DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

VISAKHAPATNAM, A.P., INDIA

PROJECT TITLE
Maṇḍukya Upanishad

SUBJECT
History

NAME OF THE FACULTY

Dr. ViswachandraNath Madasu

Name of the Candidate

Roll No.
Semester

Shaik Javvad Ur Rahaman

Roll No: - 2017083
1st Semester

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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 1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………...……………………3
2. ABSTRACT………………………………………………….......………………...……4
3. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………4
4. ORIGIN OF MANDUKYA UPANISHAD…………………………………………….7
5. CASUALITY…………………………………………………………………………….8
6. NAME AND FORM…………………………………………………………………...10
7. THE THREE STATES AND THE FOURTH……………………………………….11
 THE THREE STATES
 THE FOURTH
 THE THREE STATES VIEWED FROM THE FOURTH
 THE MANTRA OM
8. SEEING BRAHMAN WITH OPEN EYES………………………………………….16
 LIFE AS A CONFRONTATION OF CONTRADICTIONS
9. THE MAHAVAKYA………………………………………………………………….19
10. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………...21
11. BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………...21

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I want to express my special thanks to my teacher DR. ViswaChandraNath Madasu Sir, who
gave me this golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic ‘Maṇḍukya
Upanishad’, which also helped me in doing a lot of research and I came to know about a lot of
things.

Secondly, I also thank DSNLU for providing me with all the necessary materials required for the
completion of the project.

Shaik Javvad Ur Rahaman

1st Semester

Regd. No.-2017083

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ABSTRACT

NAME OF THE SUBJECT: History

NAME OF THE TOPIC: Mandukya Upanishad

Introduction:

The Upanishads are a collection of ancient Sanskrit philosophical texts that contain

some of the central philosophical ideas of Hinduism, some of which are shared
with Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. They are among the most important literature in the
history of Indian philosophy, religions and culture and talk
about metaphysics, ontology, teleology, ethics, aesthetics, soteriology and the philosophy of the
self. The Upanishads played an important role in the development of spiritual ideas in ancient
India, and they marked a transition from Vedic ritualism to new ideas and institutions.
The Maṇḍukya Upaniṣad is the shortest of all the Upanishads, and is assigned to Atharvaveda. It
is listed as number 6 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads.

Body:

The Maṇḍukya Upanishad is an important Upanishad in Hinduism, particularly to

its Advaita Vedanta school. It tersely presents several central doctrines, namely that "the
universe is Brahman," "the self (soul, atman) exists and is Brahman," and "the four states of
consciousness". The Maṇḍukya Upanishad also presents several theories about the syllable
“Om”, and that it symbolizes self.

The Maṇḍukya Upanishad opens by declaring, "Om! this syllable is this

whole world". Thereafter it presents various explanations and theories on what it means and
signifies. This discussion is built on a structure of "four fourths" or "fourfold", derived
from A + U + M + "silence" (or without an element.)

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 The Maṇḍukya Upanishad describes four states of consciousness,
namely waking , dreaming, and deep sleep, which correspond to the Three Bodies Doctrine:

The first state is the waking state, in which we are aware of our daily world. "It is described as
outward-knowing, gross and universal ". This is the gross body.

The second state is the dreaming mind. "It is described as inward-knowing, subtle and burning
". This is the subtle body.

The third state is the state of deep sleep. In this state the underlying ground of concsiousness is
undistracted, "the Lord of all, the knower of all, the inner controller, the source of all (yon, the
origin and dissolution of created things". This is the causal body.

The fourth factor is Turiya, pure consciousness. It is the background that underlies and
transcends the three common states of consciousness. In this consciousness both absolute and
relative, saguna Brahman and Nirguna Brahman, are transcended. It is the true state of
experience of the infinite (ananta) and non-different (advaita/abheda), free from the dualistic
experience which results from the attempts to conceptualise ( vipalka) reality. It is the state in
which ajativada, non-origination, is apprehended.

In my research project on Maṇḍukya Upanishad, I would like to discuss the central

ideology of the Upanishad, its philosophy, its connections with Vedas etc., widely.

