THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE VEDANTA

Known as the oldest philosophical texts of the world, the Vedas have always aroused much scholarly curiosity. Several thinkers have sought to prise open the hidden meaning(s) within the Vedas with the help of the Upanishads and decode them. Using the premises of Plato and Kant to solve the fundamental problem of causality posed to the Advaita Vedanta, the author paved the way for the dialogue between Indian and Western philosophy. In this book, each verse of Sadananda Yogendra’s Vedantasara has been systematically analysed and provided with important critical notes. The Sanskrit verses have also been given in their original script. Although Deussen found the Advaitic principles to be of the greatest value to mankind, he objectively examines the conflicts within Sankaras thought in The Philosophy of the Vedanta and the Vedantasara. Among the pretexts by which European idleness tries to escape the study of Indian philosophy we hear most frequently the remark that the philosophy of the Indians is quite different from our own and has nothing whatever to do with the development of Occidental religion and philosophy. The fact is perfectly true; but far from being a reason for neglecting the study of Indian wisdom, it furnishes us with the strongest argument in favour of devoting ourselves to it all the more. The philosophy of the Indians must become for everyone who takes any interest in the investigation of philosophical truth, an object of the highest interest; for Indian philosophy is and will be the only possible parallel to what so far, the Europeans have considered as philosophy.