[Advaita-l] Advaita and vedanta

[sriram]

Dear members
Advaita as established by Sri Adishankara has its tenets based on Vedas.After all what is sought after by Vedas is Brahman and Brahman alone.In fact it was in reply to Buddism/Jainism which were against Vedas especially the yagnas/yagas described in the karmakanda advocating animal sacrifices to propitiate the lesser gods so to say to obtain material benefits etc.It caught the imagination of people then as it was logical to conclude that a Loving Almighty can not approve these cruelty to His own creation.So the teachings of the Vedas came to be questioned.In order to stem this wave of dissent to Vedic teachings Adi Shankara took up the cause of Vedas and what exactly Vedas say.Vedas say that there should be a causeless cause which is at the root of all-inanimate and animate -objects otherwise one cannot explain intelligence and conscience.So Vedas assume that there should be a Brahman and build up on this premise and we have Brahmasutram.Adi Shankara therefore gave importance to this knowledge of Brahman contained in the Vedas or in other words He stressed on Jnana Kanda .Animal sacrifices and other mundane things were relegated to the back seat not worth pursuing as everything is ephimeral and unreal.Only Brahman is real and changeless and this is the revelations of the Vedas.This thrust was welcomed by the dissidents of the Vedas and they accepted the Vedas as such.After all every one believes that there is a Karma phala datha and Vedas point out to this only.In the course of propounding the philosophy   of the Vedas AdiShankara after lot of research and meditative analysis  of Vedas came to the conclusion that Brahman is your own Athman and because of our Avidya we are not recognising It.He further says Avidya is anadhi and in the final analysis everything is Brahman there is no other thing except Brahman.This is called as Advaitha.So I will say Advaitha itself Vedantha.
R.Krishnamoorthy.