Continue from vishishtadvaita..The last are non-dualists. They also raise the question that God must be both the material and efficient cause of this universe. As such, God has become the whole of the universe and there is no going against it.
And when these people ( vishishtadvaita) say that God is the soul and the universe is the body, and the body is changing but God is changeless, the Non-Dualists say all this is nonsense.
In that case what is the use of calling God the material cause of this universe? The material cause is the cause become effect; the effect is nothing but the cause in another form. Wherever you see an effect it is the cause reproduced. If the universe is the effect and God the cause, it must be the reproduction of God. If you say that the universe is the body of God, and that the body becomes contracted and fine and become the cause, and out of that the universe is evolved, the non dualists say that it is God himself who has become this universe.
Now comes a very fine question, if this God has become this universe, you and all things are God. Certainly, this book is God, everything is God. My body is God, and my mind is God, and my soul is God. Then why are there so many Jivas? Has God become divided into millions of Jivas? Does that one God turn into millions of Jivas? Then how did it become so? How can that infinite power and substance, the one being of this universe divided? It is impossible to divide infinity. How can that pure being become this universe? If he has become the universe he is changeful; and if he is changeful he is part of nature, and whatever is nature, and changeful, is born and dies, if our God is changeful, He must die some day. Take note of that. Again how much of God has become this universe? If you say X (the unknown algebraical quantity), then God is God minus X now, and therefore, not the same God as before this creation, because so much has become this universe.
So the non Dualists say, “This universe does not exist at all; it is all illusion. The whole of this universe, these Devas, angels and other beings born and dying, all this infinite number of souls are coming up and going down are all dreams.” There is no Jiva at all. How can there be many? It is the one infinity. As the one sun reflected on various sheets of water appears to be many, and millions of globules of water reflect as many millions of sun, and in each Globule will be a perfect image of sun, yet there is only one sun, so are all these Jivas but reflections in different minds. These different minds are like so many different globules reflecting this one being. God is being reflected in all these different Jivas. But a dream cannot be without a reality without a reality, and that reality is that one infinite existence. You as body, mind, or soul are a dream, what you really are, is existence-knowledge-bliss. You are the God of this universe. You are creating the whole universe and drawing it in. thus says the Advaitist. So all these births and rebirths, coming and going, are the figments of Maya. You are infinite. Where can you go? The sun, the moon, and the whole universe are but drops in your transcendent nature.
How can you be born or die? I never was born. I never had father or mother, friends or foes, for I am Existence, knowledge, Bliss Absolute. I am He, I am He. So, what is the goal, according to the Philosophy? That those who receive this knowledge are one with the universe. For them, all heavens even Brahmaloka are destroyed, the whole dream vanishes, and they find themselves the eternal God of the universe. They attain their real individuality with its infinite knowledge and bliss and become free. Pleasures in little things cease. We are finding pleasure in this little body, in this little individuality. How much greater the pleasure when this whole universe is my body!! If there is pleasure in one body, how much more when all bodies are mine! Then is freedom attained. And this is called Advaita, the non Dualistic Vedanta Philosophy.
These are the three steps which Vedanta philosophy has taken, and we cannot go further, because we cannot go beyond unity. When a science reaches a unity it cannot by any manner of means go any further. You cannot go beyond this idea of Absolute.
All people cannot take up this Advaita philosophy; it is hard. First of all it is very hard to understand it intellectually. It requires the sharpest of intellects, a bold understanding. Secondly it does not suit the vast majority of people. So there are these three steps. Begin with the first one. Then by thinking of that and understanding it, the second will open itself. Just as a race advances, so individuals have to advance. The steps which human race has taken to reach the highest pinnacles of religious thought, every individual will have to take. Only, while the human race took millions of years to reach from one step to another, individuals may live the whole life of the human race in a much shorter duration. But each one of us will have to go through these steps. Those of you who are non dualists, look back to the period of your lives when you were strong dualists. As soon as you think you are a body and a mind, you will have to take the whole of this dream. If you take one portion, you must take the whole. The man who says, here is the world, and there is no God (personal), is a fool; because if there is a world, there will have to be a cause, and that is what is called God. You cannot have an effect without knowing that there is a cause. God will vanishes when this world vanishes; then yoy will become God(Absolute) and this world will be no longer for you. So long as the dream that you are a body exist, you are bound to see yourself as being born and dying; but as soon as that dream vanishes, so will the dream vanishes that you are being born and dying, and so will the other dream that there is a universe vanish. That very thing which we now see as the universe will appear to us God (Absolute), and that very God who has so long been external will appear to be internal, as our own self. Read the full topic
Humble Pranams to Swami vivekanandaA lecture of Swami Vivekananda delivered in the west. 
