Adi Shankaracharya Non duality Advaita Philosophy

Adi Shankaracharya is a great hindu saint born in 788 CE ; around 8 ^th century. He is known as the Jagadguru or the Master of the universe in spiritual knowledge. His experince of truth or the ultimate real self gave the Hindu spiritual philosophy of Advaita vedanta (Non-duality with the real self "Brahman" ) a new foundation in human society.

Advaita means non-duality. The advaita philosophy is the knowledge from vedanta, which was losing its glory in the world at the time of Shankaracharya. Adi Shankaracharya gave it the true place of religion philosophy of hindus.

Following are the major excerpts from his philosophy of Advaita.

1. All materials and Living beings are evolved from the non-dual Brahman, hence the whole moving or stable universe (chal achal jagat ) is only brahman , the real self.
2. The non-dual brahman only wears different names and shapes and does all karma; to create illusion of the world.
3. The ornaments created from gold does not lose gold from them. Similarly the material and Living beings are created from brahman and does not lose there eternal real-self identity.
4. The fools differentiate between the Living jivatma and the Godhead Brahman . The difference is due to foolishness of the thinker only. This foolishness is due to maya or illusion of brahman .
5. The non-duality is a state of vision towards the world which diminishes all the sorrow and removes all bondage for jivatma. When everything is experienced as self then there is no question of being felt bondage or sorrow for anything.
6. The three major states of consciousness for living being are wakening (jagrat ), dreaming (swapna) and Deep sleep (sushupti). The god or brahman is the experiencer of all these states . that means when we are in deep sleep state , even then brahman is experiencing the deep sleep with super-consciousness. This super-consciousness is the realization state of non-dual brahman.
7. The illusion makes us believe the existence of mud pot in the soil. The mud pot actually is soil only with different shape. Similarly the world is brahman itself with different size, shapes and colors. the original base of the world is non-dual brahman.
8. When we say gold ring we imagine round shaped gold . But when we say only Gold , then there is no shape or size to imagine mere yellow metal is enough. The Brahman itself is all pervading the real material of all the universe.
9. The ripples and the bubbles on a water pond all really water itself . The space in a mud pot and space in a room is same distinct only by container. When we get vision to remove the distinction of size and shapes we can realize the real brahman in the world.
10. 
    Satsangtwe nisangtwam, nisangatwe nirmohatwam,
    Nirmohatwe nichalchittam, nichalchitte jivanmuktihi.
    

By being in company saints and listening to self-realized saints (doing Satsanga), we can achieve freedom from bondage of relations . This freedom diminishes the moha from the material and emotional world. The unbonded mind becomes still, and without any worldly thoughts . This stillness of mind gives freedom or mukti to jivatma and makes him the non-dual Brahman , Advaita brahman.