Vedanta

The vedanta is the ancient worldview that underlies all systems of Indian philosophy. A primary source for this worldview is the Upanishads.  The Upanishads were handed down by tradition at the end of the Vedas, and Vedanta literally means “end of the Vedas.”  This foundation of Indian spiritual thought, with its insistence on the underlying unity of all life and the possibility of realizing that unity through selfless service to all was the basis for Gandhi’s approach to spirituality and nonviolence.  In one Upanishad, for example (the Brihadaranyika, I.1.14) we are told that “by means of this dharma even the weak man can prevail over a king.”  In the Chandogya Upanishad (VIII.1.5) we read that “here in this world people do what they are told, so they become dependent on… the desires of another, … and their works come to nothing, either in this world or the next.”