The metaphysics of Advaita Vedanta of Shankaracharya

The metaphysics of Advaita Vedanta of Shankaracharya is centred on the establishment of the reality of only the Brahman, showing that the world cannot have an independent being of its own and demonstrating that the being of the world is rooted in the Brahman. He accepts the Upanishadic doctrine that there is but One Reality which is infinite, eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, characteristic of which is Sat-Chit-Ananda (Absolute Being, Consciousness and Bliss)

Advaita propounds four levels of Being:

The lowest of the four levels is “insignificant being” (tuchcha satta). It includes merely imaginary, fanciful, self-contradictory, like the horns of a hare, or son of a barren woman etc. They belong to imagination and are shown to have no intrinsic reality.

The next higher level is the illusory being (pratibhasika satta) or apparent Being, like the mistaken notion of a rope to be a snake.

Higher than illusory Being is the pragmatic Being (vyavaharika satta) identified with empirical reality. It is the produced as a moral effect of our past actions (Karmas) which continue to bear fruit in life after life, till illusion is dispersed by illumination of the mind by spiritual knowledge of Brahman to the true Self of man.

The ultimate Being (paramarthika satta) is above all contradictions, the pinnacle of existence, uncontradicted, unchanged in past, present, and future.

The lower levels of being are illusory (Maya) arising out of mistaken notion of true Self to be the body, senses, mind and brain, and other subtler vehicles of the soul. Once this illusion is dispersed, realisation dawns that true Self to be none other than Brahman, the Supreme Being. Misconception of the Real to be unreal arises because of superimposition of the mistaken notion of Reality (adyasa), like mistaking a rope to be a snake.

The cosmic illusion is identified as Maya, and the individual illusion is called Avidya (Ignorance). Maya cannot be accepted as real since the illusion of Brahman sublates it, nether can it be called unreal as it is experienced by one and all until Brahman is realised. Hence it is ontologically indescribable (sadasat-vilakshhana). Maya is considered as positive entity (Bhavarupa). Its characteristic power is concealment of the true nature of Brahman (Avarana Sakti), and the projection of the world of multiplicity (vikshepa Sakti)

Advaita propounds that the only cognition which is free from error, and true, is that which uncontradictable (abhadya) is as absolutely true, and that only Brahman stands the test of truth. Hence it is called Advaita (Non-dualism).