Skip to content
Unitive Knowledge Society
Search

Accents are optional; quotes find an exact phrase.

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad

The shortest principal Upaniṣad: twelve verses on the syllable Oṃ and the four states of the self.

Also: Mandukya Upanishad

Vedānta and the Hindu traditions

The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad teaches that all is Oṃ and that the self has four quarters: the waking, the dreaming, the deep sleep, and the fourth, which is beyond them all. Gauḍapāda’s verse commentary, the Māṇḍūkya Kārikā, developed from it a radical nondualism that shaped Śaṅkara’s Advaita.