Advaita Vedanta

==Darśana (view) – central concerns==
[[File:Wassertropfen.jpg|right|thumb|A drop merging in the Ocean, an analogy for the Jivatman merging into Brahman]]
{{See|Hindu philosophy}}

Advaita is a subschool of Vedānta, the latter being one of the six classical [[Hindu philosophy|Hindu ''darśanas'']], an integrated body of textual interpretations and religious practices which aim at the attainment of ''[[moksha]]'', release or liberation from transmigratory existence.{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|p=73}}{{sfn|Klostermaier|2007|p=26}}{{refn|group=note|It is not a philosophy in the western meaning of the word, according to Milne.{{sfn|Milne|1997|p=166}}}} Traditional Advaita Vedānta centers on the study and what it believes to be correct understanding of the ''sruti'', revealed texts, especially the Principal Upanishads,{{sfn|Isaeva|1993|p=237}}{{sfn|Dalal|2009|pp=16, 26–27}} along with the [[Brahma Sutras]] and the [[Bhagavad Gita|Bhagavad Gitā]], which are collectively called as ''Prasthantrayi''.

A main question in all schools of Vedanta is the relation between the individual self ([[jiva]]) and ''Atman''/''Brahman''.{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|p=25}} Shankara and his followers regard Atman/Brahman to be the ultimate Real, and ''jivanatman'' "ultimately [to be] of the nature of Atman/Brahman."{{sfn|Koller|2006}}{{sfn|Koller|2013|p=100-101}} This truth is established from a literal reading of selected parts{{sfn|Long|2020|p=245}} of the oldest [[Principal Upanishads]] and [[Brahma Sutras]], and is also found in parts of the [[Bhagavad Gita|Bhagavad Gitā]] and numerous other Hindu texts,{{sfn|Menon|2012}} and is regarded to be self-evident,{{sfn|Koller|2013|p=101}}{{refn|group=note|Reason clarifies the truth and removes objections, according to the Advaita school, however it believes that pure logic cannot lead to philosophical truths and only experience and meditative insights do. The ''Sruti'', it believes is a collection of experience and meditative insights about liberating knowledge,{{sfn|Koller|2006|p=xii}}}} though great effort is made to show the correctness of this reading, and its compatibility with reason and experience, by criticizing other systems of thought.{{sfn|Koller|2013|p=101}} [[Vidya (philosophy)|''Vidya'']], correct knowledge or understanding of the identity of [[Atman (Hinduism)|jivan-ātman]] and [[Brahman]], destroys or makes null ''[[Avidya (Hinduism)|avidya]]'' ('false knowledge'), and results in [[Moksha|liberation]].{{sfn|Koller|2013|pp=99–106}}{{refn|group=note|{{harvnb|Sharma|1993|pp=72–83}}: "According to Advaita, the pure subject is our true self whose knowledge is liberative, (...) If the subject could be realised in its purity then all misery would cease: this is called self-knowledge"}}

According to the contemporary Advaita tradition, this knowledge can be obtained by ''[[svādhyāya]]'', study of the self and of the Vedic texts, which consists of four stages of [[Nididhyāsana|''samanyasa'']]: ''[[Renunciation|virāga]]'' ('renunciation'), ''sravana'' ('listening to the teachings of the sages'), ''[[Manana (reflection)|manana]]'' ('reflection on the teachings') and ''[[nididhyāsana]]'', introspection and profound and repeated meditation on the [[mahavakyas]], selected Upanishadic statements such as ''[[tat tvam asi]]'' ('that art thou' or 'you are That') which are taken literal, and form the ''srutic'' evidence for the identity of ''jivanatman'' and Atman-Brahman.{{sfn|Deutsch|1980|p=105-108}}{{sfn|Derrida|1992|p=203}}<ref group=web>{{Cite web |url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100234232 |title=Oxford Index, ''nididhyāsana'' |access-date=8 February 2017 |archive-date=5 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705051012/http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100234232 |url-status=live }}</ref> This meditation negates the misconceptions, false knowledge, and [[ahamkara|false ego-identity]], rooted in [[Maya (Hinduism)|''maya'']], which obfuscate the ultimate truth of the oneness of Brahman, and one's true identity as ''Atman-Brahman.''{{sfn|Long|2020|p=245}} This culminates in what Adi Shankara refers to as ''anubhava'', immediate intuition, a direct awareness which is construction-free, and not construction-filled. It is not an awareness ''of'' Brahman, but instead an awareness that ''is'' Brahman.{{sfn|Davis|2010|p=34–35}} Although the threefold practice is broadly accepted in the Advaita tradition, and affirmed by [[Mandana Misra]],{{sfn|Fiordalis|2021|p=18-19}} it is at odds with Shankara,{{sfn|Rambachan|1991|p=97}} who took a [[Subitism|subitist]] position,{{sfn|Fiordalis|2021|p=6}} arguing that ''moksha'' is attained at once when the ''mahavakyas'', articulating the identity of ''Atman'' and ''Brahman'', are understood.{{sfn|Fiordalis|2021|p=9}}{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|p=182 (Up.I.18.103-104)}}<ref group=note>See also kelamuni (2006), ''The Philosophy of Adi Shankaracharya'', section "II. The Threefold Means," on Brahma Sutra Bhashya 4.1.2 and subitism.</ref>

While closely related to [[Samkhya]],{{sfn|Scheepers|2010|p=126, 128}} the Advaita Vedānta tradition rejects the dualism of [[Samkhya]] ''[[purusha]]'' (primal consciousness) and ''[[prakriti]]'' (nature), instead stating that Brahman is the sole Reality,{{sfn|Koller|2006}}{{sfn|Koller|2013}} "that from which the origination, subsistence, and dissolution of this universe proceed."{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|p=19}} Samkhya argues that Purusha is the efficient cause of all existence while Prakriti is its material cause.{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|p=19}} Advaita, like all Vedanta schools, states that Brahman is both the efficient and the material cause. What created all existence is also present in and reflected in all beings and inert matter, the creative principle was and is everywhere, always.{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|pp=18–20}} By accepting this postulation, various theoretical difficulties arise which Advaita and other Vedānta traditions offer different answers for.{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|pp=20–22}}{{sfn|Koller|2006}}{{sfn|Koller|2013}} First, how did Brahman, which is ''sat'' ('existence'), without any distinction, become manifold universe? Second, how did Brahman, which is ''cit'' ('consciousness'), create the material world? Third, if Brahman is ''ananda'' ('bliss'), why did the empirical world of sufferings arise? The [[Brahma Sutras]] do not answer these philosophical queries, and later Vedantins including Shankara had to resolve them.{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|pp=20–22}} To solve these questions, Shankara introduces the concept of "Unevolved Name-and-Form," or primal matter corresponding to ''Prakriti'', from which the world evolves,{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|p=20}} coming close to Samkhya dualism.{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|p=22}} Shankara's notion of "Unevolved Name-and-Form" was not adopted by the later Advaita tradition; instead,  the later tradition turned ''avidya'' into a metaphysical principle, namely ''mulavidya'' or "root ignorance," a metaphysical substance which is the "primal material cause of the universe (''upadana'')."{{sfn|Mayeda|1992|p=78}} [[Prakasatman]]s (13th c.) defense of ''[[Vivartavada|vivarta]]'' to explain the origin of the world, which declared phenomenal reality to be an [[maya (Hinduism)#Hinduism|illusion]],{{sfn|Mayeda|2006|pp=25–27}} became the dominant explanation, with which the primacy of Atman/Brahman can be maintained.{{sfn|Koller|2006}}{{sfn|Koller|2013}}