Advaita Vedanta

==== Gauḍapāda and ''{{IAST|Māṇḍukya Kārikā}}'' ====
{{Main|Gaudapada}}

According to tradition, Gauḍapāda (6th century){{sfn|Raju|1992|p=177}} was the teacher of [[Govinda Bhagavatpada]] and the grandteacher of Shankara. Gauḍapāda wrote or compiled{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=308}} the ''{{IAST|Māṇḍukya Kārikā}}'', also known as the ''{{IAST|Gauḍapāda Kārikā}}'' or the ''{{IAST|Āgama Śāstra}}''.{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=280}} The ''{{IAST|Māṇḍukya Kārikā}}'' is a commentary in verse form on the ''[[Mandukya Upanishad|Māṇḍūkya Upanishad]]'', one of the shortest [[Upanishads]] consisting of just 13 prose sentences. Of the ancient literature related to Advaita Vedānta, the oldest surviving complete text is the ''Māṇḍukya Kārikā''.{{sfn|Sarma|1997|p=239}} The ''Māṇḍūkya Upanishad'' was considered to be a [[Śruti]] before the era of Adi Shankara, but not treated as particularly important.{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=280}} In later post-Shankara period its value became far more important, and regarded as expressing the essence of the Upanishad philosophy. The entire ''Karika'' became a key text for the Advaita school in this later era.{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|pp=280–281}}{{refn|group=note|Nakamura notes that there are contradictions in doctrine between the four chapters.{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=308}}}}

Gaudapada took over the Yogachara teaching of ''[[Yogacara#Representation-only|vijñapti-mātra]]'', "representation-only," which states that the empirical reality that we experience is a fabrication of the mind, experienced by consciousness-an-sich,{{sfn|Raju|1971|p=177}}{{refn|group=note|It is often used interchangeably with the term ''citta-mātra'', but they have different meanings. The standard translation of both terms is "consciousness-only" or "mind-only." Several modern researchers object this translation, and the accompanying label of "absolute idealism" or "idealistic monism".{{sfn|Kochumuttom|1999|p=1}} A better translation for ''vijñapti-mātra'' is ''representation-only''.{{sfn|Kochumuttom|1999|p=5}}}} and the four-cornered negation, which negates any positive predicates of 'the Absolute'.{{sfn|Raju|1971|p=177}}{{Sfn|Sarma|2007|pp=126, 143-144}}{{refn|group=note|1. Something is. 2. It is not. 3. It both is and is not. 4. It neither is nor is not.{{sfn|Garfield|Priest|2003}}{{page needed|date=August 2016}} The 'four-cornered negation' is an English gloss of the Sanskrit, [[Catuṣkoṭi|Chatushkoti]].{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}}} Gaudapada "wove [both doctrines] into the philosophy of ''Mandukaya Upanisad'', which was further developed by Shankara".{{sfn|Raju|1971|p=177-178}}{{refn|group=note|The influence of [[Mahayana Buddhism]] on other religions and philosophies was not limited to Vedanta. Kalupahana notes that the [[Visuddhimagga]] – a Theravada Buddhist tradition, contains "some metaphysical speculations, such as those of the Sarvastivadins, the Sautrantikas, and even the [[Yogacara|Yogacarins]]".{{sfn|Kalupahana|1994|p=206}}}} In this view,
{{blockquote|the ultimate ontological reality is the pure consciousness, which is bereft of attributes and intentionality. The world of duality is nothing but a vibration of the mind (manodṛśya or manaspandita). The pluralistic world is imagined by the mind (saṁkalpa) and this false projection is sponsored by the illusory factor called māyā.<ref group=web name=iepgauda>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/gauḍapad/ Gaudapada] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615104440/https://www.iep.utm.edu/gau%e1%b8%8dapad/ |date=15 June 2020 }}, Devanathan Jagannathan, University of Toronto, IEP</ref>}}

[[Gaudapada|Gauḍapāda]] uses the concepts of [[Ajativada|Ajātivāda]] to explain that 'the Absolute' is not subject to [[Saṃsāra|birth, change and death]]. The Absolute is ''aja'', the unborn eternal.{{sfn|Sarma|1996|p=127}} The [[Empiricism|empirical world]] of [[phenomenon|appearances]] is considered [[Maya (illusion)|unreal]], and not [[Philosophical realism|absolutely existent]].{{sfn|Sarma|1996|p=127}}
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