guṇa & the ability to discern
Satya (Real, Eternal) from
Mithya (Unreal, Changing), just as the mythical swan
Paramahamsa discerns milk from water. Classical Advaita Vedānta states that all reality and everything in the experienced world has its root in Brahman, which is unchanging intelligent Consciousness. To Advaitins, there is no duality between a Creator and the created universe. All objects, all experiences, all matter, all consciousness, all awareness are somehow also this one fundamental reality Brahman. Yet, the knowing self has various experiences of reality during the waking, dream and dreamless states, and Advaita Vedānta acknowledges and admits that from the empirical perspective there are numerous distinctions. Advaita explains this by postulating different levels of reality, and by its theory of errors (
anirvacaniya khyati).
Darśana (view) – central concerns Vedānta is one of the six classical
Hindu darśanas, the Indian traditions of religious philosophy and practice which accept the authority of the Vedas. The various schools of Vedanta aim to harmonise the diverging views presented in the
Prasthantrayi, the Principal Upanishads, along with the
Brahma Sutras and the
Bhagavad Gitā, offering an integrated body of textual interpretations and religious practices which aim at the attainment of
moksha, release or liberation from transmigratory existence.
Rejection of samkhya-dualism The Brahma Sutras, the constituting text of the Vedanta-tradition, rejects the
purusha-
prakriti dualism of the samkhya-tradition, and "much of the
Brahmasutra appears to have been written to refute the perspective of the Samkhya school."
Samkhya postulates two independent primal principles,
purusha (primal consciousness) and
prakriti (nature, which includes both matter and cognition and emotions). In samkhya,
prakriti consists of three qualities (
Guṇas), which are in balance, until they come in contact with
purusha and the equilibrium is disturbed. From this
pradhana then evolves the material universe, distinct from
purusha, thereby postulating
purusha as the efficient cause of all existence, and
prakriti as its material cause or origin. While closely related to
Samkhya, the Advaita Vedānta tradition rejects this dualism, instead stating that reality cannot evolve from an inert, consciousness- and intelligence-less principle or essence. Brahman, which is intelligent and consciousness, is the sole reality, "that from which the origination, subsistence, and dissolution of this universe proceed," as stated in the second verse of the Brahman Sutras. In Samkhya,
purusha is the efficient cause, and
prakriti is the material cause:
purusha causes
prakriti to manifest as the natural world. Advaita, like all Vedanta schools, states that Brahman, consciousness, is both the efficient and the material cause, that from which the material universe evolves. Yet, in the Brahmasutras Brahma is a dynamic force, while the Advaita-tradition regards Brahman as an "essentially unchanging and static reality," since Brahman changing into something else would mean that Brahman would not exist anymore, while a partial change would leave Brahman divided.
Theoretical difficulties By accepting that Brahman is the sole, unchanging reality, various theoretical difficulties arise which are not answered by the Brahmasutras, which asserts that the Upanishadic views have to be accepted due to their scriptural authority, "regardless of logical problems and philosophical inconsistencies." Advaita and other Vedānta traditions face several problems, for which they offer different solutions. According to Deutsch and Dalvi, "The basic problem of Vedanta [is] the relation between the plural, complex, changing phenomenal world and the Brahman in which it substantially subsists." According to Mayeda, following the post-Shankara predicate
sat-cit-ananda, three problems emerge. First, how did Brahman, which is
sat ('existence'), without any distinction, become manifold material 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. To solve these questions, Shankara introduced the concept of "Unevolved Name-and-Form," or primal matter corresponding to
Prakriti, from which the world evolves, coming close to Samkhya dualism. 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)." In this view, Brahman alone is real, and the phenomenal world is an appearance (
maya) or "an unreal manifestation (
vivarta) of Brahman."
Prakasatmans (13th c.) defense of
vivarta to explain the origin of the world, which declared phenomenal reality to be an
illusion, became the dominant explanation, with which the primacy of Atman/Brahman can be maintained.
Relation between jivatman and Atman/Brahman A main question in all schools of Vedanta is the relation between the individual self (
jiva) and
Atman/
Brahman. As Shankara and his followers regard Atman/Brahman to be the ultimate Real,
jivanatman is "ultimately [to be] of the nature of Atman/Brahman." This truth is established from a literal reading of selected parts of the oldest
Principal Upanishads and
Brahma Sutras, and is also found in parts of the
Bhagavad Gitā and numerous other Hindu texts, and is regarded to be self-evident. Great effort is made to show the correctness of this reading, and its compatibility with reason and experience, by criticizing other systems of thought.
Vidya, correct knowledge or understanding of the identity of
jivan-ātman and
Brahman, destroys or makes null
avidya ('false knowledge'), and results in
liberation.
