Shravanam – Hear the knowledge!
Mananam – Reason the knowledge!
Nidhi-Dhyasanam – Then meditate!
Introduction
“Vedanta Nama Upanishad Pramana ~”. (Vedanta’s are the teachings of the Upanishads’s . The Philosophy based on the teaching of the Upanishads is Vedanta.
Most of you are familiar with the term Vedanta and the Upanishad to some extent . The Upanishad presents the highest philosophical teachings of the Vedas. These are among the most ancient text known to the mankind.
There is a long list of Upanishads . In fact , in one of the Upanishads called “Muktika Upanishads” we find a list of 108 Upanishads .
But among all of these Upanishads there are around 10 or 11 “major ” Upanishads .
Why major??? Because Adi Shankaracharya some 1200 or 1300 years ago chose these Upanishads to write his commentary (“Bhashyam”) on these Upanishads and since then these Upanishads have become the central text of “VEDANTA”
Adi Shankaracharya interpreted these Upanishads in a non-dualistic fashion , So his teaching are called as “Advaita Vedanta” .
Among all these Upanishad there is a one Upanishad which is the smallest and also regarded as the toughest and i.e. called as the “Mandukya Upanishad “.
There is a saying – ” mumukshunam vimuktaye Mandukyam ekam eva alam “
For the liberation of those who want spiritual Enlightenment ‘ for them Mandukya Upanishad alone is sufficient. In the ‘Atharva Veda’ this Upanishad can be found with 12 mantras.
In this Mandukya Upanishad the central Mantra is the 7th Mantra , which is the core mantra of the entire Upanishad which gives the highest possible and sophisticated answers.
Mandukya Upanishad was commented by “Gaudpadacharya ” and he wrote verses on the Mandukya Upanishads called Mandukya Karikas !!
