at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), that the literal meaning of upādāna is "fuel".
This liberation is also expressed using the fire metaphor when it is termed nibbāna (Sanskrit: Nirvāṇa) which means to "go out", or literally to "blow out the flames of defilement".
[21] For medieval era Vaishnavism scholar Ramanuja, the metaphysical Hindu concept of Brahman (as Vishnu) is the upadana-karana (material cause) of the universe.
[22] However, other Hindu traditions such as the Advaita Vedanta disagree and assert alternate theories on the nature of metaphysical Brahman and the universe while using the term upadana in the sense of "substrate, fuel".
[23][24] More generally, the realist Hindu philosophies such as Samkhya and Nyaya have asserted that Brahman is the Upādāna of the phenomenal world.
[25] The philosophies within the Buddhist schools have denied Brahman, asserted impermanence and that the notion of anything real is untenable from a metaphysical sense.
[25] The Hindu traditions such as those influenced by Advaita Vedanta have asserted the position that everything (Atman, Brahman, Prakriti) is ultimately one identical reality.