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The Brahma Sutras

Badarayana·c. 100 BCE·Sanskrit·attributed

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The terse aphorisms that systematize the Upanishads and found the school of Vedanta. So compressed they can scarcely be read without a commentary, they set the central question of later Indian thought: the relation of the self to the ultimate ground, Brahman.

Now, therefore, the inquiry into Brahman.

Brahman is that from which proceed the origin, the subsistence, and the dissolution of this world. Scripture is the source of this knowledge; and this, because scripture, deliberated upon, speaks with one accord.

The self consisting of bliss is Brahman, and not another; the light into which the soul enters is the highest self, for that is the constant theme of these chapters. And for the one who has once reached it there is no return — there is no return: the repetition of the words marks the end of the book.

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