110 Vedanta. Sara, or Essence of the Vedanta. QNo. 158. 



nations, on the contrary, bestowed the same attention upon practical as 

 on abstract questions ; for while, according to the one, it is a duty of 

 mankind to remain in social connexion, a duty which should even be 

 enforced, it is, according to the other, the highest privilege of the 

 wise to separate himself from all social connexions, to endeavour at 

 a total abdication of the impulses and motives for action, which the 

 world or our ownselves can present, until the soul has arrived at that 

 condition, in which it returns to the source of all truth and reality, and 

 in which the individual becomes annihilated by absorption into the great 

 origin of all things, who is all, and in whom all are included. 



Salutation to Ganesha. 



For the accomplishment of my desire I take refuge to the soul, in- 

 finite in reality, in knowledge and in bliss,* the place of the uni- 

 verse, which neither by word nor thought can be approached. 



Having worshipped my teacher Adwydnanda^ who by overcoming 

 the notion of duality, is in truth so named, I shall expound the 

 Essence of the Vedanta according to my understanding. 



The name of Vedanta applies to such arguments as are taken from 

 Vedanta. the UpanishadsJ to the Sharirikasutras§ and other similar 

 Shastras, which tend to the same end. 



As this work is an introduction to the Vedanta, it need not se- 

 Category. paratedly explain the categories, by which the Vedanta is 

 ^«1^*tf. com pj e t e( j # There are four categories in the Vedanta, the 

 qualified person, the object, the connection, and the final end. 



* This may also be translated, u the infinite, eternal, omniscient, blissful soul," 

 or " the soul, which is the bliss of infinite being, and knowledge." I here observe, 

 that the soul is not something different from those predicates, but the identity of 

 reality, knowledge and bliss. 



f Adwyananda means who finds his felicity in non-duality. 



% Upanishad, the theological part of the Vedanta, or argumentative part of the 

 Vedas. Wilson. The commentator, Ramakrishna Tirtha remarks, that it is the object 

 of the Upanishads to explain the unity of the universal and the individual soul. 



§ The Saririka, Mimansa, Brahme-stitra or Sarira-sutra, above mentioned, is a 

 collection of succinct aphorisms, attributed to Badarayana, who is the same with 

 Vyasa, or Vedavyasa, also called Dwaipay ana or Crishna-dwaipavana. Colebrooke, 

 Tr. R. A. Soc. Vol. II, p. 3. 



