Dvaita vs. Advaita: Are You Separate From the Divine, or Are You the Divine?

A Personal Note Before We Get Into It

I think ever since I was a kid, I desired to perceive the world in a non-dualistic manner. But never had the words for it. It was hard for me to believe in the societal norms around me, christianity, heteronormativity, the binary, these all seemed like they were being forced on me, rather than a reality I blindly accepted. Once I started developing my sense of self, I questioned everything. What socio economic status do I hold, how am I different than other people around me, why do people follow social scripts, why can I see the patterns that most people neglect? This was the start of my race to understand myself deeply and critically, and studying sociology really widened my perspective on everything, and everyone around me. I started to put the pieces together, my suburban background, my queerness, my masculinity, and began to think about spirituality. But even with this gained awareness, I always rejected the premise of a monotheistic standpoint, but polytheistic belief systems perplexed me. What if there was an abundance of different deities and demi-gods? My school had a program where if you write an essay you get to travel completely free (meals, travel, everything) was paid for by the school. I had applied for THREE YEARS, and nothing happened. My fourth year I was so close to giving up and not submitting an essay, but I said f*ck it let’s just try. Miraculously I was selected that year. The catch on this system is that you actually don’t know where your going or who your going with until the week before, and you find out in front of 100 people! To my surprise, it was an incredible place, Japan. My experiences there felt like a dream, touring different cities, seeing the pokemon center, and experiencing Japanese culture was something I’ll never forget. One of my favorite experiences, on top of sumo wrestling, and green tea ceremonies, was visiting different temples, shrines, and other sacred places. Something inside my body felt drawn to these places, and I couldn’t understand why. I felt a certain peace that I never felt before, like I could listen to monks chant for hours, and not miss a thing. This is where my non-dualistic perspective was solidified, I told the chaperone “I want to be a buddhist”, and she (A Japanese musician), laughed and said “oh you have much to learn”, and boy was she right. After Japan, I was searching buddhism online, trying to meditate in my own home, and doing anything I could imagine to try and open my mind to near experiences. I felt like the reality I was perceiving, and the buddhist philosophies I was studying, were somehow connected, and I didn’t feel as isolated in my frame of mind, or how I didn’t care for the words “good” or “bad”, instead I focused on the impact, perception, intention, and critical analysis. For a number of reasons, I’ve moved from buddhism to hinduism, but still under advaita beliefs, studying the das mahavidyas (the ten wisdom goddesses of tantra), reading the agamas (texts from Shiva), and practicing daily mantras. Now, I feel fully grounded in non-dualistic ideology, and I can share my perception with others in hopes to give others perspective on radical liberation beyond our social norms.

Last post we covered what Tantra actually means and the schools it splits into. This time we're going one layer deeper, into the question every Tantric lineage eventually has to answer: when you practice, are you talking to the divine, or are you talking to yourself in a very elaborate way?

Quick answer, for the skimmers: Dvaita (dualistic) Tantra treats you and the divine as two distinct beings in a devotional relationship — think reverence, ritual, a little respectful distance. Advaita (non-dual) Tantra, especially the Kashmir Shaiva school, teaches that you and the divine were never actually separate — and unlike classical Advaita Vedanta, it doesn't ask you to treat your body or your life as an illusion to see through to get there.

So... Are You Separate From the Divine, or Are You the Divine? Great Question.

Every mature spiritual tradition eventually has to answer this, and Tantra genuinely splits down the middle. It's less “who's right” and more “what's your actual relationship to the sacred, on a Tuesday, in practice.” Dualistic schools say you and the divine are two. Non-dual schools say you were always one and just forgot. Both are considered fully legitimate, both are considered complete, and both produce real liberation — they just get there through completely different emotional logic, one through devotion, one through recognition. Keep both in mind as we go, because most people find they lean toward one without even realizing it.

Dvaita: The Case for Devotion (and a Little Healthy Distance)

Dualistic Tantra treats the practitioner and the divine as fundamentally separate — a devotee and a beloved, not two names for the same thing. You'll find this most clearly in Vaishnava Tantra, where devotion is directed toward Vishnu (and avatars like Krishna), and in devotional strands of Shakta practice, where the Goddess is worshipped as a distinct, external, and frankly formidable presence.