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 INTRODOUCTION

The Upanishads are a collection of texts of religious and philosophical nature, written in India

probably between c. 800 BCE and c. 500 BCE, during a time when Indian society started to
question the traditional Vedic religious order. Some people during this time decided to engage in
the pursuit of spiritual progress, living as ascetic hermits, rejecting ordinary material concerns
and giving up family life. Some of their speculations and philosophy were compiled into the
Upanishads. There is an attempt in these texts to shift the focus of religious life from external
rites and sacrifices to internal spiritual quests in the search for answers.

Etymologically, the name Upanishad is composed of the terms upa (near) and shad (to sit),

meaning something like “sitting down near”. The name is inspired by the action of sitting at the
feet of an illuminated teacher to engage in a session of spiritual instructions, as aspirants still do
in India today.

The books, then, contain the thoughts and insights of important spiritual Indian figures. Although
we speak of them together as a body of texts, the Upanishads are not parts of a whole, like
chapters in a book. Each of them is complete in itself. Therefore, they represent not a consistent
philosophy or worldview, but rather the experiences, opinions and lessons of many different men
and women.

Although there are over 200 surviving Upanishads, only 14 are considered to be the most
important. The names of these Upanishads are: Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka.

Maṇḍukya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Chandogya, Brhadaranyaka, Svetasvatara, Kausitaki,

Mahanarayana and the Maitri.

These texts provide the basic source for many important topics of Indian philosophy and all
major philosophical themes are covered in their pages. In general they remain neutral among
competing interpretations and they attempt to integrate most of the opposing views regarding
philosophical and spiritual matters.

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The purpose is not so much instruction as inspiration: they are meant to be expounded by an
illuminated teacher from the basis of personal experience. In fact, one of the first lessons that we
learn in the Upanishads is the inadequacy of the intellect. Human intellect is not an adequate tool
to understand the immense complexity of reality. The Upanishads do not claim that our brain is
entirely useless; it certainly has its use. However, when it is used to unlock the great mysteries of
life, the eternal, the infinite, then it simply is not enough. The highest understanding, according
to this view, comes from direct perception and intuition

ORIGIN OF MANDUKYA UPANISHAD

The Maṇḍukya Upanishad is a philosophy of the Totality of existence, which is not the same as
the sum total of a number of separate entities or data added together. It seeks the knowledge of
that Totality, which endeavours to solve the greatest problem of philosophy: the contradiction
between life and death. 1

In non-duality there are no relations: there is only the one reality. That is why the Maṇḍukya
Upanishad speaks of Asparsha Yoga, the yoga of 'no-contact', of 'no-relation'. This is in contrast
to everyday-life, which consists of relations and rapports only. The problems in the life of an
individual are always relational problems. It is only through relations and rapports that we can
have knowledge, normally speaking. This we ought to keep as a keystone for the study of the
Maṇḍukya Upanishad: “all is rapports”.2

Casuality: Assumption
Perhaps the most important mental artifice for establishing relationships is causality. Causality is
a principle which is established by our intelligence in order to find an explanation via relations

1
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/mandukya.asp
2
http://www.swamij.com/mandukya-upanishad.htm
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and rapports. It is also a given fact of our education, of our culture. From early childhood each
human being has been conditioned by the principle of causality, and thus it has become a
universal principle. Nevertheless, it is only through the intelligence of our imagination that we
have created such a universal principle in order to be able to interpret and manage our every-day
world. The notion of a ‘primary cause’ is only an idea born from the need to understand. The
numerous gods of Hinduism represent only that. It is very difficult to eradicate the notion of a
cause. 3

In religion, once we have been caught by the principle of causality, there are the ideas of
immanence and transcendence. We then believe that there is the one reality and that that is a
transcendental state. In that state, a 'fall' takes place, and then, in that fall, the manifestation takes
place, and so on. From an early age we have been nourished by that theological dualism, and we
don't even ask ourselves whether such an idea is really correct!

