Advaita Vedanta

With just the right voice and page after page of hand-drawn images matched with his own handwriting, the author traces the unusual life of Alfred Julius Emmanuel Sorensen who, though born into ego-consciousness in 1890 in Denmark, never lost the non-dual mystic consciousness of what he called "the Invisible Real." Invited to India "to teach Silence" by the poet Tagore, Brother Alfred, as he was known then, felt a kindred consciousness in India. After much travel, he arrived in the hill town of Almora, where on a high ridge he built a stone hut. It had no running water, no electricity, no heat. What he did have was solitude, pure air and a 23-mile vista of Himalayan mountain peaks. He lived on five rupees a month given to him by a devotee. In researching his book Search in Secret India, Paul Brunton met Brother Alfred and introduced him to the great Indian Advaita sage Ramana Maharshi who gave him the name "Sunyata," meaning full solid emptiness. Sunyata lived in Almora until 1979, when friends of Alan Watts brought him to Sausalito. There, aboard Alan Watts' houseboat, he gave a weekly darshan, always insisting he had "Nothing to teach, nothing to sell." In 1984 at the age of 94, "Mr. Nobody," as his American devotees affectionately referred to him, passed into the Invisible Real.

Silent except for two newsreel soundtracks. Archival research booklet included. Films of Ramana Maharshi's devotees taken over the years at Sri Ramanasraman and the sacred hill of Arunachala. Among the devotees seen are Miss Ethel Merston, an early English student of Gurdjieff's and Guy Hague who is believed to be the model for Larry in Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge.

This is Guénon's central exposition of traditional metaphysics, companion to his two other great works in this genre—The Symbolism of the Cross and The Multiple States of Being. Guénon held that Hinduism embraces the most ancient, profound and comprehensive expression of traditional metaphysics we possess, which can in some ways function as a key to every other traditional form. To this day, it remains one of the best expositions of the doctrines of the Vedānta.

Musicologist, medical doctor and Advaita master, Jean Klein discusses his early life, meetings with his teacher in India and the moment of his awakening, along with questions from students.

A compendium of the seminal Advaita sage's original works. It includes the Five Hymns to Arunachala, as well as the two sets of Forty Verses along with miscellaneous works including Aatma Vidya. An inclusive overview of the purest of the ancient Hindu teachings. A must read for the serious Advaita Student.

This companion volume to Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge contains many of his actual conversations with students and seekers. He taught the purest form of Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism) through the discipline of Self-Enquiry. No previous knowledge of Hinduism is needed to understand what is being discussed.