Advaita’s Three Creation Theories (Sṛṣṭi, Dṛṣṭi-Sṛṣṭi, Ajātavāda)

In this video I’m responding to something that came up in the comments around the Direct Path approach: as the inquiry gets deeper, it becomes almost ruthlessly simple — trust only direct experience, and set aside conceptual frameworks.

But classical Advaita Vedanta does offer conceptual frameworks too, and they can be useful — so here I contrast the Direct Path style with a few key Advaita “models,” especially the more radical strand associated with Gaudapada (often said to sound surprisingly Buddhist).

We look at three classic teaching approaches:

1) Sṛṣṭi-vāda (creation-first):
the world exists independently, created by God (or, in a modern framing, “created” by a cosmic process). You wake up into a world that was already there.

2) Dṛṣṭi-sṛṣṭi-vāda (seeing-and-creation):
the world appears as it is perceived — a theme you’ll hear in teachers like Nisargadatta, Ramana Maharshi, and Jean Klein when they suddenly say something like, “The world appears when you wake up.”

3) Ajātavāda (non-origination):
Gaudapada’s most uncompromising view: no creation, no cessation, no seeker, no enlightenment — which can sound like Madhyamaka Buddhism, until you see what it’s pointing at.

I also discuss why trying to explain Maya too much can accidentally give it a foundation — like turning the rope-snake mistake into a second “real” thing alongside the rope.

Along the way we touch on:

two truths (ultimate vs relative/transactional) and why this isn’t meant to produce nihilism

the confusion around “solipsism,” and the Advaita teaching method sometimes called eka-jīva-vāda (as a provisional doorway, not a metaphysical claim)

why the ultimate subject cannot be objectified — and how the Direct Path helps collapse the subject/object split into “just seeing,” “just knowing,” “just this”

Modern science and everyday life still operate within the appearance — morality, responsibility, improvement, relationship — but the deeper inquiry asks what is ultimately real prior to the entire picture.

Thanks for watching.

#advaita #vedanta #gaudapada #ramanamaharshi #madhyamaka #nonduality #directpath