The Maṇḍukya Upanishad, on the other hand, is a metaphysics leading to wisdom, to knowledge.
In it there is no redemption, no God, no sanctity, no transcendence, no mysticism, no esoterics.
There one does not run to the forests in order to attain the final samadhi. This metaphysics is
reserved for very few people and therefore in India this teaching was given behind closed doors
so as not to confuse other people.4

The problem of cause and effect is well presented in the example of the clay and its forms,
which is found in the Chhândogya Upanishad: Brahman, the one reality, is the clay. No one is
able to perceive clay as such: we always see only forms of clay—where there is form, there is
clay, and where there is clay, there is form. Thus, as an 'observer', we can never go and stand
outside the one reality; being a form of clay, we are inescapably part of the Whole and, as such,
we will never be able to 'grasp' the Whole. As an individual we are indissolubly connected with

3
http://www.swamij.com/upanishad-mandukya-karika.htm
4
http://realization.org/p/namedoc/upanishads/mandukya/mandukya.html
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the one reality; we cannot objectify the reality nor abstract ourselves from it as a subject. As no
form of clay can exist apart from clay, so also no material or mental form can stand outside the
reality. In this sense the idea of a separate, independent personality however much unique in
itself—is an illusion.5

In terms of cause and effect we can never experience the cause, Brahman, as an object. What we
see are always the effects only, even when the effects (the forms of clay) cannot be distinguished
from their cause (the clay), as in the case of a substance that is constantly changing, but which
remains unknown in itself. Our error is that we are trying to find a cause apart from the forms.
Brahman, the one reality, is being known through the forms by means of the metaphysical
insight, just as the clay is known through its forms, for the clay and its forms are inseparably one.

The evolution idea, the idea of 'progress', tells us that form A precedes and, therefore, is the
cause of form B which we are seeing now, and so on. This is an error: the so-called cause is
always the one and the same reality (clay). The same applies to the practice of spirituality:
'realisation' or 'liberation' is not the 'product' (effect) of a foregoing, personal effort (cause),
however much it may take its legitimate place.6

Also one should always try to get rid of the notion of a substratum, of a separate, more or less
concrete base serving as a 'ground' cause. Shankara's theory of super-imposition (adhyâsa) of the
reality as presented in the classic example of the piece of rope which is being mistaken for a
snake, is a concession to the presupposition of causality. Nobody ever experiences ignorance or
unreality directly. It is always only afterwards, through memory,that we speak of unreality or of
error—so always in relation to an experience in the past. The notion of reality persists through all
of our perceptions and experiences: the clay remains clay under all of its forms. The Maṇḍukya
Upanishad places a time-bomb under the presupposition of causality.

Name and Form

5
http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Mandukya-Upanishad-An-ancient-Sanskrit-text-on-the-nature-
of-Reality.pdf
6
http://www.universaltheosophy.com/articles/johnston/the-meaning-of-om/
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 However, in order to record and communicate the experience of
our perceptions, we attribute certain sound-symbols to them—their names. The names are like
labels which enable us to indicate objects and ideas. Through the emotional value of a name we
maintain a certain rapport, a certain relationship with an object or idea.

First we have the idea that an object is presenting itself as an independent, separate
reality. Nevertheless each object is but a form, the essence of which remains unnameable —just
as in the example of the clay. Next, we attach, through tradition or convention, a name to the
form of the object, which we are able to communicate via a common language. The name (nama)
is the 'naming' (and therefore defining) element, and the form (rupa) is the element 'named' (the
defined). It is said that it was only after the fall, when Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil (the knowledge of relativity brought about by polarisation
through opposites—Maya), that they started to give names (definitions) to the things.7

In the perception of a table, for example, there is only the perception of its total
instantaneousness. Just as in the perception of a dream). We first have a direct perception of the
table, then the idea 'table' comes to our mind. Next we try to analyse the experience of that
perception: We put the idea 'table' (the name) on one side, and the object (the form) on the other
side. Through the power of abstraction we make a separation between the table and the name of
the table, that is to say, with our imagination we mentally attribute an independent existence to
the name of an object. That way all names are recorded and stored in the mind, to be processed
into a more or less complex structure which we experience as an 'inner' world of our own. With
this complex we identify ourselves indirectly and retrospectively through the memory, so as to
derive a sense and meaning from it as a person.8

With one single effort, push aside the illusion that name and form may be seen separately. Name
and form are indissolubly linked to each other as the mental and physical aspect of one and the
same reality. From the Totality of Time the names are as much a manifestation within time-
duration as are their forms: the name has no superiority over the form, or the form over the name.
7
http://www.esamskriti.com/e/Spirituality/Upanishads-Commentary/Mandukya-Upanishad~-An-Inquiry-Into-
What-Is-Real-And-Unreal-~2-1.aspx
8
https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/mand/mand_invoc.html
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He who knows through realisation that, in reality, there is no difference between name and form,
is liberated. The notion of unreality, of illusion or of ignorance, consisting of name and form, is
felt only in relation to a foregoing experience. With the realisation of the metaphysical insight all
rapports collapse into the non-dual one.9

