Bhedabheda

Bhedabheda, short for Bhedabheda Vedanta, is a school within Hindu Vedanta philosophy known for teaching a simultaneous sense of difference and non-difference in the relationship between the ultimate reality and the individual souls. It is often labeled Dvaitadvaita, meaning “difference and non-difference.” The tradition is most closely associated with the medieval thinker Nimbarka (dates commonly placed around the 14th–15th centuries), though its ideas build on earlier Vaishnava and Vedantic discussions.

Core doctrine centers on three realities: Brahman (the absolute, often understood as the supreme divine reality), Isvara (the personal, cosmic form of Brahman), and jiva (the individual souls). Bhedabheda holds that the jivas and Brahman are real and have a specific relationship to Isvara that is both a matter of unity and distinction. On one hand, there is abheda (non-difference) in the essential nature of the jiva and Brahman, implying a deep, transcendent identity. On the other hand, there is bheda (difference) in form, relationship, and phenomenological experience, which accounts for diversity in the world and in devotional life. The world and individual selves are real manifestations within the Brahman-Isvara framework, sustained by divine agency and maya.

Liberation in this view comes through a devotional and knowledge-based approach that recognizes the divine presence in all beings and the world, while also acknowledging the distinct personal relationship between the devotee and Isvara, often emphasized in bhakti toward a form such as Krishna. Bhedabheda Vedanta thus aims to harmonize unity and multiplicity within a single metaphysical system.

Influence and reception have varied, with the tradition contributing to the broader Vedantic landscape by presenting a nuanced reconciliation of non-dual and dual perspectives.