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Indian PhilosophyOS

Advaita Vedanta · Vedanta

आदि शङ्कराचार्य

Adi Shankaracharya

Traditionally 788–820 CE; many scholars prefer an earlier 8th-century or late 7th-century date. Dates are debated.
Editorial overview

Historical context

Shankara is the most influential systematiser of Advaita Vedanta. Traditional biographies (the Shankara-digvijaya texts, composed centuries later) describe his birth in Kerala, early renunciation, travels across India, debates with rival schools and founding of monastic centres (mathas); these accounts mix history and hagiography. His authentic works are commentaries (bhashyas) on the Brahma Sutras, the principal Upanishads and, most scholars accept, the Bhagavad Gita. Many popular hymns and short manuals carry his name, but their attribution is debated.

On attribution: The Brahma Sutra Bhashya, the Upadesha Sahasri and the principal Upanishad commentaries are widely accepted as his; the Gita Bhashya is accepted by most scholars. The Vivekachudamani, Tattva Bodha, Atma Bodha, Aparokshanubhuti, Bhaja Govindam and Nirvana Shatakam are traditionally attributed to him, but many scholars consider some or all of them later works of the Advaita tradition.

Core ideas

  • Brahman, pure consciousness, is the one reality; the individual Self (atman) is not different from Brahman
  • The world of multiplicity is maya: neither simply real nor simply unreal, an appearance dependent on Brahman
  • Bondage is due to avidya (ignorance), the superimposition (adhyasa) of the not-Self on the Self
  • Liberation comes through knowledge (jnana) arising from the Upanishads, not through ritual action alone
  • Two levels of truth: the empirical (vyavaharika), in which worship and duty are valid, and the ultimate (paramarthika)

Major works

Textब्रह्मसूत्रभाष्यBrahma Sutra Bhashya (Shankara)Shankara's commentary on the Brahma Sutras, the foundational systematic statement of Advaita Vedanta.Textगीताभाष्यGita Bhashya (Shankara)The oldest surviving complete commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, reading it as teaching liberation through knowledge of the Self.Textउपदेशसाहस्रीUpadesha Sahasri'A thousand teachings': a two-part manual on how to teach Advaita, in prose and in verse, and widely considered an authentic independent work of Shankara.TextविवेकचूडामणिVivekachudamaniA long verse dialogue between a teacher and a disciple, laying out the Advaita path from qualifications of the seeker to liberation.Textतत्त्वबोधTattva BodhaA short prose primer that defines the basic vocabulary of Vedanta in question-and-answer form.Textआत्मबोधAtma BodhaA short verse work on knowledge of the Self, using everyday images to show how the Self is distinguished from body and mind.Textअपरोक्षानुभूतिAparokshanubhutiA verse manual on 'direct realisation' of the Self, known for recasting the limbs of yoga in terms of Vedantic knowledge.Textभज गोविन्दम्Bhaja GovindamA popular devotional hymn, also called Moha Mudgara ('hammer of delusion'), urging the listener to turn from worldly preoccupations to God.Textनिर्वाणषट्कम्Nirvana ShatakamA six-verse hymn, also called Atma Shatakam, in which the speaker negates identification with mind, body, senses and roles, and affirms identity with Shiva as pure consciousness and bliss.Textऐतरेयोपनिषद्Aitareya UpanishadA short Rigvedic Upanishad telling how the Self created the worlds and entered the human body, and concluding that consciousness is Brahman.Textश्रीमद्भगवद्गीताBhagavad GitaA 700-verse dialogue in which Krishna counsels the warrior Arjuna, who has collapsed in despair on the battlefield, on action, the Self and devotion.Textब्रह्मसूत्रBrahma SutrasA collection of terse aphorisms that systematises the teaching of the Upanishads about Brahman and defends it against rival schools.Textबृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्Brihadaranyaka UpanishadThe longest and probably oldest Upanishad, a collection of dialogues and debates, many featuring Yajnavalkya, on the Self, Brahman, death and rebirth.Textछान्दोग्योपनिषद्Chandogya UpanishadA long prose Upanishad of the Samaveda, best known for Uddalaka's teaching to his son Shvetaketu that the Self is one with the underlying Being of all things.Textईशोपनिषद्Isha UpanishadA very short verse Upanishad that opens by seeing the whole world as pervaded by the Lord, and tries to reconcile renunciation with a life of action.Textकठोपनिषद्Katha UpanishadA dialogue in which the boy Nachiketa, sent to the realm of Death, asks Yama what happens after death and learns about the undying Self.Textकेनोपनिषद्Kena UpanishadNamed from its first word, 'by whom?', it asks what directs the mind and senses, and answers that it is what cannot itself be made an object of knowledge.Textमाण्डूक्यकारिकाMandukya KarikaA verse treatise on the Mandukya Upanishad and the earliest surviving systematic work of Advaita, arguing that nothing has ever truly come into being.Textमाण्डूक्योपनिषद्Mandukya UpanishadTwelve short prose statements that map the syllable Om onto waking, dream, deep sleep and a fourth state (turiya) identified with the Self.Textमुण्डकोपनिषद्Mundaka UpanishadA verse Upanishad that distinguishes 'lower' knowledge of the Vedas and sciences from the 'higher' knowledge by which the imperishable is known.Textप्रश्नोपनिषद्Prashna UpanishadSix seekers each put one question to the sage Pippalada, covering the origin of beings, the vital breath, sleep and dreaming, meditation on Om and the Self.Textतैत्तिरीयोपनिषद्Taittiriya UpanishadAn Upanishad in three sections covering recitation and student ethics, Brahman as truth, knowledge and bliss, and the five 'sheaths' of the person.Textज्ञानयोगJnana YogaVivekananda's lectures presenting Advaita Vedanta to Western audiences as a rational philosophy of knowledge and freedom.

