Philosophy, Spirituality, and Mysticism
This essay is a meditation on Advaita Vedanta, Thomas Merton’s conception of Grace, and the future of rational religion in the Modern West, which is currently experiencing a tremendous crisis of meaning as we face the disastrous spiritual, ethical, and environmental implications of materialism and its logical entailment of nihilism. As always, I am indebted … Read more
In this short meditation on Vedantic Christianity, I will make the case that the Future of Christianity is Advaita Vedanta through and through. As always, I am indebted to Swami Sarvapriyananda for awakening my spiritual fire and teaching me the true lessons of Advaita Vedanta, which I am by no means qualified to teach but … Read more
This short essay is a meditation on Vedantic Christianity, which is a recognition of the essential, mystical truth of Christianity and its perfect parallel in the spiritual system of Advaita Vedanta, inspired by the Great Swami Vivekananda and his masterwork of spiritual philosophy Jnana Yoga. In all my writings, I do not consider myself a … Read more
This essay is a meditation on Christianity and Advaita Vedanta, specifically Jesus’s mystical insight that the kingdom of God is “within” and its perfect parallel with the concept of Self as understood in Advaita Vedanta. As always, I owe all my understanding of Advaita Vedanta to the wise and erudite fountain of Vedantic knowledge that … Read more
This essay is a partly autobiographical story of how I discovered the beautiful combination of Advaita Vedanta and Christianity, along with an attempt to work out a Cosmopolitan Christian-Vedantic Spirituality inspired by the wonderful wisdom of Swami Vivekananda and his still-unrealized vision for a religion of the future. I believe any modern spirituality worth its … Read more
What is Brahman in Advaita Vedanta? What is the Absolute? This short essay will attempt to answer this question in plain English, to the extent that is even possible given the inherent limitations of language when talking about this subject matter. I owe an infinite debt to the wisdom and erudition of Swami Sarvapriyananda for … Read more
This essay will not be focused on rigorous argumentation and logic-chopping. I will rather focus on stating conclusions about fundamental reality that I have learned from studying Advaita Vedanta from Swami Sarvapriyananda’s lectures (freely available on YouTube). I am not expecting you, the reader, to accept these statements intellectually. Rather this is a poetic exercise … Read more
“You are not the body, nor is the body yours; you are not the doer nor the enjoyer. You are Consciousness itself, the eternal Witness, and free. Go about happily.” ~ Ashtavakra Gita, Chap. 15, verse 4 In this statement is contained the essence of Advaita Vedanta. In this essay, I will defend the following … Read more
This post is a short meditation on the relationship between Vedanta and Christianity as it relates to the Christian ethics of love. I am grateful to Swami Sarvapriyananda for his teachings on Advaita Vedanta. All my knowledge of Vedanta is thanks to him, but any error is mine. “Be Grateful to the Man you help, … Read more
I humbly dedicate this post to Swami Sarvapriyananda, who has graciously shared so many masterful lectures on Advaita Vedanta on the Vedanta Society of NY’s YouTube channel. If I am successful even a smidgeon in articulating the wisdom of Advaita Vedanta, it is due to him. “Only the hand that erases can write the true … Read more