Three Lectures on the Vedanta Philosophy

From the Maitrayana Upanishad 55 Sankara's Analysis of Subject and Object 61 The Inheritance of the Vedanta. No Esoteric Vedanta. 72 Relation between the Higher Brahman and the Lower Brahman. 82 Relation between the Higher Atman and the Living At man. 87 Different Views of the Soul in Indian Philosophy 89 The Upadhis as the cause of difference between the Soul and God. 92 The [...] These were indeed giant strides and we can watch them clearly in different parts of the Veda from the simplest invocations of the unknown agents behind sun and moon heaven and earth to the discovery of the One God the Maker of heaven and earth the Lord and Father and lastly to the faith in one Divine Essence (Brahman) of which the Father or Maker of all things is what they call the pratika [...] He then adds that the special feature on which the comparison rests is only the participation ' in the increase and decrease.' What he means is that the reflected image of the sun expands when the surface of the water expands and contracts when the water contracts ; that it trembles when the water trembles and divides when the water is divined. [...] The Self chooses him as his own.' This idea that the knowledge of Self does not come by study nor by good works but by the grace or the free choice of the Self is familiar to the authors of the Upanishads but it is not the same as what was called before the grace of the Creator. [...] There follow beautiful passages declaring the presence of Brahman in the sun and in other parts of nature ; but the end is always the same that ' He who is in the fire and He who is in the heart and He who is in the sun are all one and the same ' and that he who knows this becomes one with the One (VI 17).