Vedantasara (of Sadananda)

The Vedantasara is divided into six chapters and contains 227 verses.[5]

• Chapter I has thirty-one verses dealing with the preliminaries that begin with an Introductory Prayer and immediately thereafter takes up for discussion the Subject-matter of Vedanta, the Qualifications for the study of Vedanta and the Necessity of a Guru. Advayānanda was the Guru of Sadānanda. Vedanta is the evidence of the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the various commentaries on these texts and the Bhagavad Gita. The Nitya (daily), Naimittika (occasional) and Prayscitta (purifying) works purify the mind, Upasanas are not karmas, the former lead to the Pitruloka and the latter, to the Satyaloka.
• Chapter II has ninety verses dealing with
  Adhyasa, i.e. Superimposition, which is the superimposition of the unreal on the real due to ignorance, its individual and collective aspects, the nature of Turiya, the experience of pure consciousness
  , the extensions of Ignorance, the nature of the Subtle Bodies, the nature of the Gross Bodies and the Limit of Superimposition. Sadananda explains why the characteristic of ignorance is its very unintelligibleness, that it is without support and contradictory to all reasoning.
• Chapter III has fifteen verses and takes up for discussion the
  Nāgārjuna
  . The Self is too subtle for ordinary understanding, the views of other differing schools gradually train the mind to dwell on finer and finer aspects of the Self.
• Chapter IV has forty-four verses dealing exclusively with De-superimposition, going back into the Final Cause, the meaning of "Thou art That" (
  Aham Brahman Asmi). Truth does not become known till it is made to reveal itself. Sadananda explains that because it is impossible to conceive the same word as indicating a part of its own meaning as well as the meaning of another word, and when the meaning is directly expressed by the other word it does not require the application of Lakshana
  to the first word to indicate it.
• Chapter V has thirty-five verses and prescribes the Steps to Self-Realization, lays emphasis on the Study of Vedantic texts, explains Reflection and Meditation, Samadhi and its nature and varieties, Samadhi and Sleep, The Eightfold Practice and the Obstacles to Samadhi and their Removal.
• Chapter VI has twelve verses which deal with the Jivanmukta (liberated being), the Characteristics of the Jivanmukta and the Attainment of Kaivalya or Absoluteness.

Commentaries

The earliest commentaries on Vedantasara of Sadananda, that incorporates pre-Sankara, Sankara and post-Sankara teachings, are Subodhini written in 1588 A.D. by Nrisimhasaraswati of Varanasi, Balabodhini by Apadeva, the renowned authority on

See also

• Aikyam
• Anubandha chatushtaya

References

Sources

Printed sources

Web-sources

Further reading

• Ballantyne, J.R. (1898), The Vedantasara (PDF), The Christian literature Society for India
• Sundararama Aiyar (1911), Vedantasara of Sadananda. With the commentary "Balabodhini" of Apadeva and a Critical English Introduction, Sri Vani Vilas Press
• Jacob, G.A. (1934), The Vedantasara of Sadananda, together with the commentaries of Nrisimhasarasvati and Ramatirtha, Pandurang Jawaji

External links

• Vedantasara (translated by Swami Nikhilananda)