New Perspectives On Advaita Ved Nta

Essays appraising the contemporary relevance of am kara for inter-religious dialogue and human rights as well as revised assessments of am kara s understanding of divine grace, the role of the gods, Buddhism, am kara s relation to later Advaita, and the unity of the Self.

Religious discourse uses ordinary language in an extraordinary way. This book surveys Western and Indian discussions of the nature and aspects of religious discourse. It presents the first cross-cultural elucidation of Advaita Vedānta Implications as religious discourse.

2007 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title In this book, Anantanand Rambachan offers a fresh and detailed perspective on Advaita Vedanta, Hinduism's most influential and revered religious tradition. Rambachan, who is both a scholar and an Advaitin, attends closely to the Upanisads and authentic commentaries of Sankara to challenge the tradition and to reconsider central aspects of its current teachings. His reconstruction and reinterpretation of Advaita focuses in particular on the nature of brahman, the status of the world in relation to brahman, and the meaning and relevance of liberation. Rambachan queries contemporary representations of an impersonal brahman and the need for popular, hierarchical distinctions such as those between a higher (para) and lower (apara) brahman. Such distinctions, Rambachan argues, are inconsistent with the non-dual nature of brahman and are unnecessary when brahman's relationship with the world is correctly understood. Questioning Advaita's traditional emphasis on renunciation and world-denial, Rambachan expands the understanding of suffering (duhkha) and liberation (moksa) and addresses socioeconomic as well as gender and caste inequalities. Positing that the world is a celebrative expression of God's fullness, this book advances Advaita as a universal and uninhibited path to a liberated life committed to compassion, equality, and justice.

This book will be of great interest to all students of Hinduism, students of both Eastern and Western philosophy, and spiritual seekers who wish to better understand this ancient Indian tradition of non-dualist thought.

This book presents a thorough reexamination of the role of divine grace in Śaṃkara’s system and shows that Śaṃkara regarded grace as an essential component of the process leading to enlightenment and liberation. Śaṃkara’s indebtedness to earlier Vedāntins is also shown