Advaita is entirely philosophically-based on reason and most importantly on our common shared experience. Advaita does not demand of you any kind of belief, it does not demand of you any kind of extraordinary mystical experience, it just demands of you that you are conscious and then look at the structure of our conscious experience—a subject and an object.

I am the mind, right? No, not really. How many times the mind has woken up in the morning, how many times the mind dreamt, how many times the mind slept—and you are the witness of all of them.

‘I feel that I am trapped in the mind.’ What notices this feeling of being trapped in the mind? Is that one trapped in the mind? … That one is not trapped in the mind. Never was.

‘Free will’ is a contradiction in terms the moment you speak about ‘will’—will is always caused, and anything that is caused is determined.

Subject and object are both in consciousness, so it’s not an individual subject which dreams up the entire objective universe.

When we make this division that whatever you experience is an object, very soon we begin to see that the things we experience in the world ‘out there’ are objects but then our body is an object too … And, even more stunning, mind is an object—thoughts, feelings, emotions. Clearly objects come in two varieties: one is a publicly shared (what you can see around you), and one is the first-person private set of objects (memories, thoughts, pleasure, pain, the very personality itself).

Consciousness alone is the reality and that which we take to be the non-conscious—matter, time, space, bodies, this world—these are appearances in consciousness, not apart from consciousness. Just like a dream when you go to sleep and dream—all the things that you see in the dream have no existence apart from your own mind. In the same way, this entire universe which we experience has no existence apart from consciousness … There is no reasonable, logical answer within the dream for a dream.

From this point of view, the universe is not produced, and it is not destroyed. It is nothing other than you. It appears in you, it shines in you, and it disappears within you.

Being itself, existence itself, isness itself manifests now as planets and stars, quarks and protons, whales and human beings—all of these are a network of names and forms drawn upon that primal isness, the being … Maya just draws a network of names and forms over you including this particular body and mind. We say, ‘I am this body and mind’ … But, as far as the substance, the reality, is concerned, it’s still that primal isness.

There are religions which are self-inquiry based—based on self-inquiry into ‘What am I?’ … They are all based on inward inquiry.

Notice how much effort is put forth in trying to convince others and yourself God exists. In contrast, nowhere you will find any effort put forward to prove that I exist. Nobody really doubts his or her own existence. If you doubt, then who is the one doubting? That one exists … The advantage of the thou-centered approach is that there’s no doubt that I exist. But the problem is this: I exist, but my existence is a miserable existence.

Shankara’s commentary on the Brahma Sutra is the foundation of Advaita Vedanta, nondual Vedanta … ‘Nondual’ means apart from you—that real Self—there is no other thing. You are the only reality that exists. Apart from you, there is no second thing. If there is not two, a very interesting consequence is then everything that we see around you must be, in some sense, you only—not not apart from you … Consciousness is nondual meaning there is no second thing apart from consciousness … In you the consciousness, the entire universe is an appearance—not a second thing apart from you, hence you are that nondual consciousness … Oneness at the core expressed as the many—then what we have to practice is the harmony of the many.

There is an absolute reality, this world is an appearance of that reality, and you are that absolute reality.

Vedanta understands the spiritual journey as a journey from ignorance to knowledge. From not knowing, not realizing, to knowing and realizing what I am, what this universe is, what is the point of all of this.

Vedanta shows you how you are not the body-mind-intellect. The moment you see that I am not any of them—the limitations imposed by body-mind-intellect—when they disappear you realize your infinite Self which is one with God. When you realize that, you see that not only is there no problem, there never has been. This whole conception of a problem and trying to get out of a problem is what is called ‘maya’ in Advaita Vedanta … When you inquire into the thou, into the individual, what do you come across? The divinity within us—not body, not mind—beyond body and mind … According to Advaita Vedanta, it’s one divinity … Vedanta says that which is beyond body and mind, right here, is one.

The real Self is not an object of the senses: you can’t see it, you can’t hear it, you can’t smell it, you can’t touch it, you can’t taste it.

All the Abrahamic religions are God-centered, theistic religions. And, because this is the only kind of religion that the West has been used to, they find something like Buddhism very confusing. How can you have a religion without God? Whereas in India it’s no problem at all. Buddhism has been there for 2500 years, Jainism even before that … In Buddhism, there is no talk about God. It’s openly agnostic. In Jainism, there is no talk about God.

This universe which you experience, you are experiencing it in your consciousness. In your consciousness, no universe is born—it appears. No universe is produced. No universe actually evolves. It appears, it is experienced, it disappears.

In the ultimate reality, there is no question of will. What would the absolute will about? How would the absolute will anything? Willing is in the mind.

To think that I am this waking body and mind, this person, is an error based on ignorance of Turiya, my real Self … You think of yourself as this person—this seems to be the indubitable truth for us. What Vedanta claims is if you investigate in this method of the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, you will come across the real you—not this person but the witness of this person, the Turiya in which this person is arising, shining, and falling again.

When you know yourself truly as you are, you will know the reality … Our reality is the ultimate reality. God is our own reality. You are Brahman. This is the ultimate reality.

Advaita says the entire universe is an object, known and unknown, appearing in consciousness—not distinct from consciousness, not constituting a countable second to consciousness. It’s not actually a second entity apart from consciousness, just as waves are not a countable second apart from water … All the universe, known and unknown, is nothing but consciousness appearing to itself as its own objects, and therefore not two, non-dual.

You are not really the waker. You are not really the dreamer. You are not the deep sleeper … Waking, dreaming, and deep sleep keep coming and going throughout our days, but behind it is one common consciousness, one common awareness.