Hidden Lives of Brahman

Uses both textual and ethnographic sources to demonstrate that in ?a?kara's ved?nta, brahman is an active force as well as a transcendent ultimate. Finalist for the 2014 Best First Book in the History of Religions presented by the American Academy of Religion ?a?kara's thought, advaita ved?nta or non-dual ved?nta, is a tradition focused on brahman, the ultimate reality transcending all particular manifestations, words, and ideas. It is generally considered that the transcendent brahman cannot be attained through any effort or activity. While this conception is technically correct, in The Hidden Lives of Brahman, Joël André-Michel Dubois contends that it is misleading. Hidden lives of brahman become visible when analysis of ?a?kara's seminal commentaries is combined with ethnographic descriptions of contemporary Br?hmin students and teachers of ved?nta, a group largely ignored in most studies of this tradition. Du bois demonstrates that for ?a?kara, as for Br?hmin tradition in general, brahman is just as much an active force, fully connected to the dynamic power of words and imagination, as it is a transcendent ultimate.