Mandukya Karika Lecture 076 on 09 November 2022

Full Transcript(under review)

From today, we are going to enter into the second chapter of the Māndukya Upanishad. The first chapter consists of 12 mantrās and 29 Kārikās of the Gaudapāda. And it is called Āgama Prakarana. Prakarana means chapter. The chapter called Āgama. Āgama means scriptures. That is the Vedās, the Upanishads, the Shruti. So, with the first chapter, both - the Upanishad is also over, and the explanation by both Gaudapāda and Shankarāchārya, both are over.

Now Shankarāchārya has a commentary both on the Upanishad as well as Gaudapāda’s Kārikās, which are 29. So now, from now onwards… As I mentioned earlier, this Māndukya Kārikā has four chapters -

1. Āgama Prakaranam
2. Vaitathya Prakaranam
3. Advaita Prakaranam
4. and Alatashanti Prakaranam.

Now onwards, second, third and fourth chapters are purely Gaudapādāchārya’s explanation. And especially the explanation of the seventh mantra of the Māndukya Upanishad.

What is the seventh mantra? As we have seen, it is the description of Turiyam or Brahman.

Remember, the second mantra says सोऽयमात्मा (so 'yamātmā), that is, You in your real nature is none other than that Ātmā. But one has to realise it.

And in order to describe what is that Ātmā and what is not really Ātmā, mantras 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 are given. Mantrās of the Māndukya Upanishad.

• In the third, the condition or the description of the waking state.
• In the fourth, the description of the dream state.
• In the fifth, the description of the deep sleep, from the individual point of view called Prājna point of view is given.
• And the mantra number 6 gives us the description of the deep sleep state, Sushupti Avastha, from the viewpoint of the universe, cosmic, that is Īshwara.

( 05:01 mins )

But each one of us are Ātmans and that description of the Ātman - it is neither the waking state, nor the dream state, nor the deep sleep state, nor in between states, not simple consciousness, and not unconsciousness etc. has been given. One part of the seventh mantra gives not this, not this, not this, not this. But the second part it says, it is Shāntam, Shivam, Advaitam, Prapancha-upashamam etc.

So many words are there which we have dealt with. But of these words, two words are most important -

• One is called Advaitam - Ātman or Turiyam or Brahman is what we call Advaitam - One without a second!
• And Prapancha-upashamam - Upashamam means when everything becomes absolutely quiescent, that is to say it doesn't exist.

When the world is transcended, what does that mean? What does the word transcendent mean? It means like a drop of water that is mixed up with a river or a stream. The stream gets mixed up with the river, and the river gets mixed up with the ocean, and that is its nature. And instead of saying, ‘I am a drop’, it identifies ‘I am a stream’, and then next step, ‘I am a river’, much broader, much greater, much more powerful. And finally ‘I am the ocean’, the infinite, the incomparable etc. This is called Upashamam.

Upashamam doesn't mean destruction. Upashamam means expand, go on expanding until one becomes the infinite. And that is the truth this seventh mantra wants to tell. That is called Prapancha-upashamam and it goes by another name. It is called mithyātvam.

Mithyā means, I am going to explain what is this word Mithyā. And people like us, we go on hearing lectures and then we misinterpret. A popular example is a person in semi-darkness mistakes a rope. But he doesn't say I am mistaking a rope. He says for me the snake alone is the truth, until light is brought, and then the real nature of the snake is revealed. These words are very important. So please listen carefully.

When we are perceiving the snake - snake alone is real.

Similarly when we are perceiving the world, world alone is real.

But we perceive the world not in one way, in a way of speaking, conflicting way we perceive. What do I mean? Each living creature experiences continuously one after the other three states - waking, dream and sleep. And whichever state we are in, for any given length of time, that state alone is the reality, and other states become unreal. Because in contrast, the other states are not even considered real.

Simple example, in dream so long as we are dreaming, dream is not dream, it’s absolute reality. But as soon as we wake up, then only, from the waking standpoint - then we understand that it is not real at all. So we have got to…

When I was giving the example of the rope and snake, so long as we don't know anything else, then, it is not a Mithyā snake, it is a real snake. But the moment light is brought what happens? As if we enter into the waking state, and then we see this is a rope.

