Ādi Śaṅkara · आदि शङ्कर

The philosopher who gave Advaita — non-dualism — its definitive form, and who by tradition did it all before thirty-two. His claim is the boldest sentence in the history of religion, and he argues it with a lawyer's precision: brahma satyaṃ jagan mithyā jīvo brahmaiva nāparaḥ — Brahman is real, the world is appearance, and the individual soul is nothing other than Brahman. Not like it, not from it, not beloved of it. It. The Kabbalah walks a long way down this road and then stops, deliberately, one step short. The soul is chelek eloka mi-ma'al, a portion of God above; devekut is cleaving so close the seam disappears; Hasidic bittul annuls the self into Ayin. But the mystic returns, and there is still a Thou to have been annulled before. Śaṅkara would call that last remaining distance the final illusion.