The insight and interpretation of Advaita Vedanta revolves around an unrelenting logic that ‘whatever is real is non-sublatable.’ In other words, the eternal alone is real and whatever is non-eternal is not real. Thus Advaita’s oft-quoted verse, “The Absolute Brahman is real, the world is not real, and the individual and the Absolute are not different.” Dvaita philosophy is not willing to accept such a doctrine, and it introduces certain modifications into this definition of what constitutes the real. It accepts the Upanishadic declaration that the real is eternal, while ascribing some status to that which is non-eternal. Thus, while eternality is still a characteristic of Brahman, the non-eternality of the world does not deprive it of reality. There are logical and thus doctrinal consequences to this. However, as we shall observe, this latter school does not propose that the eternal Brahman and the non-eternal world are real in the same meaning of the term ‘real.’
The insight of Dvaita is that all things are inalienable, unique and of diverse attributes. It champions a realistic standpoint which maintains that difference is the essence of everything. All things are real and eternal, with individuals and things being dependent on God who is independent. By granting that difference is the essence of things and that individuals, things, and the Supreme Being are all real and exist for all eternity while remaining fundamentally different from each other, Dvaita’s insight upholds a pluralistic view of reality that is based on common experience and supported by knowledge texts.