The Vedantic Rishis do not up hold individualism, nor are they afraid of misery as they well know that bliss is their very nature. Their findings include the following:
The ultimate Reality is one without a second.
It is of the nature of unbroken Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.
It manifests in infinite forms.
These forms hide the absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss nature of Reality and only then do we call these forms ‘matter’.
While appearing in manifold forms it creates or projects, or rather appears, as an instrument called mind (that includes buddhi), which has the property of illusorily splitting all forms into subjective and objective categories.
The individual souls (purushas) appear different only because of consciousness being wrongly identified with individualized subjective parts of matter, which identification has no basis in Reality. If I am searching for ‘my reality’, I cannot reach the ultimate Reality unless everything that is ‘my’ is dropped.
Bliss is our nature. It is identical with Consciousness, which has nothing to do with any form. As soon as it appears to be identified with a particularized form, the bliss is covered and the unreal, apparent subject-object split produces perpetual tension. This is because whether we possess an object or dissociate from it, we and the object are separate and this separation between apparent subjects and apparent objects produces eternal tension. Tension ceases only when there is no split. This can be achieved neither by denying objects nor by embracing them, because this does not remove the split.