. It was Swami Vivekananda’s outstanding works that first introduced me to Vedanta and Ramana’s
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laser-like directness was a tremendous help for me, first as a practitioner, and later
1:09:50
as a teacher. Many great saints and mystics like them were able to realize the truth of non-dual brahman
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without the benefit of Advaita Vedanta’s prakriyas.
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But even though they didn’t need those prakriyas, most ordinary spiritual seekers, like you
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and I, probably do. In fact, we need all the help we can get.
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Fortunately, we have access to an invaluable body of wisdom that has flowed down through
1:10:28
the ages without interruption, from the ancient rishis, to teachers like Shankara, and beyond.
1:10:36
That body of wisdom is available even today from traditional teachers around the world.
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They know how to use the powerful prakriyas of Advaita Vedanta to unfold the vision of
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the rishis and lead you to discover the truth of non-dual brahman.
