According to Adi Shankara, God, the Supreme Cosmic Spirit or Brahman is the One, the whole and the only reality. Other than Brahman, everything else, including the universe, material objects and individuals, are mithya (i.e aspects that are superimposed on Brahman). Brahman is at best described as that infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent, incorporeal, impersonal, transcendent reality [...]
The scriptures are innumerable; the things to be known are many; the time at our disposal is short; the obstacles are too many. It is therefore important to grasp the essence and essence only. It is in this sense that we should approach the message of one-ness taught by the Advaita school led by Sankara.
Let me first attempt to state the questioner’s viewpoint. Unless mAyA is already present, neither concealment nor projection can take place. Is mAyA then coeval with brahman? Do they exist side by side? Does this not contradict the non-dual status of brahman? Where does mAyA operate? What is its base of operation? These questions raise [...]
According to Advaita Vedanta, moksha is obtained only through knowledge of identity with Brahman and not through any karma or upasana.
Support from Upanishads
Kaivalya Upanishad 3
– “It is through renunciation that a few seekers have attained immortality – not through rituals, not through progeny, not through wealth…..” (“ na karmana na prajaya na dhanena tyaganaike amrutatvamanasuh”).
Apart from karma, there is scope for free will ( called “purushartha”) in human lives. Good action and good thought can reduce papa and increase punya. Whether free will or karma will prevail or to what extent free will can mitigate karma depends on the relative strength of the two.
One of the fundamental tenets of Advaita Vedanta – indeed of all schools of philosophy in Hinduism – is that the sukshma sarira in which cidabhasa is always there survives the death of the sthoola sarira and is involved in transmigration from one world to another among the fourteen worlds (lokas) mentioned in Sastra and [...]
1. There are various Upanishad passages which talk of Brahman, the all pervading
consciousness as being available for recognition within the intellect or the mind. The
Upanishads also expressly state that Brahman is not only nondual (“advayam”) but
divisionless (“nirvikalpam”). Therefore Advaita Vedanta says that the atma in you, in
me, in other human beings, in the animals, the [...]
The central theme of the Upanishads is Brahman, called also Paramatma. It is a
conscious principle. The word for conscious principle in Sanskrit is “caitanyam” The
seminal sentence defining Brahman which occurs in Taittiriya Upanishad (II.1.ii) is
“satyam jnanam anantam Brahma.” In English, this is translated as “ existenceconsciousness-
infinity. ( Existence, consciousness and infinity are not three separate
entities; [...]
1. Let us start with finding answers to the questions raised in Party I. It is not difficult to understand that I am not the physical body . I can see the body. So, no thinking man will deny the fact, “ I am not the body.” “Am I the ‘prana’ (divided into prana, apana, [...]