THE POSSIBILITY OF GOING ALL THE WAY
Advaita philosophy, or the teaching of Nonduality, has become, along with Buddhism, one of the most popular spiritual paths being pursued by those interested in Enlightenment today. During the past three decades, Vedantic Advaita has become more widely recognized in the West through the ever growing popularity of the unparalleled Arunachala mountain sage Sri Ramana Maharshi as well as of the diverse spectrum of the modern nondualist gurus like Swami Chidananda, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sri Neem Karoli Baba, H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji), Swami Muktananda, Osho Rajneesh, Ramesh Balsekar, Sathya Sai Baba, Deepak Chopra and many others. Nondual Vedanta is considered the crown jewel of Indian philosophy, and its powerful influence can be felt throughout virtually all schools of Indian thought. It traces its roots back to the Upanishads, a collection of the divinely inspired scriptures over 2500 years old. As opposed to the pagan diversity of the ritualistic world of the four Vedas, the nondual message of the Upanishads, of the Bhagavad Gita and of the Brahma Sutra is that only the one Absolute, the Supreme All-in-All, the Undivided Self is real, It being the only Truth to be seen, realized and ultimately surrendered to. Sri Shankaracharya, the eighth century philosopher who is traditionally considered the master teacher and the founder of the formal Advaita Vedanta tradition, put great emphasis on a rigorous interpretation of the Vedantic scriptures strictly in accordance with the doctrine of Nondualism. In traditional Advaita teachings, which can be simply defined as the Upanishadic declaration Though Art THAT Immortal Self Absolute, spiritual realization was sought not through yogic sadhanas as much as it was through the systematic practice of discriminating the Real, the Truth, the One from the unreal, illusory that which IT is not.
The manifold universe is, in truth, a Single Reality. There is only one Great Being, which the sages call Brahman, in which all the countless forms of existence reside. That Great Being is utter Consciousness, and IT is the only Essence or Self (Atman) of all beings (Georg Feuerstein, Sacred Paths). This Truth is the most direct path to Enlightenment, realization of the Brahman or the Self, potent not only to enlighten the seeker in the course of a gradual development and a step-by-step process, but to liberate the ripe individual instantaneously from the bondage of ignorant and conditioned existence.
This article, based on excerpts from WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? magazine and books by Andrew Cohen all published by MOKSHA PRESS, is continued on the next page
