The fundamental principles of Shankara's philosophy derive from his concept of absolute nonduality. What exactly does this mean? Those who believe in notions of plurality and cause and effect look at the world through a false set of glasses, peering out through the visor of maya. In addition, your soul, though it appears separate from other souls and from Brahman, is in reality nothing but the one unitary Brahman. The person who sees reality as dual dwells in ignorance. The only cure for this ignorance is knowledge. Religion and devotion play a subordinate role to knowledge.

Shankara's views are arguably the most widely known outside of India. He held that maya causes the mistaken conviction that reality is packaged into immutable discrete things and selves who compete for their share of those things. Persons thus accumulate bad karma, which perpetuates the round of rebirths as the only way to make restitution.