“This upanishad is a very important one with only twelve verses. It is the shortest but an extremely philosophically significant Upanishad which has been expounded by a later commentator Gaudapada in his Mandukya

Upanishad Karika and that has been commented upon by Shankaracharya. It is a highly philosophical Upanishad. In one later Upanishad, it is mentioned that for achieving spiritual liberation, this single Upanishad is quite enough—that is referred to in the Muktika Upanishad.1 For the attainment of the sole object—the attainment of highest truth, the supreme goal of existence— this single Upanishad of Mandukya is enough. Shankaracharya says that the Upanishad Mandukya with Karika embodies in itself ‘the quintessence of the substance of the import of Vedanta.’2

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This article was first published in the Prabuddha Bharata, monthly journal of The Ramakrishna Order started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896. This article is courtesy and copyright Prabuddha Bharata (www.advaitaashrama.org ). I have been reading the Prabuddha Bharata for years and found it enlightening. You can subscribe online at www.advaitaashrama.org. Cost is Rs 100/ for one year, Rs 280/ for three years, Rs 1,200/ for twenty years and Rs 2,000 for twenty five years.