 A primary concern that motivated most philosophers in ancient India was to find the best way forward in an individual person’s quest for liberation from suffering. All living beings are trapped in the cycle of birth and rebirth (saṃsāra) which according to most classical Indian philosophers, is characterised by suffering. The highest goal of life is liberation (mokṣa or nirvāṇa). Except the Cārvāka materialists who believed that death is the end and there is nothing like rebirth or liberation, all other philosophical schools believed in the possibility of liberation in this life or in future lifetimes. The ultimate aim of the classical Indian philosophy teachings is thus to help individual persons attain liberation or at least a better life in this life and future lifetimes. Most classical Indian philosophers agreed that our ignorance about “who we really are” is the source and the means to bringing an end to suffering. Thus, metaphysical debates about the nature of individual persons and the universe and our place in it are central to the classical Indian philosophical traditions. These debates, however, tended to focus on the essence of persons, the self (ātman) or the soul substance.