Three levels of Reality/truth Shankara proposes three levels of reality, using sublation as the ontological criterion: • ''
(paramartha'', absolute), the Reality that is metaphysically true and ontologically accurate. It is the state of experiencing that "which is absolutely real and into which both other reality levels can be resolved". This reality is the highest; it can't be sublated (assimilated) by any other. Ultimate reality only consists of Brahman. Everything else is like a dream. • ''
(vyavahara
), or samvriti-saya
, consisting of the empirical or pragmatical reality. It is ever changing over time, thus empirically true at a given time and context but not metaphysically true. It is "our world of experience, the phenomenal world that we handle every day when we are awake". It is the level in which both jiva (living creatures or individual Selfs) and Iswara are true; here, the material world is also true but this is incomplete reality and is sublatable. Vyāvahārika
reality results from superimposing ignorance on Brahman, like seeing a snake instead of a rope. of the individual. It is caitanya
, Pure Consciousness, a consciousness, states Sthaneshwar Timalsina, that is "self-revealed, self-evident and self-aware (svaprakashata'')," and, states Payne, "in some way permanent, eternal, absolute or unchanging." It is self-existent awareness, limitless and non-dual. It is "a stable subjectivity, or a unity of consciousness through all the specific states of individuated phenomenality." Ātman, states Eliot Deutsch, is the "pure, undifferentiated, supreme power of awareness", it is more than thought, it is a state of being, that which is conscious and transcends subject-object divisions and momentariness. According to Ram-Prasad, "it" is not an object, but "the irreducible essence of being [as] subjectivity, rather than an objective self with the quality of consciousness." According to Shankara, it is self-evident and "a matter not requiring any proof" that Atman, the 'I', is 'as different as light is from darkness' from non-Atman, the 'you' or 'that', the material world whose characteristics are mistakenly superimposed on Atman, resulting in notions as "I am this" and "This is mine." Turiya is the state of liberation, where states Advaita school, one experiences the infinite (
ananta) and non-different (
advaita/abheda), that is free from the dualistic experience, the state in which
ajativada, non-origination, is apprehended. According to Candradhara Sarma, Turiya state is where the foundational Self is realized, it is measureless, neither cause nor effect, all pervading, without suffering, blissful, changeless, self-luminous, real, immanent in all things and transcendent. Those who have experienced the Turiya stage of self-consciousness have reached the pure awareness of their own non-dual Self as one with everyone and everything, for them the knowledge, the knower, the known becomes one, they are the
Jivanmukta. Advaita traces the foundation of this ontological theory in more ancient Sanskrit texts. For example, chapters 8.7 through 8.12 of
Chandogya Upanishad discuss the "four states of consciousness" as awake, dream-filled sleep, deep sleep, and beyond deep sleep. One of the earliest mentions of
Turiya, in the Hindu scriptures, occurs in verse 5.14.3 of the
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The idea is also discussed in other early Upanishads.
Svayam prakāśa (self-luminosity) In the Advaita tradition, consciousness is svayam prakāśa, "self-luminous," which means that "self is pure awareness by nature." According to Dasgupta, it is "the most fundamental concept of the Vedanta." According to
T. R. V. Murti, the Vedanta concept is explained as follows: According to Jonardon Ganeri, the concept was introduced by the Buddhist philosopher
Dignāga (c.480–c.540 CE), and accepted by the Vedanta tradition; according to Zhihua Yao, the concept has older roots in the
Mahasanghika school.
Brahman According to Advaita Vedānta,
Brahman is the true Self, consciousness, awareness, intelligent, possessed with will, and the only Reality (
Sat). Brahman is
Paramarthika Satyam, "Absolute Truth" or absolute Real. It is That which is
unborn and unchanging, and immortal. Other than
Brahman, everything else, including the universe, material objects and individuals, are ever-changing and therefore
maya. Brahman is "not sublatable", which means it cannot be superseded by a still higher reality: In Advaita, Brahman is the substrate and cause of all changes. Refuting samkhya, which considers
pradhana or prakriti the material cause (primal matter) and purusha the efficient cause, in Advaita Vedanta Brahman is considered to be the material cause and the efficient cause of all that exists. The Brahma Sutras I.1.2 state that Brahman is: Advaita's Upanishadic roots state Brahman's qualities to be
Sat-cit-ānanda, "true being-consciousness-bliss," or "Eternal Bliss Consciousness". A distinction is made between
nirguna Brahman, formless Brahman, and
saguna Brahman, Brahman with form, that is,
Ishvara, God.
Nirguna Brahman is undescribable, and the Upanishadic
neti neti ('not this, not that' or 'neither this, nor that') negates all conceptualizations of Brahman.