And what does it do? Prapancha-upashamam! That is Rajju-upashamam! That is to say the fear, and the scare, and the heartbeat, and all sorts of sufferings - they all come to an end, as soon as we know the truth. And that is what is conveyed with this word Prapancha-upashamam.

( 10:19 mins )

The point to be noted down here is until we realise the truth, until we are in the state of truth, until we realise Brahman alone is real, to know God as real, to know Brahman as real, and I am that reality is called realisation. Until we enter, it is all intellectual it doesn't help us much, a little bit definitely not much so that is what we want to understand. So three words are very important we already know but we have to recollect it again. What are those three words? Sat, Asat and Mithya and this is very very important. First of all, what is Sat? The definition is given that which remains as it is without any change that is Satyam. Trikala Abadhitam Satyam What we need to understand is time means change. So there is a baby and the baby grows up every single minute and it happens that single minute means we are counting time therefore time means change but that which is the reality never changes. Another example to make this point clear there is clay and at some point somebody decides to shape it into a pot and that which was shapeless, formless now acquires a form, acquires a new name and it takes time to transform that lumpy clay into a form, special form. So this pot immediately becomes what is called a slave to time, to space, to causation Desha, Kaala, Nimitta but the clay ever remains absolutely exactly the same. With this illustration what do we need to understand? The whole world is like the pot but Brahman is like the clay. What is important? There is no second object, independent object called pot. It was clay, it is clay, it will be clay before the pot was made it was clay when the pot is made that is clay and when the pot is destroyed that will be clay only. No change has taken place in the clay all changes took place in the Nama Rupa and Prayojana. So whatever doesn't change is called Sat that's why the word Satyam came from the word Sat that's why Brahman is characterized as Sat, Chit and Ananda. Then we realize that God Brahman doesn't change He is beyond time space and beyond time means eternity beyond space means infinity. Those very words that means not subject to time at all Nityaha, eternal, Shashvataha, eternal no change is there that is called Satyam that is the word we use Sat, existence existence can become a mountain existence can become a river but existence will not undergo any change seemingly it undergoes a change that's all, seemingly. Now the next word we have to understand is Asat what does Asat mean? Non-existence so is there something called a second object called non-existence simply non-existence is non-existence it doesn't exist at all words are there but there is no corresponding object as an example the son of a bear and woman, Kandhiya Putraha and the horns of a rabbit so they do not exist we can use words these words are meaningless so we need not talk about Asat because such a thing never exists it doesn't trouble us because it doesn't exist but there is a category which is appearing for some time and disappearing after some time that is it is changing all the time it is subject to time, space and causation that is in full dark, full light something is a rope there is a rope but in semi-darkness we think no change is taking place in the rope all change takes place in our brains so the object is not changing but it is the idea, understanding, knowledge that is changing first it was rope, then it is a snake then the snake also changes into the rope no change takes place in the rope all changes take place in our minds so Mithya means that misunderstanding something as something else and this misunderstanding is in our brains in our minds, in our buddhi that is called Mithya so when we say Jagat is Mithya there is no Jagat actually just as there is no snake at all what existed was rope what exists is rope so what existed, exists, will exist that is called Brahman Jagat is only a mistake in our minds and that temporarily mistaking Brahman or truth as something else is called superimposition and superimposition takes place in time and desuperimposition takes also place in time and that is called Mithya now Gaudapada wants to prove in this second chapter that the whole world which we take for granted in the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping it is nothing but Mithya Mithya means all the changes are taking place in our mind no change is taking place there is no such object called the world there is only subject that is the Brahman and to make this point very clear I want to give an example suppose imagine you are standing in front of a mirror if the mirror is absolutely clean then you get your own reflection very true reflection by that you understand I am so and so remember that mirror is what we call our buddhi Antah Karana but if the mirror is dirty and if the light also is semi then we can mistake ourselves as a bhuta etc so many things we can do that is what we are doing so we are looking through our body reflection of Brahman through our mind reflection of the Brahman we must break these mirrors then we know that I have not become anything else I do not identify with anything else so this word Mithya means seemingly real seemingly real seemingly beautiful seemingly powerful seemingly capable these are all very tricky words seemingly means it is not true seemingly beautiful means it is not true seemingly