The Three States & the Fourth

The Three States

The unique contribution of the Maṇḍukya Upanishad lies in an
investigation into the nature of the three states of consciousness (avasthatraya) of waking
(jagrat), dreaming (swapna), and deep, dreamless sleep (sushupti). With a very rigorous logic it
can be established that, from the standpoint of consciousness, it is impossible to arrive at
dualism. The individual which imagines itself to be passing through the three states of
consciousness every day, is in reality nothing but the indivisible, pure and non-dual
consciousness. 10

One never becomes conscious of consciousness as of an object. Consciousness is not an 'object'

to be known as such, nor is it an entity of which the individual as a 'subject' could have the
experience. On the other hand, for consciousness itself everything is equally an object, including
the individual in its role as subject. In the Samkhya philosophy also everything is prakriti, matter,
the whole of the mental world included. In Indian thought there is no dualism between matter
and mind. That is the big issue which separates European thinking from Indian thinking — there
lies the whole difference: From the standpoint of consciousness no real distinction can be made
between mind and matter. For that reason Cartesian thinking ('Cogito ergo sum') actually
represents a big fall in western philosophy, spiritually speaking.11

Pure consciousness is like the number 1: indivisible (advaita). The notion of individuality, the
sense of 'self', is really the notion of consciousness, essentially undivided, persisting through the
three states of consciousness of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. The universal man—he who
9
http://tripurashakti.com/mandukya-upanishad-12-verses-on-aum/
10
https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-mandukya-upanishad/d/doc122248.html
11
http://estudantedavedanta.net/Mundaka_and_Mandukya_Upanishads%20-%20Swami%20Sarvanand
%20[Sanskrit-English].pdf
11 | P a g e
knows through realisation that he is pure consciousness—bears the whole universe within
himself.

In the waking and dream states there is the experience of the reality in its manifested aspect,
characterized by the opposition between the 'I' and the 'non-I'. In the state of deep sleep the
reality is in its non-manifested aspect, which is the negation of the manifested aspect. Well then,
no one can imagine a state in which there is a subject and an object, without there being another
state, in which there is no subject and no object. Everything which is experienced here in the
manifested is known, because of its being opposed to its antipode, the non-manifested: all
relative knowledge arises from an opposite. 'This is one of the greatest achievements of Indian
thought.

The positive can become a form of knowledge, only if the negative also exists. We can acquire
an integral knowledge of the relative, only if we have an experience of another order in which all
relative knowledge is absent. Well then, every person is daily in the state of deep sleep, the state
of the non-manifested. An understanding of the position which deep sleep takes up within the
whole of the three states of consciousness, gives a clear insight in which the error collapses. The
non-manifested is a negative affirmation.

Is empirical knowledge possible without its opposite? All knowledge arises through opposition:
black-white, coldwarm, pain-pleasure, etc. Empirical knowledge cannot arise, unless there is
non-empirical knowledge as well. If the whole of empirical knowledge is only a play between
the positive and the negative, then empirical knowledge as a whole can arise only if its opposite
as a whole is also a factor of our experience. Now then, without the state of deep sleep it would
be impossible for us to come to an experience of the waking and the dream state. This is made
clear in the last line of verse 5 of the Maṇḍukya Upanishad: 'Deep sleep... who is the doorway to
the experience (of the dream and waking states).' This knowledge regarding the state of deep
sleep is only received through oral transmission.

