It's really important to understand that the phrase, to study Vedanta, is actually a misnomer.
When you study history, the subject matter is history. When you study human anatomy,
the subject matter is anatomy. But when you study Vedanta, the subject matter is not Vedanta. The
subject matter is actually your own true nature, atma, pure consciousness, the so-called inner
divinity that the ancient rishis discovered to be identical with brahman. For this reason, the study
of Vedanta is utterly unlike other kinds of study. Books on history, anatomy, and so on, are full
of information, and the purpose of studying those books is to extract the information they contain.
But if you study Vedanta with the same purpose in mind, you are simply wasting your time.
Vedanta is not an academic subject like history and anatomy. That is, Vedanta is not
a body of information. In fact, Vedanta neither a theory, a doctrine, a science, or a philosophy.
Properly understood, Vedanta is a brilliant and unique teaching methodology, a methodology meant
to lead you to discover your true nature. The teachings of Vedanta are more like the road map
on your smartphone than a textbook. A road map contains lots of information, but its purpose
is not to merely convey that information. It's meant to guide you to your destination.
In the same way, the teachings of Vedanta contain lots of information,
but their ultimate purpose is to guide you to attain moksha, liberation, enlightenment,
by using a powerful process of self-inquiry or inner exploration called atma vichara.
The main spiritual practice in Vedanta is self-inquiry. And for that practice to be
effective, your study of Vedanta must be accompanied by the practice of meditation.
There are a number of important meditation techniques that can help you gain the mental
skills that you'll need for the subtle and sometimes perplexing process of self-inquiry.
Meditation is also necessary to prepare you for nididhyasana, Vedantic contemplation,
that helps you assimilate whatever you have understood. And perhaps most importantly,
meditation imparts an experiential dimension to your studies, and that can help you avoid
the huge mistake of adopting a purely academic or theoretical approach.
Over the years, a fairly large collection of my teachings have been published,
both on YouTube and on our Arsha Bodha Center website. A number of people have asked me for a
syllabus or program of study to help them navigate all that material more easily.
So, I've prepared an index to those teachings that includes a recommended order for study,
starting with introductory topics and proceeding to advanced ones. You can find it on our website
using the link below. In this video, I'd like to tell you how to use this syllabus to make your
study of Vedanta more fruitful. Let's go through the syllabus now.
Items marked with an om are essential and should not be skipped. It's important to begin with these
introductory topics, even if you've studied a lot of Vedanta before, because if the fundamentals
are not clearly and correctly understood, your ongoing studies will not be fruitful.
The first item is the video you're watching right now, and the next three items will give
you an excellent foundation and answer many common questions. The next two items address
a wide variety of important topics. Items not marked with an om can be skipped if you prefer.
This Introduction to Vedanta is much more extensive than the 6-video series above.
Before studying the more advanced topics below, it's important to establish a daily meditation
practice first, if you haven't already done so. Daily meditation is essential for all
the reasons we discussed before. I've designed a course in meditation that consists of many short
lessons. Most of those lessons introduce a technique for you to learn and practice.
It's best to practice each technique for at least a few days before you proceed to the next lesson.
There's no hurry to finish the course, and you can continue to study the rest
of the materials in this syllabus as you proceed from lesson to lesson.
Be sure to watch the Infinite Peace video before beginning the Course in Meditation.
After completing the course, you might find these guided meditations useful. My assistant,
Vasanthi, has conducted many excellent sessions on Mindfulness Meditation which are included here.
I don't teach or recommend the practice of Kundalini Yoga, but if you're curious about it,
you can watch this video. And, if you want an in-depth study of the Yoga Sutras,
the source scriptures for the practice of meditation, you can listen to these classes.
As you continue your studies, you can choose texts according to your personal disposition.
In particular, if you're deeply rooted in Hindu culture, then studying the Bhagavad Gita might
be the best way to proceed. The Gita includes all the profound teachings of Advaita Vedanta,
and it's uniquely well-suited for integrating spiritual practice into your daily life.
Even if you're not deeply rooted in Hindu culture, study the Gita's second chapter is essential.
Unlike other chapters that address various topics, the teachings in chapter two are more complete and
can be studied independently. After completing chapter 2, you can study other chapters that
interest you, or you can proceed to study other Vedantic texts and then come back to complete
your study of the Gita at a later date. To help you better appreciate the teachings
of the Gita, you might enjoy my English Version that's chanted in the same meter
as the original Sanskrit, or this Dramatic Reenactment performed by my own students.
As you might know, the Bhagavad Gita is a short excerpt from the great epic, Mahabharata.
Most of the Mahabharata is a wonderful narration of the epic's elaborate story,
but interweaved in that story are many sections contain profound Vedantic teachings, in addition
to the Bhagavad Gita. I carefully selected those sections and taught them at our ashram.
You can listen to those classes here.
If you've completed studying the Bhagavad Gita, or if you're not inclined to study the entire text,
then you can proceed to study other important texts on Vedanta, especially those of Shankara.
This list presents those texts, beginning with introductory works and progressing
to more advanced ones. Be sure not to skip the essential items marked with an om.
The teachings found in these Vedanta texts and in the Bhagavad Gita are all based on the Upanishads,
which are part of the Vedas and were composed by the ancient rishis.
For this reason, the style of the Upanishads is highly poetic and sometimes obscure.
The Upanishads should be approached with great patience and reverence,
and only after you've completed studying the essential Vedanta texts above.
Finally, some items on various devotional practices are collected here at the end
of the syllabus, followed by additional resources,
such as the study of Sanskrit, which you might find helpful.
As I continue to teach new texts and produce new videos, all those materials will be added
to this syllabus. The version shown in this video might be somewhat out of date by now,
but the one on our website is constantly updated. See the link in the description below.