Vedanta: A Simple Introduction [Paperback]

Pravrajika Vrajaprana (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999

A concise, and delightful introduction to Vedanta, the philosophical backbone of Hinduism.Written with verve and charm by a Western nun for a Western audience, this brief book gives a comprehensive overview of Vedanta philosophy while emphasizing its practical Western application.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Clear, easy to comprehend, and concise, this small book is packed full of pertinent information (on)the core issues of life. --Yoga International Magazine, 1999

As a scholar and practitioner of Vedanta, I can say with confidence that this is the best introductory text on Vedanta available in the English language. It manages to communicate this subtle and complex philosophy in terms that are clear and, as the title suggests, simple. But it does so without oversimplifying. I regularly assign this text to my students (college students taking introductory courses on Indic religions) and they have consistently praised it for the clear and engaging style in which it is written. One student reported to me that when she started reading it, she could not put it down until she had read it cover-to-cover. It really is that engaging. It is, of course, an introductory text. I recommend that readers interested in the various schools of Vedanta other than the modern Ramakrishna-Vivekananda-inspired interpretation of Advaita look to other works. But for novices, and especially for those interested in Vedanta as a spiritual practice rather than from a purely scholarly perspective, this book can't be beat. --Unsolicited comments from a professor

From the Inside Flap

A refreshingly clear and engaging introduction to Vedanta. Highly recommended - Huston Smith, author of World's Religions

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 90 pages
• Publisher: Vedanta Press & Bookshop (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874813735
• ISBN-13: 978-0874813739
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #806,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #81 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Eastern Religions > Eastern Philosophy

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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Introduction to Vedanta Available in English, February 14, 2005

By 

Jeffery D. Long "Jeffery D. Long" (Elizabethtown, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vedanta: A Simple Introduction (Paperback)

As a scholar and practitioner of Vedanta, I can say with confidence that this is the best introductory text on Vedanta available in the English language. It manages to communicate this subtle and complex philosophy in terms that are clear and, as the title suggests, simple. But it does so without oversimplifying. I regularly assign this text to my students (college students taking introductory courses on the religions of South Asia) and they have consistently praised it for the clear and engaging style in which it is written. One student reported to me that when she started reading it, she could not put it down until she had read it cover-to-cover. It really is that engaging. It is, of course, an introductory text. I recommend that readers interested in the various schools of Vedanta other than the modern Ramakrishna-Vivekananda-inspired interpretation of Advaita look to other works. But for novices, and especially for those interested in Vedanta as a spiritual practice rather than from a purely scholarly perspective, this book can't be beat.

I would also like to say that the reviewer who bashed this book essentially for not being a Christian work has utterly missed the point. This is not Christianity, it's Vedanta! It would be like bashing a book by a Christian author for not talking about Brahman, or samsara...

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vedanta - The Way To God, March 25, 2007

By 

Will (Sacramento, Calif.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vedanta: A Simple Introduction (Paperback)

If you want a very brief intro into Vedanta that you can read in a couple of hours this is it. If you want a more in depth book that places it within Hinduism then 'The Spiritual Heritage of India' by Swami Prabhavananda is excellant. Both books are by writers from the Vedanta Society. The best teachers of Vedanta are from that organization. A funny happened to me when I bought and started reading this book. It seemed very deja vu, like I had read it all before. Then I remembered that this came from a website online, the Vedanta Society of Southern California. This book and that website do a good job explaining the basics of Vedanta and the Vedanta Society, though not in much detail. But it's a good place to start and see if you have interest in it, then move on to a more detailed book like 'Spiritual Heritage' which is one of the most incredible books on spirituality I've ever read. Borders also offers 'Spiritual Heritage' to readers.

The concepts in Vedanta go back thousands of years, but the Vedanta Society itself was just started in the late 1800's by disciples of one of India's greatest saints, Ramakrishna. It's like the Bible goes back 2000 years but a church may have just began recently based on the Bible. A beginner might ask what is the relationship between Hinduism and Vedanta. Vedanta is part of Hinduism just like Catholicism or Protestantism are branches of Christianity. Hinduism has many parts to it, many scriptures, many schools, many spiritual teachers. The Vedanta Society unifies all of them into one spiritual view in a brillaint way. The schools of Hinduism tend to teach different parts of Hindu spirituality. For the most part they all agree with one another, though there might be some minor differences they compliment each other brilliantly (I guess I like that word). The three most well-known schools today are Samkhya, Vedanta and Yoga. These aren't mentioned directly in this book, but if you know something about them beforehand it may help you when reading it.