The Fourth
The Maṇḍukya Upanishad first gives us a definition of the waking state, the
dream state, and the state of deep sleep. Subsequently the Upanishad speaks of 'turiya' as being a
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fourth state of consciousness, using the word 'pada' which may mean both 'foot' and 'quarter'. In
his commentary Shankara explains that turiya is not, for example, like the fourth foot of the four
feet of a cow, in other words, as part of an arithmetical series. Turiya is Brahman, looked at from
the non-causal standpoint, and is not part of any enumeration or classification. The Upanishad,
according to the opposition raised by Shankara, actually identifies turiya with the fourth quarter
of a coin that is divided into four parts as it were. The three states of consciousness of waking,
dreaming and deep sleep make up the first three quarters of the coin. The first quarter merges
into the second, the second quarter merges into the third, etc. Turiya, being' the fourth and last
quarter into which the first three merge themselves, completes the coin by making it into one
whole and, in that sense, it contains the first three quarters. It could then be argued accordingly,
that each of the first three quarters represents a state of consciousness, and that Turiya is a fourth
state of consciousness into which the first three are merged successively. Turiya would thus
complete and 'perfect' the other three states by making them into one whole, thereby raising itself
to a state of 'transcendence' as compared to the other three states. But it is not at all like that:
Turiya is not a state which one enters, stays in for a while, and then leaves again. 12

Turiya is the non-causal reality which persists throughout the three states of waking, dreaming,
and deep sleep. It is the awareness of the reality, the sense of the real, which accompanies all of
an individual's perceptions and experiences. The realisation of Turiya is a metaphysical insight.
The one reality is an indivisible Totality and forms no part of the scheme of numbers. The
example of the coin is used only to arrive at the notion of prime number: the philosophy of
Shankara is non-dualistic (advaita), therefore undivided and indivisible. For that reason, Turiya,
the one, non-causal reality, is considered as the number 1. Whether one multiplies, adds or
divides, the number 1 is always implied. Whatever the process that is being applied, the number
1 is always implicitly present, we can never eliminate it. The divisions which we make are but
our own mental divisions, the abstractions of our intellect. The notion of '1' is a metaphysical
insight: Turiya is the 1.13

Turiya is the Intemporal, the eternal Now, always staying outside the framework of the personal
vision. Here it is not a matter of a 'fourth' state of 'transcendence': Turiya is the eternal 'here-and-

12
http://creative.sulekha.com/mandukya-upanishad-verse-6-7_216793_blog
13
http://www.nevernothere.com/forum/mandukya-upanishad-12-verses
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now', present under all circumstances and in all states of consciousness. This given fact is,
normally speaking, being disregarded by the individual, because of the power of ignorance
(avidya), resulting in the denial and negation of its very indivisibility. The realisation of Turiya is
the removal of that denial, which does not mean the removal of the world: it is only the
ignorance which is removed. If the ignorance results in the negation of the one reality, then the
realisation of Turiya is the removing of that negation, leading to an affirmation, namely that
everything is this one reality: everything is Brahman. At the same time this realisation gives us
the knowledge that cause and effect are one in the moment of the eternal now.14

The Three States viewed from the Fourth

The idea that the three states of consciousness would succeed one
another in time follows from a wrong interpretation by the intellect, made afterwards through
abstraction in the waking state with the aid of memory. The 'I' of the waking state unjustly
'appropriates' the other two states of consciousness. This applies to the state of deep sleep in
particular. In the expression, 'Last night I slept soundly for eight hours; I didn't know anything',
the paradox of the state of deep sleep comes to light. The three aspects of this statement, 'I'
(causal), 'for eight hours' (temporal), and 'didn't know anything' (cognitive), are but elements of
an illegitimate claim made afterwards by the ego of the waking state. To that same ego the state
of deep sleep remains puzzling, because in it [in deep sleep] the perception of the world as a
time-space complex disappears all at once, including the perception of an 'I' as a subject. At the
same time the state of deep sleep is a miniature example of the reality as a noncausal, non-
relational and non-temporal actuality.

The dream state also may be an important guru to us. Looking at them from the eternal Now time
the waking and the dream states, as manifestations, are equivalents. The dream state may give us
an insight into the waking state: in the dream state, one and the same consciousness is
spontaneously split into subject and object, thereby giving us a miniature example of how the
world as a time-space complex may be presented all at once just as pure idea [imagery], in the
Totality of the Now. The dream state makes it clear how everything may be pure idea, including
the idea of an ‘I’ as a subject. It is the unique contribution of the Maṇḍukya Upanishad that it

14
http://blog.anandway.com/post/Mandukya-Upanishad-Sanskrit-text-and-English-translation
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removes the distinction between the illusory reality of the dream state and the empirical reality of
the waking state by viewing them as being on the same level.15

