The three points of departure

Brahma Sūtras

555 compressed aphorisms that systematise the Upaniṣads and answer the objections of every rival school.

c. 400–200 BCE · Bādarāyaṇa / Vyāsa

When: c. 400–200 BCE
Behind it: Bādarāyaṇa / Vyāsa
Where it sits: The three points of departure

Unreadable without a commentary — which is precisely why the schools of Vedānta exist as separate readings.

The full-length study of this text is still being written. The summary above is complete, and the originals below are the whole thing rather than a description of it.

The text itself

Complete originals, in free copies wherever one exists.

Commentaries worth trusting

Read by teachers within the tradition, not summaries of it.

Brahma Sūtra Bhāṣya of Śaṅkarācārya, translated by Swami Gambhirananda — Ādi Śaṅkara The tradition's legal brief: every rival reading of the Upaniṣads answered in order.

This text sits inside a shelf with a shape. See how the whole corpus is organised, or start from today's message.