MANDUKYA UPANISHAD with GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA: 40 - Swami Advayananda.

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Wednesday 11, December 2024, 06:15.
MANDUKYA UPANISHAD 
GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA
Agama Prakarana – “The Scriptural Treatise”

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GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA:  PART 4/4:   
ALAATA-SHANTI PRAKARANA (100 mantras): 
Quenching the Firebrand:
The SANKHYANS Refuted:
Karika Section 4.3:   
Mantras - 14-23 (10 No.) 
Mantram - 4.25: The Idealists – i) Subjective Knowledge 
Post-40.

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REALISTS vs. IDEALISTS  
Karika Section 4.4: Mantras - 24-29 (6 No.) 

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Mantram - 4.25: The Idealists – i) Subjective Knowledge 

1 

Prajnapteh sanimittatvam, = You say, “Subjective knowledge has objects  ; as its cause”; 

2 

ishyate yukti darshanaat = you posit this from the standpoint of empirical reality. 

3 

nimittasya animittatvam =   we say, “The objective cause is not the actual cause”; 

4 

ishyate bhoota darshanaat. =   we posit this from the standpoint of mental reality. 

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In this and the next two mantras the viewpoint of the Idealists or Vijnana Vadins is presented. This view is opposite to that presented by the Realists above. The two views, by 

contradicting each other, make the room for the Vedantic view – of Unreality of the world of objects – to stand out in bold relief. 

1-2

 Yukti Darshanaat: 

The Idealists accept that the Realists’ view is from the standpoint of the external reality of objects. 

3-4ii) Abhhoota Darshanaat: 

Due to Sandhee rules in Samskrit grammar, the same word, Bhoota, could be read in its opposite sense as Abhoota; when it follows a vowel sound, the ‘a’ is dropped. This is investigated by the ever alert and fair-minded Sri Shankaracharyaji in the Bhashya. How does this alter the interpretation?  

Since the mind is the reality in the Idealists’ view, the objects are unreal; they are like the snake in a rope. Their appearance is a delusion, upon removal of which the object is seen as such. The removal can happen in two ways: in deep sleep or in Samadhi. 

The above answers one half of the Realists’ argument, that concerning knowledge the external world. What about the other half, concerning the experience of of pain? That is yet to follow. 

Mantram 4.26: 

The Idealists – ii) World is Not There 

 Bhoota Darshanaat: 

This term actually means “the standpoint of reality” and for that reason it may appear to be that which the Vedantins accept. However, to the Idealists, 

reality means the Mind, the subjective reality, as opposed to the World, the objective reality of the Realists. 

To Vedantins, Reality is nothing less than the Supreme Brahman. 

So, taking reality to be the mind, there are two interpretations for this standpoint: 

i) Bhoota Darshanaat: 

The object seen appears at first glance as ‘cloth’. Looked at closer, we see it as yarn or threads; seen even closer, we see not even the threads but only cotton fibre. As we go to subtler levels, we cannot accept what we initially see as being the object. Our experience of the object deepens. Similarly, what the Realists accept as the reality, is not accepted as the mental reality of the Idealists.

ii) Abhhoota Darshanaat: 

Due to Sandhee rules in Samskrit grammar, the same word, Bhoota, could be read in its opposite sense as Abhoota; when it follows a vowel sound, the ‘a’ is dropped. This is investigated by the ever alert and fair-minded Sri  Shankaracharyaji in the Bhashya. How does this alter the interpretation?  

Since the mind is the reality in the Idealists’ view, the objects are unreal; they are like the snake in a rope. Their appearance is a delusion, upon removal of which the object is not seen as such. The removal can happen in two ways: in deep sleep or in Samadhi.

The above answers one half of the Realists’ argument, that concerning knowledge the external world. What about the other half, concerning the experience of of pain? That is yet to follow. 

*****

Next

Mantram - 4.26: The Idealists – ii) World is Not There

Continued

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know the self, know the self in Nature, know the self in Jiva, Further Oneness.

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