ABSTRACT
The fundamental claim of Advaita Vedanta is that the individual self and Brahman are ultimately the same. The apparent difference between these at the phenomenal level is credited to avidyA, or ignorance, defined as that which conceals what is real and displays illusion in its place. The question then is, who is it that is really suffering if there is nothing other than Brahman? In other words, to whom does ignorance – the cause of suffering – belong? Is it the individual self or Brahman? If there is ultimately nothing other than Brahman, how can there be ignorance and the resulting process of transmigration?
