Circumscribing the Meeting of Schopenhauer and the Veda: Gaudapada, Śankara, and Vedanta

Abstract

This chapter celebrates Schopenhauer as a major philosopher of the Western intellectual tradition and one of the first, and still most preeminent, to have interacted with the Eastern (particularly, Indian) philosophy and to seek an interplay of the two traditions. The chapter seeks to better understand the relation between Schopenhauer and the Indian philosophy with a focus on the key aspects of the Vedantin and Schopenhaueran canons. The chapter explores five points of contrast and comparison: (1) the plenitude of Being; (2) the concept of Maya; (3) the theism, optimism , and metaphysical freedom of Vedanta in relation to the pessimism , atheism, and determinism of Schopenhauer; (4) the pervasiveness of consciousness; and (5) the concept of Will and the idea of universal suffering in the phenomenal world.