Brahma Satyam — Brahman Is the Only Reality
The central Advaita declaration 'Brahma Satyam' (Brahman alone is real/true) is the philosophical foundation of all Vedantic teaching and practice.
Brahma Satyam (Brahman is truth, reality, the real) is the positive half of the famous Advaita summary: 'Brahma Satyam, Jagat Mithya, Jivo Brahmaiva Na Para.' Satya (truth/reality) in Advaita means 'that which exists in all three times (past, present, future) without modification.' By this definition, only Brahman is Satya — for only Brahman is eternal, unchanging, and uncaused. The world (Jagat) and the individual self (Jiva) are Mithya — they exist as dependent appearances within Brahman but not independently. This is not skepticism (denying the reality of all things) but a hierarchical ontology: Brahman is real absolutely; the world is real relatively (within the framework of experience); the ego is real conventionally. The statement 'Brahma Satyam' is not merely a philosophical claim to be accepted on authority but the conclusion of systematic inquiry — the recognition that arrives at the end of rigorous Vedantic investigation.
Brahma Satyam, Jagat Mithya — Brahman is real; the world is relatively unreal.
Philosopher F.H. Bradley's 'Appearance and Reality' made the same claim in a different philosophical language: ultimate reality is a unified, undivided whole (the Absolute); all apparent multiplicity is 'appearance' (Bradley's term for what Shankara calls Mithya). The parallelism between Bradley's Absolute Idealism and Advaita Vedanta has been noted by many comparative philosophers.
Advaita Vedanta tradition