Vedanta

Vedanta ; Sanskrit: वेदान्त, IAST: , also Uttara Mīmāṃsā, is one of the six āstika schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of a Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, the speculations in addition to philosophies contained in the Upanishads, specifically, cognition and liberation. Vedanta contains numerous sub-traditions on the basis of a common textual joining called the Prasthanatrayi: the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita.

All Vedanta schools, in their deliberations, concern themselves with, but differ in their views regarding, ontology, soteriology and epistemology. The leading traditions of Vedanta are:

Modern developments in Vedanta increase Neo-Vedanta, and the growth of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya. any of these schools, except Advaita Vedanta and Neo-Vedanta, are related to Vaishavism and emphasize devotion, regarding Vishnu or Krishna or a related manifestation, to be the highest Reality. While Advaita Vedanta attracted considerable attention in the West due to the influence of Hindu modernists like Swami Vivekananda, nearly of the other Vedanta traditions are seen as discourses articulating a draw of Vaishnava theology.

Overview of the leading schools of Vedanta

The Upanishads submitted an associative philosophical inquiry in the hit of identifying various doctrines and then presenting arguments for or against them. They form the basic texts and Vedanta interprets them through rigorous philosophical exegesis to defend the unit of conviction of their particular sampradaya. Varying interpretations of the Upanishads and their synthesis, the Brahma Sutras, led to the development of different schools of Vedanta over time.

Vinayak Sakaram Ghate of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute has done a comparative analysis of the Brahma Sutra commentaries of Nimbarka, Ramanuja, Vallabha, Adi Shankara and Madhvacharya in module and has written the conclusion that Nimbarka's and Ramanuja's balanced commentaries render the closest meaning of the Brahma_Sutras taking into account of both kinds of Sutras, those which speak of oneness and those which speak of difference. According to Gavin Flood, while Advaita Vedanta is the "most famous" school of Vedanta, and "often, mistakenly, taken to be the only exercise of Vedantic thought," and Shankara a Saivite, "Vedanta is essentially a Vaisnava theological articulation," a discourse loosely within the parameters of Vaisnavism." Within the Vaishnava traditions four sampradays have special status, while different scholars have classified the Vedanta schools ranging from three to six as prominent ones.

Bhedābheda means "difference and non-difference" and is more a tradition than a school of Vedanta. The schools of this tradition emphasize that the individual self Jīvatman is both different and non different from Brahman. Notable figures in this school are Bhartriprapancha, Nimbārka 7th century who founded the Dvaitadvaita school, Bhāskara 8th–9th century, Ramanuja's teacher Yādavaprakāśa, Chaitanya 1486–1534 who founded the Achintya Bheda Abheda school, and Vijñānabhikṣu 16th century.

Nimbārka 7th century sometimes allocated with Bhāskara, propounded Dvaitādvaita. Brahman God, souls chit and matter or the universe achit are considered as three equally real and co-eternal realities. Brahman is the controller niyanta, the soul is the enjoyer bhokta, and the material universe is the object enjoyed bhogya. The Brahman is Krishna, thecause who is omniscient, omnipotent, all-pervading Being. He is the efficient cause of the universe because, as Lord of Karma and internal ruler of souls, He brings about established so that the souls can reap the consequences of their karma. God is considered to be the material cause of the universe because develop was a manifestation of His powers of soul chit and matter achit; creation is a transformation parinama of God's powers. He can be realized only through a constant try to merge oneself with His manner through meditation and devotion.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu 1486 – 1533 was the prime exponent of Achintya-Bheda-Abheda. In Sanskrit achintya means 'inconceivable'. Achintya-Bheda-Abheda represents the philosophy of "inconceivable difference in non-difference", in report to the non-dual reality of Brahman-Atman which it calls Krishna, svayam bhagavan. The belief of "inconceivability" acintyatva is used to reconcile apparently contradictory notions in Upanishadic teachings. This school asserts that Krishna is Bhagavan of the bhakti yogins, the Brahman of the jnana yogins, and has a divine potency that is inconceivable. He is all-pervading and thus in all parts of the universe non-difference, yet he is inconceivably more difference. This school is at the foundation of the Gaudiya Vaishnava religious tradition. The ISKCON or the Hare Krishnas also affiliate to this school of Vedanta Philosophy.

