Advaita Vedānta stands apart within Hindu thought through its uncompromising affirmation of non‑duality: Atman, the innermost self, is not merely related to Brahman but is Brahman itself. Where other Vedānta schools such as Viśiṣṭādvaita and Dvaita maintain some real distinction between the individual soul, the world, and God—whether as qualified unity or outright dualism—Advaita treats all such distinctions as ultimately grounded in ignorance (avidyā). The many souls, the manifold world, and even the personal God (Īśvara) belong to an empirical standpoint, valid for ordinary experience yet transcended in the direct realization of non‑dual Brahman. In this vision, Brahman is understood as nirguṇa, without limiting attributes, pure consciousness beyond all relational categories.

A further point of contrast lies in the status of the world. Advaita grants the world empirical reality but regards it as mithyā—neither absolutely real nor sheer nothingness—an appearance arising through ignorance and sublated in knowledge of Brahman. Other Vedānta schools, along with systems such as Nyāya‑Vaiśeṣika and Sāṅkhya, affirm the world as truly and enduringly real, whether as the genuine creation or manifestation of God, or as an evolution from primordial nature (prakṛti). For them, plurality is not merely a veil but part of the very structure of reality, even in liberation.

The understanding of the self follows the same non‑dual trajectory. In Advaita, the true nature of the individual is pure, infinite consciousness, never actually bound, with individuality arising only through limiting adjuncts such as body and mind superimposed by ignorance. Other Vedānta schools regard the self as eternally distinct yet related to God—either as a dependent mode of Brahman or as a separate, subordinate reality—and pluralist systems like Sāṅkhya, Yoga, and Nyāya affirm many distinct selves that never collapse into a single absolute. Thus, where others see real difference, Advaita sees only the play of superimposition upon a single, undivided awareness.

This radical non‑dualism also shapes the understanding of the spiritual path. Advaita gives primacy to jñāna, liberating knowledge, cultivated through scriptural study, reflection, and deep meditation under the guidance of a teacher, with ethical discipline and practices such as devotion and ritual serving mainly to purify the mind. Theistic Vedānta traditions, by contrast, place loving devotion and surrender to a personal God at the center of the path, while systems like Pūrva Mīmāṃsā emphasize ritual action and others stress discriminative insight or yogic discipline. In Advaita’s distinctive perspective, liberation is not a journey to another realm but the clear recognition that the seeker has never been other than Brahman from the very beginning.