VEDANTA
About Vedanta
All healing in the expanded Vedic worldview is ultimately an expression of our own divine source, the invisible spiritual Self. The Sanskrit term for abiding health is swastha, which means, “to be established in your spiritual Self.” Vedanta is inclusive and welcomes humanity to awaken to the truth of Self that transcends religions and culture.
Awakening to the presence of the divine Self is akin to awakening from a long, dreary dream of bondage to the disease prone and death-bound body and mind. Recognition of the true Self leads to spiritual freedom, unqualified power and total wellbeing, and is thus the most important and ultimate dimension of health.
Acharya Shunya facilitates awakening to the truth of our spiritual existence via the teaching and spiritual transmission of Advaita Vedanta, one of the world’s most ancient spiritual philosophies; it is a specialized and perhaps the oldest branch of Vedanta, which affirms the oneness of all existence, and asserts that the goal of life is to realize one common source, expressing itself as our own innate Self. It declares that at the core of our own being is the Self in all beings. The objects, animals, plants and people, appear separate and yet, all are connected, in fact one, at their source – the Self, which is pure consciousness.
Advaita Vedanta, as a system of thought, emerges from the most ancient wisdom texts of humanity, collectively known as the Vedas. There are four texts in the Vedas, which are individually known as Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Veda. Vedanta is literately the end (anta) portion of the Vedas, and is also known as Upanishad.
Advaita Vedanta is also the mother science, which has influenced the sciences of both Ayurveda and Yoga, and is the basis of almost all wisdom emerging from the East. Traditionally, Vedanta was always taught alongside Ayurveda and Yoga education.
The study of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy and texts entails the study of a non-material divine Self, an ultimate universal reality, which transcends realities of a relative order (body, mind, world) and yet is, at the same time, imminent and ever-present in the phenomenal universe as its common underlying reality. The universe and all its multiplicity are ultimately expressions or appearances of one essential reality known as Brahman, which means that which is ever expanding, infinite and unbounded; in fact, the same one Self (Brahman), illumines the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Thus, Advaita Vedanta conveys a Ultimate Reality (Brahman) that transcends all existence and non-existence; a Reality that is beyond description, cause and effect, independent and eternal. It leaps beyond the anthropomorphic versions of God from religions, and declares Brahman as that spiritual reality which transcends all empirically detectable classifications, limits, confines, boundaries and dualities. For that matter, Brahman is not a "He" or a “She” at all, but rather transcends description or definition, as all descriptions and definitions are ultimately limitations of the unlimited.
The human Self, technically known as Atman, is therefore none other than Brahman, and transcends birth and death, age and disease. Even when we die, our Self will live on and begin new adventures and quests.
Naturally, this study focuses on the subtle, psycho-spiritual, moral–ethical (dharma), and even mystical-existential dimension of our life, which is, after all, our deepest truth, and influences our day-to-day joy and sorrow, success and failure. To understand this dimension and begin to recognize the presence of this invisible Self alongside our day-to-day mind-based self, is the purpose and goal of spiritual studies.
Students are assisted in opening a door to the deepest spirit portal of their being, beyond the changing body and often despairing mind, where dwells a silent, splendid, ever healthy, blissful presence, the true Self.
Countless students report a permanent life and mind quality transformation and evolution of spiritual consciousness, yielding tremendous peace, compassion and supreme contentment. This study is important when money in the bank, physical health or even good relationships are not enough to fulfill us; or worse, we lack one or all, and consequently feel inadequate, unfulfilled, betrayed, forgotten and unhappy almost all the time.
About Vedika's Unique Approach to Vedanta
Vedika’s founder and spiritual preceptor, Acharya Shunya, a renowned Vedic scholar and lineage holder, teaches students who wish to awaken to this lasting and most advanced state of health, in her unique Spiritual Studies classroom. She offers authentic teachings—derived from original ancient Vedanta texts as well as instruction from her Guru—her grandfather—and her uninterrupted lineage dating back several thousand years in India (and continuing both in India and the USA till today).
Now for centuries, in an uninterrupted manner, Acharya Shunya’s family has carried forward the traditional transmission of Advaita Vedanta teachings, enabling a spiritually transformative educational process based upon the ancient Vedas (gurukulam method), which immediately and irrefutably deepens self-awareness and self-mastery.
Acharya Shunya’s spiritual teachings come alive through embodied and experiential education, including meditation, chanting and soulful sharing in a mindful, service-minded spiritual community that believes in equality and respect for all beings and creatures. Students feel uplifted, peaceful, balanced, happier, healthier, blessed, confident, and on the path to self-mastery and Self-recognition (moksha). But perhaps even more important, students feel part of an ancient tradition and trusted lineage, in which they feel held—and at home.
While the Vedanta texts studied are in Sanskrit, Acharya Shunya renders the esoteric knowledge easy to comprehend and its wisdom applicable in the present era, providing modern examples to explain timeless spiritual laws and principles.
Finally, and most importantly, she invites you to join an ongoing spiritual dialogue and paradigm-shifting discourse, to study and contemplate the sacred Vedic texts (shastra) that expound the Self, and ultimately, to learn to live, share, serve and realize the same one spiritual truth of Self, in all. This, in itself, is a rare opportunity, because most spiritual teachers today choose to share the essence or summary of eastern wisdom tradition, and rarely the actual texts, verse-by-verse, word-by-word, and then also help teach how to chant them aloud. The effect of this traditional study format (inspired by the gurukulam method of education) is unparalleled, and the direct connection with ageless wisdom texts is changing lives at Vedika.
Thus, at Vedika, you will not only be encouraged and supported to take care of your body. You will also be led, through Vedanta, to understand your true nature, your spiritual Self, which is already flawlessly healthy and supreme.