Thursday, 23. November 2006
Celextel’s Online Spiritual Library
Here you would find the Online Books of Vedanta Literature and other Indian Spiritual Books.

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Vedanta

"The three basic texts of Vedanta are the , the Bhagavad-Gita and the Brahma-Sutra. Together they are referred to as the Prasthana-traya, triple canon of Vedanta. The Upanishads constitute the revealed texts (sruti-prasthana); they mark the summits of the Veda which is Sruti (the heard, the revealed). They are the pristine springs of Vedantic metaphysics; Vedanta is the name given to them because they are the end (aim as well as concluding parts) of the Veda (Veda + anta).
The Bhagavad-Gita comes next only to the Upanishads. It is given a status which is almost equal to that of the Upanishads.


As embodying the teachings of Sri Krishna and as constituting the cream of the Epic Mahabharata, the Bhagavad-Gita occupies a unique place in the Vedantic tradition. A popular verse compares the Upanishads to the cows, the Bhagavad-Gita to the milk, Sri Krishna to the milkman, Arjuna, the Pandava hero, to the calf and the wise people to the partakers of the milk. Sri Sankara describes the Bhagavad-Gita as the quintessence of the teaching of the entire Veda (samasta-vedartha-
sarasangraha-bhutam). As this text forms a part of the Mahabharata which is a Smriti (the remembered, ie., secondary text based on the Veda), it is called Smriti-prasthana.

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The third of the canonical texts is the Brahma-Sutra which is regarded as Nyaya-prasthana, because it sets forth the teachings of Vedanta in a logical order. This work is known by other names also: Vedanta-sutra, since it is the aphoristic text on Vedanta; Sariraka-sutra, since it is concerned with the nature and destiny of the embodied soul; Bhikshu-Sutra, since those who are most competent to study it are the sannyasins; Uttara-mimamsa-Sutra, since it is an inquiry into the final sections of the Veda. The author of the Brahma-Sutra is Badarayana whom Indian tradition identifies with Vyasa, the arranger or compiler of the Veda.


In the Brahma-Sutra, Badarayana-Vyasa strings together the leading concepts of Vedanta in an ordered manner. The Sutra is an exquisite garland made out of Upanishad-blossoms. It is divided into four chapters (adhyayas); each chapter consists of four parts (padas); each part has a number of sections (adhikaranas); and each section has one or more aphorisms (sutras). According to Sankara, the number of sections is 192. The total number of aphorisms is 555."

Celextel’s Online Spiritual Library
Category: Books & Magazines Category: Religion & Early Cultures


Exelent article! PLZ tell me where can I get ore info?

Flash kit am 13.04.08 @ 23:06 Uhr

You know where - click the link ...

am 14.04.08 @ 00:19 Uhr


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