The school of the Upanishads' end: the systematic reading of the Brahma Sutras that produced Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, and Dvaita, and stands as the sixth darshana.
Vedanta is both a darshana among the six and the philosophical seedbed of the great devotional schools. Its acharyas read the same three founding texts and reached opposed conclusions about whether the self and God are one, qualifiedly one, or eternally two.
This movement also stands under The Six Darshanas, because a movement crosses branches and is never forced into one.
Sub-branch / Family
Sub-branch / Family
Advaita Vedanta
Shankara's non-dualism: Brahman alone is real, the self is Brahman, and liberation is the knowledge that dissolves the difference.
Sub-branch / Family
Dvaita Vedanta
Madhva's dualism: God and self are eternally distinct, and the hierarchy of beings is real, against every monism.
Sub-branch / Family
Vishishtadvaita Vedanta
Ramanuja's qualified non-dualism: the self is real, sustained as the body of God, and devotion to Narayana is the way of release.
Divisions inside Vedanta
- The Vedanta Schools' Polemic, 8th to 13th centuries
Sources
Primary
- Badarayana, the Brahma Sutras; the principal Upanishads.
Secondary
- Swami Gambhirananda translations and studies of the Vedantic schools.