Advaita's Response to Dualism — Unity in Diversity
Advaita Vedanta's response to dualistic philosophies — that hold God, the self, and the world as eternally separate — is that unity is not the elimination of diversity but its recognition as the one reality's infinite self-expression.
The major critique of Advaita from dualistic schools (Madhva's Dvaita, Western theism) is that non-dualism eliminates meaningful distinctions between God, creation, and individuals. Shankara's response: Advaita does not deny diversity but denies that diversity is ultimately real as separation from Brahman. The waves are genuinely distinct, but they are all ocean. Brahman's infinite self-expression produces real diversity at the conventional level — each individual is genuinely unique — while at the absolute level, all individuality is Brahman's own nature appearing as multiplicity. This is not cold monism but the most radical possible affirmation of diversity: the infinite appearing as infinitely many finite forms, each fully real at its own level.
Brahman is one without a second — and yet it appears as all this. Unity does not negate diversity; it is the ground of it.
Philosopher F.H. Bradley's response to critics of his Absolute Idealism — that his One does not eliminate relations but grounds them — is structurally identical to Shankara's response: the non-dual ground enables rather than eliminates the diversity that appears within it.
Brahmasutra Bhashya