Foundation Sources for Advaita

Below is a compilation of two dozen + one of the Mantra-s/shloka-s from various shruti /smriti sources which form the Basic Foundation for the Concepts of Advaita. The selection is arbitrary and purely based on what appealed to me to be significant. Other learned seekers may like to add to or delete from or suitably emend this list in order to make it comprehensive and authentic. If any authoritative lists are already available in public domain (preferably online), a reference and a link to them will be appreciated.

  1. Mandukya – mantra 7: “That,” The Fourth, the most auspicious is beyond all conceptualizations, definitions.
  2. Bhagavad-Gita – Ch II, shloka 16: The unreal has no beingness; the real has no non-existence.
  3. Aitareya – III-iii-1: Intelligence (Consciousness) is brahman
  4. Brihadaranyaka – I-iv-10: I am brahman
  5. Chandogya – VI-viii-7: You are That
  6. Mandukya – mantra 2: All this is certainly Brahman. This Self is Brahman.
  7. Chandogya – VI-ii-I: In the beginning this was Being alone, one only, without a second. Some say that, in the beginning, this was Non-being alone, one only, without a second. From that Non-being arose Being.
  8. GK on M – III-2: Reality is not born though appears to manifest everywhere.
  9. GK on M- III-48, IV-71: Nothing is ever born.
  10. GK on M – II-32: No birth; none in bondage; no seeker of liberation; none liberated.
  11. Taittiriya – III-i-1: brahman is that from which all these beings take birth, that by which they live after being born, that towards which they move and into which they merge.
  12. Bhagavad-Gita – Ch II, shloka 20: unborn, eternal, immortal, immutable is ‘That.’
  13. kena Upanishad: I-3: The eye does not reach there, nor speech, nor mind, nor do we know (Its nature). Therefore we don’t know how to impart instruction (about It).
  14. Katha – I-ii-20: The Self is subtler than the subtle and greater than the great.
  15. GK on M – II-12:  Atman, the Self-luminous, through the power of his own mAyA,  imagines by Himself within Himself (all the perceived objects). He alone is the knower of the objects. [Also Svetasvatara – III-2:  After projecting and maintaining all the worlds, He finally withdraws them into Himself.]
  16. Chandogya – VI-i-4,5,6: All modifications is but name based upon words and the clay / gold / iron alone is real;
  17. Taittiriya – II-iv-1; II-ix-1: The enlightened man is not afraid of anything after realising that Bliss of Brahman. Failing to reach brahman (as conditioned by the mind), words, along with the mind, turn back.
  18. Bhagavad-Gita – Ch IV shloka 24: The ladle is Brahman, the oblations is Brahman, the offering is poured by Brahman in the fire of Brahman. Brahman alone is to be reached by him who has concentration on Brahman as the objective.
  19. Brihadaranyaka – II-iv-14: Because when there is duality, as it were, then one smells something, one sees something, one hears something, one speaks something, one thinks something, one knows something. (But) when to the knower of Brahman everything has become the Self, then what should one smell and through what, what should one see and through what, what should one hear and through what, what should one speak and through what, what should one think and through what, what should one know and through what ?
  20. Brihadaranyaka – IV-iii- 22: In this state a father is no father, a mother no mother, worlds no worlds, the gods no gods, the Vedas no Vedas.
  21. Taittiriya – II-i-1: The knower of Brahman attains the highest. From brahman, which is the Self, was produced space. From space emerged air. From air was born fire. From fire was created water. From water sprang up earth. From earth were born the herbs. From the herbs was produced food. From food was born man. That man, such as he is, is a product of the essence of food.
  22. Mundaka – II-ii-4: Om is the bow; the individual is the arrow; and Brahman is called its target. It is to be hit by an unerring man. One should become one with It just like an arrow.
  23. Mundaka – I-i-5: The Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, Atharva-Veda, the science of pronunciation etc., the code of rituals, grammar, etymology, metre and astrology comprise the lower. Then there is the higher (Knowledge) by which is attained that Imperishable.
  24. Taittiriya – II-iii-1: Food was verily born before all creatures; therefore it is called the medicine for all. Creatures are born of food; being born, they grow by food. Since it is eaten and it eats the creatures, it is called food.
  25. Amritabindu – 2: The mind that is attached to sense-objects leads to bondage, while dissociated from sense-objects it tends to lead to liberation.