Vedanta -- End of the Vedas: Uttara Mimamsa; end of knowledge; wisdom. 1. A name of the Upanishads. 2. A name of the different schools of philosophy founded on the teachings of the Upanishads. The major schools are Advaita, Visistadvaita, and Dvaita. The basic texts of the Vedanta schools are the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma-Sutras (also called the Vedanta Sutras). The central questions considered in the Vedantic schools concern the nature of God or the Absolute (Brahman), the nature of the self, and their relation.
Advaita Vedanta-- Nondualism; nonduality; "not two" (from a = "not" + dvaita = "dual, two"). The most famous of the Vedanta Schools, the Advaita Vedanta adopts a position of absolute monism, according to which all that really exists is the transcendent Brahman, which is being, consciousness, bliss. The Advaita is one of the six orthodox schools of Indian philosophy and chronologically the first school of Vedanta philosophy. It has no individual founder, for its roots are to be found in the Vedas, and particularly the Upanishads--though its greatest exponent was Sankara (circa 800 or 900 A.D.). Gaudapada (circa 600 A.D.) and Sriharsa (circa 1100 A.D.) are other famous Advaita Vedantins.
Visistadvaita Vedanta -- Qualified nondualism; pansynthetic monism. A theistic school of Vedanta whose great consolidator and exponent was Ramanuja. It posits three ultimate realities: God, individual souls, and matter, which exist in an inseparable relationship, though souls and matter are dependent upon the independent God (here equated with Vishnu). This complex whole forms an organic unity and thus the name, Visistadvaita. The most celebrated defender of this school after Ramanuja was Vedanta Desika (1200 A.D.), one of the greatest and most learned of Indian philosophers.
Dvaita Vedanta -- Dualist Vedanta. The name give to the system of Vedanta founded by Madhva (circa 1100 A.D.), the Dvaita Vedanta teaches that God, the individual souls, and the world of matter are all eternally separate and real. It thus shares many doctrines in common with the Nyaya-Vaisesika Darsana, but disagrees with the latter concerning the reality and/or nature of universals, inherence, ultimate particularities, and absences. Unlike the Nyaya-Vaisesika Darsanas, the Dvaita Vedanta teaches that finite souls are essentially conscious and that moksa consists in everlasting, loving union with God.
Brahman --The ultimate reality; the ground of the universe (from the root brah = "to expand or grow", "great"). According to all schools of the Vedanta, Brahman is the sole ultimate or absolute reality, upon which all other things depend. The Advaita Vedanta conceives of Brahman as an impersonal principle of being, the very nature of which is consciousness and bliss. The other two mains schools of the Vedanta conceive of Brahman as the personal God of devotional religion.
Nirguna Brahman -- The qualityless or attributeless Brahman. In the Advaita Vedanta it is the really real Brahman, which has no attributes, and is pure being, consciousness, and bliss, where each of these are only conceptually distinct from Brahman itself and its nature. According to this conception, the Nirguna Brahman is the noumenal ground of the, ultimately illusory, Saguna Brahman. In the theistic Vedanta systems, Nirguna Brahman is the same as Saguna Brahman, and that Brahman, or God, is called Nirguna in the Scriptures only means that He is absolutely pure and perfect and so is not possessed of any imperfections.
Saguna Brahman -- The Brahman with qualities or attributes, i.e. Isvara, the Lord, the personal God of devotional religion. In the Advaita Vedanta, the Saguna Brahman is an ultimately unreal projection of the Nirguna Brahman on the phenomenal world "created" by avidya. It is not, therefore, wholly unreal, having an empirical or phenomenal reality, but is unreal from the ultimate point of view. In the theistic Vedanta systems, the Saguna Brahman is the same as the Nirguna Brahman, and both are the same as the God of devotional religion. According to this perspective, God is called nirguna in order to indicate that He is free of any imperfections (e.g. ignorance, limitation, vice, weakness, etc.), and is also called saguna in order to indicate that He is possessed of every perfection (e.g. knowledge, power, goodness, etc.) to the highest degree.
Atman -- "Breath"; the inner self. In the schools of the Vedanta, the atman, or self is the essence of the human being, and is spiritual and conscious in nature. The Advaita Vedanta holds the atman is identical with the Brahman, and is a mere seer that does not change or act. In these respects the atman of the Advaita Vedanta is like the purusas of the Samkhya-Yoga darsanas. The theistic schools of the Vedanta hold the atman is a substance distinct from Brahman but dependent on Brahman. They also hold it is a doer and an enjoyer, not an actionless witness.
Jiva -- Individual soul; life; embodied self; living entity (from the verb root jiv = "to live"). In the Advaita Vedanta, the jiva, or individual soul, is only phenomenally or empirically real, since it arises from superimposing the qualities of the self (atman) on the non-self, which is a "creation" of avidya. In the theistic Vedanta systems and the Nyaya-Vaisesika systems, the jiva is real and really distinct from God, the infinite soul.
Avidya -- Ignorance; nescience (from the verb rood vid = "to know" + a = "not"). A key concept in the Advaita Vedanta, which holds that avidya is beginningless, is removed by right knowledge, is a positive entity in that it is not nothing, is indescribable, and has the powers of concealing the true nature of Brahman and, in so doing, of illusorily creating the world of distinct changing subjects of knowledge and objects of knowledge. In the Visistadvaita Vedanta, it is not a basic metaphysical principle, but is simply the ignorance which afflicts souls that have not yet achieved moksa.