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Vedanta

One of the six orthodox programs (darshans) of Indian philosophy and the one which types the basis of most modern colleges of Hinduism. The term Vedanta means in Sanskrit the “conclusion” (anta) of the Vedas, the earliest sacred literature of India; it applies to the Upanishads, which were embellishments of the Vedas, and to the college that arose out of the “examine” (mimamsa) of the Upanishads. Thus Vedanta is also known as Vedanta-Mimansha (“Reflection on Vedanta”), Uttara-Mimansa (“Reflection on the Latter Part of the Vedas”), and Brahma-Mimansha (“Reflection on Brahma”).

The Vedanta schools do, nonetheless, hold in common a number of beliefs; transmigration of the self (samsara) and the desirability of launch from the cycle of rebirths; the authority of the Veda on the means of release; that Brahman is each the material (upadana) and the instrumental (nimitta) reason for the world; and that the self (atman) is the agent of its own acts (karma) and therefore the recipient of the fruits, or consequences, of action (phala).

The affect of Vedanta on Indian thought has been profound, in order that it might be said that, in one or another of its varieties, Hindu philosophy has grow to be Vedanta . Though the preponderance of texts by Advaita scholastics has in the West given rise to the inaccurate impression that Vedanta means Advaita, the nondualistic Advaita is but one in every of many Vedanta schools.