Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s8.t1.9

v1.c7.s8.t1.9

Gaudapada and Sankara, the thinkers of Vedanta, think that Brahman and Atman have the relationship of “Advaita”. In their opinions, Brahman or the spiritual self is the universal foundation; everything is the image of Brahman or spiritual self without things other than being independent of Brahman or spiritual self. Individual is not the part of Brahman, nor its variation. As the life phenomenon, innumerable individual and spiritual self are the same thing, only due to the limitation of the body, they are different; in fact, both of them are the same things. Ramanuja, the ideologist of Vedanta, considers that Brahman and Atman have the relationship of “Visistadvaita”. In his opinion, Atman (individual or phenomenal world) is the property or part of Brahman (substance or entity). Although the property or part attaches to substance or entity, we cannot think that the property and part are not complied with each other. The phenomenon in the world is not visional. However, Ramanuja is also acknowledging that the supreme Atman