This is the “we're taking this slow, and I respect that” school of divine relationship. Structure, reverence, ritual, offerings — the whole point is the relationship itself, not collapsing it. The Goddess is out of your league, technically, and that distance is exactly what makes the devotion mean something. Nothing about this path is “lesser” — bhakti (devotion) is its own complete road to liberation, not a consolation prize for people who haven't gotten to the “real” non-dual stuff yet.

Advaita: The Case for “Wait, We Were the Same the Whole Time”

Non-dual Tantra, especially Kashmir Shaivism (the Trika school), makes a much bolder claim: the sense that you're separate from the divine was the illusion the whole time. Everything — you, me, this sentence — is one undivided consciousness, called Paramashiva, that only appears to split into subjects and objects. Two terms carry the whole idea: Prakasha, the self-luminous light of consciousness itself, and Vimarsha, that light's own capacity to reflect on and know itself. Their interplay is called spanda — a kind of cosmic pulsation — and it's what makes one undivided awareness appear as an entire universe of separate things. You didn't get created apart from the divine. You're the divine, mid-vibration, temporarily convinced it's a person with a group chat.

Here's the Twist: Non-Dual Tantra Isn't the Same as Classical Advaita Vedanta

This is the part people mix up constantly, and it's the actual crux of why Tantra hits different. Classical Advaita Vedanta (the Shankara school) also says everything is ultimately one — but it gets there by treating the visible world as maya, a veil of illusion obscuring the real thing underneath. Its whole method is neti neti — “not this, not this” — stripping away the body, the senses, the material world, one at a time, until only pure formless awareness is left.

Non-dual Tantra agrees everything is one. It just refuses the second part. Instead of neti neti, Tantra says iti iti — “this too, this too.” The world isn't a veil hiding the divine. It's Shakti's own performance, the divine actively playing dress-up as a body, a breath, a Tuesday, a person you're attracted to. Nothing needs to be stripped away to get to the sacred, because the sacred was never hiding somewhere else. That single philosophical hinge is the difference between a tradition that asks you to transcend your body and one that asks you to actually inhabit it.

• Dvaita in one line: You and the divine are two. Primary mode: devotion. Home base: Vaishnava Tantra, devotional Shakta worship.

• Advaita in one line: You and the divine are one. Primary mode: direct recognition. Home base: Kashmir Shaivism (Trika), Sri Vidya.

• The key difference from Advaita Vedanta: same “everything is one” conclusion, opposite relationship to the body and the world getting there.

Why This Distinction Actually Matters (Especially If You've Been Told to Shrink)

Here's why we're not just doing philosophy trivia. If the tradition you practice treats your body and your life as an illusion to see past, that can accidentally echo a message a lot of us already got somewhere else — that who you are, what you want, and who you love are obstacles standing between you and something “higher.” Some of us have heard a version of that our entire lives.

Non-dual Tantra flatly rejects that framing. There is no gap between you and the sacred to close, and nothing about your body, your desire, or your relationships needs to be minimized to get there. You were never in the waiting room. To be clear, this doesn't make Dvaita “less than” — plenty of people find devotion and structured distance genuinely liberating too. But if you've spent years being told to make yourself smaller, non-dual Tantra's answer — you were the whole thing the entire time — tends to land like something you didn't know you were still waiting to hear.

Quick Tantra FAQ

Is dualistic or non-dual Tantra “more advanced”?

No — this isn't a hierarchy, it's a temperament match. Traditional teachers treat both as complete paths to liberation, not a beginner track and an expert track.

Does non-dual Tantra reject gods and goddesses?

Not at all. Deities are still very much part of the practice — they're just understood as facets of your own consciousness rather than wholly external beings you're separate from.

Is Tantric non-duality the same as Buddhist non-duality?

Related, but not identical. Kashmir Shaivism's non-dualism centers on one underlying conscious Self (Paramashiva); Buddhist shunyata (emptiness) doesn't posit an underlying self at all. Worth its own deep-dive, honestly.

Where does tantric yoga actually fit into all this?

It's philosophy made physical. Pranayama, movement, and energy work in tantric yoga are literally spanda in action — the pulsation between consciousness and form, practiced in your own body instead of just read about.

Come Experience It For Yourself (Yes, In Person, In Denver)

Reading about Tantra is a nice start. Actually feeling it — in a room, with your breath, maybe your partner's hand in yours — is where it actually clicks.

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