MANDUKYA UPANISHAD with GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA: 26 - Swami Advayananda.

===================================================================================

Friday 31, May 2024. 07:00.
MANDUKYA UPANISHAD 
GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA
Agama Prakarana – “The Scriptural Treatise”

===================================================================================

 GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA:  PART 4/4:   ALAATA-SHANTI PRAKARANA (100 verses): Quenching the Firebrand:

The SANKHYANS Refuted :

Karika Section 4.2:   

Mantras 9-13   (5 No.) 

Post-26.

===================================================================================

Mantram- 4.10: Inherent Nature of Spirit:    

1 

Jaraa marana nirmuktaah, = Free from senility and death

 2 

sarve dharmaah swabhaavatah; = are all souls, in accord with their intrinsic nature. 

3 

jaraa maranam icchhantah, = But by imagining senility and death, 

4

chyavante tat maneeshayaa. =  by that very thought, they appear to deviate from it. 

===================================================================================

Now, the specific “thing” taken up for discussion is the Spirit. We take a close look at 

the essential nature of Spirit, as opposed to the essential nature of an object. 

Just as physical characteristics define a physical object, so also spiritual 

characteristics define the nature of Spirit. These characteristics form the inherent spiritual 

nature. As with physical objects, the inherent spiritual nature also does not change. If 

ordinary changing objects, as seen in the above verse, hold on to their essential nature 

despite the changes taking place in them, how much more will that apply to Reality itself 

which is known never to change! 

1-2

 What is the essential nature of Spirit? The text begins by considering Spirit’s 

nature of being free from all modifications

 or attributes. Spirit is most commonly given 

attributes when its nature is not clearly understood. This is an error. Vedanta says that 

attributes are a superimposition upon the Truth, and do not belong to Truth. 

Senility and death are two of the six modifications which all objects are subjected to. 

The mention of senility and death implies that the other four modifications are to be 

included. They are existence, birth, growth and maturity – these four are followed by 

senility and death. The Self is free from all these six modifications. The term “Birthless”, 

used so extensively in Part 3, is meant to point to the same truth. The Self is eternal and 

without any modifications. This is the conclusion of Vedanta. How does it arrive at it? 

3-4

 Due to false imagination, these modifications are attributed to the Self, and the 

Self is said to be passing through all of them up to old age and then death. This is an error in 

identity. The attributes are superimposed on the Self purely through imagination. Through 

this error, the Self appears to deviate from its inherent characteristics. This is impossible, for 

nothing, least of all the Reality Itself, can ever depart from its defining characteristics. This is 

the law stated in mantram 9 for objects, and it applies equally in this verse to Spirit. 

Now follows the detailed explanation of this principle. Two fundamental principles of 

logic are violated by the Sankhyans’ viewpoint. They are: 

*****

Next

Mantram - 4.11: Logic Violation 1: Cause Becomes Effect   

Continued

==================================================================================