By Swami Harshananda
Brahmādvaita-vāda literally means ‘the school that teaches Brahman, the one without a second’.
All the schools of Vedanta posit Brahman, the Absolute, as the primary reality. However, it is the Advaita Vedānta school of Śaṅkara (A. D. 788-820) that considers Brahman, not just the primary reality, but also the only reality and that it is ‘advaita,’ ‘the one without a second’.
This proposition seems to have been put forward not only as the most essential teaching of the Upaniṣads, but also to counter the Sabdādvaita-vāda of the grammar schools which propounded that ‘Sabda’ or the ‘Word’ was the sole origin of the universe.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore