Spirituality is becoming widespread and is being sought out by people from all backgrounds and cultures. The growing popularity of yoga, meditation, spiritual retreats, self-help and personal empowerment books and programmes, as well as self- professed gurus, all point to this trend.

But along with this, there has been much confusion about common spiritual concepts. Words such as soul, spirit and spiritual are used and interpreted differently. For instance, what is my soul? Am I the soul or do I have a soul? If I am a soul, why are we called 'spiritual beings' and not 'soulful beings'? What's the difference between 'soul' and 'spirit'? Have you wondered what people mean when they say, 'Tap into your spirit' and 'Ask what your spirit is saying'? If I am a spiritual being, then who is the 'T' who is asking 'my' spirit?

Wouldn't it be great if there was one clear set of definitions in the spiritual field so that everyone who hears the words soul or spirit, for instance, would know exactly what they mean? The understanding would be based on facts and not coloured by religious beliefs or cultural upbringing. I started looking for the answers to these questions in Vedanta (pronounced vay- DHAAN-ta). Vedanta is a spiritual science that originates from an ancient wisdom tradition from India.

Vedanta is a shastra, a Sanskrit word meaning 'science'. Shastra, like any science, is a systematically organised, comprehensive body of knowledge on a particular field of study. It provides concepts, definitions and explanations. Examples of sciences are biology, physics, chemistry and astronomy. The field of study in Vedanta is spirit or the Self-the truth of who we really are and the ultimate reality of the world.

If Vedanta is new to you, you may find that some concepts in this book are different and perhaps even contrary to your knowledge of spirituality. For instance, you may have a differing opinion about the purpose of life (chapter 1, 3, 5 and 6), or that we live many lives (chapter 3 and 5). My intention is not to try to change your thoughts about these concepts, but to simply present what Vedanta has to say about them. Some of these ideas echo what you may know or have heard about in Hinduism. This is because Hinduism derives many of its teachings from the ageless spiritual writings of the Vedas in which Vedanta is found. (You can read about the Vedas and Vedanta in chapter 6.) The Hindu scriptures known as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita are considered to be authentic sources of Vedanta. These, along with other Hindu texts, have been used to reference Vedantic facts in this book, because this is where those ideas are found. This does not in any way make the ideas limited or religious. They remain fundamental spiritual truths, usable and relevant to everyone.