Mandukya Upanishad : 2. T.N.Sethumadhavan

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Wednesday, May 18, 2022. 20:00.

An inquiry into what is Real And Unreal 

1.METHODOLOGY ADOPTED IN THE UPANISHAD  &

2.SHANTI MANTRA – PEACE INVOCATION

Post-2.

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METHODOLOGY ADOPTED IN THE UPANISHAD : 

Like all the other Upanishads the Mandukya Upanishad also consists of a teacher and a taught because no Upanishadic study is complete without the presence of a Guru. As a result, the Upanishad has explained all its contents through the words of the Guru. It is with the help of the Mandukya Upanishad that individuals learn to dissect their lives completely and in turn discover the Ultimate Truth.   

The Upanishad has the uniqueness to declare the uncut, raw Truth without any kind of polish or decoration and embellishment which may cause the human minds and intellects to revolt against the very concept and its implications. The Mandukya Upanishad hears all such intellectual and mental follies and cautions that the declarations of the Upanishad contain nothing but truth uncolored by sweet add-ons.  

Most of the Upanishads have some stories or the other to convey their message; but the Mandukya Upanishad delivers its message through a symbol. This symbol is AUM. Just as a shaligrama stone is worshipped as Bhagavan Vishnu or Narayana wherein the worshipper knows that the object of his worship is not a stone but God himself, AUM is considered an apt symbol of Brahman. The Upanishad declares that AUM and Brahman are one and the same. They support the phenomenal world – AUM supporting the phenomenal world represented by sounds and Brahman supporting the phenomenal world represented by the varieties of sense experiences.  

When the phenomenal world is negated by knowledge, there is only the substratum left – that is AUM or Brahman. It is like the ghost being negated leaving behind only the post. But how to meditate on AUM?  

First in our waking state we meditate that we are Virat that is Brahman as the sum total of of all physical bodies. This is represented by the letter ‘A’. Next we imagine that we are in dream state when we consider that we are Hiranyagarbha that is the Brahman as the sum total of all the minds which is ‘U’ of AUM. Then we imagine that we are in deep sleep when we take us to be one with Isvara which is the Brahman associated with its power ‘Maya’. This is represented by M of AUM. These three stages are considered as ignorance. If we are able to go still further, beyond everything, then we become one with Turiya, Pure Consciousness. We are then amatra in the syllable AUM, beyond duality. We are Brahman. This is how the Upanishad explains Brahman through the symbol of AUM. 

SHANTI MANTRA – PEACE INVOCATION  :

We are attempting to study the Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudapada’s Karika in as much details as we are gifted to understand.  So, as is customary, we begin to pray that we may have healthy bodies and minds. We pray that our bodies and minds may be steady and not create any problems for us. We pray that we can hear good things and see good things so that there are no distractions and that we can devote ourselves entirely to the subject, living a life as long as the gods decree. 

This prayer is as follows. 

Om! Bhadram karnebhih s’rnuyāma devāh  

bhadram pasyemākhabhiryajatrāh  

sthirairangaistushtuvamsastanūbhi  

rvyaśema devahitam yadāyuh  

svasti na indro vriddhaśravāh  

svasti nah pūhā viśvavedāh  

svasti nastārkhyo arihtanemih  

svasti no brihaspatirdadhātu  

Om śāntih; śāntih; śāntih || 

Translation :

“Om. Shining Ones! May we hear through our ears what is auspicious; Ye, fit to be worshipped! May we see with our eyes what is auspicious; May we, endowed with body strong with limbs, offering praise, complete the full span of life bestowed upon us by the divine beings; May Indra, of enhanced fame, be auspicious unto us; May Pūshan, who is all-knowing, be auspicious unto us; May Tārkshya, who is the destroyer of all evils, be auspicious unto us; May Brihaspati bestow upon us auspiciousness!  

Om. Peace! Peace! Peace! 

Object of this treatise : 

“As a man stricken with disease regains his normal state with the removal of the cause of the disease, so the self, laboring under misapprehension, owing to identification of itself with misery, recovers its normal state with the cessation of the illusion of duality, which manifests itself as the phenomenal universe. This realization of non-duality is the end to be attained”. – 

Sri Swami Adi Sankaracharya 

In the first essay of this series we had an aerial view of the Mandukya Upanishad and the Karika of Acharya Gaudapada. With the grace of The Lord, let us commence their detailed study. This Upanishad has 12 mantras (with no sub-division) and the Karika has 215 mantras divided into four convenient chapters (prakaranas) as stated earlier. 

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Next - AGAMA PRAKARANA 

To be continued ...

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