This email is from a person who wanted me to accept the idea that non-dual Vedanta is one of the six schools of Indian philosophy.
Dear John,
If you are dependent on situations, possessions, relationships, obligations and transactions for your happiness in life, it doesn’t help to read a book of philosophy because philosophies are the contention of individuals or groups of individuals about life. For every solution there are others who have different views. Who is to say who is right?
If your suffering is due to one of the karmic factors I mentioned above, then all you have to do is find a practical solution and do what is required. But if your suffering is due to an erroneous notion of who you are, the only thing that will work is to remove that notion. Vedanta is a means of knowledge, not a philosophy. To compare it to a philosophy is like comparting oranges and computers. They are not in the same category. It is a means, not an end. If you like coca cola you drink the coke and throw away the bottle. Vedanta is a disposable container. When the knowledge I am unborn ever-free eternal existence shining as blissful consciousness is firm Vedanta has done its job. It has set you free of dependence on the above-mentioned objects. If you are seeking truth it reveals the fact that the seeker is what he or she is seeking aka the truth.
Maybe you are a happy person. If so you don’t need Vedanta. If you are happy then pick any philosophy you want and enjoy it. Or enjoy all philosophies as they are.
Sometimes a person thinks they are happy when they aren’t. So a great deal of honesty is required to admit that one seeks because one isn’t happy. Happy people don’t seek. They enjoy the happiness that they are experiencing. It so happens that there is only one whole and complete self and its nature is the bliss that makes happiness happy. Vedanta takes away the ignorance of this fact and disappears, once it is known.
It works. If you don’t understand this fact, I can’t help you. You can keep seeking but if you understand what Vedanta is your seeking stops. Vedanta removes all the existential questions that motivate one’s seeking. But to qualify for teaching you need to know that Vedanta is a means of knowledge, not a philosophy. It only works on qualified people. If you want to know more read my book, Essence of Enlightenment without the philosophical filter. Read it like a child, with an open mind. Don’t move to chapter 2, until you have fully assimilated chapter one etc.. If it makes sense write me and I will tell you what to study next. Once you get up to speed you will know what kind of questions to ask. This argument about the means is futile. As the Bhagaved Gita says, “the one who sees, sees.”
Om and Prem,
Ram.
