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In a trilingual monthly Jorunal called The kamakoti Pradipam published from Madras, I wrote a series of articles in Tamil under the title Paramarkku Advaitam :"Advaita for the Layman." They were designed to help the reader with no knowledge of Sankrit to get a basic acquiantance with the principles and truths of Asvaita Vedanta so that, he could follow expositions by sastraic scholars. Before sending the articles to the Editor of that Journal, I took care to have them approved by the late lamented savant, Brahmasri Sastraratnakara Polagam srirama Sastrigal who was then Professor of Vedanta in the Madras Sanskrit College. Some friends suggested that I should translate these articles into English for the benefit of a wider circle articles into English for the benefit of a wider circle of readers. This I have now done with some rearrangement of the material of the Tamil articles. In preparing both the original and the translation, I have avoided long quotations from scriptures which are the foundational pramanas for Advaita since I desired to limit myself to a simple and straightforward narration. Part II of the book consists of three Appendices. The first is a summary of the articles in Sanskrit in the Advaita Aksara Malika published on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the Advaita Sabha, Kumbakonam quoting Vedic authority for the tenets of Advaita Vedanta. The second and the third Appendices are expositions of the Manisa Pancaka and the Daksinamurti Stotra, both composed by sri sankara Bhagavatpada, in which the truths of Advaita are brought out briefly and clearly. For the former, I have used the commentary called Tatparyadipika by sri Sadasivendrasarasvati and for the latter, the Manasollasa of Sri Suresvaracarya. Mr. K. Balasubramania Iyer who is proficient alike in classical lore and modern knowledge has honoured this book with a Forword. I have basked in the sunshine of his friendship and goodwill since my youth. He has been uniformly kind and generous towards me. I am happy to recall that his illustrious father was equally generous and affectionate towards my father. I am very grateful to Mr. Balasubramania lyer for this additional instance of his friendship. I must thank the Editor of Bhavan's Book University Series for including this book in their Series.