The Mantra 'OM'

The mantra 'OM' forges the connecting link between the above
metaphysical analysis and spiritual practice. The Maṇḍukya Upanishad gives a unique place to
the symbol 'OM'. OM is not a symbol in the usual sense of the term. Let us take an example: It
can be said that the flag of a country is the symbol of that country, because the flag represents
that country. OM, however, is more than a symbol representing the one reality. OM is a sign
which possesses a concrete countervalue. A banknote, for example, is a sign, that is to say, the
note may be exchanged for its fixed counter-value. Similarly, OM is a sign which not only
represents the one reality, but presents it at the same time. The Chhândogya Upanishad states
that the syllable OM contains all the sounds that may be uttered by man. Swami Vivekananda
also explains in his 'Raja Yoga' that the syllable OM is the womb of all the vowels and
consonants which the human voice is capable of: Starting with the 'A' sound with a fully opened
mouth, one concludes, via the 'U' sound, with the 'M' sound, where the mouth is completely
closed. Thus OM comprises all sounds and therefore, all names and their meanings.16

The Maṇḍukya Upanishad identifies the letter 'A' of the symbol OM with the waking state, the
letter 'U' with the dream state, and the letter 'M' with the state of deep sleep. The letter 'A' merges
in the letter 'U', and the letter 'U' in the letter 'M'. The silence which follows the uttering of the
last letter 'M', and which constitutes the interstitial void between any two words or thoughts, is
identified with Turiya. The interstitial void may be made bigger by slowing down the 'internal
dialogue' through the practice of the objectless attention. Since name and form are indissolubly
connected with one another, the same applies to OM: OM is the name of the reality. Meditation
on the mantra OM is essential for those who are not able as yet to remove the ignorance directly
with the aid of metaphysical insight. Life is a dream. Dream that you are the immortal Atman
and you become Atman.

15
https://archive.org/stream/MandukyaUpanishadKarikaWithShankaraBhashya-
SwamiNikhilananda/MandukyaUpanishadKarikaWithBhashya-SwamiNikhilananda_djvu.txt
16
http://www.advaitayoga.org/advaitayogaarticles/mandukya.html
15 | P a g e
 Seeing Brahman with Open Eyes
The Maṇḍukya Upanishad is the only upanishad which is purely metaphysical. It teaches
ajata vada, the way of the unborn, of non-causality. In the metaphysics of Vedanta a distinction
is made between one reality that which does not change and which persists through all our
experiences, and second truth, of which, according to the Vedanta, there may be any number.
Swami Vivekananda explains this with the example of the sun: somebody is travelling towards
the sun and at each stage he takes a picture. The images are all different, but no one can deny that
they all show the same sun. The reality always stays the same, whereas the truths, although all
true at their own particular level, are relative. As such, everyone else is entitled to a place for his
standpoint which is as important as the place occupied by our own standpoint.17

The reality is the Totality of existence, which has two aspects: (a) the manifested aspect, and (b)
the non-manifested aspect. The purport of the Maṇḍukya Upanishad is to prove that, irrespective
of the level of existence at which one may find oneself, there is only one Reality which is.

Life as the Confrontation of Contradictions

Mâyâ is that which is constantly changing, thereby giving rise to the

numerous contradictions in life. That is why Swami Vivekananda explains that Maya is not just a
theory of illusion, but a fact of our experience: it is the confrontation of the contradictions in life,
the play of interaction between the positive and negative poles, where-from the ordinary, relative
knowledge springs. The only way by which we may know life, is by means of opposites, by
opposition. And true knowledge arises from the confrontation of the silence with the tumult.
Only very few can have that jñâna.18

This confrontation is to be met on a basis which connects all the data of our perceptions and
experiences, and which is not a denial. (Compare the concept of dharma, which literally means
'that which holds things together'.) When you faint, you deny pathologically; but in samadhi, you
deny supernaturally in a trans-psychological state. But the reality is the Totality, the whole of
everything (sarvam). A summing up of three or four states of consciousness would mean that the

