[Advaita-l] Prasthana Traya

[S Jayanarayanan]

Sanju Nath via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
 
> 
> Dear Sri Nori,
> 
> I thought Swami Paramarthananda's recommended order was Bhagvad Gita as being the equivalent of Bachelors degree,  Upanishads of Masters degree, and Brahma Sutra was the PhD equivalent, in one of his audio lectures. 
> 
 

Not to contradict the Swamiji, but it has been my opinion that they are all PhD's in varying disciplines: Brahma Sutras are a PhD in Logic and Analysis, Upanishads are a PhD in Theology, and Bhagavad Gita is a PhD in Poetry.

 
> Warm regards,
> Sanju Nath
> 
> > On Jun 9, 2015, at 3:29 AM, Siva Senani Nori via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> > 
> > 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. 
> >