Vedānta | End of the Vedas

Vedanta

Vedānta (IAST)
Translation: "end of the Vedas"

A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: वेदान्त
Transliteration: Vedānta
Translation: "end of the Vedas; Uttara-Mīmāṃsā; end of knowledge; wisdom"
Definition:

1. A name of the Upaniṣad(s).
2. A name of the different schools of philosophy founded on the teachings of the Upaniṣad(s). The major schools are Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, and Dvaita Vedānta.
3. The basic texts of Vedānta are the Upaniṣad(s), the Bhagavad Gītā, and the Brahma-Sūtra. (See Prasthāna-Traya.)
4. The central question considered in the Vedantic schools concerns the nature of God or the Absolute (Brahman).

The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy

"Vedanta, also called Uttara Mīmāṃsā (‘the end of the Vedas’), the most influential of the six orthodox schools of Hinduism. Much of the philosophical content of other schools has been taken up into it. It claims to present the correct interpretation of the Vedas and Upanishads, along with the Bhagavad Gita, sacred texts within Indian culture. Much of the dispute over these texts is religious as well as philosophical in nature; it concerns whether or not they are best read theistically or monistically. To read these texts theistically is to see them as teaching the existence of an omnipotent and omniscient personal Brahman, who in sport (not out of need, but not without moral seriousness) everlastingly sustains the material world and conscious selves in existence; the ultimate good of the conscious selves then consists in being rightly related to Brahman. To read these texts monistically is to see them as teaching the existence of a quality-less ineffable Brahman who appears to the unenlightened unenlightened to be manifested in a multiplicity of bodies and minds and in a personal deity; critics naturally ask to whom such an appearance appears.

Two great thinkers in the theistic Vedantic tradition are Rāmānuja (traditional dates: 1017–1137) and Madhva (b.1238). Shankara (788–820?) represents Advaita Vedānta (‘Advaita’ meaning ‘non-dual’) and defends the view that the sacred texts ought to be read monistically; his view is often compared to the absolute idealism embraced by Bradley; for Shankara what appears as a pluralistic world is really a seamless unity. Madhva is a leading proponent of Dvaita Vedānta, an uncompromisingly theistic reading of the same texts; for him, what appears as a pluralistic world is a pluralistic world that exists distinct from, though dependent on, Brahman. Rāmānuja is a leading exponent of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, often called “qualified non-dualism” because Rāmānuja, in contrast to Madhva, views the pluralistic world that appears as the body of Brahman but, in contrast to Shankara, views that body as real and distinct from Brahman conceived as an omnicompetent person."

Reference:

1. Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
2. Audi, Robert (1999). The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Second Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press