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Māṇḍūkya Kārikā (Āgama Śāstra, Gauḍapāda's Verses)

Gaudapada

A treatise in 215 verses divided into four chapters (prakaraṇa): Āgama (29), Vaitathya (38), Advaita (48) and Alātaśānti (100). It comments on the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad — whose twelve prose paragraphs it transmits interspersed in the first chapter — and develops from it a complete philosophy: the four states of the ātman and the syllable Om, the unreality of the waking world compared with dream, the non-duality of the ātman and individuals, the "yoga of no contact" and the doctrine of non-origination (ajātivāda). It is the oldest systematic text of Advaita Vedānta and the only one earlier than Śaṅkara to survive complete.