Vedanta, generally speaking, is the organized study (and/or interpretation) of the ancient Indian collection of spiritual literature known as the Vedas. A part of the Vedas, the Upanishads (possibly dating between 800-600 B.C.) describe a form of spiritual liberation that is called yoga; among the various yogas is jnana, which leads to samadhi─immersion of the self into the all-encompassing fundamental reality (called Brahman, or the Self). These (Sanskrit) scriptures were evidently secret, at one time.

A particular emphasis in Vedanta, known as Advaita, was the focus of Adi Shankara, renowned in India as a teacher circa 800 A.D. He stressed that the Vedas declare that Brahman is the all-pervading, nondual essence that animates every self.

Advaita Vedanta (or jnana yoga) is best known in modern times as the life teaching of the Indian ascetic Ramana Maharshi, who died in 1950; his theme was that the Self which you seek to be united with is already your own essential self.

Ramana’s teachings actually went further than Advaita; they reflected the most refined form of Advaita, which is called Ajata. Basically, Advaita emphasizes that “All is One”; Ajata erases both the “All” and the “One” as definitional concepts. Any thoughts of “existence” are dependent upon sensate consciousness; the dead are devoid of both the ideational entities of the Self or of the self.

So, the teachings of Ramana reflect the “emptiness” or “void of reality”, which renders all analytical philosophies moot.