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Advaita Vedanta is a school of Hindu religion. Advaita means 'not two'. Thus Advaita Vedanta is a non dual, monoistic doctrine which recognises the Unity of the universe, One, which is called Brahman.
The philosophy of Advaita derives from the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. Advaita Vedanta combines parts of the Upanishads into one all defining theory. Only the One Thing, Brahman, is real and everything else as illusory (maya).
Advaita asserts that Brahman and Atman (Atman corresponds in western philosophy as soul) are one and the same. This idea is expressed in the Upanishads, 'tat tvam asi (thou art that)'. To summarise, your inner self, your soul is God.
There was no single founder of Advaita Vedanta, but Sankaracarya (Sankara) 700 - 750 A.D. is recognised as an important teacher of Advaita. Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi is a more recent and famous follower of Advaita Vedanta.
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The essential identity of the Atman and brahman is the most important doctrine of Advaita. Brahman is the substratum on which all phenomena are experienced, and also the Antaryamin, the One Lord who dwells in all beings. The innermost Atman, the real Self, is the same as this Antaryamin, and identical to Brahman. Liberation (moksha) consists in realizing this identity, not just as a matter of literal or intellectual understanding, but as something that is to be grasped by the individual in his/her own personal experience. Yogic practices help in the road towards such realization, because they help the seeker in practising control of the senses, and in directing the antahkarana (the 'internal organ' - consisting of the mind, intellect, awareness and I-ness) inwards. The practice of ashtanga-yoga is recommended to seekers by teachers of advaita. The seeker has to be equipped with requisite qualifications - qualities such as patience, forbearance, ability to focus one's concentration in an intense manner, an ability to discriminate between the Real and the non-Real, dispassion, and a desire for liberation. However, it is important to remember that moksha is not a result of mere ritualistic practice. Being identical to brahman, moksha always exists. Ritualistic practices help only to the extent of achieving citta-Suddhi, and in developing the above-mentioned qualities.
Advaita is a non-dual teaching. When asked why duality is perceived in this world, advaita has a multi-pronged answer to the question. The world of multiplicity can be explained as due to maya, the power of creation wielded by the Creator, who is therefore also called the mayin. From the point of view of the individual, the perception of duality/multiplicity is attributed to avidya (ignorance) due to which the unity of brahman is not known, and multiplicity is seen instead. This is akin to the false perception of a snake in a rope. When the rope is known, the snake vanishes. Similarly, on brahman-realization, the world of multiplicity vanishes. This does not mean that the individual's ignorance creates the external world. However, the perception of multiplicity in the world, instead of the One brahman, is due to avidya, i.e. ignorance. When avidya is removed, the individual knows his own Self (Atman) to be brahman, so that there is no more world and paradoxically, no more individual. Here, the Self alone is. Removal of avidya is synonymous with brahman-realization, i.e. moksha.
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Sankara's system of thought is known as Advaita, a term that classifies it as nondualistic. Its central theme is an examination of the relation between Brahman, the divine power of the cosmos, and atman, the individual human self. Sankara held that reality is ultimately one and that the apparent plurality of the individual selves and entities of empirical existence is illusory: what seems to be an individual self, or atman, is in fact not essentially different from the one Self (Atman), just as the space contained in an individual jug or pitcher is not different from space as a whole. The one Self, he maintains, is identical with Brahman and the aim of the individual human being must be to obtain release from the illusory conceptions of the differentiated self by achieving a full realisation of the identity of Self with Brahman. (Collinson, Plant, Wilkinson, Fifty Eastern Thinkers, 2000)
Sankara derives much of his account of the nature of things from parts of the Upanishads that assert that there is a sense in which Brahman and atman are one. But within this fundamental unity he develops the notion of comprehending the world at two levels or from two points of view. This distinction permeates all his thought and provides the basic structure of his account of the nature of reality and human experience. At the higher level of comprehension, he maintains, it is possible to comprehend the ultimate oneness of reality; at the lower level, everyday experience leads us to think of reality as a multiplicity of individual persons and things and at this lower level there is no escape from samsara. Moksa, the release from samsara, is obtained only by an experiential realization of oneness at the higher level of comprehension. According to Sankara, the lower level of experience is maya, often translated as illusion. (Collinson, Plant, Wilkinson, Fifty Eastern Thinkers, 2000)
In a psychological sense maya is the human tendency to regard appearance as reality and reality as appearance. In an epistemological sense it signifies human ignorance concerning the difference between appearance and reality. In an ontological sense it refers to the creative power of Brahman. (Collinson, Plant, Wilkinson, Fifty Eastern Thinkers, 2000)
Sankara maintains that the world of appearances is neither real nor unreal. It is simply an incorrect conception of the true reality. (Collinson, Plant, Wilkinson, Fifty Eastern Thinkers, 2000)
At the base of Gandhi's system of beliefs is his view of the nature of ultimate reality. This he refers to not as Brahman (as is usual in advaitism) but as Satya (S: Truth), a term derived from sat, or Being, Satya or Truth alone can truly be said to be real:
'It is That which alone is, which constitutes the stuff of which all things are made, which subsists by virtue of its own power, which is not supported by anything else but supports everything that exists. Truth alone is eternal, everything else is momentary.' (Collinson, Plant, Wilkinson, Fifty Eastern Thinkers, 2000, quoting Gandhi)
Gandhi stresses that Truth is not a property of God, but is identical with God: 'it is more correct to say that Truth is God, than to say that God is Truth.' (Gandhi)
Further, where there is Truth there is knowledge (for which Gandhi uses the Sanksrit 'chit'), and where there is knowledge there is bliss (ananda), and so Gandhi can accept the classic Hindu description of ultimate reality as sat-chit-anada. (Collinson, Plant and Wilkinson, 2000)
What I want to achieve - what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years- is self-realisation, to see God face to face, to attain moksa (liberation). I live and move and have my being in pursuit of that goal. All that I do by way of speaking and writing, and all my ventures in the political field, are directed to this same end.(Fox, Towards a Transpersonal Ecology 1995, quoting Gandhi)
I am an Advatist and yet I can support Dvaitism (dualism). The world is changing every moment, and is therefore unreal, it has no permanent existence. But though it is constantly changing, it has something about it which persists and it is therefore to that extent real .. Joy or what men call happiness may be, as it really is, a dream in a fleeting and transitory world ... But we cannot dismiss the suffering of our fellow creatures as unreal and thereby provide a moral alibi for ourselves. Even dreams are true while they last and to the sufferer his suffering is a grim reality.(Fox, Towards a Transpersonal Ecology, 1995, quoting Gandhi)
Gandhi was committed to Advaita Vedanta (i.e. monistic or, more literally, nondual Hinduism), to the belief that all life comes from 'the one universal source, call it Allah, God or Parmeshwara.' He expressed this belief by conceiving of all entities as drops in the ocean of life:
'The ocean is composed of drops of water; each drop is an entity and yet it is a part of the whole; the one and the many. In this ocean of life, we are little drops. My doctrine means that I must identify myself with life, with everything that lives, that I must share the majesty of life in the presence of God. The sum-total of this life is God.' (Fox, Towards a Transpersonal Ecology, 1995, quoting Gandhi)
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