Study of the non-dualistic (Advaita) Vedanta school in Hindu philosophy.

Study on SarirakamimamĐsabhasĐya by Sankaracarya.

This volume examines the role of divine grace in the non-dualist soteriology of Śaṃkara. The author argues that grace is an essential but generally overlooked feature in Śaṃkara’s enlightenment spirituality. Introductory chapters summarize recent developments in Śaṃkara research, Śaṃkara’s epistemology and ontology, ancient Vedāntic teachings on grace, and modern scholarly disagreement about grace in Śaṃkara’s Advaita system. The heart of the book consists of two lengthy exegetical chapters examining Śaṃkara’s key passages on grace from his dozen genuine works. The final chapter presents for the first time a systematic summary of Śaṃkara’s understanding of the operation and necessity of divine grace. This book provides a useful summary of Śaṃkara’s system as a whole besides offering a radical revision of the standard understanding of Śaṃkara’s soteriology. It also reveals that Śaṃkara was much more indebted in his thinking to his Vedantic predecessors than had hitherto been thought.

This book shows that mysticism is incomplete without scientific rationalism, and that our current social and political projects cannot be completed without assimilating the values and practices of mysticism. It discusses cross-cultural ethics, mysticism and value theory, mysticism and metaphysics, mysticism and the theory of knowledge, ethics and religion, parapsychology, patriarchy, and social and political history.

Few will dispute the fact that Sri Sankara, the most exciting philosopher of Advaita Vedanta has no clear-cut answers to the problem of reality. The shifting focus and emphasis on the various philosophical issues cited in the original exegetics of Sri Sankara by the modern thinkers certainly need a consensus on arriving at the meaningful and purposeful understanding of the true nature of reality. The concept of Adhyasa in its three variants has to be asserted from the non-contradictory ground of reality. In this context, there is a need to differentiate between 'mere appearance' and the 'actual appearance' or the unmanifest reality. The present work attempts to establish the valid tones of a sound philosophy of Advaita Vedanta at its best.

Description: In the present work which is a critique of Vedanta the author has applied Dr. A.N. Whitehead's approach to philosophy and in particular his definition of an entity which entails a process metaphysics. Having deeply studied the ultimate metaphysical positions of the Vedantic School of thought, he has subjected the three well-known systems of Advaita, Visistadvaita and Dvaita to a critical analysis in the light of rational metaphysics based on an adequate analysis of our common and immediate experience in its widest scope. This book is an original attempt which is bound to stimulate new thinking among protagonists of India's Vedanta philosophy. This work is an unprecedented critical exposition of the logical structure of three main Vedantic schools and merits consideration by all lovers of truth in philosophy.

Sankaracharya of the 8th century A.D is considered the greatest philosopher of India up to this day. His teaching of the one and only self has become the most prestigeous expression of the Hindu spirit. Sankara is the author of the Brahmasutrabhasya, the most important text of the school known as Advaita-Vedanta. Sankara teaches of the self by dialogues between a winning exponent and a losing opponent. Up to this day, Sankara's teaching has been invariably identified with the exponent's doctrines. In this book a distinction between the invisible authon and his alleged exponent is offered. Sankara the author is a new intellectual hero different from his exponent. Thus, due to the aforementioned distinction, a new philosophy and theory of freedom emerges, the teaching of Sankara, the author distinguished from his apparent exponent.

In this benchmark five-volume study, originally published between 1922 and 1955, Surendranath Dasgupta examines the principal schools of thought that define Indian philosophy. A unifying force greater than art, literature, religion, or science, Professor Dasgupta describes philosophy as the most important achievement of Indian thought, arguing that an understanding of its history is necessary to appreciate the significance and potentialities of India's complex culture. Volume I offers an examination of the Vedas and the Brahmanas, the earlier Upanisads, and the six systems of Indian philosophy.