The Hidden Lives of Brahman : Śaṅkara's Vedānta Through His Upaniṣad Commentaries, in Light of Contemporary Practice.

Intro -- The Hidden Lives of Brahman: Śaṅkara's Vedānta through His Upaniṣad Commentaries, in Light of Contemporary Practice -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Pronunciation of Sanskrit Words -- Foreword -- Preface -- Why Another Book About Vedānta? -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1: Introducing Brahman: The Hidden Lives of Śaṅkara's Vedānta Teaching -- The Celebration of Śaṅkara's Victory -- Śaṅkara's Vedānta Teaching and The Hidden Lives of Brahman -- Threefold Preparation for Insight in Śaṅkara's Teaching -- The Central Place of Upaniṣad Commentaries in Śaṅkara's Teaching -- Two Aspects of Brahman's "Lives" -- Relating English and Saṁskṛta Language Games -- Part 1: Envisioning Brahman -- Chapter 2: Attending to Brahman: Upāsana Practice Past and Present -- The Upāsana Definitions of TUbh 1.3 and BUbh 1.3.9 -- The Trans-historical Features of Upāsana -- Attending to the Sun in the Early Upaniṣads -- Envisioning Brahman in Ancient Ritual Offerings of Food -- "Thinking-of-Oneself-As" and "Weaving Similar Notions" in Contemporary Practice -- The Sensory Engagement of Contemporary Upāsana Practitioners -- Chapter 3: Learning Brahman: The Daily Life of the Brahmacārin -- Śṛṅgeri and the Modern Brahmacārin -- Sounds of Awakening and Early Morning Svādhāya -- The Sounds of Twilight Upāsana -- Sounds of the Classroom and the Teacher's Arrival -- The Sounds of Vedic Training -- Sounds of Food, Play, and Dusk -- Phases of Study and the Sounds of Evening Recitation -- Chapter 4: Envisioning Veda: First-Person Declarations in Śaṅkara's Upaniṣad Commentaries -- First-Person Declarations as Commentarial Clarification in TUbh 1-2 -- Envisioning The Cosmic Horse in BU 1.1-2 -- First-Person Declarations as Commentarial Summary in BUbh 1.2.7 -- Prāṇa Conquers Death in BU 1.3 -- The Extended Declaration of BUbh 1.3.28 -- Upāsana Declarations in BUbh 1.5 and Beyond.

The Ritual Context for Śaṅkara's Notion of Superimposition -- Part 2: Imagining Brahman -- Chapter 5: Conditioning the Mind for Brahman: Saṁskṛta Training Past and Present -- Vedic Study and Saṁskāra in TUbh 1 -- Grammatical Analyses of Brahman in TUbh 2.1 and BUbh 1.4.7 -- Imaginative Praise of Brahman Seers in Śaṅkara's Verse Invocations -- The Aesthetic Dimension of Saṁskṛta Training -- Inflection Lists and the Ritual Foundations of Saṁskṛta Conditioning -- Thematic Categories and Alliterative Grouping in the "Treasury of Words" -- The Meta-Language of Pāṇini's Grammar -- Saṁskāra Embodied in Teacher-Student Interactions -- Aesthetics and Logic at Advanced Stages of Training -- Nature Imagery in Works of Logic -- Saṁskāra Perfected in the Rhetorics of Debate -- Chapter 6: Perfecting The Life Of Brahman: The Training of the Saṁskṛta Paṇḍita -- Broad Patterns and Variations in Contemporary Saṁskṛta Training -- The First Year: Foundational Saṁskāras -- Word Drills: Deepening Saṁskāra -- Beyond the First Year: Expanding Saṁskāra -- Questions, Commentary, and Aesthetic Conditioning -- Approaching Perfection: the Long Years of Advanced Study -- Saṁskāra Displayed: the "Council of Vidvats" -- Playful Conditioning: the Game of Debate -- Chapter 7: Perfecting the Vedic Imagination: Imagery and Rhetoric in Śaṅkara's Upaniṣad Commentaries -- Forgetting To Count Oneself in TUbh 2.1 -- Metal Casting and Rice Husking Analogies in TUbh 2.1-2 -- The Seed, the Sprout, and the Tree in the BUbh -- Saṁsāra as Tree and Ocean in BUbh 1.4 -- Variations in BUbh 1.4.9 &amp -- 17: Crossing Samsāra and Breaking the Cocoon -- Divine Beings and Psycho-Spiritual Phenomena -- Prajāpati's Inner Struggle in BUbh 1.1-3 -- Ritual Conditioning of Mind and Awareness in TUbh 2.3-5 -- Simulated Debates in the TUbh and BUbh 1 -- Kāma, Karman, and Ritual in TUbh 1.

Word Play and Vedic Authority in BUbh 1 -- Part 3: Perceiving Brahman -- Chapter 8: Thinking Deeply About Brahman: The Two Mīmāṁsās, the Lost Art of Yajña, and the Hidden Structure of Brahman -- The Twofold Deep Thinking About Brahman -- Prajāpati's Ritual Engagement in BUbh 1.2 and 1.5.14 -- Prajāpati's Reflective Lives in BU 1.3-4 -- Viewing Ritual and Brahman-Insight in the Context of Mīmāṁsā -- Apprenticeship in Fire-Offering and Study of its Vedic Sources -- Concepts and Terminology of Jaimini's Mīmāṁsā -- Application of Jaimini's Method -- Envisioning Sacred Realities According to Vedic Sources -- Conceptual Parallels and Contrasts in Bādarāyaṇas Mīmāṁsā -- Application of Bādarāyaṇa's Method -- Summary of the Two Mīmāṁsās and their Historical Evolution -- Chapter 9: Giving up the Inconstant Brahman: Contemporary Saṁnyāsins and Aspiring Renouncers -- Varieties of Renunciation -- Traditional Study and the Formal Renouncer -- The Training of Aspiring and Informal Renouncers -- Non-orthodox Renouncers and Alternatives to Vedānta Study -- Chapter 10: Discerning the Paradox of Veda: Ritual Activity and Insight in Śaṅkara's Upaniṣad Commentaries -- Sacred Syllables as the Thread of Continuity in TUbh 1.5-6 -- Skillful Coordination of Activity and Insight in TUbh 1.11 -- The Fulfillment of All Yearnings in TUbh 2.1 -- Activity, Insight, and the Aims of Veda: Brahman is as Real as Yajña -- Among Vedic Injunctions But Not of Them: BUbh 1.4.7 -- Renouncing Desires, Begging Food, and Drinking Soma in BUbh 3.5 and 4.4.22 -- Brahman Insight as the Climax of Yajña -- Conclusion: Brahman as Center and Periphery -- Appendix: Diagrams of Key Concepts -- Notes -- Preface -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4 -- Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6 -- Chapter 7 -- Chapter 8 -- Chapter 9 -- Chapter 10 -- Bibliography -- Primary Sources (Originals and Translations).

Secondary Studies -- Index.

Uses both textual and ethnographic sources to demonstrate that in Śaṅkara's vedānta, brahman is an active force as well as a transcendent ultimate.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.