What we want ultimately is the freedom from needs of any kind, all of the time. This is the ultimate goal - it is called ‘moksha’.

Strictly speaking, only the teaching as clarified by Shankara should be called ‘Advaita Vedanta’.

And, despite achieving all of this, he died at the age of only 32.

We thought that we would be happy when we got whatever it was that we believed that we wanted – and indeed this is often the case. But unfortunately, it does not last – it always turns out that we were mistaken about its ultimate value.

There are other non-dual philosophies, such as Zen, Taoism, Dzogchen. Even Christianity, Islam and Judaism all have their non-dual branches.

But there is only one desire which, once satisfied, will bring us the fulfillment that we seek and that is to realize our true nature. This is because that realization will bring with it the discovery that we are in fact unlimited. We are already complete.

It is because we feel that we are limited in some way and that the desired object will make us complete. This applies to all desires, from the most basic to the most sophisticated.

The human form is not quite the highest, since there are also celestial beings in heavenly realms. But is by far the most important, since it is the only form in which one can escape this cycle of birth and death, which is called ‘samsara’.

One is called the Bhagavad Gita, itself part of the much larger, famous, epic poem called the Mahabharata.