Hinduism- various schools of thought, Ramana Maharshi

“... the talk drifted to the various schools of thought, one saying there is only reality, others saying there are three eternal entities such as jagat, jiva and Ishwara, or pati, pasu and pasam. In this connection, Bhagavan observed humorously, “It is not at all correct to say that Advaitins or the Shankara school deny the existence of the world or that they call it unreal. On the other hand, it is more real to them than to others. Their world will always exist, whereas the world of the other schools will have origin, growth and decay and as such cannot be real. Only, they say the world as world is not real, but that the world as Brahman is real. All is Brahman, nothing exists but Brahman, and the world as Brahman is real. In this way they claim they give more reality to the world than the other schools do. For example, according to schools which believe in three entities, the jagat is only one-third of the reality whereas according to Advaita, the world as Brahman is reality, the world and reality are not different. Similarly, even to God or Brahman, the other schools give only one-third sovereignty. The other two entities necessarily limit the reality of God. So, when Shankara is called mayavadi it may be retorted, ‘Shankara says maya does not exist. He who denies the existence of maya and calls it mithya or non-existent cannot be called a mayavadi. It is those who grant its existence and call its product, the world, a reality who should rightly be called mayavadis. One who denies Ishwara is not called Ishwaravadi, but only one who affirms the existence of Ishwara.’” Bhagavan went on to add, “All these are of course vain disputations. There can be no end to such disputations. The proper thing to do is to find out the ‘I’, about whose existence nobody has any doubt, and which alone persists when everything else vanishes, as during sleep, and then see if there is any room for such doubts or disputes.

Day by Day, 7.4.46