This is collection of quality Advaita Vedanta resources (PDF’s, books, FAQ’s, explanations, etc) – which can help you further in clarifying how to live, integrating and comprehending non-duality and vision of Oneness.
Most resources are bottom of homepage – with hundreds of videos of various Upaniṣad texts, scriptures and proficient teachers.
Below should ONLY be attempted while already having gained sufficient Self-Knowledge from teacher/guru. Also valid if currently attending Vedanta classes by physical attendance.
Humans are designed to FIRST learn from one whose already accomplished; a teacher who has gone and continues to go through trial and error… and is living/breathing the Knowledge among present and modern challenges of life. Noone is exception to this. Only ego’s are exceptions to this (‘I am different, I have internet, I have years of experience in spirituality, etc’).
Only after being guided by physical guru/teacher, sticking-with and sufficiently learning-from… is then one qualified to continue solo-study. Actually this order is common sense in any field of study. For example any serious athlete or dancer goes straight to the coach. Any serious individual is capable seeing immense value in physical presence.
Otherwise risk of self-study is that Absolute TRUTH unsuspectingly takes on flavor of one’s own subjectivity (likes/dislikes). Without anyone available to correct one’s subtle mistakes or provide feedback of blind spots. Such an individual develops false confidence and claims “I got it!“. When infact the “getting” may be another relative version of the ABSOLUTE (Brahman). Hence please realize this before self-study…
Vedanta requires high-precision delivery by the proponent through conscious use of words, no different then a heart-surgeon requires high precision instruments and sound knowledge to literally save someone’s life.
In fact, patient has no choice but to surrender their life to the heart surgeon. The surgeon is an ordinary stranger sitting on the bus which patient brushes off as another “worldly person”. But in the operating room, that same “stranger” suddenly becomes the most important refuge in patient’s entire life.
The patient is unable to self-operate his-her heart, despite apparent LIFE-LONG ownership of the body. Similarly a spiritual aspirant (sādhaka) is unable to operate his-her ignorance, despite apparent LIFE-LONG ownership of Mind and Thoughts.
Once the surgeon has operated successfully, only THEN the patient receives a heart prescription to maintain one’s health. In the same way, once the guru/teacher guided the sādhaka to remove false notions of reality – below are some recommended prescriptions given to maintain sādhaka’s sanity, well-being and CLARITY…
Resources adhering to (1) Simplicity (2) Step-by-step structure:
- ExploreVedanta.com: Free practical step-by-step Vedānta course. How to live it! Start and finish it – before moving onto next recommended resource #2 below.
- ShiningWorld.com: Vedanta course, fun quiz and thousands of pages of invaluable satsang writings. Owned by James Swartz who’s studied under Chinmaya, Dayananda and Paramarthananda.
- DiscoverVedanta.com: Lots of articles filled with knowledge of Oneness. And stellar knowledge in video format of various Upanishads. Complete education. It will compliment and add clarity to anything learned in #1/#2 above. Neema is a Swami Dayananda Saraswati disciple and contributed most to my clarity like no other teacher before.
- NeverNOTPresent.com: Disciple of James Swartz. Dozens of explanations in plain English with advanced Vedanta terms.
- Advaita-Academy: Only videos of traditional teachers who strictly adhere to original method of expounding Self-Knowledge. Thus all are trustworthy teachers. No Neo-Advaita, half-truth-half-falsehood, Adi Da, Tony Parsons, Ken Wilber, Gangaji, Mooji, OSHO types.
Resources for Vedanta erudite pundits, Sanskrit scholars and serious Intellectuals:
- ArshaAvinash: Hundreds of books on non-dual Vedānta, technical manuals, Sanskrit grammar, etc. Devoted to Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s lineage. And his most prominent disciple Swami Paramarthananda. In my experience, both teachers are closest to Adi Shankara’s method of teaching.
- Arsha Drishti (Sanskrit Tools | Classes | Chanting | Texts) : Swami Advayatmananda is a Dayananda disciple with detailed knowledge of Vedānta intricacies.
- Arsha Vidya UK: Swamini Atmaprakashananda is a Dayananda disciple. Hundreds of talks on various Upaniṣads, and articles teaching Traditional Vedānta.