17
https://www.stillnessspeaks.com/sitehtml/jamesswartz/mandukya1.pdf
18
https://www.stillnessspeaks.com/sitehtml/jamesswartz/mandukya1.
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one reality is a compound, which is impossible. And it is a great error of spiritual and
philosophical life to think that all that is matter in life is to be rejected: by trying to make
psychological supports and abstractions for oneself, by practising yoga, by leaving the world,
retreating into caves and thus to deny the world completely. Surely, there are ways to leave the
world, to practise meditation, samadhi, etc. for oneself, but that is not the ultimate state. It is not
a matter of denying, of escaping or destroying the world, but of destroying avidya that we are
ignorant of the one reality as one undivided Totality.19

One seeks solitariness, because one is too much occupied by the outer world. We practise
detachment and renunciation in order to break our attachment to the material world; we enter the
monastery in order to discipline ourselves, but we can never deny the Totality. Why not try to get
rid of those contradictions of life here and now, in the little place that we occupy in life? Why
practise all these gymnastics, which only serves to postpone the true knowledge?

Therefore, it is not the yoga-samadhi as such, as the ultimate form of meditation, against which a
charge is being made by the Maṇḍukya Upanishad, but the wrong use of it as a means to arrive at
the knowledge of reality. It is a warning against the practice of meditation as an end in itself. The
world is not going to be explained by concentrating oneself exclusively on a condition of peace
or by making oneself immune to the world. And this explanation of the world, of life's
contradictions, is what is needed. The word samadhi means 'sameness of vision'. That sameness
of vision comes with the enlightenment of the buddhi, the faculty of metaphysical
discrimination, as a metaphysical insight. In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna taught this buddhi
yoga to Arjuna on the battlefield. He did not advise Arjuna to go and meditate in the caves, but
to fulfil his duty as a warrior on the battlefield, established in the metaphysical insight. Sri
Ramakrishna also admonished Naren (later Swami Vivekananda) to see Brahman with open
eyes. Thus we can make a distinction between yoga-samadhi and the jnana-samadhi: the former
is a condition, in time, between a 'before' and an 'after', whereas the latter is a metaphysical
insight into our true, intemporal being, which is not time-related.20

So the Maṇḍukya Upanishad breaks the wrong notion that the philosophy of Vedanta or the
spirituality of Hinduism would advocate an escape from the world. The solution of problems and
19
http://www.holybooks.com/mandukya-upanishad-an-ancient-sanskrit-text-on-the-nature-of-reality/
20
http://tripurashakti.com/mandukya-upanishad-12-verses-on-aum/
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contradictions of life is the vision of the Intemporal here and now. Why not seek that knowledge
right from the beginning? 'The unreal never exists; the real never ceases to exist.' Even in the
midst of confusion and error, the awareness of the reality of the Eternal Now never fails.

We make a distinction between Time itself as the Totality of the Eternal Now (turiya), and 'time-
duration' which is an interpretation afterwards of that which is constantly changing. The eternal
now is an ungraspable certainty, it is the eternal Subject which never becomes an object of
knowledge. When there is the notion of particular attention, there arises the notion of time-
duration, of Time apparently being divided into durations. Then there is duality and multiplicity,
and we enter into the scheme of numbers. Through particular attention we are living in time-
duration, as it were; in other words: in relativity. This particular attention is innate in all beings
and is the negation of Totality as the indivisible One. That is the ignorance, avidya, of the
Vedanta, and the western 'fall' and 'original sin'. It keeps 'the third eye' of wisdom closed.

At present we have not the vision of the Totality, but the experience of relativity maya. The
literal meaning of the word Maya is: 'That which measures (the Unmeasurable).' The ignorance
(avidya) makes itself felt as a want, a gap, and as an individual, we are constantly looking for
possibilities to fill that gap: trying to fill our lives sensibly so as to come to fulfilment. In our
attempts to find compensation we are caught by the desire to embrace the particular in the
manifestation. In the process of wanting to grasp the reality through the particular, we enter the
field of time-space to be confronted there with the contradictions inherent in all experience—
Maya. These contradictions are life—through this polarisation we know life. But, at the same
time, there is the possibility to detach ourselves from it. The same relativity (maya) may be
solved through the very fact of its being inescapably related to the Totality in the eternal moment
of here and now just as forms of clay are always indissolubly connected with clay. 21

Through the practice of objectless attention we open ourselves to the possibility of being the pure
and non-dual consciousness. Through the detachment of objectless attention, that very attention
may be realized as the unrelated and unborn Now of Time. We don't have that attention; we are
that attention as pure Intelligence, apart from all physical and mental activities. That realisation
is the realisation of the metaphysical insight.