powerful that means the person is not powerful at all and that is called Vaithatya seemingly real but in reality not true it is false that is called Mithya so Sat means that which never undergoes change Asat means that never exists so therefore no problem Mithya means our mind superimposes and misunderstands and mistakes and suffers and that process is called Mithya so what is the point there is no world excepting Brahman but don't say that the world doesn't exist so long as we are in ignorance it is very real and since it is real we have to behave as if it is real I will come to the point very soon so the second chapter is called Vaithatya Prakarna Tatya means truth remember Buddha that is Siddhartha he attained self-realization he was called thereafter Tathagataha Tatha means just as it is he understood I am Brahman Tatha Agataha he attained to that realization Tatha means what Yatha just as he is and what is he he is Brahman that is what he understood so Tatya in Sanskrit means truth and anything opposite to Tatya is called Vitatya Vitatya that is absolute opposite of truth untruth opposite of truth is untruth and in Sanskrit because of certain grammatical rules Tatya means truth its opposite is called Vaithatya that means Mithya because remember Mithya cannot exist without Satyam if there were to be no rope there would be no snake if there were to be no dry sand there would be no mirage if there were to be no hair the hair what is called horns of habit will not exist if a woman does not exist she will not be called what we call barren woman the truth is always there but we mistake the truth and that is called Vaithatya in the second chapter I think there are about 38 Karikas and all the Karikas only talk about the world is unreal and that is what Gaudapada wants to prove how is he going to prove for that he takes the example of dream now we have to understand a few concepts how he comes or how Advaita comes to this example once we understand we can sail through this chapter very quickly so Gaudapada takes the example of dream we all know supposing yesterday night you had a dream and remember these vital points so long as you are in the dream state it is not a dream it is not seeming dream it is not Mithya it is absolute truth but when you wake up then you laugh and say what I experienced was nothing but certain what we call actualized facts thoughts not facts thoughts some thoughts have come and we think that those thoughts are actually reality for example you might dream that you have come to Varanasi maybe you are in Calcutta or in Bangalore in Mumbai but you might dream you might be very fond of you must have heard about Kashi and you want to visit or you visited and you liked it very much you are thinking about it in dream you find yourself but then when you wake up you find exactly in the same place the places you have seen the people you have met the events that have taken place everything has taken place that has taken place in your dream is absolutely appears to be real so long as you are in the dream but the moment you wake up in comparison you will see that it is all unreal because you find yourself waking up in the place where you were before you started to dream now that is a marvelous example similarly we think we have we cherish a wrong notion that dream is a dream waking state is real and there are certain reasons for that what are the reasons first reason is we are judging the dream from the standpoint of waking but we are not capable of judging the waking state from the standpoint of the dream and of course not at all possible in deep sleep so this is the first mistake we commit and the second mistake we commit is that everyday we have different dreams not only everyday the same night same day also daytime also we can fall asleep even while you are listening to my talk some of you for a second for a few seconds will be thinking of something else and you missed the class and then you are in a dream state only it is called daydream because you realize quickly my thoughts are wandering but there is absolutely no difference at all the effect is the same you miss the class whether it is a night dream or daydream you miss the waking state that is called a dream state ok so we are judging that dreams are changing same dream rarely we see but the waking state whenever we come out of the dream state we find ourselves exactly in the same waking state same city same parents same house same family members same office same work same everything this is one of the greatest delusions in the world so to counter that one Gaudapada or Advaita Vedanta crystal clearly gives two opposite reasons one reason and there are other reasons which I will come later on so one reason that they give is supposing you have the same night same dream every day every night then you will not you will get confused what is the dream and what is the waking as there is comparison compare and contrast we will find it very difficult and many times we find it very difficult this was what Shri Ram Krishna was trying to convey through the story of that Gnani farmer who was married who had only son and his son died his wife sent news immediately he came but there was no show of grief at all and she got angry because she deducted that he was not loving his son and his family and by proxy it means he doesn't love me also in fact it is true supposing instead of the son or along with the son the house got burnt and the wife also died you have to extend he will not shed tears supposing it may look his example may look cruel supposing he also is burnt his body is getting burnt because he was a Gnani