The Canon · No. 058
Advaita Vedanta
Non-dualism
c.8th c. CE – present · Dharmic / Indian · Living · India; global influence on modern spirituality
V. THE MEDIEVAL WORLD — c.500 – 1500 CE
How many
Not counted as a denomination. Doctrinally dominant among Hindu intellectuals and the version of Hinduism most exported to the West.
Who began it
Adi Shankara (c.788–820 CE), who systematised earlier teaching from Gaudapada and the Upanishads and, by tradition, travelled India debating, founded four monastic seats at the compass points, and died at thirty-two.
What it is for
To recognise that the self you take yourself to be is not what you are, and that what you are was never bound.
What it worships
For practical purposes, any deity — Shankara's Smarta tradition worships five (or six) major deities as equally valid forms. At the highest level, nothing is worshipped, because worship requires two and there is only one.
What it holds
Brahman alone is real; the world is appearance; the self is Brahman. Atman and Brahman are numerically identical. The great sayings of the Upanishads are the proof texts: tat tvam asi (that thou art), aham brahmasmi (I am Brahman), prajnanam brahma (consciousness is Brahman). Maya — the world is not non-existent but is dependently, provisionally real, like a rope mistaken for a snake in dim light; the snake was never there and the fear was real. Two levels of truth: conventional (vyavaharika), where gods, worship and ethics all function normally, and absolute (paramarthika), where there is only undifferentiated consciousness. Ignorance (avidya), not sin, is the human problem, and knowledge (jnana), not works or devotion, is the remedy.
What it does
Shravana, hearing the teaching from a qualified teacher; manana, reasoning it through; nididhyasana, sustained contemplation until it is no longer an idea. Self-enquiry — Ramana Maharshi's question who am I? Renunciation (sannyasa) for the committed. Devotional practice is retained as preparation for those not yet ready for direct enquiry, which is a diplomatic position that has kept Advaita on good terms with the rest of Hinduism.
After death
Jivanmukti — liberation while still alive. The realised person continues to live out the momentum of past karma like a potter's wheel still spinning after the potter stops, and at death there is no further rebirth, because there was never a separate individual to be reborn. What remains is not annihilation and not survival; both words assume a self that either persists or stops. Advaita's answer to the afterlife is to dissolve the question.
Its texts
The Prasthanatrayi — the ten principal Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita, with Shankara's commentaries on all three. Vivekachudamani and Upadesasahasri, attributed to Shankara. Gaudapada's Mandukya Karika.
Its branches
Classical Advaita (Shankara's mathas, Smarta brahmins); Kashmiri Pratyabhijna as a related but distinct non-dualism; modern Neo-Vedanta; Western Neo-Advaita.
Of note
Shankara's opponents accused him of being a crypto-Buddhist. The charge is unfair but not baseless: Advaita and Madhyamaka reach very similar places by opposite routes, one by affirming an absolute Self and the other by denying any self at all.
Its timeline
- c.800–500 BCE Upanishads.
- c.6th–7th c. CE Gaudapada's non-dualism, showing clear engagement with Buddhist Madhyamaka.
- c.788–820 CE Shankara; the four mathas at Sringeri, Puri, Dwarka and Jyotirmath.
- 1017–1137, 1238–1317 CE Ramanuja and Madhva attack Advaita as effectively atheist and as making devotion meaningless. The three-way argument is the central debate of Indian philosophy.
- 1879–1950 CE Ramana Maharshi at Arunachala; silence and self-enquiry, with no formal organisation.
- 1893 CE Vivekananda presents Advaita at Chicago as the essence of Hinduism — a presentation that shaped what the world thinks Hinduism is.
- 1970s–present Neo-Advaita in the West: the conclusion (there is no self, nothing to attain) taught without the preparatory discipline. Traditional teachers regard this as skipping the entire path and keeping only the last sentence.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.