Indian Philosophy
The Upaniṣads, the Vedānta schools, the Gītā and modern Indian teachers.
- The Upanishads, Part IThe first volume of Müller’s Sacred Books of the East, translating the Chāndogya, Talavakāra (Kena), Aitareya-āraṇyaka, Kauṣītaki-brāhmaṇa and Vājasaneyi-saṃhitā (Īśā) Upaniṣads, with an introduction. Its version of the sixth book of the Chāndogya, the teaching “that thou art”, shaped the Western reception of Vedānta.
- VedāntaThe schools of Indian philosophy that interpret the Upaniṣads, the Brahma Sūtras and the Bhagavad Gītā.
- Advaita VedāntaThe school of Vedānta that teaches the non-difference of the self and Brahman.
- The Bhagavadgîtâ, with the Sanatsugâtîya and the AnugîtâAn early scholarly English translation of the Bhagavad Gītā, Kṛṣṇa’s teaching to Arjuna on the battlefield, by the Indian jurist and scholar K. T. Telang, with two related dialogues from the Mahābhārata. The Gītā’s paths of action, knowledge and devotion are a foundation for every school of Vedānta.
- YogaThe classical Indian school of disciplined practice and meditation systematized in the Yoga Sūtras.
- ViśiṣṭādvaitaThe school of Vedānta, taught by Rāmānuja, of one Brahman qualified by real selves and a real world.
- Dvaita VedāntaThe school of Vedānta, founded by Madhva, that holds God, selves and the world to be eternally distinct.
- ŚaṅkaraSystematizer of Advaita Vedānta, the non-dual reading of the Upaniṣads.
- RāmānujaTeacher of Viśiṣṭādvaita, the Vedānta of a real world and a personal God.
- MadhvaFounder of Dvaita Vedānta, which holds God, selves and matter eternally distinct.
- Vedānta DeśikaPoet and philosopher who defended and systematized Rāmānuja’s Vedānta.
- VyāsatīrthaDvaita philosopher and royal teacher whose critique of Advaita set its terms for a century.
- PatañjaliCompiler of the Yoga Sūtras, the classical text of the Yoga school.
- The Yoga-System of PatañjaliWoods’s scholarly translation of the Yoga Sūtras together with the commentary attributed to Vyāsa and Vācaspati Miśra’s sub-commentary, the Tattvavaiśāradī. It remains a standard English rendering of the classical commentarial tradition of Yoga.
- SāṃkhyaThe Indian school that distinguishes pure consciousness from nature, and finds liberation in knowing the difference.
- ĪśvarakṛṣṇaAuthor of the Sāṃkhyakārikā, the classical text of the Sāṃkhya school.
- Vācaspati MiśraCommentator who expounded nearly every school of Indian philosophy, including Sāṃkhya and Advaita.
- GuṇasThe three strands of nature in Sāṃkhya, clarity, activity and inertia, of which everything material and mental is woven.
- RamakrishnaBengali mystic whose teaching emphasized the many paths to God.
- Swami VivekanandaDisciple of Ramakrishna who presented Vedānta to Western audiences.
- Mahendranath Gupta (“M.”)Calcutta schoolmaster and disciple of Ramakrishna, who recorded his conversations in the Kathāmṛta.
- Harmony of religionsRamakrishna’s teaching that the religions are different paths to one God, carried to the West by Vivekananda.
- Ramana MaharshiSouth Indian sage who taught self-enquiry: “Who am I?”
- Integral YogaSri Aurobindo’s teaching of a spiritual evolution in which the divine is to be realized not beyond the world but in it.
- Sri AurobindoIndian nationalist turned yogi and philosopher of spiritual evolution and the life divine.
- Vārkarī TraditionThe Marathi devotional movement of the god Viṭhobā of Pandharpur, carried by its poet-saints and its great annual pilgrimage.
- JñāneśvarMarathi poet-saint and philosopher, author of the Jñāneśvarī, a commentary on the Bhagavad Gītā.
- TukārāmThe most beloved of the Marathi poet-saints, whose abhaṅgas sing devotion to Viṭhobā in the language of ordinary life.
- Kashmir ŚaivismThe non-dual Śaiva traditions of medieval Kashmir, which teach that all is the free self-manifestation of Śiva’s consciousness.
- AbhinavaguptaKashmiri philosopher, Tantric master and aesthetician, the great systematizer of non-dual Śaivism.
- The bhakti movementThe movements of loving devotion to God that spread across India from the sixth century, in the languages of the people.
- CaitanyaBengali saint of ecstatic devotion to Krishna, inspirer of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism.
- MīrābāīRajput princess and poet-saint of devotion to Krishna.
- JainismThe Indian religion of the Jinas, the “conquerors”, centred on non-harming and the soul’s liberation from karma.
- MahāvīraThe twenty-fourth tīrthaṅkara of Jainism, its last great teacher in this age.
- KundakundaDigambara Jain philosopher of the soul’s pure nature, revered as the greatest Jain teacher after Mahāvīra.
- AhiṃsāNon-harming: the refusal to injure any living being, central to Jain, Buddhist and Hindu ethics.