[Advaita-l] Prasthana Traya

[Siva Senani Nori]

Sri Vivek
Tradition maintains that there are four stages of knowledge acquisition and dissemination: Learning, Understanding, Practicing and Propagating. So, for each Sastra, there is a full stop. If one studies Asthadhyayi with Mahabhashyam fully, then one has mastered Vyakaranam. Similarly in Vedanta, if one studies the Prasthanatrayee, one has mastered Vedanta. Prakarana granthas primarily present extracts of Prasthanatrayee, occasionally expanding upon them. The key difference between Prasthanatrayee and Prakarana granthas is that the latter present only the Siddhanta view and does not get into the Khandana of other views.
That said, studying Prasthanatrayee is difficult because it presupposes knowledge of other systems. For instance to fully understand the bhashya on Samanvayaadhikaranam, a good grounding in Purvamimaamsaa is necessary.
Finally, within Prasthanatrayee the order recommended is that of Upanishads, Brahmasutras and Gita. The first is the base material; the second one a critical analysis of the same and the final one a case study which calls for the application of knowledge gained.
RegardsN. Siva Senani
 
      From: Vivek via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 To: "advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
 Sent: Tuesday, 9 June 2015 8:06 AM
 Subject: [Advaita-l] Prasthana Traya
   
Hari Om,

I was wondering if it is enough to study the Prasthana Traya through talks of Swami Paramarthananda and translations by Swami Gambhirananda (Gita, Upanishads, Brahma Sutras)

If you study those works thoroughly, is there really any need to study any of the Prakarana Grabthas? If so, which ones are the most important ones?

Thanks,
Vivek.