For, as Socrates claimed in the Symposium, love is really no more than an intermediary, a halfway house on the way to the union of the lover with the beloved. To claim, however, an iden- tity between Vedanta and wisdom is a dangerous idea. As a system that can be studied from the words of master teachers and from ancient texts, it is no more than a guide that may point in the direc- tion of the truth. Wisdom, on the other hand, is practical. The wise live what they know. They practise it in their lives. No words, spoken or written, can do this on behalf of anyone. Hence Vedanta as a system is a kind of manual of wisdom, not wisdom itself.
Leave A Comment