he will simply smile and say this body is also like a dream so the farmer gives explanation dear yesterday night I had a dream I found myself I was a king I had a beautiful wife I don't know how far this is not what Ram Krishna says I am adding some spice to that and I had 7 beautiful sons educated sons intelligent sons in brackets unlike this monkey faced one that we have beautiful queen unlike you but as soon as my dream broke I find myself in this so when I enter into the dream state waking state becomes unreal when I come out of the dream state dream becomes unreal what was the point we should not forget if anyone of us and there are a rare few if the same dream every night happens you find exactly the events yesterday today and before yesterday then we will really get confused so this is the first reason just because everyday different dreams come doesn't mean that is unreal it doesn't mean waking state is real what is the second reason second reason is when we are in the waking state dream state is unreal we forget the same is true when we are in the dream state waking state also becomes nullified we don't apply that logic we should apply that logic this is the second reason third reason and many times I mentioned it one of the fundamental principles of Vedanta whatever we experience not we I cannot stop repeating it empty number of times because this is the truth there are a few truths are there with regard to this what is it whatever we experience suppose you see a house you don't say I am the house suppose you experience a car you don't say I am the car so whatever we experience and by experience I mean whatever we see through the experience through the five sense organs whatever sounds we hear we don't say I am the sound we don't say I am the smell we don't say I am the taste we don't say I am the touch whatever we experience is not we and we all understand it and we behave accordingly but we also get lost if it is somebody's house it doesn't affect us if it is my house I practically become my house if somebody damaged my house, bombed my house or put it on fire and I get angry I feel like killing that person if I can get him so this is one but when it comes to the body I am the body and I have a body they interplay similarly with regard to the mind they interplay if there is a thought of happiness I say I am happy if there is a thought of unhappiness or suffering I say I am unhappy but for the second fundamental principle what was the first whatever we experience is not we we experience body and mind we are not the body mind and that was the fact truth Shankaracharya wants to convey to us in the Nirvana Shatkam Mano Udyahankara Chittaninam this is the fundamental principle whatever we experience we are not that and this doesn't require faith in the scriptures this requires a little bit of deep thinking that is sufficient now what is the second related to this principle whatever qualities belong to the experienced object they belong to that object they do not belong to us for example if a tree is green if a mango is yellow banana is yellow a sweet has got sweet taste it belongs to the sweet it belongs to the mango it belongs to the tree a beautiful house that beautifulness beauty belongs to the house it doesn't belong to us that's why people say if I have a beautiful house and I become beautiful no you don't become beautiful if I have a first class spring mattress or water bed I will be happy person you may not be because many people find to their consternation that when they buy spending a lot of money they can't sleep they used to sleep soundly before and an old bed and an old mattress and with an old blanket smelly blanket they get much better sleep than on a spring mattress how do you know you go to some new place perhaps your friend or relative very well to do they will give you a huge bed and it will take a long time and most of us have experienced it new place and new house new bed new cloths we are not familiar so they can create problems so the qualities belonging to an experienced object belong to them apply it if they to both to the body and mind if the body is sick I am not sick if the mind is happy or unhappy I am not happy or unhappy that was the idea Bhagavan Krishna wanted to convey in the Bhagavad Gita second chapter so this is the second point very important point third point even more important point what was the first one whatever we experience is not us whatever I experience is not me second whatever qualities belong to an experienced object whatever I am experiencing belongs to that object not to me since I experience my mind so the changes the qualities the feelings that the mind is experiencing belong to the mind to the antahkarana not to me third there is a fundamental truth the existence of an object totally depends upon me suppose I am looking at you you are looking at a tree but for me you exist but for you the tree exists you are not looking at me you are looking intently with concentration upon any object and your mind in your mind only that object exists whereas in my mind only you exist and the moment you turn your attention to me I exist in your mind but the moment I turn my mind towards the object which you are intently looking you do not exist for me only that object exists for me and therefore when I think of you you exist when I don't or when I am thinking something else then you do not exist or no second object exists if I am aware of one particular object and there is a fundamental law here the mind can only think of only one object at any given time that means accepting that one particular object which I am