A paper titled "The Perspective of Practical Vedanta in the Works of M. Hiriyanna" was presented by Arjun Bharadwaj at the international conference "New Frontiers in Sanskrit and Indic Knowledge" (NFSI) on 12th June 2017 organized by the Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth. The current article contains excerpts from the paper.
There is a beautiful poem ascribed to Vedānta-deśika (born Veṅkaṭanātha) that deals with the topic of vairāgya (detachment from worldly indulgences).
क्षोणी-कोण-शतांश-पालन-कला-दुर्वार-गर्वानल-
क्षुभ्यत्-क्षुद्र-नरेन्द्र-चाटु-रचना-धन्यान्-न मन्यामहे।
देवं सेवितुम्-एव निश्चिनुमहे योऽसौ दयालुः पुरा
धाना-मुष्टिमुचे कुचेल-मुनये दत्ते स्म वित्तेशताम्॥ 1
(Meter: Śārdūlavikrīḍitam)
Among the various methods of reasoning in Vedanta, the neti neti krama is an important one. It helps delineate the nature of the Self by pointing out what it is not. A well-known poem that uses this approach of ‘Not this, not this’ is the Nirvāṇa Ṣaṭkam. While the popular belief is that these six verses were composed by Śaṅkara, scholars like G C Pande and Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati have opined that it is unlikely because several words used in this stotra have not been used regularly in his commentaries and other writings.
For a moment, just visualize the kind of public debates that happen today – on television, in the newspapers, and in person. In the light of these images floating in your mind, read the following lines:
This is a short glossary of some of the technical terms often seen in Hindu literature. A glossary such as this becomes inevitable on most occasions since many of these terms don't have single word equivalents in English or any non-Indic language, since these concepts are often not found in other cultures.
artha • wealth; motive; cause. It refers to the material objectives and accomplishments of a person. One of the four puruṣārthas.
ātman • soul; spirit; the inner, higher Self of an individual.
The foundational works of Hinduism have, for centuries, been transmitted by means of an oral tradition – teachers taught their disciples, who committed every word to memory and then passed it on to their disciples without any variation. Needless to say, many ancient texts have been lost over the years. For ease of understanding, in this article we use the term ‘texts’ instead of ‘works,’ or ‘compositions,’ or ‘treatises,’ but they include both orally composed works and written texts.
This is the second part of the article, Sanatana Dharma from Scratch by Shatavadhani Dr. R Ganesh, discussing about several fundamental aspects of Hinduism.
In its original and purest form, Hinduism is a sanatana dharma, loosely translated as ‘eternal truth’ or ‘timeless religion’ or ‘eternal way of life’ or ‘timeless ethic.’ It is drawn from nature and thus unrestricted by space-time constraints. However, in the several applications of sanatana dharma, we adopt specific spatiotemporal frames.
Hinduism is the major religion of India with a worldwide following of over a billion people. In its original and purest form, it is a sanatana dharma (loosely translated as ‘eternal truth’ or ‘timeless religion’) that represents at least 7,000 years of contemplation, tradition, and continuous development in India. One who follows Hinduism is called a ‘Hindu’ (the term originally referred to a person who lived beyond the Sindhu river, i.e. in undivided India).
The fourth part of this translation comprises the verses that are not found in the critical edition but are in the Chitrashala edition. Most of them are as elegant as the ones found in the critical edition. This episode appears in chapters 311-12 of the Chitrashala edition. The verses are not numbered so as to avoid confusion.