Advaita Vedānta is often seen as world-negating, but this paper argues it actually presents a cosmist, world-affirming vision. The world is neither denied nor absolutized but affirmed as contingently real and ethically significant. Using Jean-Paul Sartre's non-egological account of consciousness, the paper shows how the ego is displaced from the interior of experience and situated within the world. It traces doctrines of māyā and adhyāsa from Śaṅkara through post-Śaṅkara Advaita, explaining egohood as metaphysical misidentification rather than ontological falsity, preserving the empirical world as the locus of experience and action. Jīvanmukti is interpreted as embodied freedom within the world, not withdrawal.
Yogic philosophy offers a radical reorientation of the mind-body problem, challenging Western dualistic frameworks and physicalist assumptions. Drawing from ancient sources like the Upaniṣads, Yoga Sūtras, and Tantric texts, as well as modern theories such as the filter thesis and dual-aspect monism, the article argues that yogic models treat consciousness as the foundational reality from which both mind and body emerge, dissolving simplistic binaries. Yogic disciplines like meditation, mantra, and breathwork function as experiential technologies for participating in the nature of consciousness. Integrating ancient and modern perspectives can transcend divisions between East and West, science and spirituality, toward a transformed understanding of consciousness and the mind-body relationship.