Preface
While a lot many books and articles have been written on the topic of tracing the roots of Vedanta, many of these follow and build upon the inferences of some of the western scholars and Indian scholars with a western viewpoint. These scholars have, through their 'so called research' works such as 'Dating of Vedas and Upanisads', attempted to project the Vedic (and hence the Vedantic) literature as texts of recent origin, texts promoting societal discrimination, texts of non-original thought, and so on. Many of these works are still being used as reference material in many educational institutions further perpetrating these notions among the future generations.
It is in this context that the work on this topic of 'Sanatana Vedanta: Tracing the roots of Pre-Sankara Vedanta was undertaken, through the 'short-term research fellowship' of the Indic academy, to bring forth the traditional perspectives on this topic and support the same with necessary evidence, thus establishing the traditional stance clearly. In doing so, the work has been structured as per contemporary research methodology (e.g., introduction, review of literature, main body, concluding thoughts) while, at the same time, incorporating aspects of the traditional approach (e.g., analysing the opponent's view thoroughly i.e. purvapaksa and then presenting the 'principal' view i.e. siddhanta-paksa).
This book is an attempt to bring together most of the information (though not exhaustive) on the tradition of Vedanta until the time of the great philosopher saint Sankara. In doing so, the focus has been more on the science of Vedanta (Vedanta-sastra) as a whole, and not specific schools of Vedanta like Advaita, Visistadvaita, Dvaita, and so on. The Vedantic traditions after Sankara are largely well-known and well-documented. These, hence, have been kept out of the scope of this book. While the book has been written in simple English language understandable by all, the contents of the book are primarily intended for readers who have some background of Vedanta.
My eternal gratitude to Isvara, the guru-parampara and Sankara Bhagavatpada for choosing me as an instrument in this endeavor. I would like to thank the Indic academy and Sri Hari Kiran for providing an opportunity to undertake this project. I thank Sri Vishal Aggarwal for suggesting this topic and Prof. Nagaraj Paturi for his invaluable guidance and support throughout this project. I thank the Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF), my guru and mentor Prof. Gauri Mahulikar, and Swami Advayananda for agreeing to publish this work as a CIF publication. I thank Pujya Sri Ramanacharanatirtha Swami for blessing the book with his testimonial. Swamiji has been and continues to be a great inspiration for me to learn and practice Vedanta in my daily life. I thank Prof. Madhusudan Penna for generously writing the Foreword for this book. I greatly thank Prof. Shrinivasa Varakhedi and Prof. Shashi Tiwari for their gracious testimonials. I thank all my teachers of Veda and Vedanta for developing in me the right understanding of these valuable treasures of our civilisation, without which I would not have been able to embark on such an endeavor. I thank my parents, especially my mother, for sowing the seeds of bhakti in me towards our Dharma. I thank my wife Kripa and son Shankar for patiently putting up with my erratic schedule during the writing of this work.
Vedas (1256)
Upanishads (525)
Puranas (637)
Ramayana (782)
Mahabharata (386)
Dharmasastras (175)
Goddess (539)
Bhakti (252)
Saints (1789)
Gods (1319)
Shiva (418)
Journal (180)
Fiction (71)
Vedanta (390)
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