What is Vedanta? 02

To quote verbatim Sayana, may not sink with the modern aptitude of reading. And also his commentaries are in Sanskrit and only a small portion or passages have been translated into Tamil or English. So if need be, the relevant passages can be given separately in the last as notes. But my preference is the research method of giving the quoted passages both in original and translation then and there. 

Anyhow coming back to our enquiry, Veda denotes that body of knowledge which informs us about the transcendental issues and the supra-natural means suited to solve such issues. But here one question arises. The problems may be beyond the ken of our ordinary means of knowledge but when you offer even transcendental solutions you have to express them in the ordinary language of human beings, so that they can understand what is being told. But the intention of that transcendental message has to be abstract and the purport of the words cannot be the ordinary sense we derive on first reading or literal reading. We may argue about the actual words used. But the project's original intention is not on the surface but deeply couched in all linguistic ways of communication or suggestion. 

Even in literature, in poetry, we never waste our time in the denotative sense of the poems but the connotative and suggestive nuances of meaning implied. And for all that, poetry deals with aesthetic dimensions of our day to day experience in the world. Even for that we agree to lend ourselves to the process of purport, if at all we care about poetry. Poetry most often resonates from the visceral layers of language and words. 

So if we really care about transcendental issues we cannot afford to be adamant in our non-cooperating with the text of transcendental issues and means, call it revelation or Veda. Why is it called revelation? Because the issues being beyond the ken of our ordinary means of knowledge, naturally the solutions and knowledge of the means to solve such issues could not have been attained through the same ordinary means of knowledge and hence this body of knowledge is called revelation. 

So there is a gap between the Veda or the revelation, which informs us about the transcendental through the language of human beings and our understanding the same by our usual and surface methods of meaning. How to lead us from our apparent understanding of obscurity towards a clear grasp of the transcendent intention, that is at the bottom of the text. This venture of interpretation, which takes us by employing various linguistic means across the gap to the original sense intended is called hermeneutics. So hermeneutics does exactly the opposite of what the language of expression does at the start. The language couches the meaning, hiding it inside various forms of expression. Hermeneutics brings out the hidden meaning, out from all the forms of expression. What essence the language hides, that very same essence hermeneutics brings out to the patient and passionate enquiring minds. 

This 'essence' is what is meant by the word 'anta' in Sanskrit. So the 'anta' of the Veda or the essence of the Veda is what is called Vedanta. And in Upanishads we will quite often see the enquirers discussing about philosophical issues in various ways and exclaiming now and then 'this is what is meant by that Rik or Rig Vedic mantra'. That means the process of hermeneutics is in action in bringing out the hidden meaning or the essence of the great text of Veda. Hence the Upanishads are primarily signified by the term Vedanta (Veda anta). 

Srirangam Mohanarangan 

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