MANDUKYA UPANISHAD with GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA: 41 - Swami Advayananda.

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

Friday 20, December 2024, 1015.
MANDUKYA UPANISHAD 
GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA
Agama Prakarana – “The Scriptural Treatise”

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

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 - 4.26: The Idealists – ii) World is Not There
Post-40.

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

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

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

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

1 

Chittam na samsprishati artham, = The mind has no contact with external objects, 

2 

na arthaabhaasam tathaa eva cha; = even the imagined ones projected

 3 

abhootah hi yatah cha arthah, = by the mind. In fact, we regard objects to have no existence, 

4 

na arthaabhaasam tathah prithak = even the imagined ones are not separate from mind. 

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

Continuing with the Vijnana Vadins’ view, we have here a statement of their fundamental belief in the reality of the mind, which they call as ‘consciousness’. They are firmly of the belief that everything happens in the mind. The external reality is not accepted. 

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

1

 The mind, they claim, has no connection with the external objects. The actual  external objects are said to exist in the mind alone. 

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

2

 This applies even to those objects that are imagined or projected by  the mind. They, too, are not given any reality. What are these imagined objects?  A lunatic may see 

things that do not exist externally; he sees them due to his own strong imagination of them.  imagination is so strong that the objects he imagines start affecting him, and can even 

cause him physical pain.  

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

3-4

 The Idealists go on to say that such there are no objects external to the mind, even the imaginary ones projected by the mind. They believe that everything happens in the 

mind. Even the illusory appearances happen in the mind alone, not outside it. The world of  objects, whether imagined or real, does not exist out there.  The position of the Idealists is consolidated with further reasoning – their interest being only with the mind. If other factors are not considered, then there is nothing basically 

wrong with the belief of the Idealists. If mind were, indeed, the reality, then the Idealists’ argument cannot be faulted. They would be correct from their standpoint. We have no 

relationship with objects, it is purely a mental phenomenon – so say the Idealists.

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

Next

Mantram - 4.27: The Idealists – iii) Experiences 

Continued

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