VEDANTA IN ESSENCE

Vedanta teaches that the purpose of a person's life is to realize the ultimate Reality, or godhead, here and now, through spiritual practice.  The word Vedanta refers mostly to the nondualistic aspect of the philosophy, Advaita Vedanta. 

 Advaita, literally non-dualism, meaning that a person and the godhead are not separate from each other but are one, is the oldest of the Vedanta schools and has as its principal exponent Shankara, or Shankaracharya (circa 750 A.D.) 

Advaita declares that the universe of name and form is not the ultimate Reality.  The ultimate Reality, the godhead, is called Brahman when regarded as transcendent and Atman when regarded as immanent.  Since it is omnipresent, this Reality is within every creature and object.  

A person, therefore, along with everything else in existence, is divine in essence.  Direct intuitive experience of his identity with Atman-Brahman releases a person from the worldly bondages that he has superimposed upon himself over time.

Vedanta is often, but less correctly, called Hinduism, a word first used by the Persians for the inhabitants of India, because they lived on the far side of the river Sindhu, or Indus. 

Vedanta accepts all the great spiritual teachers and personal or impersonal aspects of the godhead worshiped by different religions, considering them as manifestations of the one Reality.