MANDUKYA UPANISHAD with GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA: 52. Swami Advayananda.

 

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Monday 20, April 2025, 11:00.

MANDUKYA UPANISHAD 

GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA

Agama Prakarana – “The Scriptural Treatise”

GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA:  PART 4/4:   

ALAATA-SHANTI PRAKARANA (100 mantras): 

Quenching the Firebrand:

The Illusion of CAUSALITY  

Karika Section 4.6:   Mantras - 33-41 (9 No.) 

Mantram - 4.39: The Evidence of Emotional Reaction

Post-52.

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Mantram - 4.39: The Evidence of Emotional Reaction

1 

Asat jaagarite drishtvaa, = By seeing an unreal object in the waking state, and 

2 

swapne pashyati tanmayah; = then in dream, one is emotionally affected in both

 3 

asat swapne api drishtvaa cha, = But seeing an unreal in both. object in dream, (and being so 

4 

pratibuddhah na pashyati. = affected), one does not see it upon waking. 

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We have last discussed emotional experiences (of Pain) in Mantram 26 in the debate between the Realists and the Idealists. It crops up again. The purpose in this mantram is to warn us not to be tempted to concede reality to the waking state even under the most convincing case of proven relative causality.

 The case in question is a remarkable proof of how waking experiences influence dream, but not the other way around: 

1-2

 First the case is taken when a waking experience, which causes some emotional upheaval, is repeated in dream, causing the same pain there. This case justifies the statement that the waking state supplies the content for the dream. 

3-4

 Then the case is taken of a dream experience which causes some emotional reaction in the dream, but which is simply ignored or laughed off when we wake up. Our immediate reaction to this is, “This proves that the waking state is the cause of the dream state. Not only that, it is also real in comparison to the unreal dream.” 

This is the mistake. 

The trap here is that the dream experience is given unreality status for the wrong reason, and by default the waking state is taken as being real. Mental bias is all that this example proves; it does not prove the reality of the waking state, nor the unreality of the dream state. The reality or unreality is never the outcome of mental bias; it can only be decided by a deeper understanding of what Absolute Reality is. 

The causality is only relative. For that matter, the emotional reaction itself is relative. 

Some may be pained by an object; others may not. Thus, the Bhashya concludes from this that to attribute a causal relationship from such untrustworthy evidence is not justified.  The door is now opened for us to accept the Vedantic viewpoint on Causality . . . 

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Next

Mantram - 4.40: Causality Just Not Possible   

Continued

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