There are numerous and widespread misconceptions about Advaita Vedānta at present. Most people dismiss it as Solipsism or Idealism in which the external world doesn’t exist, although the world in Advaita exists as a TV imagery or a fantasy movie. The don’t have a an answer to the problem posed by temporality, namely that if the world was true then it should not change—after all, truth is eternal and never-changing.

The Realists cannot reconcile their opposition to Idealism or Solipsism with Vedic statements on the material world being māyā, or “that which is not [true]”. Their rejection of Advaita on grounds of Realism is itself very problematic because realism has never been established in any Western epistemology. Their uncritical rejection of Advaita is tantamount to continued Abrahamic and monotheistic thinking.

The fact is that most ideas on Advaita are wrong. There is truth in Advaita, but it is not the exclusive truth. Numerous prevalent claims about Advaita are incompatible with Shankaracharya’s statements, and some of Shankaracharya’s claims are incompatible with the rest of the Vedic system. In this course, we will discuss some introductory issues surrounding Advaita to help us understand it better.