MANDUKYA UPANISHAD with GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA : 11. - Swami Advayananda ji.

Swami Chinmayananda :

To waste our precious lifetime in the pursuit of all non-essentials and never taking up seriously the study of the greatest of sciences, which alone can save man from the thraldom of imperfections, is being condemned in this verse of Bhaja Govindam. 

While living here, man’s greatest endeavour is to understand and master the secret of life, the Reality behind it and to gain his perfect identification with It. 

He must be able to meet death not as a moment of utter annihilation, but as a springboard to rocket himself into an eternal Existence, peaceful and divine.

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Sunday, April 02, 2023. 06:45.

MANDUKYA UPANISHAD 

With Part -1/4 of Goudapada's Karika

Agama Prakarana - "The Scriptural Treatise"

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THE “FOURTH” QUARTER – TURIYA

Upanishad Section 2 :  Mantras - 7.

Mantra - 7: The Fruit of the Process of “Negation”

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Negation Phase 1: 1-6 : 

The introduction being over, the Bhashya now takes up the commentary on the 

verse itself. The lines in Phase 1 of Negation, negate the three states of Vishwa, Taijasa and 

Prajna, together with all the other possible combinations of them. Let us go step by step:

1 First to be eliminated is Taijasa, the conscious internal world of the mind. 

2 Then Vishwa, the conscious external world of objects and sense pleasures. 

3 This rules out the possibility of waking and dreaming happening simultaneously.

4 This denies the state of deep sleep, wherein there is nothing distinguishable, i.e. 

there is absence of duality, but it is not the Non-dual Supreme State. 

5 This rules out the possibility of all the three states happening together, i.e. waking, 

dream and deep sleep.

6 And finally, we negate the complete absence of all three states, which would 

resemble a state of total nothingness, an unconsciousness, a Void. The Void is negated.

[At this point Obj 9 and Obj 10 arise. See end of Chapter.]

Negation Phase 2: 7-13 :

In Phase 1, we eliminated the Experience of the three states of Vishwa, Taijasa and 

Prajna. In this phase, that which is Experienced , i.e. the object of experience in those three

states, is negated. They concern the various attributes belonging to those experiences:

7 Negates all the objects of the Vishwa experience. By negating the seen, it is 

understood that the heard, the tasted, the touched and the smelt are also included. 

8 Negates all empirical dealings or interactions. This also relates to Vishwa.

9 Negates all the activities of the sense organs of action, also relating to Vishwa.

10 Shifts into the realm of Taijasa, and negates all thought-objects. All the thought 

processes performed within the intellect are negated. 

11 This also relates to Taijasa, but concerns the thought mass that is in the mind. All 

thoughts relating to desires, emotions and feelings are negated.

12 Negates the power of description. Speech is a mixture of Vishwa and Taijasa.

13 Finally, we have the negation is of self-awareness (ego) during deep sleep. This is 

an indirect assertion of ‘Self-awareness’. While Prajna is negated, Turiya, the state of

unbroken Self-awareness, is asserted. This assertion is expanded in the next Phase . . .

Assertion Phase 3: 14-19 :

The student is finally told what the Self is, instead of what it is not. That must surely 

be like a cool, welcoming breeze to him! In this last Phase are given some of the positive 

qualities by which the realized person may be identified. These qualities describe the Selfrealised sage. They comprise an “Assertion Phase”, rather than a Negation Phase. The 

closest we can come to knowing what the Self is, is by knowing who a Self-realised sage is.

14 The sage is “free from all world phenomena.” These attributes belong to Vishwa.

15 He is a “tranquil, peaceful person”. These mental attributes belong to the Taijasa.

16 He is “auspicious, divine and beneficient”, which also belong to Taijasa.

17 He is in the Non-dual state, the indescribable final goal. But non-duality is 

different from “absence of duality” which is how Prajna in deep sleep was described.

18 and 19 have already been covered at the beginning.

Conclusion: 

20 The mantram concludes by turning our attention to the purpose of the whole process 

– the realisation of the Atman, and the Truth that is to be known. This is from the 

standpoint of ignorance, as in Reality, there is no “knowing” of the Self. How is it to be 

known? By removing that which prevents us from knowing it!

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Next
OBJECTIONS
Objection 5: Is it a Shunya State (“Nothingness” or Void)?
To be continued

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