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Sadananda’s Essence of Vedanta
INVOCATION
To the Absolute
1. I take refuge with Him who is sheer Existence, Intelligence and Bliss, impartible, beyond the purview of speech and mind, the Self in whom the whole Universe exists—may my desire & purpose attain fulfilment.
To the Masters
2. After homage to the Masters who in deed as well as word delight in the One without second and from whom the seemings of duality have passed away, I will declare the Essence of Vedanta according to my intellectual capacity.
PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
The Training of the Vedantin
3. By Vedanta is meant the Upanishads as authoritative basis of the philosophy and as useful supplementary inquiries the Aphoristic Books that treat of the Embodied Soul.
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4. Now since Vedanta is the subject of this work, its circumstantiae—the conclusions sought to be established being similar in both,—are the same as those of the Vedanta and need not be separately discussed.
5. In circumstantia we include four things, the fit hearer, the subject, the logical relation, the object of the work.
6. Now the fit hearer of Vedanta must be one who is competent to form a right judgment of it. He must therefore have mastered [ ] by proper study of Veda and its accessory sciences the entire meaning of Veda; he must in this life or another have begun by abandoning forbidden actions and actions prompted by desire and then by the performance of daily observances, occasional observances, penance and adoration freed himself from all sin and stain and attained to perfect purity of the mind and heart; and he must be in possession of the four Ways & Means.
7. By actions of desire is understood all ways and means by which we pursue various kinds of happiness from Paradise downward—the Jyotisthom sacrifice for example.
8. By forbidden actions is meant all ways & means by which we compass all our ills from the torments of Hell downward,—Brahminicide for example & other sins & disobediences.
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9. By regular observances is meant ceremonies like the evening prayer etc, the non-performance of which turns them into means of offence & stumbling blocks.
10. By occasional observances is understood ceremonies circumstantial to particular occasions, such as the Blessing of the New-born attendant on the birth of a son.
11. By penances is understood vows & forms of self-discipline such as the Chandrayan vow which are means only towards the purging away of sin.
12. By adoration is understood the various forms of mental working which have for their whole subject and purpose the Eternal in His aspect as a Personal Deity—Sandilya’s Art of Divine Love, for example.
13. The main object of the first three, observances regular and occasional and penance, is the purification of the Understanding; but the main object of adoration is singleness of heart & mind towards one object. This is proved by such passages as these from Revealed Scripture—”This is that Self of whom the Brahmins shall seek to know by exposition of Veda and by Sacrifice shall they seek to know Him”—and by other passages from the Unrevealed Scripture such as “By Tapasya (energism of will) one slayeth sin.”
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14. A secondary result of observances regular and occasional and of adoration & worship is attainment to the world of the fathers and to the world of the Living Truth. For so the Scripture says "By action the World of the Fathers is found and the World of the Gods also."
15. By Ways & Means we understand, Discrimination of eternal objects from the transient; Disattachment from enjoyment in this world or another; Calm, Self-Conquest & the other moral excellences; and Desire of Salvation.
16. By Discrimination of eternal objects from the transient we understand the discernment of Brahman as the one thing eternal and of everything other than Brahman as transient and perishable.
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