A new interpretation of Hindu tradition focusing on the nature of God, the value of the world, and the meaning of liberation.
2007 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
In this book, Anantanand Rambachan offers a fresh and detailed perspective on Advaita Vedanta, Hinduism’s most influential and revered religious tradition. Rambachan, who is both a scholar and an Advaitin, attends closely to the Upanisads and authentic commentaries of Sankara to challenge the tradition and to reconsider central aspects of its current teachings. His reconstruction and reinterpretation of Advaita focuses in particular on the nature of brahman, the status of the world in relation to brahman, and the meaning and relevance of liberation.
Rambachan queries contemporary representations of an impersonal brahman and the need for popular, hierarchical distinctions such as those between a higher (para) and lower (apara) brahman. Such distinctions, Rambachan argues, are inconsistent with the non-dual nature of brahman and are unnecessary when brahman’s relationship with the world is correctly understood. Questioning Advaita’s traditional emphasis on renunciation and world-denial, Rambachan expands the understanding of suffering (duhkha) and liberation (moksa) and addresses socioeconomic as well as gender and caste inequalities. Positing that the world is a celebrative expression of God’s fullness, this book advances Advaita as a universal and uninhibited path to a liberated life committed to compassion, equality, and justice.
Зміст
Abbreviations
Introduction
1.The Human Problem
The Limits of Knowledge
The Limits of Wealth
The Limits of Pleasure
The Reflective Life
2. The Requirements of Discipleship
The Necessity of Virtue
Viveka
Vairā
gya
Ś
amā
disatkasampatti
Mumuksutva
Sā
dhana Catustaya and the Immediacy of Knowledge
Eligibility for Discipleship and the Caste System
3. The Nature of the Ātman
Overcoming the Human Problem
Who Am I?
The Ā
tman and the Body
The Ā
tman and the Mind
The Ā
tman as Awareness
The Ā
tman as Timeless
The Ā
tman as Ānanda
The Ā
tman as Non-dual
4. The Source of Valid Knowledge
The Significance of a Valid Means of Knowledge
The Limits of Perception and Inference
The Vedas as the Means of Knowledge for
Brahman
Knowledge and the Attainment of
Brahman
The Self-Revealing Nature of
Brahman
Ignorance as Incomplete Knowledge of
Brahman
Knowledge and Experience
The Dilemma of Knowing the Knower
Non-dual Experience and Non-dual Knowledge
The Teacher and the Text
Brahman as Ultimate Mystery
5.
Brahman as the World
Denying the Reality and Value of the World
The Origin of the World from
Brahman
Brahman as Intelligent and Material Cause
The Universe as Non-different from
Brahman
The Doctrine of
Mā
yā
Asymmetrical Relationship between
Brahman and World
Is the World an Illusion?
World as Celebrative Expression of
Brahman
Seeing the One
and the Many
6.
Brahman as God
Brahman as Nirgunand
Saguna
Are Hierarchies in
Brahman Necessary?
The Problem of Change and Activity in
Brahman
The Problem of Substance and Attributes
The Problem of Purpose
The Value of the Creation of
Brahman
7. Liberation
The Nature of Ignorance
Liberation as Identical with the Nature of
Brahman
Embodied or Living Liberation
Liberation as Freedom from Desire
Liberation as the Attainment of Fullness of Self
Liberation as Freedom from Mortality
Liberation as Freedom from the Cycles of Rebirth
Liberation as Freedom from
Karma
Liberation as Freedom in Action
Liberation as Identification with All Beings
Liberation as Knowing
Brahman to be Self and God
Notes
Index
Про автора
Anantanand Rambachan is Professor of Religion at St. Olaf College and the author of The Advaita Worldview: God, World, and Humanity, also published by SUNY Press.
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