SUCCESSIVE STEPS

We are accustomed to thinking in terms of subject-object.  Our language is structured that way, but then so is our personal experience; there is the individual and then there is what the individual encounters in the world.

In the three major schools of Vedanta, subject-object is progressively reduced.  In Dvaita Vedanta, dualism, the individual is completely different from Brahman, so it is subject-object.  In Vishishtadvaita Vedanta, qualified nondualism, the individual is part of Brahman, similar but not identical to Brahman, meaning that it is moderately subject-object.  Then in Advaita Vedanta, nondualism, there is no difference between the individual and Brahman, hence no subject-object.

According to Sri Ramakrishna, these three concepts are not mutually contradictory but are successive steps in spiritual realization.