"When traditionally taught, an upanisad is used as a vehicle for revealing the ultimate nature of reality. It is viewed as a revealed means of knowledge (pramana) for knowing the non-dual substrate identity of the individual, the universe, and God, and it asserts that this knowledge releases or liberates a seeker from his or her sense of bondage and limitation...There are several reasons why a traditional understanding of Advaita Vedanta and its teaching methodology remains virtually unknown in the West."--Radha, The Jungian Myth and Advaita Vedanta
Swami Dayananda made his first appearance in the United States in Napa, California in the summer of 1976, but this event need not signify the first occasion for Americans exposed to the teaching tradition of Advaita Vedanta. As early as 1972 Radha had journeyed from California to Bombay where she lived and studied Advaita Vedanta and Sanskrit under Swami Dayananda throughout the 1970s. Following her studies with Swami Dayananda, Radha earned an M.A. in Sanskrit from the University of California, Berkeley (1982), a Ph.D. in Phenomenology of Religions from the Graduate Theological Union (1992), and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the San Francisco School of Psychology (1997). Since her return from India in 1977, Radha has taught Vedanta extensively on both coasts and was the administrative manager of Sandeepany West in Piercy, California, and later, of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Pennsylvania. She is also a clinical psychologist with a Jungian orientation and professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Radha teaches Sanskrit and Advaita Vedanta in the Bay Area of Northern California under the auspices of Arsha Kulam.
Interview with Radha
"Who Am I?"
Advaita Vedanta: The Self
Throughout 2004-2005, Vedanta Shala hosted Radha's explication of Tattva Bodha, an introductory text (prakarana-grantha) that presents the subject matter of Vedanta, and Vakya Vritti, a text composed of 53 verses. Both texts are traditionally attributed to Shankara's authorship and prepare the student for approaching the Upanisads.
In Vakya Vritti, the student, upon prostrating before the guru, insists that he is a qualified aspirant endowed with the four-fold qualifications (sadhana chathushtaya), desirous of liberation (moksa), and requests the teacher to explain the means whereby he may be liberated from ignorance (avidya). The guru then recognizes the student as one fit for teaching and acknowledges the question as valid, whereupon he proceeds with the utterance tat tvam asi, the profound mahavakya spoken to Svetaketu by his father Uddalaka in the sixth chapter of the Chandogya Upanisad.
The archives for Vakya Vritti begin with verse 30. Verse 28 had explained the teaching methodology as consisting of both negation and positive assertion. While verses 29 and 30 had explained in detail the function of negation, verse 30 begins to focus upon positive assertion. Verses 31-33 are a series presenting the nature of brahman, the purport of the word (pada) that (tat). Among the classes archived for Tattva Bodha, Radha unfolds the nature of the causal body (karana sarira), the deep sleep state (sushupti avastha), and the meaning of existence (sat) and awareness (cit). In the final class, Radha reveals the implied meaning of 'thou' (tvam). Classes from Manisa Pancakam and Vivekacudamani, as well as verses from the Bhagavad Gita, have also been included. In 2005 Vedanta Shala hosted Radha's classes for the Katha Upanisad of the Kathaka school of the Krsna Yajurveda with Shankara's bhasya thereon and several introductory classes have been archived. As Radha's classes begin with a guided or silent meditation often including an explanation of its role in Vedanta and are followed by satsang, we have provided a selection of each.
Radha has also written a number of articles on Advaita and Jungian Psychology, as well as translations for several texts of Vedanta. She is currently producing a commentary of Hastamalakiyam, a treatise by Shankara's disciple Hastamalaka, and Vakya Vritti, the later of which provides us with a brief excerpt. Advaita Vedanta: The Self, an exclusive publication of Vedanta Shala, offers a psychoanalytically nuanced introduction to Vedanta from the perspective of ‘Hinduism’. In an interview with Radha, one of the first Americans to study under Swami Dayananda shares some of her memories with the swami in Rishikesh and Bombay.
