April 10, 2010: What is a Vedanta Class?

What we are doing can be called a "class", because there are students, there is a teacher, and a teaching is taking place. We are gathering in order to learn something.

The word vedānta refers to the teaching that occurs at the end of the veda, in the form of upaniṣad. The veda is the source of all of the teaching texts, or śāstra found in India, as well as the very basis of Indian culture. Over time, the same teaching that is found in veda, and in particular in vedānta, has been expounded in different forms of śāstra in order to reach different kinds of people. Together, they teach this same vision in three different ways:

1. प्रभु-सम्मित (prabhu-sammita) : Like a master, the veda itself directly enjoins us to live our lives according to certain guidelines.
2. सुहृत्-सम्मित (suhṛt-sammita) : Like a brother or a friend, the smṛti texts elaborate on the words of the veda, giving examples and logic to convince us why we should adhere to them.
3. कान्ता-सम्मित (kāntā-sammita) : Like a wife, the story-based literature - from itihāsa and purāṇa to the kathā we hear in our own mother-tongues - do not give us any direct teaching. Instead, they tell stories that indirectly guide us in our life decisions.

Thus, what we are going to be learning is in a sense the culmination of all the other cultural activities we have been performing throughout our lives.