thinking of the whole world is lost I don't even know that it exists so this is the experienced object totally depends upon me who is the experiencer in this world if anybody says an object exists that must have been either experienced in the past or being experienced right now or is going to be experienced in future no object can ever claim to exist or we cannot claim the existence of an object if nobody experienced it this is the third fundamental principle but there is also a fourth fundamental point what is it? that we experience is subject to time subject to change you see a baby today see the same person after 10 years after 50 years or after 100 years then the person is changing every single second the person is changing and with the change of the person the qualities of that person are changing and it is very fundamental because supposing there are two people in love a young man a young woman and what is their idea we will be very happy if we can be together with each other but what is the fact the fact is why do the young man why does the young man like the young woman and vice versa this young man is strong, beautiful well to do talented in a high position and the young man looks very beautiful very sweet, very humble very loving etc but remember a change will come and even that change I don't say bad change suppose the fellow does something wrong and the wife shouts after marriage and then the fellow says oh you used to love me so much why are you shouting the fellow is irrational mad he doesn't understand that she has not stopped loving but she wants to correct him you have done something wrong she might even shouted this person but he mistakes love means only smiling sweet words etc what is the point we are taking every object is changing and the perceiver the sense organs the mind through which we are experiencing why because they are also objects my body which I use as an instrument to experience the world of course along with the mind without mind body doesn't work sense organs do not work mind also is changing so the same object which has become very dear to me at a particular place at a particular time may be completely opposite at another time at another place so every object is changing let us remember these four fundamental truths of Vedanta what are those truths whatever I experience and you apply it as each one of us whatever I experience that is unreal because its very existence is depends upon me that is I am not the object whatever I experience I am not the object and we never experience any object without the qualities if it is a tree or a flower a beautiful flower it is yellow colored flower it is sweet smelling yellow rose for example so that yellow color that rosy smell fragrant rosy fragrance everything belongs to that so it belongs to that object therefore I am not the rose I am not that rosy perfume those qualities belong to that they don't belong to me that is the second fundamental principle third is without my taking notice that rose for example that sweet for example that beautiful house for example that beautiful person for example they have no existence at all that is the third fundamental principle what is the fourth one so if I have seen a beautiful fragrant attractive rose in the morning if I see it in the afternoon it is fading already and the perfume is becoming less and after one day or the same day it may not give the same thing and it may even give some nasty smell so it is completely changing so let us remember I am repeating so many times whatever I experience is not me and we cannot experience any object without its qualities in fact we don't experience any object we only experience the qualities tall, short stout, coloured and fragrant sweet, very soft etc etc so whatever qualities we experience belong to that object whatever object we experience is not me what is the third the existence of the object totally depends upon me what is the fourth every object that I experience changes all the time all the time now what are we talking about in this second chapter Vaithathya Prakaranam Gaudapada takes the example of the dream what is it, I experience the dream therefore I am not the dream first, I experience I have varied experiences pleasant and unpleasant and they all belong to the objects that I experienced in the dream therefore they belong to that state, that object but since I am not that object the qualities also belong to that object therefore I am not those qualities I am not that object I am not those qualities what is the third one if I dream of a tree only the tree is real so long as the dream lasts everything else is unreal and the next moment when I experience a person the person is real so long as I continue to experience and the tree is forgotten the world is forgotten that is the third fundamental fact fourth, even in dream you can see a baby you can feel that when you went even after one hour even after one minute already the baby is one minute old one hour old one day old changing is there remember these things so with those understandings now if we compare we say that when we are in the waking state waking state is real dream state is unreal when we are in the dream state dream state is real and every other state what are the every other means waking as well as deep sleep both are unreal there are three states when we happen to be in one state both the other two states are unreal similarly we think that waking alone is real Gaudapada wants to point out through the example of the dream that just as dream is properly understood in the waking state the waking state is no different from the dream in