Upanishads : "The cream of Vedas"

MANDUKYA UPANISHAD Chapter-1. "AGAMA PRAKARANA" ( The Scriptural Treatise ) INTRODUCTION-4. The  glosser  skips  over  expressions  that  are  not  materially  or  directly  useful  for  elaboration  of  his  particular  thesis. At  the  same  time,  the  Karika  does  not  bring  forth  vividly  ideas  that  are  only  hinted  at  or  suggested  by  he  microscopic  expression  in  the  Upanishad. Since  the  Mandukya  Upanishad  serves  as  the  very  framework  for  the  Gaudapada's  artistic  embroidery  in  philosophy,  this  chapter  is  called  as  "Agama Prakarana".       To be continued  .... Swami Sri Adi Sankaracharya ...

MANDUKYA UPANISHAD Chapter-1. "AGAMA PRAKARANA" ( The Scriptural Treatise ) INTRODUCTION-3. The first chapter is termed as scriptural because the Upanishadik Mantra-s are given here with the Karika-stanzas apprehended to them at convenient points. The 29 verses of Gaudapada do not strive to give a word - to - word  commentary upon the Upanishadik texts. The Karika only tries to re-arrange the ideas of the Upanishad into a pattern which can easily convey to the readers the central point of the scripture  --- the "Turiya", the Absolute Non-Dual Reality. To be continued  ....

MANDUKYA UPANISHAD Chapter-1. "AGAMA PRAKARANA" ( The Scriptural Treatise ) INTRODUCTION-2. Note : link the Introduction-1, before start of this discussion .. This confusion has come to the great French scholar mainly because of the plural usage in the term "Goudapadiya"; but venerable people are always addressed in plural, not only in Samakrtam but in English also; as in royal 'WE.' 'Gauda' may be the name of a class and the word 'Pada'is a honorific term. Thus we may conclude that one great venerable sage hailing from Gauda-Desam was the author of the Karika. To be continued  .....

MANDUKYA UPANISHAD   Chapter-1. "AGAMA PRAKARANA" ( The Scriptural Treatise ) INTRODUCTION-1.   This opening chapter of the Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudapada's Karika is called "the Ssriptural Treatise" because it contains the Upanishad portion also apart from the metrical verses in which the gloss has been written. I had already explained that from the standpoint of Rrofessor Deussen the entire text-book is but Gaudapada's own. Now, Dr. Waaleser, in his Der Altere Vedanta, tries to prove that Gaudapadaiya Karika is the name of a book in four chapters and not indicative of the name of the author. According to him, the School of Vedanta prevalent at that time in Gauda-Desa ( in North Bengal ) had certain theories which were codified into these four chapters and hence are called together under one volume as Gaudapadiya Karika. In short, it is "a case of a book evolving an author and not an author evolving a book."\   To be con...