Advaita Vedanta

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Advaita Vedanta is a way in which people believe in Hinduism. People who believe in Advaita believe that their soul is never really separate from God. The Hindi word for soul is Atman and the Hindi word for God is Brahman. The most famous Hindu philosopher was named Adi Shankara who lived in India more than a thousand years ago. Adi Shankara thought about his soul for a long time and then realized that his soul was really one with God. The way he said this to people was "Atman is Brahman."

Adi Shankara was very smart and so he was smart enough to know that people would wonder how he could say such an odd thing. He realized that many people would all ask him, "If a person's soul is really one with God all along, then what makes a person feel so separate from God?" His answer to this was that we are ignorant of our real self being God because we see through a kind of filter -- like looking through a dirty piece of glass -- and he called this filter that we look through maya, which means illusion in Hindi. Shankara said that our ignorance makes us feel very separate from God and even makes us feel separate from everything around us. Shankara suggested that the best way to find the truth is to try to clear your thinking of all ignorant thoughts, be very good, and think very hard about who you really are. He said that if a person did all these things he would realize that God was himself all along.

This is a very different idea from some other religions where we are told we are separate from God and need to go to Him. In Advaita, the idea is that you never really were separate from God, but your ignorance made you see it that way.

Not all Hindus believe in Advaita Vedanta. Many others believe there is a difference between a person's soul and God, just like in many other religions.

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