Mandukya Upanishad

Mandukyopanisad

Anonymous / tradition · c. 300 BC - AD 100 (the latest of the principal Upanishads; its precise date is unusually contested) · North India (exact location uncertain) (India) · philosophy

The shortest of the principal Upanishads maps the single syllable Om onto four progressively subtler states of consciousness, waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, and an indescribable fourth state beyond all three, well before Gaudapada's later commentary made it central to Advaita philosophy.