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Writer's pictureAcharya Shunya

What is Advaita Vedanta?

Updated: Jun 17, 2022


what is advaita vedanta

All healing in the expanded Vedic worldview is ultimately an expression of our own divine source, the invisible spiritual Self.


The Sanskrit term for abiding health is swastha, which means, “to be established in your spiritual Self.”

Vedanta is inclusive and welcomes humanity to awaken to the truth of Self that transcends religions and culture.

Awakening to the presence of the divine Self is akin to awakening from a long, dreary dream of bondage to the disease prone and death-bound body and mind. Recognition of the true Self leads to spiritual freedom, unqualified power and total well-being, and is thus the most important and ultimate dimension of health.

My mission is to facilitate the awakening to the truth of our spiritual existence via the teaching and spiritual transmission of Advaita Vedanta, one of the world’s most ancient spiritual philosophies; it is a specialized and perhaps the oldest branch of Vedanta, which affirms the oneness of all existence, and asserts that the goal of life is to realize one common source, expressing itself as our own innate Self.


It declares that at the core of our own being is the Self in all beings. The objects, animals, plants and people, appear separate and yet, all are connected, in fact one, at their source – the Self, which is pure consciousness.


Advaita Vedanta, as a system of thought, emerges from the most ancient wisdom texts of humanity, collectively known as the Vedas. There are four texts in the Vedas, which are individually known as Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Veda. Vedanta is literately the end (anta) portion of the Vedas, and is also known as Upanishad.


Advaita Vedanta is also the mother science, which has influenced the sciences of both Ayurveda and Yoga, and is the basis of almost all wisdom emerging from the East. Traditionally, Vedanta was always taught alongside Ayurveda and Yoga education.


The study of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy and texts entails the study of a non-material divine Self, an ultimate universal reality, which transcends realities of a relative order (body, mind, world) and yet is, at the same time, imminent and ever-present in the phenomenal universe as its common underlying reality. The universe and all its multiplicity are ultimately expressions or appearances of one essential reality known as Brahman, which means that which is ever expanding, infinite and unbounded; in fact, the same one Self (Brahman), illumines the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Thus, Advaita Vedanta conveys an Ultimate Reality (Brahman) that transcends all existence and non-existence; a Reality that is beyond description, cause and effect, independent and eternal. It leaps beyond the anthropomorphic versions of God from religions, and declares Brahman as that spiritual reality which transcends all empirically detectable classifications, limits, confines, boundaries and dualities. For that matter, Brahman is not a "He" or a “She” at all, but rather transcends description or definition, as all descriptions and definitions are ultimately limitations of the unlimited.


The human Self, technically known as Atman, is therefore none other than Brahman, and transcends birth and death, age and disease. Even when we die, our Self will live on and begin new adventures and quests.

Advaita Vedanta focuses on the subtle, psycho-spiritual, moral–ethical (dharma), and even mystical-existential dimension of our life, which is, after all, our deepest truth, and influences our day-to-day joy and sorrow, success and failure. To understand this dimension and begin to recognize the presence of this invisible Self alongside our day-to-day mind-based self, is the purpose and goal of spiritual studies.


This study is important when money in the bank, physical health or even good relationships are not enough to fulfill us; or worse, we lack one or all, and consequently feel inadequate, unfulfilled, betrayed, forgotten and unhappy almost all the time.


Many students who have studied Advaita Vedanta with me report a permanent life and mind quality transformation and evolution of spiritual consciousness, yielding tremendous peace, compassion and supreme contentment.


I invite you to start your study of Advaita Vedanta with me! Please join me during my live monthly Global Satsangs on YouTube.


For a closer connection to me, join my private Facebook group, Vedic Contemplations.

 
what is advaita vedanta, what is vedanta, acharya shunya

Acharya Shunya is a globally-recognized spiritual teacher and Vedic lineage-holder who awakens health and consciousness through the Vedic sciences of Ayurveda, Vedanta and Yoga. She is the driving force behind an online wisdom school and worldwide spiritual community, and the author of best-selling book on the Vedic art of mind + body + soul well-being and health, Ayurveda Lifestyle Wisdom (Sounds True, 2017) and forthcoming second book with Sounds True to be released in 2020, Sovereign Self. Acharya Shunya is a keynote speaker at national and international conferences, and serves as an advisor to the Indian Government in matters pertaining to global integration and cultivation of Ayurveda and Yoga. Receive her free online teachings and browse her current eCourse offerings here or see more about her on Facebook and follow her on Instagram. Subscribe to her YouTube Channel where she holds live Global Satsangs once per month. Study Ayurveda with Acharya Shunya in her online course, Alchemy through Ayurveda.

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