One, Sort Of

Ramanuja caught hold of a different part of the elephant. Ramanuja, who may have lived somewhere around 1000 C.E., couldn't quite accept that we individual souls are in some sense equal in essence in God. He started his own brand of Vedanta called Vishishta Advita, which roughly translates as " almost but not quite not two.

For Ramanuja, we souls can experience union, not unity, with Brahman. The world is not an idea superimposed on reality but has a real existence  of its own. It is the body of Brahman, and Brahman is the innermost soul of the world. We exist as beings distinct from Brahman, and will forever, though our innermost essence is rooted in that Supreme Reality. We can recognize our unity in Brahman, but we never lose our identity in it.