Vedanta and social work practice

ABSTRACT

Spirituality holds an important place in the lives of social workers and their clients. It informs our understanding of the world, our morals and values, and our conduct. Spirituality is a powerful tool of guidance and healing. Recognizing its importance, efforts have been made to integrate spirituality into social work practice. A gap in these efforts is the inclusion of epistemological foundations of key Eastern religions and spiritual practice. Concepts such as yoga and meditation have been adapted as healing methods; however, the knowledge base that informs them has been neglected. This article addresses this gap with an exploration of Vedanta and how it can be integrated into social work practice. Vedanta is the body of knowledge that informs the traditions of yoga, Ayurveda, and Hinduism. This article explains key concepts of Vedanta including Advaita Vedanta, the five sheaths (ways of knowing), pathways to Vedanta (methods of obtaining knowledge), dharma, karma/reincarnation, the nature of reality, and the lineage of Gurus. The second part of the article focuses on the application of Vedanta to social work practice within existing literature and identifies areas for further research.

KEYWORDS:

• Vedanta
• Hinduism
• Karma
• Dharma
• Guru
• meditation
• spirituality
• social work practice

Acknowledgments

This manuscript was inspired by the teaching of Ramdoolarie Bhall and Jagadish Chandra Sharada, who guided my study of Vedanta, and made possible through the thoughtful feedback of the reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.