Advaita Vedānta

What is Advaita Vedānta?

Advaita Vedānta is the Hindu philosophical school of non-dualism, systematised by Ādi Śaṅkara§ in the 8th century CE. Its name combines advaita (non-dual) with vedānta (end of the Vedas). The central claim, drawn from the Upaniṣadic phrase tat tvam asi (that thou art), is that Brahman (ultimate reality) and Ātman (the self) are not two. The scriptural base is the prasthāna-traya: the Upaniṣads, the Brahma Sūtras§, and the *Bhagavad Gītā*§.

Vs adjacent schools of Vedānta and Buddhism

Advaita is one of several Vedāntic positions and is often confused with its neighbours. Rāmānuja's§ Viśiṣṭādvaita (qualified non-dualism) accepts the unity of Brahman but holds that selves and the world are real attributes of it, not appearances. Madhva's§ Dvaita (dualism) goes further still and treats Brahman, selves, and world as eternally distinct realities. From the Buddhist side, Madhyamaka§ śūnyatā is sometimes equated with Advaita's Brahman, but the two differ at the deepest level. Advaita names a positive ultimate that is awareness. Madhyamaka refuses any positive ultimate at all, and treats every metaphysical thesis, including Advaita's, as a view to be abandoned.

The core claim

The world appears to contain a knower and a known, a self and what the self perceives. Advaita Vedānta holds that this duality is itself an appearance. The Sanskrit word is māyā, often mistranslated as illusion. A better rendering is that which measures, divides, makes-appear within a single underlying reality. That reality is Brahman, and Brahman is not other than the awareness one already is. The Upaniṣadic mahāvākyas (great sayings) are not propositions to be believed but pointers to be directly investigated: tat tvam asi, aham brahmāsmi (I am Brahman), and prajñānaṁ brahma (awareness is Brahman).

Lineage and modern teachers

Śaṅkara stands at the head of the recorded tradition, but he was preceded by Gauḍapāda, whose Māṇḍūkya-Kārikā gives the doctrine its earliest systematic form. Śaṅkara organised the school into the matha system, the four monastic seats that still exist today. The doctrine remained primarily monastic for a millennium. The twentieth century saw two unusual openings. The first was the silent transmission of Ramana Maharshi§ at Tiruvannamalai. The second was the householder dialogues of Nisargadatta Maharaj§ in Bombay. A separate stream, the *direct path*§ of Atmananda Krishna Menon§, was transmitted through Jean Klein§ to Francis Lucille§ and on to Rupert Spira§. Through that line it reached the West in philosophically articulate form.

In the index

Almost everything in the index's non-duality§ cluster traces to this stream. Spira's long-form answers↗, the Nisargadatta dialogues↗, *Being Aware of Being Aware*↗, Mooji's satsang↗, and Lucille's teaching↗ are all watercourses of the same source.