Classifications in Sanatana Dharma (Hindu Philosophy) Part 1

The basis of this philosophy is that there is only One existed, exists and will continue to exist, and that One is called Brahman. The entire universe with all its contents and variations is the One (Brahman) only, which is real.

To understand this, there are three main texts, known as Prasthana Thrayam. These texts are Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and Brahma Sutra. Upanishads are known as Sruti Prasthanam and Brahma Sutra is known as Nyaya Prasthanam. Bhagavad Gita is known as Smruti Prasthanam. Bhagavad Gita consists of 700 verses as discussion between Lord Krishna and Arjuna.   In this, the entire philosophy is explained to the common man, who may not be able to study the other texts (Upanishads) in detail. 

In order to get deeper knowledge, one has to study the Upanishads. The Upanishads are part of vedas, which is the basic text. Veda, which means knowledge is considered as (Apurushya) not written by any man(Rishi). Vedas were classified by Sage Vyasa into four. The four vedas are, Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana. All these vedas contain Upanishads. These vedas are generally divided into two parts- the first is Karma Khanda or Purva  Khanda and the second part is Uttara Khanda.  Generally the word  ”Vedanta”refers to upanishads , which are found in vedas  but not in the end. "Vedanta" can be translated as end (goal) of Vedas

All will have different types of goals in their life. These are classified as Artha (material), Kama (wishes), Dharma (right way of living), and Moksha (self-knowledge). The ways to achieve the first three are covered in Purva Khanda of the vedas and Vedanta or Uttara khanda shows the way for moksha.

There are many Upanishads (in all about 108) and ten are considered as important , for which Shankarachaya  had written commentaries. All Upanishads contain Maha Vakhyam. Maha Vakhyam literally means big sentence, but in Vedanta , any sentence which gives the relation between Jiva and Paramatma is called Maha Vakhyam. The most popular maha vakhyams are four , one from each Veda.

There are commentaries on both parts of Veda. These are known as Mimamsas, the commentary on Purva khanda is written by Sage Jaimini, disciple of Sage Vyasa and it is called Purva Mimamsa. This work consists of 12000 slokas. The commentary on Upanishads, (Uttara Mimamsa) written by Sage Vyasa is called Brahma Sutra –third prasthanam. Brahma sutra consists of 555 slokas, Bhagavad Gita consists of 700 slokas and Upanishads contain many slokas. But studying Brahma sutra should be undertaken after going through Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads.

All these vedic texts are in Samskrit. Even a person who has studied Samskrit language in depth, cannot understand these texts without the teaching and guidance of an Acharya. The reason for this is that the same word gives opposite meaning at different places of these texts. A Samskrit scholar cannot correctly understand these scriptures from the  meaning of the words from the dictionary. Only a teacher (Acharya) who has learnt the scriptures from a Guru with tradition ( Parampara) can explain.