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Gaudapada was an early philosopher of the Advaita Vedanta tradition. Gaudapada preceeded Sankara and Sankara acknowledged him by referring to him as ‘one who is conversant with the true knowledge of Vedanta’.
Gaudapada was the author of the Mandukya-karika, a commentary on the Mandukya Upanisad, one of the shortest and most profound Upanisads that consists of only 13 verses.
Gaudapada divides his commentary into four chapters. The first chapter, Agama, explains the original text of the Mandukya Upanisad and Gaudapada attempts to show how the monistic Advaita philosophy is supported by logic and the Vedas.
In the second chapter, Vaithatya, he tries to explain from a rational standpoint the temporal nature of the universe, characterized by its duality.
The third chapter, Advaita, establishes non-duality and the fourth chapter, Alatasanti-prakarana, explains the relativity of our sensory perceptions and establishes Brahman as the sole reality.
Gaudapada is considered to be an important philosopher in the Advaita Vedanta tradition since he is the first to attempt to reconcile Vedanta with Buddhism. In his karika Gaudapada shows deep respect for Buddha as well as the Buddhist philosophers Vasubandhu and Nagarjuna. According to Gaudapada, if the Buddhist schools of Madhyamika and Vijnanavada are taken to their logical conclusions they can only end in Advaita – the teaching of the Upanisads.
Gaudapada established his doctrine of Ajativada (non-origination), claiming that from the absolute consideration origination is impossible. All possible theories of creation are rejected by Gaudapada. In Gaudapada’s theory, there is no creation at all! Creation is simply an appearance, an illusion. From the absolute standpoint there is neither birth or death, creation or annihilation, bondage or emancipation – no one is truly free and no one is truly bound. Everything is an illusion. Therefore there is neither unity or duality. Just as a rope may be mistaken for a snake, similarly the world is mistaken to be a place of plurality. Only Brahman is real.
Without a doubt Gaudapada’s views were influenced by Nagarjuna and Vasubandhu. He himself acknowledges this when he writes:
“There are some who uphold non-dualism and reject both the extreme views of being and non-being, of production and destruction and thus emphatically proclaim the doctrine of no-origination. We approve of the doctrine of no-origination proclaimed by them".
