MANDUKYA UPANISHAD with GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA: 43 - Swami Advayananda.

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Wednesday 08, January 2025, 12:05.
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 - 4.28: Vedanta’s Response – “Nothing is Born” 
Post-43.

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

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Mantram - 4.28: Vedanta’s Response – “Nothing is Born”  

1.

Tasmaat na jaayate chittam, = There is never born a thing called mind, 

2.

chitta drishyam na jaayate; = just as the objects perceived by it are not born. 

3. 

tasya pashyanti ye jaatim, = Those who perceive such births 

4.

khe vai pashyanti te padam.=  are perceiving footprints of birds in the sky! 

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Sri Gaudapadacharyaji now brings in the Vedantic view. Just at the right time and the right place, he pulls out his Vedantic ‘trump-card’ of “Birthlessness”. Not only is the objective world of the Realists ‘birthless’, but the subjective world of the Idealists – the mind – is also “birthless” in exactly the same way. Both are in the realm of the Vedantin’s Unreality. This view of the Vedantin is possible only because he sees a Reality beyond both. 

The Vedantin and the Idealist have walked together for a certain distance. Then, at the arrival of a comma, the Idealist stops, taking it to be the end of the journey. To the Vedantin the journey does not end at commas nor at semi-colons, but only at a full-stop! 

The Vedantin is here persuading the Idealist to continue the journey for the search of Reality a bit further. He congratulates him for seeing objects as illusory. That is a step in the right direction. But his acceptance of mind as the reality is premature. If he can accept as unreal the whole external world because it is perceived, then why not a go a little step further and take the mind also as unreal, because it, too, is ‘perceived’? The Consciousness (note the capital C) that enlivens the mind is a greater Reality than the consciousness that the Idealist calls ‘mind’. Surely this is not an unreasonable step to ask the Idealist to take! 

The coaxing has begun in this Mantram and is further consolidated in the next. 

The Basis of the Vedantic View:

 Firstly, we have to appreciate that the terms “born” and “birthless” are very significant in this text. They signify the highest Vedantic ideal. The Vedantin’s Reality is “unborn” or “birthless”. To the Vedantin, there is nothing that is ‘born’, neither Reality nor Unreality. The Unreality is only an appearance on Reality, not something which takes birth.  

Keeping this in mind helps us to understand these two verses which present the Vedantin’s perspective on Reality. 

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1-2.

 From the standpoint of the Reality as accepted by Vedantins, the entire creation is a superimposition on the One unchanging Reality or Consciousness. Thus, even the mind, not just the objects, is considered to be unreal, as Reality lies beyond it. Both mind and objects are emanations of Creation; Reality is the substratum for both of them. 

Since mind and the world are unreal by nature, they are considered not to be ‘born’ from the standpoint of Vedantic Reality. To say they are born gives them a false reality. For this reason, Vedantins prefer to use the word ‘appearance’ rather than ‘birth’. 

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3-4.

 To emphasise this fundamental Truth of Vedanta, Sri Gaudapadacharya takes recourse to some poetic expressions, which may appear harsh to the Idealists but are only intended to draw them out of their limited circle into a realm that far exceeds it. 

The present position of the Idealists is compared to the footprints of birds in the sky – at best this is a very unstable basis for Reality; at worst it is impossible to imagine! What is the impossibility? It is impossible to find Reality in the mind. The mind, to the Vedantin, is where the very root of the ignorance or delusion lies. It is the seat of ignorance in the human being. If mind is transcended, nothing can prevent the glimpse of Reality.  

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The above is the reply to the Vijnana Vadins who take the mind as Reality. 

As far as the Shunya Vadins (Nihilists) are concerned, the situation is even more ludicrous, and Sri Shankaracharyaji deals with it in the Bhashya as follows:  

The Nihilists take Void as being the Reality. How can this be proved? Who is there to see that only Void is what the universe originates from? For this absurdity, Sri Shankaracharyaji comments, “They are even bolder than the Idealists – they want to grasp the whole sky itself, let alone just the footprints of the bird flying in it!” 

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Next

Mantram - 4.29: Birthlessness – Essential Nature of Reality

Continued

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