The Mandukya Upanishad is one of the shortest of the ten principal Upanishads, and like the other Upanishads discusses the problem of ultimate reality.

The scripture is important enough in Vedanta that Vedanta's chief exponent, Shankara wrote a full commentary on the book. The famed Karika (commentary) of Gaudapada is fully explored in this translation.

Swami Nikhilananda, seeing the extreme brevity of the verses, has given exhaustive notes on the scripture and the commentaries of Shankara and Gaudapada. Each verse of the Karika demands profound thinking before it can be understood. For some, this can be a difficult scripture to study.