Dvaita

The technical name for strict dualism within Vedanta, asserting permanent and irreducible difference between the self and ultimate reality.

interpretation. Interpretation — one way of reading the material among several.
Tradition: hinduism Tradition: vedanta Theme: metaphysics Theme: dualism Theme: self

Dvaita is the technical name for the position that self and ultimate reality remain permanently and irreducibly distinct, most fully developed by Madhva as a direct rival to the readings covered under Advaita and Vishishtadvaita. This archive gives the position its own page so that the three-way Vedantic disagreement remains visible as three genuine alternatives rather than one default view and two deviations.

Difference as the deepest truth, not a surface appearance

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Related in the archive

Concept

Atman

A term for the innermost self explored in the Upanishads — its nature, and its relation to ultimate reality, are debated across traditions.

Concept

Advaita

The technical name for non-dualism within Vedanta, asserting that self and ultimate reality are, at the deepest level, not two.

Concept

Vishishtadvaita

The technical name for qualified non-dualism, asserting that self and ultimate reality form a real unity that nonetheless preserves genuine internal distinction.

Person

Madhva

A Vedanta philosopher who developed a strict dualism between self and ultimate reality, giving this archive a third distinct answer to a question already argued over by Shankara and Ramanuja.

Tradition

Vedanta

A family of interpretive schools centered on the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita.

Tradition

Samkhya

A dualist philosophical system distinguishing pure consciousness from the material world it observes, offering a genuinely different metaphysics from Vedantic non-dualism.

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Next → Vishishtadvaita The technical name for qualified non-dualism, asserting that self and ultimate reality form a real unity that nonetheless preserves genuine internal distinction.