Knowra Vedanta Vedanta Vedanta is a family of Hindu philosophical schools grounded in the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Brahma Sutras. Its schools differ over the nature of ultimate reality, the self, and liberation.
Advaita Vedanta : A nondual Vedanta school that regards Brahman as ultimate reality and the individual self as ultimately identical with it. Its account of nonduality is the most influential contrast with Vedanta’s theistic and pluralist interpretations.
Upanishads : Late Vedic texts that explore ritual, self, ultimate reality, and liberation through dialogue and philosophical inquiry. Vedanta takes the Upanishads as its foundational scriptural source.
Shankara : An influential Indian philosopher and commentator traditionally dated to the eighth century, associated with Advaita Vedanta. His commentaries gave Advaita Vedanta a systematic and enduring form.
Jnana yoga : A spiritual discipline that seeks liberation through knowledge and discernment of the self and ultimate reality. Advaita Vedanta especially emphasizes liberating knowledge of the self’s relation to Brahman.
Vedic literature : The corpus of texts composed in ancient India that forms the oldest scriptural foundation of Hindu traditions. The Upanishads, Vedanta’s earliest core texts, belong to this wider Vedic corpus.
Vishishtadvaita : A Vedanta school that understands individual selves and the world as real, dependent modes of Brahman. It affirms unity while preserving real distinctions between Brahman, selves, and the world.
Brahma Sutras : A terse collection of aphorisms that organizes and interprets the teachings of the Upanishads. Vedanta schools build their competing interpretations around this foundational collection.
Ramanuja : An Indian philosopher and theologian traditionally dated to the eleventh and twelfth centuries, associated with Vishishtadvaita. His interpretation established a major theistic alternative within Vedanta.
Bhakti yoga : A spiritual discipline centered on loving devotion to a personal deity. Theistic Vedanta traditions make devotion to God a direct path toward liberation.
Bādarāyaṇa : The traditional author associated with the Brahma Sutras, a foundational text of Vedanta. The Brahma Sutras attributed to him became a shared basis for later school-making.
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