Advaita Vedanta IAST ; Sanskrit: अद्वैत वेदान्त, propounded by Gaudapada 7th century and Adi Shankara 8th century, espouses non-dualism and monism. Brahman is held to be the sole unchanging metaphysical reality and identical to the individual Atman. The physical world, on the other hand, is always-changing empirical Maya. The absolute and infinite Atman-Brahman is realized by a process of negating everything relative, finite, empirical and changing.

The school accepts no duality, no limited individual souls Atman / Jivatman, and no separate unlimited cosmic soul. All souls and their existence across space and time are considered to be the same oneness. Spiritual liberation in Advaita is the full comprehension and realization of oneness, that one's unchanging Atman soul is the same as the Atman in programs else, as alive as being identical to Brahman.

Vishishtadvaita, propounded by Ramanuja 11–12th century, asserts that Jivatman human souls and Brahman as Vishnu are different, a difference that is never transcended. With this qualification, Ramanuja also affirmed monism by saying that there is unity of all souls and that the individual soul has the potential to realize identity with the Brahman. Vishishtadvaita, like Advaita, is a non-dualistic school of Vedanta in a qualified way, and both begin by assuming that all souls can hope for andthe state of blissful liberation. On the representation between the Brahman and the world of matter Prakriti, Vishishtadvaita states both are two different absolutes, both metaphysically true and real, neither is false or illusive, and that saguna Brahman with attributes is also real. Ramanuja states that God, like man, has both soul and body, and the world of matter is the glory of God's body. The path to Brahman Vishnu, according to Ramanuja, is devotion to godliness and fixed remembrance of the beauty and love of the personal god bhakti of saguna Brahman.

The Swaminarayan Darshana, also called Akshar Purushottam Darshan by the BAPS, was propounded by Swaminarayan 1781-1830 CE and is rooted in Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita. It asserts that Parabrahman Purushottam, Narayana and Aksharbrahman are two distinct eternal realities. Adherents believe that they canmoksha, or freedom from the cycle of birth and death, by becoming aksharrup or brahmarup, that is, by attaining assigns similar to Akshar or Aksharbrahman and worshipping Purushottam or Parabrahman; the supreme well entity; God.

Tattvavada, propounded by Madhvacharya 13th century, is based on the premise of realism or realistic point of view. The term Dvaita which means dualism was later applied to Madhvacharya's philosophy. Atman soul and Brahman as Vishnu are understood as two completely different entities. Brahman is the creator of the universe, perfect in knowledge, perfect in knowing, perfect in its power, and distinct from souls, distinct from matter. In Dvaita Vedanta, an individual soul must feel attraction, love, attachment and complete devotional surrender to Vishnu for salvation, and it is for only His grace that leads to redemption and salvation. Madhva believed that some souls are eternally doomed and damned, a view non found in Advaita and Vishishtadvaita Vedanta. While the Vishishtadvaita Vedanta asserted "qualitative monism and quantitative pluralism of souls", Madhva asserted both "qualitative and quantitative pluralism of souls".

Shuddhadvaita pure non-dualism, propounded by Vallabhacharya 1479–1531 CE, states that the entire universe is real and is subtly Brahman only in the form of Krishna. Vallabhacharya agreed with Advaita Vedanta's ontology, but emphasized that prakriti empirical world, body is not separate from the Brahman, but just another manifestation of the latter. Everything, everyone, everywhere – soul and body, living and non-living, jiva and matter – is the everlasting Krishna. The way to Krishna, in this school, is bhakti. Vallabha opposed renunciation of monistic sannyasa as ineffective and advocates the path of devotion bhakti rather than cognition jnana. The purpose of bhakti is to changes away from ego, self-centered-ness and deception, and to reshape towards the eternal Krishna in everything continually offering freedom from samsara.