Human beings have a natural tendency to avoid painful experiences and maximize pleasurable ones. It is everyone's experience that life in general is fraught with various types of suffering. Indeed, the very process of taking birth itself is a painful experience. Life begins with crying and ends with old age and death, which is likewise an unpleasant experience. In the middle part of life we also face suffering, both at the level of body from various types of diseases, and at the level of mind in the form of stress, anxiety, fear, and envy. We try to eradicate these problems by the use of medicines, living a healthy life-style, cultivating loving relations and indulging in entertainment, but all these solutions are temporary and not very satisfactory. They do not guarantee unending peace and happiness. As soon as we mitigate one suffering, another one knocks at our door. Science and technology have done wonders to make life comfortable and have eradicated many of the common diseases that have plagued humanity in the past few centuries. Our standard of living is much better than what it was a hundred years ago, yet the level of happiness has not gone up. In affluent societies, people suffer more at the mental level. Their bodies look healthy and beautiful, but the mind is sick. The sages of India deliberated and meditated on the root cause of human suffering. They concluded that ignorance (avidya) of the self (atma) is the basis of all ills. To counteract this ignorance, different sages formulated different knowledge systems or darsanas. Primarily, a darsana consists of a theoretical part that explains the self, material nature, the creator, the cause of bondage and the solution to get rid of bondage. Then, there is the practical part that gives a discipline, which by following a practitioner can realize or have darsana (vision) of the Truth and bring an ultimate end to suffering. One would attain the state of moksa or mukti, in which one becomes forever free of all suffering and fully situated in unending happiness. The vedanta-sutra of sage Badarayana, also known as Brahma-sutra, teaches a system considered as the chief among all darsanas. It has a dialogue with major darsana schools of India and refutes their primary conclusions. Therefore, it is also called Uttara-mimarnsa, the later deliberation. The Vedanta-sutra is divided into four chapters (adhyaya). Each adhyaya is further divided into four sub-chapters pada). Although the Vedanta aphorisms are inter-related and their content is fixed, there is variation in their readings and numbers. Different scholars have read some of the sutras differently and have divided the sutras according to different topics (adhikarana). There is ,a very rich tradition of writing different types of explanations on the vedanta-sutra, known as bhasya, vrtti, tika, karika, vyakhyana and anuvyakhyana. The commentaries on Vedanta- sutra can primarily be divided into two groups, namely advaita-vadi and non- advaita-vadi. Among the second group, the Vaisnava commentaries are most popular. The oldest available commentary is by Sri Sankaracarya. He gives advaitic (non-dualistic) interpretation of the sutras and sets the stage for the later commentators. His followers like Vacaspati Misra wrote elaborate explanations on his commentary. Sri Ramanujacarya was the first Vaisnava commentator to refute the explanation of Sri Sankaracarya and his followers. Soon after, Sri Madhvacarya also refuted the latter's philosophy. Other prominent Vaisnava scholars who commented on the Vedanta-sutra are Sri Nimbarkacarya and Sri Vallabhacarya.