Śaṅkara’s proposal, advaita vedānta or non-dual vedānta, is a convention enthusiastic about brahman, the final word truth transcending all specific manifestations, phrases, and concepts. it really is usually thought of that the transcendent brahman can't be attained via any attempt or task. whereas this notion is technically right, in The Hidden Lives of Brahman, Joël André-Michel Dubois contends that it really is misleading.

Hidden lives of brahman come into view whilst research of Śaṅkara’s seminal commentaries is mixed with ethnographic descriptions of latest Brāhmin scholars and lecturers of vedānta, a gaggle mostly missed in so much reviews of this custom. Du bois demonstrates that for Śaṅkara, as for Brāhmin culture usually, brahman is simply as a lot an energetic strength, absolutely attached to the dynamic strength of phrases and mind's eye, because it is a transcendent ultimate.

“The important inspiration of a multifaceted braham in Śaṅkara’s notion is unique and may be good received.” — Frederick Smith, coeditor of Modern and international Ayurveda: Pluralism and Paradigms

“The author’s specific descriptions of the particular pedagogical practices of latest Brāhmin education is a welcome contribution. One will get a true experience of the teacher-student courting from this book.” — Andrew O. castle, writer of Jīvanmukti in Transformation: Embodied Liberation in Advaita and Neo-Vedānta

“[Dubois] captures the sounds, points of interest, and tastes of India’s Brāhmin faculties and facilities of research, conveying a feeling of what he calls the ‘hidden lives’ of children who later emerge to hold at the culture of advaita vedānta. In based, descriptive language, Dubois conjures up the temper and effort of the lifestyle by means of those younger males as they arrange for hugely really expert careers.” — from the Foreword by way of Christopher Key Chapple

Joël André-Michel Dubois is Professor of Humanities and non secular reports at California kingdom college, Sacramento.