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Vedanta science and the western world (part-3)

Vedanta science and the western world (part-3)

Śabda(सब्द)—words can be a means of either direct or indirect knowledge Swami Dayananda,(स्वामी दयानंद) Introduction toVedanta(वेदांत).

We have a means of knowledge for objects other than ourselves through perceptual data and perception-based inference. But what is the means for knowing the knower? It is not possible to objectify oneself as I am the subject. The subject “I” cannot be the object “I”; simply because anything that can be objectified is no longer the subject. So the human dilemma of self-ignorance. So the means of knowledge to rid ourselves of this ignorance has to be something other than sense based perception and inference. Śabda(सब्द)  —words can be a means of either direct or indirect knowledge (स्वामी दयानंद , Introduction to वेदांत). If the object is beyond one’s perception or experience, then words will bring indirect knowledge. All indirect knowledge needs to be confirmed upon direct knowledge.

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Vedanta, Science and the western world (part-2)

“The real connecting link though can be understood only when we turn to the teaching not for a result but for its own sake”

The Western view has relied heavily on organized religion and failing that, on science to explain the mystery of life. Organized religion, where proselytizing is a great thrust, has given us more and more violence and has created great divisions between people. We find that one ends up supporting the organization and its infrastructure rather than gaining any spirituality. Acceptance rather than tolerance, spirituality rather than religiousness, is what we really seek in a more and more Globalized planet. Science has a possibility to connect us to the absolute truth as can be seen in the study of quantum physics (as opposed to classical) and related discoveries that are bringing us close to understanding the point where the subject/object distinction seems to become nonexistent. “The real connecting link though can be understood only when we turn to the teaching not for a result but for its own sake” (Isherwood, C., वेदांत for the Western World, p. 214).

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Vedanta, Science and the western world (part-1)

“Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries. In the whole world, there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life – it will be the solace of my death.”

Arthur Schopenhauer, a skeptical and delightful writer of the French Renaissance, inventor of the modern essay. The philosophers no longer number him among their tribe, and no wonder: he’s too clear, too pleasant, and above all, too sensible. [CRS. Exception: Stephen Toulmin…] My paper may also fall into this category, because I do not think Vedanta needs to be dry and the concepts therein hidden behind long incomprehensible words.

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