Introduction

I am a student of vedanta, and in the last few years, I have understood a few things. I’m trying to write them down here.

I am not what they call self-realised. If the Yogasutra talks of dharana, dhyana and then samadhi, then in those terms I’ve sometimes experienced dharana, I have no idea whether I’ve ever experienced dhyana, and samadhi is a light year away. I’ve never had visions, seen glowing lights or heard musical sounds in meditation. However, I have understood some first-level ideas, and some of those have become quite real for me.

I am not writing this with the expectation that the reader can read it and learn what I have learned. The journey of vedanta does not work through reading, it depends heavily on contemplation and introspection, and each student’s sequence of realisations, the shape of each realisation, is different.

I am writing this to help me reflect on what I have seen and understood.

I am also writing in the faint hope that some snippets here and there may help some other student sort out some niggling doubt in her mind. This will only work with students who are roughly in my vicinity in the learning and journey landscape. Someone who has little exposure to vedanta may not be able to understand many things this text refers to.

Vedanta to me means three different but overlapping sets of things. First, vedanta means the Upanishads. Second, it means the prasthana-traya: the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahmasutras. Third, it means all the various schools of philosophy which came out of the Upanishads and which call themselves vedanta, like advaita vedanta, Maadhva vedanta, etc My study is not limited strictly to the vedanta, I have also picked up ideas from Buddhism, JK1 and other sources.

The chapters here are in no particular order. Each chapter is a standalone thought, more or less.

Next: Learning happens

  1. JK = Jiddu Krishnamurti, see jkrishnamurti.org โ†ฉ๏ธŽ