MANDUKYA UPANISHAD with GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA: 46 - Swami Advayananda.

 

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Tuesday 04, February 2025, 07:55.

MANDUKYA UPANISHAD 

GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA

Agama Prakarana – “The Scriptural Treatise”

GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA:  PART 4/4:   

ALAATA-SHANTI PRAKARANA (100 mantras): 

Quenching the Firebrand:

BONDAGE vs. LIBERATION  

Karika Section 4.5: mantras 30-32   (3 No.) 

Mantram - 4.31: The Unreal Never Exists 

Post-46.

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Mantram - 4.31: The Unreal Never Exists 

1 

Aadau aante cha yat naasti, = That which does not exist in the beginning and end

 2 

vartamaane api tat tathaa; = is necessarily non-existent in the middle also. 

3 

vitathaih sadrishaah santah, = Though this is true for anything that is unreal, 

4 

avitathaah iva lakshitaah. = yet in practice they are seen as though they are real

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1-2. 

A thing that does not exist before its birth, and again does not exist when it dies, has also got to be seen as not existing while it is apparently living, i.e. while existing. This may sound contradictory, but we are speaking in a philosophical sense. In principle, let alone not existing before birth and after death, even if it does not exist for a fraction of a second, it never really exists at all! Its so-called existence is illusory or unreal. 

3-4

 Although we may recognise the truth of this statement in theory, in practice it is very difficult to accept it as being true. We certainly believe that our existence is real, no matter what the theoreticians say. Also, we certainly believe that the world exists despite all the theory that contradicts it. And, strange as it may seem, we all have a deep-seated desire to be liberated from sorrow once and for all, even though the theory says there is no such a thing as Liberation!  

On occasions like this, we may be inclined to disagree with Sri Gaudapadaji’s theory, but we dare not do that because he has lived it himself and it has made him free of all sorrow. We are compelled to pay attention to his ‘uncomfortable’ theory, in the face of what it has done for him in practice. As seekers of Truth, we have to give credit to the direct experience of saints and bow down to their wisdom, rather than go on believing in the myths created by our own sinister mind! 

In intellectual honesty, it would be hard to find a more exemplary Teacher than Sri Gaudapadaji. It is for such intellectual clarity that this Karika is so well-known among students of Vedanta. 

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Next

Mantram - 4.32: Utility is no Test for Reality 

Continued

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