Conditioned by religious, cultural, and social beliefs, it is natural for almost all human beings in the world to believe that they are born into a pre-existing world created by some Divine power or an unseen force. In sharp contrast to this common global belief comes the stunning message of "Advaita Vedanta" that "Nothing has ever been created! What IS, is the Self, Pure Consciousness, alone, without a second thing! Everything that appears is only an illusion!"
Advaita Vedanta offers many methods and models to help one realize this Ultimate Truth. For this ultimate teaching to bear fruit, Advaita Vedanta stipulates an ethical code of conduct and certain pre-requisites, including discrimination, detachment, the six virtues (equanimity, sense-control, renunciation, forbearance, faith, and concentration), and an intense yearning for liberation. These qualities are essential to help the seeker develop an unwavering mind that is sharp, mature, and capable of grasping the Non-Dual teaching.
Shri Shankara, the seventh-century saint and the foremost exponent of Advaita Vedanta, spells out the most Direct Path to such a realization on a here and now basis in his short treatise, aparokShAnubhUti. He explains in lucid and simple words, through the 144 verses of this text, the means to having the direct and intuitive realization of brahman, which is nothing but the eternal, immutable Beingness-Knowingness that is intrinsic to every object that is perceived and the perceiver as well. He boldly declares, up-front, the unreality of the three entities, the individual-world-Creator, a model commonly invoked by many philosophical systems to explain the genesis of a "me" the person, and the world that I live in.
Shankaras Direct Path is not about changing or manipulating the external world or improving one's body-mind system, but about changing one's "vision." By pointing simply and directly to Beingness-Knowingness (Presence-Awareness) that is inherent in everything and repeatedly instructing the seeker to pay attention only to "That" and not to the names and forms perceived by the finite mind and senses. Shankara provides a direct path to an Im-mediated (without a medium) and Direct Realization of the Self. He asks us to take advantage of the plasticity of the mind to expand itself to Infinity, from its finite "me-ness" to everything as "the Self". This is the single and most direct instruction that Shankara provides in aparokShAnubhUti.
Late Shri Yellamraju Srinivas Rao expounded on Shankara's aparokShAnubhUti in an audio commentary in his native language, Telugu, over a period of eight days. These audio commentaries have been transcribed, translated into English, edited, and organized into this book to help seekers across the world understand the intricacies of Advaita Vedanta and the profundity of Shankara's message of the direct path.
Shri Yellamraju Srinivas Rao (1927-2015) was a staunch practitioner and renowned teacher of Advaita Vedanta in Southern India. A scholar in Telugu and Sanskrit, he authored several books in these languages. Fluent and well-read in Hindi, English, Urdu, and Persian languages, he had a vast repertoire of knowledge from various religious and philosophic traditions of the East, Middle East, and the West, and quoted profusely, often extempore, from prominent texts belonging to these traditions.
Shri Y.S. Rao left behind, as part of his legacy to the world, a large audio archive of speeches, faithfully recorded by his student, Shri M. Sudhakar. We chose to render particularly this talk of Shri Y. S. Rao into a book because it focused on Shankara's Direct Path, a teaching that is highly relevant to modern times. To extract from Y. S. Rao's talks the structure required for a printed book, we edited the text for readability and conciseness and reorganized the material for flow and consistency.
Vedas (1192)
Upanishads (501)
Puranas (632)
Ramayana (746)
Mahabharata (363)
Dharmasastras (167)
Goddess (502)
Bhakti (243)
Saints (1509)
Gods (1294)
Shiva (377)
Journal (184)
Fiction (60)
Vedanta (365)
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