every aspect but we consider the waking as the standard as the reality even though it doesn't fulfill all the conditions of reality what is it? first of all should not something that is truth truth is truth whether we experience or not truth is truth it never changes truth is truth it is not bound by time space or causation even when I don't experience something truth remains truth and that is what Gaudapada wants to draw the next point is we know that dream is a dream in the waking state but waking state we think as real for many reasons which we will talk about it in future but waking state itself becomes like dream state when we wake up from this so called experienced waking state what is that waking state? when I forget my subject I am the experiencer and mix I the experiencer with the experienced and identify with the experienced then all these problems will come but when through spiritual practice I happen to separate myself from all these three states and identify myself as something which is separate what is called Avastha Traya Vilakshana completely separate from these three then I understand that means all the qualities of the three states what are they? dependability experienceability changeability coming and going ability all these things I do not have because I am totally opposite to all those things so when I happen to wake up to my real nature which is called Turiyam Atman, Brahman God, whatever name you put then all those other states and their problems will be completely solved, how they are solved also we will talk about it in our next class but what I wanted to emphasize is this is a beautiful logic, so the second chapter is called Vaithatya Prakarana that is everything that has these four characteristics what are they? experienceability and experienceability along with the qualities and then dependability upon my perceiving that object and changeability all the time, all these four are characteristics of whatever is experienced Vishaya but not the qualities of the Vishayi when I am in the waking I am the same like I am in the room number one and I move to room number two, I move to room number three and I come out of all the three rooms and outside I am the same person but when I forget myself and identify with the first room I feel very bad because this is unclean room I feel very happy because there are all objects of enjoyability in the second room and in the third room it is completely dark and therefore I don't experience anything and nobody disturbs no happiness or unhappiness will be there, what am I talking about this is Shuddhi state but when I come out of all the three rooms, it is pure light, I know I was identifying with those three rooms but I am not of these three rooms and those three rooms which when I experience exist and when I do not experience, they do not exist, all those four characteristics are there, you please remember them and I am free from all those four characteristics and to prove these four characteristics, that is whatever I experience and whatever qualities an experienced object has and the dependability of that object upon my perceiving it and my keeping it in mind and so long as I keep and its changeability all these four are not my nature that is the nature of the object, that is called Vaithatya, whichever object has got these four characteristics experienceability quality, changefulness and observability or experienceability all these four characteristics together is called Vaithatya, that means that is not they, my real nature, for that we have to wake up, why this chapter? It is to say Prapancha Upashamam explanation, the whole Jagat is an object is experienced, depends upon me, it is changing all the time and change happiness from unhappiness, unhappiness to happiness, that is what binds us really and if we can through reason, can prove this one, reason also can prove what the Upanishads are talking about, the Mithyatvam Asatyatvam of this Brahman, what is called this world, in other words then the purpose is served, so in all these I think 38 Karikas we have this, what we call these four characteristics of the world, we are continuously experiencing, once we understand that we are not what we experience naturally the curiosity comes who are we? The simple answer is whatever this experienced object has, I don't have that one and by that reason I am eternal, I am unborn, I am changeless and I am the infinite then there is no second other than me and that Advaita Anubhuti is described in the third chapter and the objectors like us bring so many objections and they have been refuted thoroughly of course from the Advaitins viewpoint Advaitins don't accept all of them, so that is dealt with fourth Alatha Shanti Prakaranam, this is the brief introduction into this Vaithanthiya Prakaranam and from next class onwards we will plunge into them, as I mentioned earlier, if you have understood the introduction I have given you, especially of the four characteristics of the world, entire world, because all objects together is called the world it will be very easy for us the rest is only some examples etc we can easily sail through these 38 karikas, they are all Gaudapadas from now onwards second chapter, third chapter fourth chapter are only Gaudapada karikas with Shankara Bhashya of course as usual I will give you Shankara Bhashya with this I will be stopping today, there are any question or answers, let us discuss there. Om Jananim Shardam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagat Gurum Pada Padme Tayo Sritva Pranamami Mohur Mohuhu May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti Ramakrishna