Mandukya Upanishad : 5. T.N.Sethumadhavan.

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Wednesday, July  13, 2022. 06:00. 

An inquiry into what is Real And Unreal 

AGAMA PRAKARANA 

Post-5.

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WAKING STATE - Mantram-3.

jagarita sthano bahishprajnah saptanga 

ekonavimshati mukhah sthula bhug 

vaishvanarah prathamah padah .. 3...

"The first quarter (Pada) is Vaisvanara whose sphere of activity is the waking state, 

who is conscious of the external world of objects, who has seven limbs and nineteen 

mouths and whose experience consists of gross material objects of the world." 

Human life is nothing but a series of experiences wherein three features play a dynamic 

role. They are 1. the experiencer 2. the experienced and 3. the experiencing i.e. the 

relationship between the experiencer and the experienced. When we juxtapose these 

experiences into our own inner being or consciousness, we find that there are three planes 

of consciousness or three facets of life in the forms of the waker, the dreamer and the 

deep-sleeper in us. The experiences we undergo in these three states are entirely different 

from one another. The Mandukya Upanishad explains the exact location, identity, field 

of activity and things enjoyed by us in these three states. It takes up first the waking state 

(jagarita sthana). 

The waker-ego is called Vaisvanara or Viswa that enjoys the waking state 

consciousness wherein it is aware of the world of sense-objects. According to Sankara he 

(the waking state) is called Vaisvanara because he leads all creatures of the universe in 

diverse ways to the enjoyment of various sense objects. or because he comprises all 

beings. The waker is not only aware of the objects of senses but also enjoys them in the 

nature of shabda, sparsha, roopa, rasa, gandha – sound, touch, shape or forms, taste and 

smell through his respective sense organs. The Upanishad puts the idea as 1. the waker – 

ego’s sphere of activity is the waking state, and 2. who is conscious of the external world 

of objects.

The important word of the mantra here is ‘bahishprajnah’ – being aware of objects other 

than oneself. It is our common experience that we take more interest in other’s affairs 

than our own. According to Sankara this tendency is due to avidya or ignorance. Thus 

consciousness in the waking state is more related to outside objects than to one’s own 

inner being. 

Then the Upanishad says that vaisvanara has seven limbs and nineteen mouths. Although 

this description may look bizarre, the expression ‘seven limbs’ is based upon the 

Chandogya Upanishad (V 18.2) which gives a description of the macrocosm as virat – 

the total structure of the entire cosmos as in the case of visva roopa darshana of The 

Lord in the Bhagavad Gita – an Universal or Cosmic form. Nineteen mouths mean five 

sense-organs (hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell), five organs of action (speech, 

handling, locomotion, generation and excretion), five aspects of our vital breath (prana, 

apana, vyana, udana and samana), mind, intellect, mind-stuff – storehouse of thoughts, 

and ego - sense of self (manas, buddhi, chitta, ahankara).

Thus the Upanishad says that the experience of vaisvanara consists of gross material 

objects of the world. 

We had seen in the beginning that the atman is the brahman; the individual ego is the 

Total ego; the limited Self is the Universal Self. Hence the Upanishad says that 

microcosm (vyashti) is the macrocosm (samashti) or that the atman is having seven 

limbs. This is like saying that room-space is nothing other than total atmospheric space. 

“The waking state is the normal condition of the natural man, who without reflection 

accepts the universe as he finds it. The same physical universe bound by uniform laws 

presents itself to all men”. _ Dr.S.Radhakrishnan.

*****

NEXT- 

DREAM STATE 

MANTRAM – 4.

To be continued .....

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