What are The Texts ?

It is great and grand enough to be universal and all inclusive, just like the Sky and the Sea. Hinduism is of course a beautiful circle. But are there any books of reference, in times of preparatory years and the beginning steps of one's spirituality. Any definite anchor to stay floating and not to drift aimlessly.

Even birds which fly inter-continentally, do carry some chart of instincts in their flights. The Soul after all, does have its beginning in self-realization, in the mortal coil. Books are indispensable in any religion, even in those religions which have dispensed with gods.

Hinduism prescribes three prime most important books. It has garnered all its spiritual values in there, in those three books. Upanishads, Brahma Sutras Bhagavath Gita.

Upanishads proper are called the Vedantha, the culminations and conclusions of the Vedic inquiries. Vedanthas are also called the Sruthis, the Revelations heard. These three books are called Prasthana Thraya. Three Books based on the primacy of three facets of spiritual quest.

What are those? Sruthi, Yukthi, Anubhava

Revelation, Reasoning, Experiencing.

The Book that is based on the Revelation is Vedanthas or Upanishads. The Book that is based on Reasoning is Brahma Sutras. The Book that is based on Experiencing is Bhagavath Gita.

Man comes to know of God only when He informs of His presence through some ways. He is not of the category of concrete things. He is definitely abstract. He is the abstraction of abstractions. So He is known more clearly through Words. For only words can connote more than concrete the abstractions. Hence the Book of Revelations.
Then comes the Book of Reasoned out arguments on the Upanishadic concepts. Human Reason is given full scope to analyze and understand the Heard Book of The Divine.
Textual exegesis and hermeneutics form very important tools along with the philosophical understanding of the Grammar.
Only then ensues the study of Brahma Sutras or Vedantha Mimamsa. Then comes the Book of Experiencing, viz., Bhagavath Gita. The whole Gita pours out of the involved experiencing of Sri Krishna, the greatest Vedanthic teacher ever born.

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