Vyāvahārika (conventional reality) – Avidya and '''' Avidyā (ignorance) Avidyā is a central tenet of Shankara's Advaita, and became the main target of Ramanuja's criticism of Shankara. In Shankara's view, avidyā is
adhyasa, "the superimposition of the qualities of one thing upon another." As Shankara explains in the
Adhyasa-bhasya, the introduction to the
Brahmasutrabhasya: Due to
avidya, we're steeped in
loka drsti, the empirical view. From the beginning we only perceive the empirical world of multiplicity, taking it to be the only and true reality. Due to avidyā there is ignorance, or nescience, of the real Self,
Atman/Brahman, mistakenly identifying the Self with the body-mind complex. With
parmartha drsti ignorance is removed and
vidya is acquired, and the Real, distinctionless Brahman is perceived as the True reality. The notion of avidyā and its relationship to Brahman creates a crucial philosophical issue within Advaita Vedānta thought: how can avidyā appear in Brahman, since Brahman is pure consciousness? For Shankara,
avidya is a perceptual or psychological error. According to Satchidanandendra Saraswati, for Shankara "
avidya is only a technical name to denote the natural tendency of the human mind that is engaged in the act of superimposition." The later tradition diverged from Shankara by turning
avidya into a metaphysical principle, namely
mulavidya or "root ignorance," a metaphysical substance which is the "primal material cause of the universe (
upadana)," thereby setting aside Shankara's 'Unevolved Name-and-Form' as the explanation for the existence of materiality. According to Mayeda, "[i]n order to save monism, they characterized
avidya as indefinable as real or unreal (
sadasadbhyam anirvacanya), belonging neither to the category of being nor to that of non-being." In the 20th century, this theory of
mulavidya became a point of strong contention among Advaita Vedantins, with
Satchidanandendra Saraswati arguing that Padmapada and Prakasatman had misconstrued Shanakara's stance. Shankara did not give a 'location' of
avidya, giving precedence to the removal of ignorance. Sengaku Mayeda writes, in his commentary and translation of
Adi Shankara's Upadesasahasri: The later Advaita-tradition diverged from Shankara, trying to determinate a locus of
avidya, with the Bhamati-school locating
avidya in the
jiva c.q.
prakriti, while the Vivarana-school locates it in Brahman.
'''' (appearance) In Advaita Vedanta, the perceived empirical world, "including people and other existence," is Māyā, "appearance." Jiva, conditioned by the human mind, is subjected to experiences of a subjective nature, and misunderstands and interprets the physical, changing world as the sole and final reality. Due to
avidya, we take the
phenomenal world to be the final reality, while in Reality only
Sat ( True Reality, Brahman) is Real and unchanging. While Shankara took a realistic stance, and his explanations are "remote from any connotation of illusion," the 13th-century scholar
Prakasatman, founder of the influential
Vivarana school, introduced the notion that the world is illusory. According to Hacker, maya is not a prominent theme for Shankara, in contrast to the later Advaita tradition, and "the word
maya has for [Shankara] hardly any terminological weight."
Five koshas (sheaths) Due to avidya, atman is covered by
koshas (sheaths or bodies), which hide man's true nature. According to the
Taittiriya Upanishad, the Atman is covered by five koshas, usually rendered "sheath". They are often visualized like the layers of an onion. From gross to fine the five sheaths are: • Annamaya kosha, physical/food sheath •
Pranamaya kosha, life-force sheath • Manomaya kosha, mental sheath •
Vijnanamaya kosha, discernment/wisdom sheath •
Anandamaya kosha, bliss sheath (
Ananda)
Parinamavada and vivartavada - causality and change Cause and effect are an important topic in all schools of
Vedanta. Two sorts of causes are recognised, namely , the
efficient cause, that which causes the existence of the universe, and , the
material cause, that from which the matery of this universe comes. All schools of Vedānta agree that Brahman is both the material and the efficient cause, and all subscribe to the theory of
Satkāryavāda, which means that the effect is pre-existent in the cause. There are different views on the origination of the empirical world from Brahman. All commentators "agree that Brahman is the cause of the world," but disagree on how exactly Brahman is the cause of the world. According to Nicholson, "Mediaeval Vedantins distinguished two basic positions."
Parinamavada is the idea that the world is a real transformation (
parinama) of Brahman.
Vivartavada is the idea that The
Brahma Sutras, the ancient Vedantins, most sub-schools of Vedānta, as well as Samkhya argue for
parinamavada. The "most visible advocates of Vivartavada," states Nicholson, are the Advaitins, the followers of Shankara. "Although the world can be described as conventionally real", adds Nicholson, "the Advaitins claim that all of Brahman's effects must ultimately be acknowledged as unreal before the individual self can be liberated". Yet, Adi Shankara himself most likely explained causality through
parinamavada. In Shankara's works "
Brahman constitutes the basic essence (
svabhava) of the universe (BS Bh 3.2.21) and as such the universe cannot be thought of as distinct from it (BS Bh 2.1.14)." In Shankara's view, then, "The world is real, but only in so far as its existence is seen as totally dependent upon
Brahman." Shankara introduced the concept of "Unevolved Name-and-Form," or primal matter corresponding to
Prakriti, from which the world evolves, but this concept was not adopted by the later Advaita tradition. Vivartavada became the dominant explanation, with which the primacy of Atman/Brahman can be maintained. Scholars such as Hajime Nakamura and Paul Hacker already noted that Adi Shankara did not advocate
Vivartavada, and his explanations are "remote from any connotation of illusion". It was the 13th-century scholar Prakasatman, who founded the influential
Vivarana school, who gave a definition to
vivarta, introducing the notion that the world is illusory. It is Prakasatman's theory that is sometimes misunderstood as Adi Shankara's position. Andrew Nicholson concurs with Hacker and other scholars, adding that the
vivarta-vada isn't Shankara's theory, that Shankara's ideas appear closer to
parinama-vada, and the
vivarta explanation likely emerged gradually in Advaita subschool later. ==Ethics==