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Thread: I have read the whole of Vedanta

  1. #1
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    I have read the whole of Vedanta

    Namaste,

    I have often seen people claiming on the forum that they have read the whole of Vedanta! I wonder what that means and how actually people achieve such a goal. It is certainly an act that I admire as I have been struggling to comprehend the Gita for atleast the last seven years and still haven't comprehended that piece.

    I personally cannot even think what amount of time people who have actually read the whole of Vedanta are spending. For me it might take me the whole rest of life to understand only one gitopanisdh.

    How does one achieve the mountainous task of reading the whole of vedanata? Curious.
    satay

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    Re: I have read the whole of Vedanta

    Dear friends ,
    What is the reason and intent of reading the whole of vedantha .It is said that the pride of any sort , especially that of knowledge is the biggest hindrance in achieving the goal of human life.

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    Re: I have read the whole of Vedanta

    Quote Originally Posted by saswathy View Post
    Dear friends ,
    What is the reason and intent of reading the whole of vedantha .It is said that the pride of any sort , especially that of knowledge is the biggest hindrance in achieving the goal of human life.
    pride is not necessarily a factor here. one may want to simply experience the works firsthand.

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    Re: I have read the whole of Vedanta

    Namaste,

    Youth brings a lot of zeal when a lot of things (especially intellectual) can be accomplished with much ease. They say, "Go to a young astrologer and an old doctor!". One can see the emphasis on youth for astrology since in olden days, lot of astrologers did a lot of manual calculations while deducing results from horoscope and youth is the age when mental faculties are thoroughly alert and active, when computing such calculations was not a big chore as would be the case with an old astrologer! This is just to say, a lot of things can be accomplished faster and with greater accuracy when young.

    Secondly, a lot of people may give first pass, second pass, third pass, etc when reading. At first pass they will read it pretty shallow but grasping important points, at second pass, a much deeper understanding of the subject material and a 3rd pass to remember better the content that has been mastered... and so forth. So when a person says, they have read the whole of Vedanta, I would assume that it is a relatively young person with a great zeal and interest who has given a first pass at learning them.

    Pranam.
    jai hanuman gyan gun sagar jai kapis tihu lok ujagar

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    Re: I have read the whole of Vedanta

    Reading, understanding and applying scripture is not as simple as studying the minimum to get good grades and collect a degree after which you can get a job and forget everything.

    In the Chandogya Upanishad there is a story of Narada boasting he has studied everything there is to study after which Sanatkumar instructs him Vedantic knowledge.
    Last edited by Sahasranama; 28 July 2014 at 03:07 PM.

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    Re: I have read the whole of Vedanta

    Dear Satay.,

    This is like 8 years old post but not sure if you completed your "Gita" study! Reading is far easier task than understanding and knowing the secrets! ( In VA, most of the Acharya works bear the title Rahasya meaning "Secret" or Secrets)

    Hare Krshna!

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    Re: I have read the whole of Vedanta

    Pranam

    Reminded of the Doha by Kabir ji

    Pothi Padh Padh Kar Jag Mua, Pandit Bhayo Na Koye
    Dhai Aakhar Prem Ke, Jo Padhe so Pandit Hoye



    Translation

    Reading books (everyone) the world died, none became any wise
    One who reads the word of Love, only becomes wise

    Jai Shree Krishna
    Rig Veda list only 33 devas, they are all propitiated, worthy off our worship, all other names of gods are derivative from this 33 originals,
    Bhagvat Gita; Shree Krishna says Chapter 3.11 devan bhavayatanena te deva bhavayantu vah parasparam bhavayantah sreyah param avapsyatha Chapter 17.4 yajante sattvika devan yaksa-raksamsi rajasah pretan bhuta-ganams canye yajante tamasa janah
    The world disappears in him. He is the peaceful, the good, the one without a second.

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    Re: I have read the whole of Vedanta

    hari o
    ~~~~~~
    namasté

    All the posts offered above have been quite accurate... I offer the following to just compare and contrast the idea at hand.

    To say one has read the whole of vedānta is 'code' for saying the upaniṣad-s as anta ( of vedānta ) means end, limit. This is referred to as the upaniṣad-s some also call this jñāna-kāṇḍa . So is it possible ? Yes.
    Like many have said above to read it is one thing , to comprehend it, that is a different matter, as it is written on 3 different levels¹ of comprehension.
    So, I am happy this person read these śāstra-s as one has to start somewhere.

    If the person said he/she has read the cream of the veda-s , then this person read the bhāgavad gītā; and if the person said they read the 5th veda then they completed their reading of the mahābhārata. Yet if the person said I am the veda, the home of all knowledge, now we begin to have an interesting conversation.This is the person who is the pakvi¹.

    It is ramaṅa mahaṛṣi who said, who is to get the divine eye ( code for Self-illumination/realization) ? The simple man, not learned, is satisfied with japa or worship; the jñāni (realized) is of course
    already satisfied and has no more to accomplish. The whole trouble then is for the bookworms¹.