Also: Commentaries on the principal Upanishads · Commentary on the Mandukya Karika (attribution discussed)

Concepts

Conceptब्रह्मन्BrahmanThe ultimate reality, the ground from which everything arises.Conceptआत्मन्Atman — the SelfThe innermost Self — what you are beneath body, mind and personality.ConceptमायाMayaThe power of appearance — why the world seems other than it is.Conceptअविद्याAvidya — ignoranceFundamental misunderstanding of oneself and reality — the root of bondage.Conceptज्ञानJnana — knowledgeLiberating knowledge — seeing reality and the Self as they are.ConceptविवेकVivekaDiscernment between the real and the unreal, the Self and the not-Self.Conceptअद्वैत / अद्वयNon-duality (advaya / advaita)The claim that reality is ultimately 'not two' — understood very differently across schools.Conceptनेति नेतिNeti neti — not this, not thisThe Upanishadic method of describing the ultimate by negating every limited description.Conceptसाक्षीSakshi — the witnessThe Self as the silent witness of the mind's changing states.Conceptमोक्षMoksha — liberationFinal freedom from bondage and the cycle of rebirth.

Philosophical disagreements

Presented so you can understand each side — not to declare a winner.

  • With Ramanujacharya

    Ramanuja rejects Shankara's doctrine of maya and the idea of an attributeless Brahman: for him the world and souls are real and form the 'body' of a Brahman rich in auspicious qualities, and the liberated soul remains distinct from God.

  • With Madhvacharya

    Madhva holds that difference between God, souls and matter is real and eternal, and argues against both the identity of jiva and Brahman and the unreality of the world.

  • With Purva Mimamsa

    Shankara argues against the Mimamsa view that the Veda is primarily about ritual action: the Upanishads, he holds, teach an already-existing reality, Brahman, known through knowledge rather than produced by action.

  • With Buddhist philosophy

    Shankara criticises Buddhist schools, including those that deny an enduring Self or an external world. Later Vedantic critics in turn accused his system of resembling Buddhism.

Lineage of ideas

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Related thinkers

गौडपादGaudapadaरामानुजाचार्यRamanujacharyaमध्वाचार्यMadhvacharyaरमण महर्षिRamana Maharshiस्वामी विवेकानन्दSwami Vivekananda

Traditions

अद्वैत वेदान्तAdvaita Vedantaवेदान्तVedanta