MANDUKYA UPANISHAD with GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA: 47 - Swami Advayananda.

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

Monday 17, February 2025, 10:25.
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 - 4.32: Utility is no Test for Reality 
Post-47.

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

Mantram - 4.32: Utility is no Test for Reality :

1. 

Saprayojanataa teshaam, = The utility of these (Samsara and Liberation) 

2. 

swapne viprati-padyate; =  is contradicted

 3. 

tasmaat aadi antah vat tvena, =  in dream. Therefore, since they have a beginning and end

 4. 

mithyaa eva te khalu smritaah. =  they are rightly held to be unreal. 

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

1-2

 Both Samsara as well as Liberation are useful concepts. But their utility does not entitle them to be considered as Real. They lead the beginner in the right direction, but in the end they are seen for what they really are – just unreal concepts. But that is known only when one realises the Truth, not before. 

How are they contradicted in dream? A person in Samsara may be living a life of drudgery and poverty, but he may dreams in which he is a king, enjoying all the pleasures of life. Also, he may experience abject bondage in his waking state, and yet he may dream that he is liberated from those bondages. The reverse also can happen in both cases. 

3-4

 This is a routine re-statement of the proposition after it has been proven. The return to this statement indicates that the topic is now concluded.  

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

Conclusion:

 The relevance of the above three verses is that the entire perceived world, i.e. Samsara, is unreal. Similarly, Liberation from an unreal world is illogical, hence Liberation is also unreal. This means that both these are really non-existent, from the perspective ofReality. It does not make them useless, it only makes them relatively unreal.

*****

Next

The Illusion of CAUSALITY  

Karika Section 4.6:   Verses 33-41   (9 No.) 

Mantram -  4.33: The Falsity of Dream – Space Limit   ((cf. Mantram 2.2) 

Continued

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