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THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY
1. The whole Vedanta philosophy is based on the Upanishad portion of the Vedas. The Chhandogya Upanishad contains several allegories which have become the starting point of the philosophy.
There is, for example, a dialogue in the Chhandogya Upanishad between a young student Shwetaketu and his father Uddalaka Aruni in which the father tries to convince the son that with all his theological learning he knows nothing and then tries to lead him on to the highest knowledge, the ATCH or thou art that'. The father said to him, “Shwetaketu, go to school, for there is none belonging to our race, darling, who not having studied, is, as it were, a AT&T by birth only.'
He began his apprenticeship with a teacher when he was 12 years of age. He returned home when he was 24, having then studied all the Vedas-conceited, considering himself well read and very stern. His father said to him, “Shwetaketu, as you are so conceited, considering yourself so well read and so stern, my dear, have you asked for that instruction by which we hear what is not audible, by which we perceive what is not perceptible, by which we know what is unknowable.” “What is that instruction, Sir?” he asked. The father replied, “My dear, as by one clod of clay all that is made of clay is known, the difference being only a name arising from speech, but the truth being that all is clay; and as, my dear, by one nugget of gold all that is made of gold is known, the difference being only a name arising from speech, but the truth being that all is gold; and, as my dear, by one pair of nailscissors all that is made of iron is known, the difference
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