Here’s my thesis: Atmananda’s teaching is a synthesis of Advaita Vedanta and nondual Kashmir Shaivism.

As for the former, we might look at his prakriti, or lines of Higher Reason, that are concerned with the path of exclusion. We’re invited to understand that we are Consciousness once all mental superimpositions have been removed. This, then, is a line that emphasizes the dissolving of superimpositions and thus would have us see clearly what remains. What remains is Pure Consciousness.

As for nondual Kashmir Shaivism and, in particular, the path of inclusion, I’d like to cue us to the presentational aspect: the light of Consciousness shines forth in and as every appearance. To take but one example: every sound, being really just hearing, is and is only the shining of Consciousness. In other words, hearing is just how Consciousness is consciousnessing. The same holds for all other experiences.

Advaita Vedanta helps us to discover the truth that Consciousness without any experience is (see, e.g., Gaudapada) while nondual Kashmir Shaivism, placing its phenomenological accent on every appearance’s participation in God, shows us how every experience is, in fact, a celebration of God’s Infinite Being. Advaita Vedanta reveals the essential “nudity” of Being; Kashmir Shaivism discloses the jubilation of all experience-as-God’s shining.