    If one reads mahaṛṣi-ji's words as condescending then the point has been missed.

    iti śivaṁ

    words
    • pakvi is pakva or suffiently developed, accomplished , perfect , fully developed ; the word also means roasted, cooked.
    • Talks With ramaṅa mahaṛṣi , page 254
    • 3 levels/ways of understanding the śāstra-s.
      • abhidhā or the conventional meaning i.e. the literal meaning
      • lakṣaṇā or indirectly via sign, symbol, inference.
      • vyañjanā or the figurative expression more intuitively offered some may call implied indication , yet is on a higher level of meaning.
    iti śivaṁ
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

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    Re: I have read the whole of Vedanta

    Namaste friends,

    Some of you must be wondering : who is the culprit for which such a thread was needed to be created ? The answer is : Yours truly, "devotee". Yes, Renuka too wrote this but as she did in response to that of mine, I won't hold her responsible. So, you can put entire blame on me alone. Though, the actual assertion made was, "I have read almost the whole of VedAnta". It was never a claim that I understood the whole of it which can come only with experiencing the One-ness.

    See, when a discussion takes place, sometimes you say something for cutting the discussion short and to reinforce an idea which you are supporting and it may not always be to show your inflated ego. Recently, there was a discussion where I had to defend Hindu Customs (Mangalsutra wearing by married women etc.) and beliefs (e.g. being wife/husband in other lives too) which were not strongly supported by VedAntic instructions (e.g. same Jeeva as wife in this life and mother in the next life) and as the other party used VedAnta against my logic, I had to say this. However, perhaps, the message has created a wrong impression as an assertion has been considered as an aggressive posture. Anyway, I find a number of helpful advice from all of you and I must thank you all for your well-considered advice :

    Quote Originally Posted by saswathy
    It is said that the pride of any sort , especially that of knowledge is the biggest hindrance in achieving the goal of human life.
    It was not said with pride/ahamkaar but I am introspecting with care. Thanks for your concern.

    Quote Originally Posted by Viraja
    So when a person says, they have read the whole of Vedanta, I would assume that it is a relatively young person with a great zeal and interest who has given a first pass at learning them.
    Your guess about my age is not right. I agree, reading and learning are two different things. I didn't claim that I understood the whole of VedAnta.

    Quote Originally Posted by grames
    Reading is far easier task than understanding and knowing the secrets!
    Quite true. I agree.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ganeshprasad
    Reading books (everyone) the world died, none became any wise; One who reads the word of Love, only becomes wise
    I hope I won't die reading books alone and would be able to pass the test of love for God before I die.

    Quote Originally Posted by yajvan
    The whole trouble then is for the bookworms.
    Yes, I can see the problems for me. I will try to improve upon my present condition of being a bookworm.

    OM
    "Om Namo Bhagvate Vaasudevaye"

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    Re: I have read the whole of Vedanta

    Quote Originally Posted by satay View Post
    Namaste,

    I have often seen people claiming on the forum that they have read the whole of Vedanta! I wonder what that means and how actually people achieve such a goal. It is certainly an act that I admire as I have been struggling to comprehend the Gita for atleast the last seven years and still haven't comprehended that piece.

    I personally cannot even think what amount of time people who have actually read the whole of Vedanta are spending. For me it might take me the whole rest of life to understand only one gitopanisdh.

    How does one achieve the mountainous task of reading the whole of vedanata? Curious.
    Namaste Satay ji,

    Nice thread and nice replies from learned members. May I join them

    See after you read and repeatedly read Gita and in my case prakarana grantha-s one can grasp some part of vedanta. Here I would like to add one more thing. Instead of reading, I feel it is better to listen to an audio or video discourse. The reason is, that if you listen from a very learned acharya, then that acharya while giving discourse on vivekchudamani or gita will cover all things necessary. He will pick e.g. from panchadasi (another lengthy prakarana grantha), from some upanishads and even from brahma-sutra. So he will try to give you the essence in few word. If you repeatedly listen to this discourses and meditate and have moksha as the only goal, things will become clear. After that if you pick up an upanishad, since you are already familiar with concepts, grasping will be fast.

    Reading and grasping depends upon intellectual capacity. I can read only a few pages at a time, but some people in my relation (family friends) can read the whole book of 1000 pages in one day. They have good retention power too.

    So once you develop a base, then it is not too difficult to pick up upanishads and read them. Still you may face problems and to clear them you may need some help.

    Most of upanishads from 108 upanishads are not as big as gita or brihadarana or chandogya. They are very small from 12-50 verses or 100 verses, which you can easily read in one day . though there is some fresh element in al upanishads, more or less it's a same old story told in different way.

    You may visit http://www.astrojyoti.com/upanishadspage.htm and pickup a few upanishads like atma-bodh, bahvricha, atma upanishad, etc. They are all small. Again reading simple translation is different thing and reading along with sanskrit is another.

    Now, vedanta is only a part, there is a lot more in the name of hinduism. veda-s (samhitas and brahmanas), nyaya, and other 6 darshans (philosophical systems), agamas take a lot of time. Only a few can actually read them.

    But as others have said, reading and digesting is a totally different thing. Mostly reading other upanishads is on intellectual plane. Better read less but keep repeating it. The reason is that each time our mental status might be different. After 6 months you may be passing through a different situation and may be looking for something, which you may get from some verses in Gita. After another 6 months you may find something useful in another verse. Each time a different verse or a word of a saint may 'click'.

    OM
    Last edited by Amrut; 30 July 2014 at 05:19 AM.
    Only God Is Truth, Everything Else Is Illusion - Ramakrishna
    Total Surrender of Ego to SELF is Real Bhakti - Ramana Maharshi

    Silence is the study of the scruptures. Meditation is the continuous thinking of Brahman which is to be meditated upon. The complete negation of both by knowledge is the vision of truth – sadAcAra-14 of Adi SankarAcArya

    namah SivAya vishnurUpAya viShNave SivarUpiNe, MBh, vanaparva, 3.39.76

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