(WRITER NOT KNOWN)
In a popular sense, Vedanta means the end of the
Vedas. However, it is not the only meaning. Veda also means knowledge.
Therefore, Vedanta literally means the end of knowledge or knowing. What is the
end of knowledge? The end of scriptural knowledge is the beginning of
transcendental knowledge, which is beyond the mind and the senses. It is the
knowledge of the Self or Brahman or both, which leads to liberation. In
Hinduism, liberation is the highest goal of human life. The Vedas facilitate it
by providing the right knowledge and methods to achieve it.
In Vedic times, students used to spend about 25 or
more years to study the scriptures and memorize all the knowledge of the
Samhitas, Brahmans and related subjects, which would prepare them for the life
of householders. However, what they learned was lower knowledge (avidya), which
would help them achieve name and fame, but not liberation from the cycle of
births and deaths. For that, having mastered all the ritual knowledge, they had
to go back to study again from a spiritual master, in a forest or a secluded
place, and learn from him the utmost secrets of the Vedas, whereby their
knowing would come to its logical and spiritual end. Most people did it in the
later age, during Vanaprastha, as forest dwellers, after retiring from the
active duties of a householder.
Even today, if you want to achieve liberation, you
have to renounce the world and pursue Brahman with single minded resolve. For
that, self-study (svadhyaya) or initiation by a spiritual master are considered
necessary. When you know Brahman, there is nothing else to know. You reach the
boundaries of human knowledge and enter a mysterious realm, which is
indeterminate, inexplicable and incomprehensible to the human mind. The
scriptures affirm that when you achieve oneness with the Self, you will enter
an ocean of infinite knowledge and bliss, where knowing has no purpose, no end,
and no duality of subject and object.
Vedanta teaches you how to enter that state, and by
what means you can transcend your limitations to experience union with Brahman.
You are incomplete as a knower, incomplete with empirical knowing, and
incomplete without knowing also. You are complete and perfect (siddha) only
when you transcend your ignorance and attain the supreme knowledge of the Self.
This is the final aim and purpose of the knowledge which is contained in the
Vedas. It is what they promise to deliver if you are serious about achieving
it.
Thus, Vedanta brings an end to your spiritual quest
and your life as a mortal being who is subject to repeated births and deaths.
It ends your doubts and despair, your seeking and striving, your knowing, your
existence as a bound soul, your awareness of duality, your worldly knowledge as
well as spiritual ignorance, your relationship with the objective world, your
bonds and attachments, your misery and suffering, and all that futile effort
you make to have and to be to deal with your fears and the impermanence of the
world. With the study of the Vedas, you reach the end of knowing and the end of
mortal existence because after learning about Brahman, what else is there to
learn? You become aware of your essential nature and the true purpose of your
existence, and through effort and by the grace of Isvara you enter the realm of
pure, consciousness, which is eternal, indestructible and infinite
No comments:
Post a Comment