Nirvana Shatakam or Atma Shatakam as it is popularly known, is a śloka in six stanzas written by the great Ādi Śaṅkaracharya summarizing the basic teachings of Advaita Vedanta, or the Hindu teachings of non-dualism.

Nirvana Shatakam or Atma Shatakam as it is popularly known, is a śloka in six stanzas written by the great Ādi Śaṅkaracharya summarizing the basic teachings of Advaita Vedanta, or the Hindu teachings of non-dualism. As a young boy of eight Adi Sankara, while wandering in the Himalayas, seeking to find his Guru, encountered a sage who asked him, “Who are you?” The boy answered with these stanzas, which are known as “Nirvana Shatakam” or Atma Shatakam”. The sage the boy was talking to was Swami Govindpada Acharya, who was indeed, the teacher he was looking for. “Nirvana” is complete equanimity, peace, tranquility, freedom and joy. “Atma” is the True Self. These few verses can be of tremendous value to progress in contemplation practices that lead to Self-Realisation. The speaker of the poem is nominally Śiva, but it is generally seen as a statement by a knowing person of identity with Śiva or Brahmān. The speaker lists in the earlier verses what he (or Brahmān) is not. He is not body or mind, nor the things that attach them to each other and to the world, including the intellect, the senses, the practices of life, the occurrences of life such as birth and death. In the last verse he says that he permeates the universe, and that he is consciousness, bliss and the soul, and by implication, the Atman and Brahmān.