1001Philosophers

Adi Shankara Quotes on Truth

Adi Shankara was an Indian philosopher and theologian who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, the school of non-dualism. This page collects quotes attributed to Adi Shankara on the topic of truth, drawn from across the philosopher's works.

Quotes

  • Attributed to Adi Shankara:

    “Brahman alone is real; the world is illusory; the individual self is non-different from Brahman.”

  • Attributed to Adi Shankara:

    “Pleasure and pain are mere ideas, transient and unreal; renounce them.”

  • Attributed to Adi Shankara:

    “He who sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings has no fear.”

  • “Brahman (the existential substratum) is the only truth, the world is illusion, and there is ultimately no difference between Brahman and individual self.”

    Brahma satyam jagat mithyam, jivo brahmaiva naparah
  • “When the force of desire for the Truth blossoms, selfish desires wither away, just like darkness vanishes before the radiance of the light of dawn.”

    P4