Advaita Meditation

Advaita in Sanskrit means "not two". It is the non-dualistic doctrine of Hinduism that affirms the unity between the soul (Atman) and the Absolute (Brahmin). The Indian philosopher Shankara (788-820) shaped this doctrine from the Upanishads (sacred texts that reformed the Vedas) and from the texts of his own master Gaudapada. This philosophy analyses the three states of consciousness - waking, dreaming and deep sleep - and concludes that the world has a "relative" reality. It establishes that all souls are God, that Brahman (God) is the only reality of existence: apart from Him, everything is illusion, transitory and impermanent. Due to the illusion of ignorance the soul believes that it is a body, that it exists separately from God and is different from Him. When it frees itself from this false identification, it discovers that there is no difference between it and God. It maintains that the Supreme Reality has no attributes or qualities. The perception of the multiple is due to the mental act of conceptualizing, dividing into parts that which is never in its own nature divided.