21
http://www.consciouslivingfoundation.org/ebooks/13/CLF-mundaka_upanishad.pdf
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The Mahavakya

In the second verse of the Maṇḍukya Upanishad is the mahavakya 'Ayam

Atma Brahma': This Atman is Brahman. The realisation of this mahavakya is not an experience,
but a metaphysical insight falling outside the realm of duality. With this realisation disappears
the ignorance regarding the nondual nature of the one reality and, along with it, all the rapports
and relationships which were built between the 'I' and the 'non-I'. At the same time, the illusion
that there had ever been the question of two selves, a higher Self and a lower Self, the latter
being in search of the former, disappears. 22

As long as there is a seeking, there is the sense of separation. As long as there is a seeker, there is
the faith in the words of the holy scriptures and in the example of those who realized their true
nature. Faith is a knowledge 'by anticipation': without faith one cannot progress, whereas a belief
may be refuted at any level.

Realisation is not the outcome of a certain discipline or planned action, but a metaphysical
insight which makes one recognize that the reality is one integral whole. The metaphysical
insight cannot be 'practised' as one would practise yoga. When all our personal efforts have
collapsed through the bankruptcy of all our seeking, only then, on that basis, can the reality come
and seek us with its grace. Realisation is a gift of the Omnipresent to stay in the Intemporal,
where past and future dissolve in the moment of the eternal Now Realisation is the perception of
the reality, a unique happening, indivisible, and therefore, ungraspable by the mind and its
categories. The metaphysical insight is not a form of mental cognition (vrtti), it does not remain
stuck in an intellectual conviction, but implicates the person as a whole.

The Maṇḍukya Upanishad teaches us 'to see Brahman with open eyes'. In the words of Meister
Eckhart: 'To see God is to see through the eyes of God.' It is a great outburst against the fixed
idea that realisation is an exclusive state of security, in which there is no longer any danger,
created by religion and yoga. Nor is it a matter of transcending the world: the world stays as it is.

There is only the overcoming of the ignorance regarding the truth of the one reality. Indian
thought does not avoid the world of matter at all, but gives it its true value. There is no question

22
http://www.esamskriti.com/e/Spirituality/Upanishads-Commentary/Mandukya-Upanishad~Pdf-1.aspx
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of mystique or of transcendentalism: the whole of reality may be seen in a single grain of sand.
Why seek a transcendence?

There is but one reality and three ways of seeing it. The three states of consciousness are three
different visions of one and the same reality, they are like zones of attention through which the
awareness of the reality persists. Let us take a stone, for example: in its grosser aspect it is
perceived as a form of gross matter; under a microscope it is perceived as a specific molecular
structure in movement; and with an even subtler perception the stone appears as a speck of light.
All three are but the different presentations of one and the same substance.

What one sees in realisation is the reality and always only the reality. Mind and matter are
equally Brahman. On the one hand, there is only Atman-Brahman who, as the eternal Subject, is
the Self of all our experiences; on the other hand, the experience of the world is but 'one
unbroken perception of Brahman' as an Object. Therefore one can no longer say, 'Brahman is
real and the universe is unreal.' 'All that exists is Brahman.23

Conclusion

The Maṇḍukya Upanishad is a philosophy of the Totality of existence, which is

not the same as the sum total of a number of separate entities or data added together. It seeks the
knowledge of that Totality, which endeavours to solve the greatest problem of philosophy: the
contradiction between life and death. 24

Bibliography

Maṇḍukya Upanishad Robert Hume (Translator), Oxford University Press.

Multiple translations (Johnston, Nikhilānanda, Dvivedi, Panoli).

The Maṇḍukya Upanishad English Translation by Jayaram V .

Maṇḍukya Upanishad with Gaudapada Karika.

Part 1 of a Vedanta class by Swami Sarvapriyananda on the Maṇḍukya Upanishad.

23
https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/mand/mand_1.html
24
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/mandukya.asp
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https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/mundak/Mundaka_Upanishad.pdf

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/upanishads/mundaka.asp

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/46248/11/11_conclusion.pdf

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