KIRANAVALI - [VOL - XV]  [BOOK I-IV]- JANUARY-DECEMBER 2023

Editor’s note

The term Vedanta literally means the final portion of the Vedas, and this term primarily refers to the major Upanishads encompassing the great statements or Mahāvākyas like tattvamasi, Aham brahmāsmi and Satyamjñanamanantham Brahma, that assert the nature of the Ultimate Reality Brahman, and it is identical with the individual soul. The Vedantins consider the Upanishads as the basic authoritative Vedic texts to be learned in order to gather knowledge concerning reality. The Upanishads form the prolific outpourings from great Vedic seers who had direct experience of the Ultimate Reality in a flash of insight. Nevertheless, these seers had to confront the incapability of the ordinary language to accurately communicate and translate this mystic experience. As a result, this exquisite experience needed to be conveyed through symbols and images, exaggerations and contradictions, and subtle suggestions. Naturally, the same impediments in communication affected the listeners too, engendering the generation of multiple interpretations. This eventually paved the way for Advaitic and Dvaitic interpretations since antiquity.

Bhartrhari says:

“Ekameva yadamnātam bhinnam Saktivyapāśrayāt Aprthaktvepi Śaktibhyaḥ Prthaktveneva bhāsate Tasyārthavādarūpāni niścitya Svavikalpajāḥ Ekatvinam dvaitinam ca Pravādā bahudhā mataḥ”

Dr M.Manimohanan