Learning Hindu Vedanta to relate it to Jewish Kabbalah - Hindu-Noahide Book Club 2.3 - Two Ways of Light: Kabbalah and Vedanta by James N. Judd

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Part 3 of Book Review of (Two ways of light: Kabbalah and Vedanta by James N. Judd)

Next the author describes to us the inner workings of Hindu Vedanta so that later it can be related to Jewish Kabbalah.

• Realizing the invisible reality is the essential nature of Hinduism. 
• Hinduism attempts to make humans one with the ultimate reality where there are no distinctions. 
• Evolution and involution are essential laws of life.
• Hinduism did NOT evolve from polytheism to something more monistic, there was one infinite being from the beginning. 
• There are many different levels of awareness of reality. 
• The ultimate goal is Mukti (freedom) from human consciousness which makes us see things as separate and distinct rather than a united whole. 
• The whole universe is centered on one indivisible spirit. 
• The step to an absolute being is hard so many use a personal god as an intermediary.
• Finite minds cannot comprehend the infinite so it is easier to think of god in a form, such as in a human form. 
• When the impersonal god becomes personal other things change like perfect becomes relative good, love becomes knowledge, and freedom is replaced by life in heavan. 
• If a personal god is too difficult then one may rely on images in temples, rituals, prayers,  meditation, and righteous conduct.  
• But a personal god cannot be confused with the word "one"  used in the Rig Veda. 
• The highest form of wisdom is knowledge of Brahman (highest universal principle, ultimate reality). 
• The one absolute truth is subject to different interpretations affected by the state of consciousness of the interpreter. 
• Commentaries are only part of the answer to help us understand the one better. 
  
• Man's real nature is divine. 
• The aim of man's life on earth is to unfold the manifest this divinity which is eternally existing within him, although hidden. 
• Truth is universal. 
• Man cannot be separate from the creation and so divinity is in all of creation. 
• That from which all these beings are born, and in which, being born,  they live, and into which they all enter after dissolution -  seek to know that. That is Brahaman (Taittiriya)
• Formless. that self-luminous Being exists within and without, higher than the highest. From Him issue life and mind. and senses - ether, air, water, fire, and the earth. He is the inner most Self in all beings. He who knows Him hidden in the shrine of his heart cuts the knot of ignorance even in this life. Self-luminous. ever present in the hearts of all, is the great Being. He is the supreme goal. He is beyond the known, and beyond the knowable. He is subtler than the subtlest: in Him exist all the worlds and those that live therein. He is that imperishable Brahman. (Mundaka)
• That which cannot be expressed by speech. but which illumines speech, know that to be Brahman. That which cannot be conceived by mind, but by which mind thinks, know that to be Brahman. That which is not visible to the eye, but by which the eye sees, know that to be Brahman. That which is not heard by the ear, but by which the ear hears, know that to be Brahman. That which is not breathed, but by which the breath functions, know that to be Brahman. (Kena) 
• Brahman is the one inner self of man, not his senses, mind, intellect, or ego which are commonly referred to as the self. Brahman is the indwelling spirit or the Atman which is changeless and immortal that is one with Brahman. 
• Atman [Self], smaller than the smallest, and greater than the greatest, dwells in the hearts of creatures. The desireless one, being free from grief, realizes that glory of Atman through the purity of senses and mind. (Katha) 
• The sense-organs, they say, are the horses, and the roads for them are the sense objects. The wise men call the Atman the enjoyer or experiencer when united with the body. senses. and mind. (Katha) 
• As our air, having come into the world. assumes different forms according to the different object it enters. so the one Atman that abides in the hearts of all beings appears in different forms according to the different objects it enters; and it exists also beyond them ...so being beyond this world, the one Atman that resides in all beings is never touched by the miseries of the world. (Katha) 
• When man identifies with his ego he falls into ignorance and forgets his true divine nature, that he is the Atman. 
• The self-existent (God) has rendered the senses so defective that they go outward, and hence man seeks the external and not the internal Self. Only some wise man, desirous of immortality turns his eyes in, and beholds the inner Atman. 
• We must realize we are not limited mortals.
• "Thou are that"  is the famous saying.