In our continued exploration of Vedanta, let us explore the three texts that form its basis. Most religions have one principal text that lays down the basic tenets. Christianity has Bible, Islam has Quran, Judaism has Torah, Sikhism has Guru Granth Sahib and so on. Hinduism is different from other religions in this respect. There are a large number of religious texts and one lifetime is not enough to read and understand all of them.
People who are interested in Hinduism and want to read more about it get confused as to what to read. To solve this problem, Hindu thinkers and philosophers over the ages have identified the three texts that contain the essence of religion. These are called the prasthana-trayi. Prasthana in Sanskrit means departure or ‘to go’ and the word trayi means three. So, these are the three texts to read if one wants to go deeper into Hinduism.
The Vedas are among the earliest philosophical creations of mankind. They contain mainly prayers to gods associated with natural elements like fire, air and sky. The philosophical part of the Vedas is called the Upanishad and is the first part of prasthana-trayi. This is written in the form of a dialogue between a guru (master) and a shishya (disciple). This is called the Sruti Prasthana or the heard part of Vedanta. Though there are 112 Upanishads, the older ones like the Brihadaranyaka, the Chandogya, the Taittiriya and the Katha are more favoured in Vedanta.
The second text is the Brahma Sutras. These are called the Nyaya Prasthana or the reason-based part of Vedanta. These sutras or aphorisms contain the essential knowledge of Upanishads written in an extremely concise form. Due to the concise and cryptic nature and, sometimes, missing or omitted words, these required commentaries by experts to explain their meaning to the wider readers.
The most famous of these commentators is Adi Shankaracharya whose bhashya (commentary) on Brahma Sutras forms an important part of Vedanta. The third text is the Bhagavad Gita, which can be called the most widely read, and loved, text in Hinduism. This is called the Smriti Prasthana or the remembered part of Vedanta.
When Arjuna was filled with despair, Sri Krishna removed his confusion by explaining the true nature of the self and the various paths to salvation. Sri Krishna’s words have helped numerous people, caught in the struggles of this world, choose a path that suits their nature. Some follow the path of devotion, some the path of knowledge and yet others the path of action. The three texts of the prasthana-trayi form the pillars on which Vedanta and Hinduism stand.