A classic text on the path to God through knowledge. The basic teaching is that God alone is the all-pervading reality; the individual soul is none other than the universal soul.

According to Shankara, it is the ignorance of our real nature, our divine nature, that causes suffering and pain. The desire for happiness is essentially a longing to awaken to who and what we truly are. Through the path of self-knowledge, Shankara teaches how to awaken from the ignorance created by the mind, and abide in the peace of our true nature.