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Method of the Vedanta; a Critical Account of the Advaita Tradition

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Highly recommended for students of Advaita Vedanta. Explores the progression of Advaitic thought both before and after the time of Sankara. Presents a totally unique perspective.

In this historiographic and analytical history of Advaita Vedanta, Swami Satchidanandendra will settle for nothing less than the "true method to the study of Advaita Vedanta". That is, the method which unifies and harmonizes the three starting points of Vedanta: the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras. After summarizing the essential elements of the three starting points, Swami Satchidanandendra admits that the average person, including himself, stands little chance of discovering this method simply from reading the Upanishads, Gita, and Sutras.

But Sankara is no ordinary person, and it is through Sankara that the true method shall be discovered. And in chapter three, we find the essence of Sankara's approach:

`For there is a saying of those that know the true tradition, "That which cannot be expressed is expressed through false attribution and subsequent recantation."' - Sankara on the Bhagavad Gita, 13.13.

And this, the only true method of Vedanta, will govern the rest of the book.

"The Method of the Vedanta: A Critical Account of the Advaita Tradition" is a groundbreaking achievement by Swami Satchidanandendra, and an incredible work of scholarship by the translator, Sanskrit and Vedanta scholar, Dr. A. J. Alston.