First the goal of Hinduism and Vedanta are to realize or know God. This is not taught by any Christian church as the spiritual goal. The goal of Christian churches is to believe a very strict way so that you are saved and after you die you will go to heaven. Hinduism is more than just belief in God, it is after the experience of God. If you look at books by Hindus or Vedantists on what Jesus taught you'll find that they interpret the teachings of Christ differently than Christian churches. For example, Christ talks a great deal about the kingdom of heaven. That is Jesus' central teaching according to Bible scholars. Hindus and Vedantists see that as meaning that Christ is saying each person should realize that kingdom of heaven within them which is why a Hindu will say Christianity also teaches God-realization just like Hinduism and Vedanta. But of course that is not the meaning the Christian churches get which is why Hindu Vedanta teaches the spiritual goal is to know God, but no Christian church teaches that nor how. Of all the religions Vedanta teaches how to experience and know God better than any other one. The only place this goal is found in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are in their very tiny mystical wing, but not by the vast majority of their believers who have no interest in mysticism. So the only way to say the religions have the same goal is if you are talking about Hindu Vedanta compared to the small mystical wing of these religions. But if you are talking about say the Christian churches and Hindu Vedanta they do not have the same goal. The Christian churches teach that heaven is a place you eventually to go later, while Vedanta teaches heaven is a place within that you can experience spiritually now on Earth, you don't have to wait til you die. This is a huge difference. I believe the reason is because of a teaching in one school of Hinduism missing in other religions - Purusha.

1) Samkhya deals with the concepts of Purusha and Prakriti. Purusha is an important concept in Hinduism & Vedanta and means spiritual Consciousness. God is spiritual Consciousness but so is our soul. In the Upanishads the soul is called Atman, by later ancient Vedanta teachers it is called jiva. A good English term for it is the 'Divine Self' in all human beings. So God and our Divine Self within us are made up of this same Purusha. Prakriti is matter and also the human mind that works though the physical senses. Vedantists then have defined what makes up God and the human soul, while Christianity does not. In fact in Christianity and the Bible the soul is hardly mentioned at all, just a few times and is never described, while it is the central teaching in Hinduism & Vedanta. In Christianity they concentrate on how we are filled with sin which is the cause of the well-known tendency for Christians to feel guilt. But in the Hindu scriptures, from which Vedanta is based, they emphasize our Divine Self and how it is made up of the same divine essence as God - Purusha or eternal spiritual Consciousness. This is why Hindus and Vedantists say things like 'I am God.' It means one's inner Divine Self is of the same essence as God (or Brahman in Hinduism, the ancient Sanskrit name for God). So that is how Samkhya affected Vedanta and all spiritual thought within Hinduism. It greatly affected how Hindus see the relationship between God and the human being.

2) The second important school of Hinduism today is Yoga. By Yoga this not meant stretching or exercise, but what Patanjali teaches in his Yoga Sutras. The word 'yoga' means 'union', union with the Divine. Patanjali's goal in teaching his Yoga to people was to help them realize this divine Purusha by stilling the mind, what we think of as meditation. This is called in Hinduism as Raja Yoga. It is one of the 4 yogas taught as spiritual practice in the Vedanta Society to know God. When Hindus speak of 'the school of Yoga' they mean Patanjali's Raja Yoga, but there is another great book of Yoga which is Krishna's Bhagavad Gita, one of the most important Hindu scriptures that has affected every school & teaching in Hinduism and Vedanta. Krishna teaches Raja Yoga as well, plus the other three yogas too. In Vedanta the goal is to know God Who is Bliss. The method or spiritual practices to experience God's Bliss are the 4 yogas which are all taught by Krishna in the Gita and by the Vedanta Society. One of these is called Bhakti Yoga which is the path to God based on love and devotion. Jesus taught Bhakti Yoga.

3) In this third school Vedanta, this leads to a main point about this book which starts off about how our Divine Self and God (Brahman) are one and the same. Because the book is brief the writer does not go into the difference within the Vedanta school on this. So in reading it you might not see that difference clearly. Within the Vedanta school there are two dominant spiritual teachers. Shankara taught that God and the Divine Self within the human being are identical and One. This led to a yoga called Jnana Yoga and Advaita Vedanta. But another later Vedanta teacher Ramanuja said that the Divine Self and God are not identical. This led to a spiritual path called Bhakti Yoga and is a different form of Vedanta. The author covers Advaita in the early part of the book and a later chapter 'Unity in Diversity' and then in the chapter about the Avatar concept she covers Ramanuja's bhakti path. To Ramanuja the goal was union with God, not Shankara's total Identity with God. However realizing divine Purusha or spiritual Consciousness is the goal of both teachers and of Hinduism & Vedanta leading to the union of our soul with God.

There is a significant difference between what Vedanta teaches and what Christian churches teach. If you desire to know and experience God's Bliss then Vedanta is the best religion for you because that is its core message. Thanks for reading this long-winded review.[...]

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the Best, November 11, 2003

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A Grateful Reader (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vedanta: A Simple Introduction (Paperback)

I found this book absolutely amazing. Vedanta is an ancient philosophy and way of life, and its literature is voluminous. The "Simple Introduction" manages to condense the basic insights of Vedanta inside the convers of a tiny book that is both informative and inspiring. The book made me look deeper into my own life and ask questions I had never asked before. I now feel more free intellectually and emotionally, and more hopeful of leading a life of contentment and lasting fulfillment. We want more books of this type!