Vedanta

Also called: Vedanta school, Uttara Mimamsa · Topic: The Vedic Age · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 7 "India's Cultural Roots"

Meaning

Vedanta (literally "the end of the Veda", also called Uttara Mimamsa) is a family of schools of thought built on the Upaniṣhads. It teaches that human life, nature and the whole universe are one divine essence, called brahman. Together with Yoga, it became one of the foundations of what we now call 'Hinduism'. It also marks the point where Vedic thought moved away from ritual and towards inner knowledge [3].

Explanation

Background: from ritual to knowledge

• The Upaniṣhads come at the end of the Vedic body of texts. This is why the school is called "Vedanta", meaning "end of the Veda".
• Older Vedic religion stressed ritual, which meant performing sacrifices correctly. The Upanishads said that knowledge alone is the path [3].
• Scholars place their composition roughly between 700 and 500 BCE [3]. NCERT says these schools of thought grew out of the Vedas early in the 1st millennium BCE. The two datings overlap, so they do not contradict each other.
• A time of change gave rise to these new ideas:
• The older rural, tribal society was giving way to towns and kingdoms [6].
• Mystics, renouncers and forest-dwellers appeared across India. The Upanishadic authors were among them [6].

Core ideas

• Ātman is the Self, the divine essence that lives inside every being.
• Brahman (also simply tat, meaning 'that') is the one divine essence of human life, of nature and of the whole universe.
• The key equation is ātman = brahman. The Self inside you is the same as the one essence of everything [7].

• Britannica puts it this way: brahman is nothing but ātman, the innermost self of a human being and of all beings [7].

• Rebirth and karma are linked teachings.

• Rebirth means a being is born again after death.
• Karma means actions and their results: what you do shapes what comes next.

• These were the central teachings of the forest-dwelling world-renouncers [6].

• Everything is connected. If one essence runs through all beings, then all beings are linked and depend on each other.

• This idea gives the prayer sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ, "May all creatures be happy."

How it was taught: dialogue and the gurukula

• The Upanishads teach through questions and answers between pupil and teacher, not through lectures.
• Śhvetaketu and the banyan seed (Chhāndogya): his father Uddālaka Āruṇi shows him that an "empty" seed holds a whole tree. The lesson is tat tvam asi, "You are That."
• Nachiketa and Yama (Katha): the god of death teaches that the ātman is never born and never dies.

• Gārgī and Yājñavalkya (Bṛihadāraṇyaka): a woman scholar questions the sage in an open debate [4].

• Teaching took place in the gurukula (the pupil lived in the teacher's home). It followed the guru–śhiṣhya paramparā (an unbroken chain from teacher to pupil).

• The guru's task was to lead students "from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge."

Later growth: one family, many schools

• Vedanta is not one single school. Its branches differ on how close ātman and brahman are [2][8]:
• Shankara taught Advaita, or unqualified non-dualism: the Self and brahman are exactly one. He is placed in the 8th century CE [2][8].
• Ramanuja taught qualified non-dualism (Vishishtadvaita): the Self and brahman are one, but with real differences [2][8].

• Madhva taught dualism (Dvaita): the Self and brahman are separate [2][8].

• Vedanta and Yoga play two different roles:

• Vedanta says what is true: all is one brahman.

• Yoga gives the methods for realising brahman in one's own consciousness.

• NCERT calls these 'schools of thought', not 'religions'. They were ways of thinking and practising, not closed faiths.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the later Vedic age. The Upanishads are dated c. 700–500 BCE [3]. The Bṛihadāraṇyaka is dated over a wider range, c. 10th–5th century BCE [4].
• Setting: north India, at a time when tribal society was giving way to towns, kingdoms and the janapadas [6].
• Key texts: there are 108 Upanishads in the traditional list, grouped under the four Vedas [3].
• The Bṛihadāraṇyaka and the Chhāndogya are the two most important [3][4].

• The Taittirīya and Katha are also among the favoured older texts [5].

• Key figures:

• Uddālaka Āruṇi and Śhvetaketu (Chhāndogya)
• Yājñavalkya, the central teacher of the Bṛihadāraṇyaka [4], and Gārgī
• Nachiketa and Yama (Katha)

• The later teachers Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva [2][8]

• How we know: almost entirely from the texts themselves. These are the Upanishads, preserved by oral teaching through the guru–śhiṣhya chain.

Don't confuse with

• Yoga: Vedanta is the doctrine (all is one brahman). Yoga is the method for realising it. Patañjali later set Yoga out in the Yoga Sūtras, c. 2nd century BCE (some scholars say 5th century CE) [9].
• Ātman vs brahman: ātman is the Self inside each being. Brahman is the one essence of the whole universe. Vedanta teaches that the two are the same [7].
• Advaita vs Vedanta: Advaita is one branch of Vedanta, Shankara's unqualified non-dualism. It is not the whole of Vedanta, which also includes Ramanuja's and Madhva's schools [2][8].
• Śhramaṇa traditions (Buddhism, Jainism): these came from the renunciant trend of the mid-1st millennium BCE. Unlike Vedanta, they did not build on Upanishadic brahman. Renunciation itself (vānaprastha, saṁnyāsa) already existed inside the Vedic tradition [11][12].

Prelims Hooks

• "Vedanta" means "the end of the Veda". It rests on the Upanishads, which date to c. 700–500 BCE [3].
• Tat tvam asi ("You are That"): Uddālaka Āruṇi teaches Śhvetaketu with the banyan seed in the Chhāndogya Upaniṣhad.
• Nachiketa and Yama (the deathless ātman) appear in the Katha. Gārgī and Yājñavalkya appear in the Bṛihadāraṇyaka [4].
• The schools in order: Shankara gave Advaita (unqualified non-dualism, 8th century CE). Ramanuja gave qualified non-dualism. Madhva gave dualism [2][8].
• There are 108 Upanishads in the traditional list. The Bṛihadāraṇyaka and Chhāndogya are the most important [3][4].
• Trap: the equation ātman = brahman is Upanishadic, or Vedantic [7]. It is not a teaching of Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras.

Mains Points

• A turning point in Indian thought. The Upanishads moved the centre of Vedic religion away from sacrifice and towards inner knowledge of the Self [3]. This change happened alongside urbanisation and the rise of kingdoms [6]. It shows that the later Vedic age was an intellectual turning point, not only a political one.
• A tradition of open questioning. Vedanta's founding texts teach through dialogue: Nachiketa questions Death, and Gārgī cross-examines Yājñavalkya [4]. This is evidence of early reasoned debate (tarka) and of women taking part in philosophy.
• A living tradition. Vedanta branched into Advaita, Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita [2][8]. With Yoga, which the UN recognised through the International Day of Yoga on 21 June (resolution 69/131, 2014) [10], it shows that Indian culture has continued without a break. This point suits GS-I questions on Indian heritage.

Related concepts

• Upanishads
• Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
• Chandogya Upanishad
• Uddalaka Aruni
• Tat tvam asi
• Katha Upanishad
• Nachiketa
• Mundaka Upanishad
• Satyameva Jayate
• Atman

Read more

• Upanishadic thought: Vedanta, Yoga and the questioning spirit