Advaita Vedanta

An introduction to Hinduism's most influential philosophy, with recommendations for further reading and links.

ADVAITA VEDANTA is the most influential Hindu philosophy. Like all forms of Vedanta, it attempts to synthesize the teachings of the Upanishads into a single coherent doctrine. Unlike other forms of Vedanta, it teaches that there is only one real thing in the universe and that everything else is illusory.

Advaita Vedanta is closely associated with Jñana Yoga, the yoga of knowledge.

In this article, we'll call it Advaita .

According to Advaita, only the innermost part of you is aware or conscious. No other part of you can feel or see or know anything. The name in Sanskrit for this awareness is atman. It's the part of you that's really you, and it corresponds to the soul in Western philosophy.

Only the Atman is aware

Now here's where it gets interesting. According to Advaita, your atman (and mine and everybody's) is the same as the underlying absolute reality of the whole universe, which is called Brahman. Brahman corresponds to the Western idea of God, except that it isn't a a super-powerful person. It's impersonal; it's the source of everything; it's what the universe really is.

In short, your inner self — the true "me" — is God.

Brahman is what really is

Atman = Brahman

Or, in Western terms:

Soul = God.

Atman = Brahman

What distinguishes Advaita from other interpretations of the Upanishads is this: Advaita asserts that since there is only one Brahman, there is only one Atman. There's only one "me" and we all share it. We're all one "thing" — Brahman.

There is only one awareness, Brahman

Moreover, only Brahman is real. The other things in the universe, like bicycles and umbrellas and our bodies, are maya. Maya is illusory because it seems to be different from Brahman but it's not. Since maya misleads us in this way, and because it's impermanent, Advaita says that maya is unreal.

The other things are maya, illusions

The most important way that maya fools us is with regard to our selves. We think we are our bodies, our thoughts, our desires, and so forth. But those things are maya. They seem to be "me" but this is an illusion. Actually, our awareness (the part that is really "me") is something else: Brahman.

This is an enormously strange and radical idea. It means that you aren't you; you aren't any kind of person, really. You are the supreme reality that underlies the entire universe. The person who seems to be in your head, the person you believe yourself to be, is merely a psychological illusion.

Maya tricks us with regard to our selves.

Advaita Vedanta is important because by understanding it, you may be able to come closer to self-realization. In fact, by making the effort to understand it, you are engaging in Jñana Yoga, the yoga of knowledge, one of the traditional methods of attaining enlightenment.

To see why this is so, you have to examine the idea that only the atman is aware. This idea is more subtle than it seems at first glance.

If you close your eyes for a moment and try to focus your attention on your inner self, it will seem easy at first. You will be immediately aware of feelings, hopes, thoughts, desires, fears, and a general sense of yourself. This is the inner you, right?

Well, no. According to Advaita, if you are aware of something, it isn't really you. The real you (the atman) is the part that's aware. It's not anything of which you are aware.

Examine those inner objects on which you focused a moment ago. You were aware of them, weren't you? Even that feeling of "me" is something of which you were aware. Well, then, according to Advaita , it can't be the real you. The real you is the part that is aware, not anything that you're aware of.

This kind of examination is called viveka (discrimination) in Sanskrit. It is a main component of the traditional method of Jñana Yoga. If you keep doing it, you will discover that everything you currently regard as yourself (including your ego and mind) is not aware. The awareness in you is different from those things.

You can take this still further. Here is an interesting fact: No matter how hard you try, you can't focus your attention on the part of you that is aware. If you could, it would become something of which you are aware.

Making a strenuous attempt to do this, even though it's impossible, is a main component of Ramana Maharshi's method of self-inquiry (vicara in Sanskrit). If you try long enough, eventually you will become convinced that your ordinary sense of yourself — your ego — is not really you. In fact, you will realize that it's an illusion. (By the way, don't make the mistake of thinking that this is all there is to Ramana's method. Seeing that "you" are an illusion is a wonderful insight, but it's not self-realization.)

The best overviews of Advaita Vedanta that we've seen are contained in the following books: S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, Volume II; and S. Dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy, Volumes I and II.

The Encyclopedia Britannica contains a good overview of Advaita Vedanta in the article called "Indian Philosophy" under the subheading "Vedanta." (The articles found directly under "Vedanta" and "Advaita" are not as good.)

If you want to read the original philosophical works that created the Advaitin tradition, you should probably begin with Sankara. His most important books are Brahma Sutra Bhasya and his commentaries on various Upanisads. These books are highly technical and difficult to read. Some easier books such as Viveka-Chudamani (on our site here) and Atmabodhi were also traditionally attributed to him, but modern scholars have questioned whether he really wrote them. Probably the best all-around choice, if you want to try a single book of his, is Upadesa Sahasri.

The Advaitan tradition recognizes three textual sources of special importance: the Upanishads (on our site here), Brahma Sutra (also known as the Vedanta Sutra), and Bhagavad Gita (on our site here).

In addition to technical works of philosophy, the Advaitan tradition has generated a large number of literary works that are beautiful, entertaining, and helpful for the practice of Jñana Yoga. These include Yoga-Vasistha, Ashtavakra Gita (on our site here), and Avadhut Gita. (Several other works in this category are listed below under "Related Pages on This Site.")

The Advaitan tradition has also produced a large number of books by gurus intended to help other people become self-realized. The two greatest authors in this category in recent times are Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj. Several of Ramana's books are on this website. To find them, as well as other book recommendations, click here. For other gurus, including modern Western ones, see the "Links" section of our page on H.L. Poonja.

Hundreds of pages on this site are related to Advaita Vedanta. Some of the most important ones are:

Gaudapada's Philosophy by Dasgupta.
Ramana Maharshi (reference page)
Nisargadatta (reference page)
H.L. Poonja (reference page)
Viveka-Chudamani by Sankara
Ashtavakra Gita (complete text)
Jñana Yoga (reference page)
Upanishads (reference page)
Self-Enquiry by Ramana Maharshi
Self-Inquiry (reference page)
Forty Verses on Reality by Ramana Maharshi
A Journal of Awakening by Phil Servedio
Bhagavad Gita (complete text)
Ellam Ondre (complete text)

This site also contains an interesting article called The Question of the Importance of Samadhi in Modern and Classical Advaita Vedanta by Michael Comans.

The Ramana Maharshi website, devoted to the most famous Advaitin of the twentieth century, has many articles and books.

Two of the great Advaitan monasteries founded by Sankara have websites: Sri Sarada Peetham (Sringeri) and Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham (Kanchipuram).

For articles about Advaita , see Darshana, Sanatana Dharma (look under philosophy), and Advaita-Vedanta.org.

For a modern Western approach to Advaita, and many links, see Nonduality Salon.

For criticisms of Advaita Vedanta from a dualistic Hindu point of view, search the Web under "Mayavada." (Mayavada is often used as a derogatory name for Advaita by its opponents.)

Illustration: Detail from Hide and Seek by Pavel Tchelitchew, 1940-42, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

This page was published on May 12, 2001 and last revised on March 4, 2004.