Advaita Vedanta · 8th century CE
Shankaracharya: Brahman is real, the world is appearance
The individual self is none other than Brahman
ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः।
Brahman alone is real. The world is appearance. The individual self is none other than Brahman.
What this verse points to
The most compressed statement of Advaita, in three clauses. The middle one is the most misread: mithya does not mean the world is nonexistent or worthless, but that it has no independent standing of its own.
The third clause is what keeps the first two from being merely theoretical. Whatever is being said about reality is being said about the one reading the sentence.
Sit with it
Ask of one solid-seeming thing in your day: what would remain of it if nothing were aware of it?
About the Adi Shankaracharya
Adi Shankaracharya systematised Advaita Vedanta through commentaries on the principal Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita, alongside independent works and devotional hymns. He established monastic centres across the Indian subcontinent and died at around thirty-two.