The Principles of Hindu-Vedanta Philosophy

In the middle ages, the influence of Vedanta became predominant. The Vedanta scholars demonstrated that their teachings could be traced back to the Upanishads, the texts of which they regarded as the original source of all their philosophical constructions.

Vedanta teaches that the world in no way is derived from material forces; the only reality is Brahman (the spiritual essence), and all that really is, stems from it in all its forms. Typically enough the author of Brahma-sutra who supports an extreme idealist point of view reacted sensitively to the materialist ideas of his age. At the dawn of middle ages, Gaudapad, an eminent scholar of that time wrote the first of the commentaries on this doctrine that has been handed down to the present day.

Later, the Vedanta school split up into different movements, each named after its founder. Each of these thinkers wrote his fundamental work in the form of commentaries to the main treatise. However, only two of them-Shankara and Ramanuja - were actually to exert a significant influence on the evolution of the Vedanta teaching. A large number of philosophical writings by Shankara (eighth century Hindu philosopher) and Ramanuja (twelfth century Hindu philosopher) have survived. According to Shankara's doctrine, the world is an illusion born of the Absolute: material Nature is unreal, just as is the empirical 'ego'.

The centuries old dispute between the two main trends within the Vedanta movement can for all intents and purposes be reduced to questions of religious practice and mysticism. While Shankara regarded, 'way and knowledge, that is the understanding of the illusory nature of one's own being against the background of the universal and all-embracing reality of Brahman ' only as correct and true. As a result, he upheld that the 'ego' and 'Atman-Brahman were completely identical. Ramanuja on the other hand upheld the 'path of religious love' as the ultimate ideal and the believer only come into contact with the object of his faith, but does not become equal to it.

Shankara advocated all-embracing idealist monism and reduced or condensed the diverse phenomena of the external world to self-expression of the 'cosmic Absolute'- Brahman. Gradually, Shankara's teaching was equated to Vedanta teaching as a whole. Orthodox Hinduism proclaimed the teaching of that philosopher as its official doctrine.

Although the Vedanta school at a certain period became the predominant movement, this did not do away with the fact that it was only one of the traditional philosophical systems. The external predominance of the Vedanta teaching did not rule out the broad influence of other schools.