Mandukya Upanishad : 4. T.N.Sethumadhavan.

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Monday, June  27, 2022. 04:00. AM.

An inquiry into what is Real And Unreal 

AGAMA PRAKARANA 

Post-4.

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Mantram-2.

"sarvam hy etad.h brahma, ayam atma brahma so.ayam atma chatushpat.h.."

2..

All this is verily Brahman. This Atman is Brahman. This Atman has four quarters

(parts).

This mantra contains three statements as under :

1. All this is verily Brahman.

2. This Atman is Brahman.

3. This Atman has four quarters or 

We shall now examine them.

In the previous mantra it was stated that ‘all this is AUM’. Now the sage says that all this

is Brahman. It naturally connotes that AUM is Brahman. He also says that this Atman is

Brahman. It signifies that the notion we might have entertained that Atman is different

from Brahman is not valid and that in the final analysis Atman is Brahman only. We have

therefore, to be clear ab initio as to what Atman is and what Brahman is.

The idea of Atman and Brahman can be illustrated by the familiar example of the limited

room space and the unlimited total space. The atmospheric space is not limited in any

manner. But yet we feel that the space inside the four walls of a room is limited. What

brought this situation? The space in the room identifying itself with walls assumes to

itself a special ego or status as the room space. The so called room space was the same as

the total space before the walls were constructed and if the walls were to be demolished

the former room space will go back to the total space or will be identified with the total

space. Therefore, the room space is nothing other than the total space and both are one

and the same.

Similarly, the All-pervading Reality, Brahman, in its identification with the body, mind

and intellect, feels for itself a separate personality in its own delusion or Maya. Once this

delusion takes place it acquires the ideas of its own mortality, egoism, vanity and the

consequent tribulations. Atman is that Reality, which though undivided and indivisible,

eternal, has come to manifest itself within the locus of the body. That undivided Reality

is Brahman, the All-pervading, Absolute and Unborn as in the case of the total space

mentioned in the above example. Hence the mantra 2 of the Mandukya Upanished

declares “this Atman is Brahman” (ayam atma brahma).

In this declaration the word ‘this’ is very significant and volumes have been written

explaining its concept. For our purpose we may understand it as follows. Suppose, from

the place where I am sitting (Point ‘A’), there is a table at five feet distance (Point ‘B’)

and a chair at two feet distance (Pont ‘C’). So for me Point ‘B’ is ‘that’ and Point ‘C’ is 

‘this’. Suppose, a book is placed between me and the chair say at a distance of one foot

from me at Point ‘D’, then Point ‘D’ becomes ‘this’ and the point ‘C’ also becomes

‘that’. In this way if we continue to eliminate all the points coming under the category of

‘that’, we reach the very last point, at which all objects indicated by ‘that’ are gone and

only the final ‘this’ remains with reference to which there cannot be anything nearer to

me. That last point is our Self, the ‘Atman’ which is referred in this mantra as ‘this

Atman’. We may call this as ‘The Absolute This’, an All-pervading spiritual factor. The

Upanishad says that this Atman is Brahman.

This oft-quoted declaration is considered to be a major statement – maha vakya - by

Vedantic seekers. A Maha Vakya is a Scriptural Declaration which has got inexhaustible

connotations which reveal themselves the more and more a seeker reflects on it. The

Upanishad follows the technique of explaining an unknown proposition by means of

known logical analysis. Just as by looking at the smoke rising at a distance it can be

inferred that there must be a fire behind it at that distant place, so too when the insentient

or inert body participates in life’s activities it can be conveniently presumed that there is

some spark of life (Consciousness) which energizes that body and provokes it to act;

when such a spark is absent we take it that it is a dead body.

Similarly the Rishi of the Upanishad attempts to throw light on the concepts of Brahman

or the Atman through its manifestations. He says that this Atman has four quarters or

padas or limbs. Here limbs do not mean that Brahman has four parts or divisions like

four legs to an animal. What the Upanishad means to say is that the same Atman seems to

possess four attributes or four aspects viz., the waking, the dream, the deep-sleep and

Turiya planes of consciousness, although the first three aspects devolve into the fourth

one in actuality just as all the smaller denomination weighing stones like 250 gms, 500

gms, 750 gms lose their individual identity when they are considered as the limbs or

members of a Kilogram. When the three states of waking, dream and deep-sleep merge in

the order of the previous one in the succeeding one the knowledge of the fourth one, the

Turiya state of Consciousness, is attained. In that state, the parts have become One Whole

(Atman) and there is no waker or dreamer or deep-sleeper. This is the idea of the Rishi

when he says the Atman has four quarters. What they are, what is their behavioral

pattern, what are their fields of activity etc., will be taken up next.

We have so far discussed about the attempts of the Rishi of the Upanishad to throw light

on the concepts of Brahman or the Atman through its manifestations. He said that “All

this is verily Brahman. This Atman is Brahman. This Atman has four quarters (parts).”

We have to be clear that when it is stated that this Atman has four quarters or padas or

limbs it does not mean that Brahman has four parts or divisions like four legs to an

animal. What the Upanishad means to say is that the same Atman seems to possess four

attributes or four aspects viz., the waking, the dream, the deep-sleep and Turiya planes of

consciousness, although the first three aspects devolve into the fourth one in actuality.

This is the underlying idea of the Rishi when he says that the Atman has four quarters.

What they are, what is their behavioral pattern, what are their fields of activity, how the

four quarters are said to indicate Atman etc., is explained now. 

*****

Next-WAKING STATE - Mantram-3.

To be continued ....

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