Vedanta Schools

Predominant yoga outlooks have changed over time. Very many outlooks of yogis of old have beensomewhat discarded nowadays due to the fact that most modern gurus think according to Vedanta philosophy, one of the Hindu philosophies. The other five orthodox schools are Mimamsa, Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, and Vaisesika. Also, there are many schools (branches) of Vedanta itself. Historically they competed among themselves and with many others. [Chatterjee and Datta 1968]

In earlier times still (Vedic times), conditions and teachings were different. In early Sanskrit writings, 'Vedanta' referred to the Upanishads; the old ones are Vedic texts. Only in medieval times the word Vedanta came to mean the school of philosophy that interprets the Upanishads.

Vedantic ideas were systematised as the Vedanta Sutra of cryptic ideas around 200 BCE. The formulations were open to many different interpretations, and as a result many Vedanta schools arose. Their common central points are: an individual's quest for truth through meditation assisted by a loving morality, and a proposition that bliss is for the skilled meditator.

All forms of Vedanta are drawn primarily from the Upanishads which are considered the essence of all the Vedas. [Major Upanishads] -- [Minor Upanishads - fragments]

There are sub-schools of Vedanta:

1. Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism vedanta) is the best known Vedanta form nowadays. Historically, it started with the thinker Gaudapada of the 600s AD. He built on Mahayana Buddhist philosophy to argue that there is no duality. The Indian guru and thinker Shankara buildt further on Gaudapada's foundation in his Advaita Vedanta teachings ... Fundamental for Shankara is the tenet that Brahman [Being that is beyond time, space, and causality] is real and the known world is unreal. Advaita influence is still felt in modern Hindu thought. [Source: EB "Advaita" and "Vedanta"].

   Thus, Advaita Vedanta is an interpretation of Vedic scriptures, propounded by Adi [the first] Shankara and his grand-guru Gaudapada. Adi Shankara is held to be the first to consolidate explicitly the principles of Advaita Vedanta. The key source texts for all schools of Vedanta are the Prasthanatrayi: the canonical texts consisting of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras. According to this school, Brahman is the only reality, and the world, as it appears, is illusory. An illusionary power of Brahman called maya causes the world to arise. There is no difference between the individual soul and Brahman. Liberation lies in experiencing this non-difference at depth.

2. Vishishtadvaita was propounded by Ramanuja and says that the jivatman [individual soul] is a part of Brahman. This school propounds bhakti or devotion to God, and sees maya as the creative power of God.

3. Dvaita (dualism) was propounded by Madhwacharya. It identifies God with Brahman. It regards Brahman, all individual souls (jivatmans) and matter as eternal and mutually separate entities. This school also advocates bhakti.

4. Dvaitadvaita ("dualistic nondualism") was propounded by Nimbarka, based on an earlier school called Bhedabheda ("Difference-nondifference"), which was taught by Bhaskara. According to this school, the individual soul is at once the same as and yet different from Brahman. In this school, God is visualised as Krishna.

5. Shuddhadvaita (pure mind non-duality) was propounded by Vallabha. This system also identifies bhakti as the only means of liberation. The world is said to be the sport (ila) of Krishna, who is Sat-Chit-Ananda (Being, Consciousness, Great Joy).

6. Achintya Bhedabheda ("paradoxically (achintya) dualistic (bheda) and monistic (abheda)") was propounded by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1534), and teaches "inconceivable oneness and difference." It appears a bit confused. Mahaprabhu was a follower of the Dvaita vedanta of Madhwacharya. Loving devotion (bhakti) is advocated. This philosophy of is followed by ISKCON.

7. Purnadvaita or Integral Advaita (purna = full, complete). According to his followers, Sri Aurobindo, in his The Life Divine, synthesised all the exant schools of Vedanta and gave a comprehensive resolution, integrating cues from the Western metaphysics and modern science. He is said to have restored the umbilical cord of the Vedantic exegesis with the Vedas.

8. Modern Vedanta. This term is at times used to describe the interpretation of Advaita Vedanta by Swami Vivekananda. It holds that the world has a relative reality and should therefore not be completely ignored; sectarian bickering should be abandoned. In the swami's interpretation of Advaita, there is still room for bhakti (devotion), as it was in Shankara's. (See Wikipedia for more on the entries, and/or Chatterjee and Datta, 1968)

Vedanta takes for its basis that human nature is divine, and that the aim of human life is to realise that human nature is divine . (EB, "guru")

Ramakrishna preaches that the three main schools of Vedanta, known as Dualism, Qualified Non-dualism, and Absolute Non-dualism – Dvaita, Visishtadvaita, and Advaita – represent three stages in man's progress toward the Ultimate Reality. They are not contradictory but complementary and suited to different temperaments.