What is Advaita Vedanta, and how does it differ from the other Vedanta schools?

Advaita (Shankara)

Shankara reads the Upanishad's words to Svetaketu, “It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it” (Chandogya 6.8.7), as a plain statement of identity: the self of each person is the one Brahman. Ignorance (avidya) makes the one reality seem many. Knowledge, not ritual action, removes ignorance, and that knowledge is liberation. On Gita 2.12 he says the plural “we” refers to many bodies, not to many selves.

Sources for this reading

• Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7, in F. Max Müller (tr.), The Upanishads, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879). Müller died 1900: public domain. Quoted verbatim. (p. 101 (leaf n212), checked on the page image)
• George Thibaut (tr.), The Vedânta-Sûtras with the Commentary by Sankarâkârya, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 34, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1890): Thibaut's account of Shankara's teaching (the student whom “That art thou” has taught that there is no difference between his true Self and the highest Self), and Shankara on Brahma Sutra 1.2.6 (the one Self seems many through its adjuncts until “That art thou” teaches that the Self is one). Thibaut died 1914: public domain. Summarised in our words. (Introduction, pp. xxv–xxvii (leaves n26–n28); commentary on 1.2.6, p. 113 (leaf n242))
• Chhandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 in Devanagari (स आत्मा तत्त्वमसि श्वेतकेतो), in Srisa Chandra Vasu (tr.), The Chhandogya Upanisad with the Commentary of Sri Madhvacharya (Sacred Books of the Hindus, vol. 3, Allahabad: Panini Office, issued in parts 1909–1910; title page of part I, leaf n1, dated 1909). Vasu died 1918 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srisa_Chandra_Vasu, “March 20, 1861 – June 23, 1918”): public domain. Cited for the printed Sanskrit words quoted in the Hindi. (Mantra 6.8.7, p. 409 (leaf n411), checked on the page image)
• Bhagavad Gita, 2.12
• The Bhagavad-Gita, with the commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, translated by A. Mahadeva Sastri (2nd ed., Mysore: G. T. A. Printing Works, 1901) (commentary on 2.12, p. 14: the plural refers to the bodies, not to more than one Self; and on 2.16)
• Sangeetha Menon, “Advaita Vedanta”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Cited, not copied.

Vishishtadvaita (Ramanuja)

Ramanuja agrees that there is one Brahman, but holds that souls and matter are real and eternal, and form Brahman's body, as a body belongs to the soul within it. He reads “Thou art that” to mean that Brahman is the inner Self of Svetaketu, not that the two are simply the same. The world is real, and the Lord, Narayana, is full of good qualities. On Gita 2.12 he reads the verse as teaching that the souls are many and each is distinct from the Lord.

Sources for this reading

• George Thibaut (tr.), The Vedânta-Sûtras with the Commentary of Râmânuja (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 48, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1904), on 1.1.1 (“Thou art that”: Brahman constitutes Svetaketu's Self). Thibaut died 1914: public domain. Summarised in our words; read in the Motilal Banarsidass photographic reprint on archive.org. (commentary on 1.1.1, p. 78 (“Thou art that”) and pp. 134–135 (souls and matter constitute Brahman's body))
• George Thibaut, Introduction to The Vedânta-Sûtras with the Commentary by Sankarâkârya, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 34, 1890): Ramanuja's teaching as Thibaut sets it out beside Shankara's (matter and souls real and eternal, the body of the Lord, who is “endowed with all imaginable auspicious qualities”). Public domain. Summarised in our words. (pp. xxvii–xxxi (leaves n28–n32))
• Bhagavad Gita, 2.12
• Sri Bhagavad-Gita with Sri Ramanujacharya's Visishtadvaita commentary, translated by A. Govindacharya (Madras, 1898) (commentary on 2.12, pp. 33–35: the verse declares that the soul is distinct from the Lord and that souls are many)
• Shyam Ranganathan, “Rāmānuja (c. 1017 – c. 1137)”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Cited, not copied.

Dvaita (Madhva)

Madhva teaches that Vishnu alone is independent, and everything else depends on him. He holds five lasting differences: between God and souls, God and matter, one soul and another, souls and matter, and one material thing and another. He divides the same Upanishad line so that it reads “atat tvam asi”, “thou art not that”: the soul is never the same as God.

Sources for this reading

• S. Subba Rau (tr.), The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sri Madhwacharya (Madras: Thompson and Co., 1904), introduction: Vishnu alone is the one independent reality; all else is dependent reality. Summarised, not quoted. Public domain in the US (published 1904). India and UK status not confirmed: the translator's death year has not been found. (introduction, pp. x–xi (leaves n14–n15), checked on the page images)
• Srisa Chandra Vasu (tr.), The Chhandogya Upanisad with the Commentary of Sri Madhvacharya (Sacred Books of the Hindus, vol. 3, Allahabad: Panini Office, 1909–1910): Madhva divides “Sa atma tat tvam asi” as sa, atma, atat, tvam, asi, “thou art not that”; the word gloss prints अतत्, “not that”. Vasu died 1918: public domain. Summarised in our words. (Mantra 6.8.7 and its explanation, pp. 409 and 414–415 (leaves n411, n416–n417), checked on the page images)
• Valerie Stoker, “Madhva (1238—1317)”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (the five-fold difference, pancabheda; the reading atat tvam asi). Cited, not copied.

Other Vedanta schools

Other teachers built other Vedanta schools on the same three texts. Bhaskara and Nimbarka taught that the soul is both different and not different from Brahman (bhedabheda). Vallabha, founder of a Vaishnava devotional path, taught a “pure non-dualism” (shuddhadvaita). The followers of Chaitanya teach that the relation of the Lord and his energies is “inconceivable difference and non-difference” (achintya-bhedabheda).

Sources for this reading

• George Thibaut (tr.), The Vedânta-Sûtras with the Commentary of Râmânuja (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 48, 1904), on Brahma Sutra 2.1.15: those who “(like Bhaskara)” hold the difference of the soul and Brahman to be due to limiting conditions and their non-difference to be essential. Thibaut died 1914: public domain. Summarised in our words. (p. 459)
• R. G. Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Systems (Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner, 1913; title page leaf n1): Nimbarka (the world, the soul and God “distinct from one another as well as identical”); Vallabha, founder of the Pustimarga, and his “Suddhadvaita”; Chaitanya (the relation of Krishna and the soul “identity as well as difference”). Bhandarkar died 1925 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._G._Bhandarkar, “July 6, 1837 – August 24, 1925”): public domain. Summarised in our words. (pp. 63 (Nimbarka), 77–78 (Vallabha) and 84–85 (Chaitanya); leaves n65, n79–n80, n86–n87; checked on the page images)
• Andrew J. Nicholson, “Bhedabheda Vedanta”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Bhaskara, Yadavaprakasha and Nimbarka; Vallabha's Shuddhadvaita and his Pushtimarga; Chaitanya and the Acintya-Bhedabheda of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas (the “difference and non-difference of God and his powers”). Cited, not copied.

Sources

• George Thibaut, Introduction to The Vedânta-Sûtras with the Commentary by Sankarâkârya, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 34, 1890): Shankara's Brahman and maya, and the world of many things as appearance. Public domain. Summarised in our words. (pp. xxv–xxvii (leaves n26–n28))
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Advaita” (Shankara: brahman alone real, the self nothing but brahman, release through insight into that identity). Read in the Wayback Machine copy (snapshot March 11, 2026). Cited, not copied.
• Shyam Ranganathan, “Rāmānuja (c. 1017 – c. 1137)”, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (individuals as modes of the body of Brahman). Cited, not copied.
• Bhagavad Gita, 2.16

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