Brahman

Main articles: Brahman and Satcitananda

According to Advaita Vedānta, Brahman is the true Self, consciousness, awareness, and the only
Reality (Sat).[147][148][149][note 28] Brahman is Paramarthika Satyam, "Absolute Truth"[150] or
absolute Reality.[151] It is That which is unborn and unchanging,[148][152] and immortal.[note 8]
Other than Brahman, everything else, including the universe, material objects and individuals, are
ever-changing and therefore maya. Brahma is "not sublatable",[147] which means it cannot be
superseded by a still higher reality:[153]

the true Self, pure consciousness [...] the only Reality (sat), since It is untinged by difference, the
mark of ignorance, and since It is the one thing that is not sublatable".[147]

In Advaita, Brahman is the substrate and cause of all changes.[148][152] Brahman is considered to
be the material cause[note 29] and the efficient cause[note 30] of all that exists.[154][155][156] The
Brahma Sutras I.1.2 state that Brahman is:

...that from which the origination, subsistence, and dissolution of this universe proceed.[157] [note
31]

Advaita's Upanishadic roots state Brahman's qualities[note 32] to be Sat-cit-ānanda,[159][160][161]

"true being-consciousness-bliss,"[161][162] or "Eternal Bliss Consciousness".[163][note 33] A
distinction is made between nirguna Brahman, formless Brahman, and saguna Brahman, Brahman
with form, that is, Ishvara, God. Nirguna Brahman is undescrible, and the Upanishadic neti neti
('not this, not that' or 'neither this, nor that') negates all conceptualizations of Brahman.[83][164]

Vyāvahārika (conventional reality) – Avidya and Māyā

Avidyā (ignorance)
Avidyā is a central tenet of Shankara's Advaita, and became the main target of Ramanuja's criticism
of Shankara.[165][166] In Shankara's view, avidyā is adhyasa, "the superimposition of the qualities
of one thing upon another."[167] As Shankara explains in the Adhyasa-bhasya, the introduction to
the Brahmasutrabhasya:

Owing to an absence of discrimination, there continues a natural human behaviour in the form of 'I
am this' or 'This is mine'; this is avidya. It is a superimposition of the attributes of one thing on
another. The ascertainment of the nature of the real entity by separating the superimposed thing
from it is vidya (knowledge, illumination).

Due to avidya, we're steeped in loka drsti, the empirical view.[168] From the beginning we only
perceive the empirical world of multiplicity, taking it to be the only and true reality.[168][169] Due
to avidyā there is ignorance, or nescience, of the real Self, Atman-Brahman, mistakingly identifying
the Self with the body-mind complex.[web 8] With parmartha drsti ignorance is removed and vidya
is acquired, and the Real, distinctionless Brahman is perceived as the True reality.[168]

The notion of avidyā and its relationship to Brahman creates a crucial philosophical issue within
Advaita Vedānta thought: how can avidyā appear in Brahman, since Brahman is pure
consciousness?[170] For Shankara, avidya is a perceptual or psychological error.[96] According to
Satchidanandendra Saraswati, for Shankara "avidya is only a technical name to denote the natural
tendency of the human mind that is engaged in the act of superimposition."[171] The later tradition
diverged from Shankara by turning avidya into a metaphysical principle, namely mulavidya or "root
ignorance," a metaphysical substance which is the "primal material cause of the universe
(upadana)," thereby setting aside Shankara's 'Unevolved Name-and-Form' as the explanation for the
existence of materiality.[96][172] According to Mayeda, "[i]n order to save monism, they
characterized avidya as indefinable as real or unreal (sadasadbhyam anirvacanya), belonging neither
to the category of being nor to that of non-being."[96] In the 20th century, this theory of mulavidya
became a point of strong contention among Advaita Vedantins, with Satchidanandendra Saraswati
arguing that Padmapada and Prakasatman had misconstrued Shanakara's stance.[173]

Shankara did not give a 'location' of avidya, giving precedence to the removal of ignorance.[174]
[note 34] Sengaku Mayeda writes, in his commentary and translation of Adi Shankara's
Upadesasahasri:

Certainly the most crucial problem which Sankara left for his followers is that of avidyā. If the
concept is logically analysed, it would lead the Vedanta philosophy toward dualism or nihilism and
uproot its fundamental position.[175]

The later Advaita-tradition diverged from Shankara, trying to determinate a locus of avidya,[176]
with the Bhamati-school locating avidya in the jiva c.q. prakriti, while the Vivarana-school locates it
in Brahman.[177][176]

Māyā (appearance)
In Advaita Vedanta, the perceived empirical world, "including people and other existence," is Māyā,
"appearance."[178][179] Jiva, conditioned by the human mind, is subjected to experiences of a
subjective nature, and misunderstands and interprets the physical, changing world as the sole and
final reality.[178] Due to avidya, we take the phenomenal world to be the final reality,[180] while in
Reality only Sat ( True Reality, Brahman) is Real and unchanging.[181]

While Shankara took a realistic stance, and his explanations are "remote from any connotation of
illusion," the 13th century scholar Prakasatman, founder of the influential Vivarana school,
introduced the notion that the world is illusory.[97][77][90] According to Hacker, maya is not a
prominent theme for Shankara, in contrast to the later Advaita tradition, and "the word maya has for
[Shankara] hardly any terminological weight."[182]

Five koshas (sheaths)

Due to avidya, atman is covered by koshas (sheaths or bodies), which hide man's true nature.
According to the Taittiriya Upanishad, the Atman is covered by five koshas, usually rendered
"sheath".[183] They are often visualised like the layers of an onion.[184] From gross to fine the five
sheaths are:

Annamaya kosha, physical/food sheath

Pranamaya kosha, life-force sheath
Manomaya kosha, mental sheath
Vijnanamaya kosha, discernment/wisdom sheath
Anandamaya kosha, bliss sheath (Ananda)
Parinamavada and vivartavada - causality and change
See also: Satkāryavāda, Ajativada, and Vivartavada
Cause and effect are an important topic in all schools of Vedanta.[note 35] Two sorts of causes are
recognised, namely Nimitta kāraṇa, the efficient cause, that which causes the existence of the
universe, and Upādāna kāraṇa, the material cause, that from which the matery of this universe
comes.[186] All schools of Vedānta agree that Brahman is both the material and the efficient cause,
and all subscribe to the theory of Satkāryavāda,[web 10] which means that the effect is pre-existent
in the cause.[187][note 36]

There are different views on the origination of the empirical world from Brahman. All
commentators "agree that Brahman is the cause of the world," but disagree on how exactly
Brahman is the cause of the world.[187] According to Nicholson, "Medieaval Vedantins
distinguisghed two basic positions." Parinamavada is the idea that the world is a real transformation
(parinama) of Brahman.[187] Vivartavada is the idea that

the world is merely an unreal manifestation (vivarta) of Brahman. Vivartavada states that although
Brahman appears to undergo a transformation, in fact no real change takes place. The myriad of
beings are unreal manifestation, as the only real being is Brahman, that ultimate reality which is
unborn, unchanging, and entirely without parts.[187]