MANDUKYA UPANISHAD with GAUDAPADA’S KARIKA: 50. Swami Advayananda.

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Sunday 30, March 2025, 12:30.

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 Illusion of CAUSALITY  
Karika Section 4.6:   Mantras - 33-41 (9 No.) 
Mantram-4.37: Common View: Waking Causes Dream 
Post-50.

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Mantram-4.37: Common View: Waking Causes Dream 

1 Grahanaat jaagarita vat, = nce it is experienced like the waking state,

2 tad hetuh swapnah ishyate; =he dream state is regarded as being caused by it. 

3 tad hetutvaat = Since dream has the waking state as its cause

 u sya iva, = for that dreamer alone (and not for others),

4 sat jaagaritam ishyate.=the waking state is regarded as true, (and not dreams).

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Here is the layman’s reason to show the falsity of dream and reality of waking – the reason of Causality. The ‘layman’ here means someone who is concerned only with the superficial circumstances without taking the trouble to analyse the data in detail. We have been discussing Causality in this Chapter, but in another context. It has already been shown that there is no causality between any two objects, including thoughtobjects such as concepts. Does the same absence of a causal relationship apply between the waking and dream states? This is being investigated now.

Causality, like Time and Space, is just another concept the intellect has created to explain phenomena in this relative world. For relative reality it has a utility, but it has to be discarded for Absolute Reality. This is what we shall see even in the case of the two states. 

The Logic of this Mantram:

This is a new logic that has not been presented hitherto. It runs as follows:

Both dream and waking experiences are in the mind, being experienced by the same subject, in the same way – having a subject-object relationship as its basis. Why do we take for granted that dreams are caused by the waking state? There are two reasons for this:

i) Material & Efficient Cause:

1-2 Dreams are created from impressions that are gathered during the waking state. 

For this reason, the waking state is directly the material cause of the dream. The efficient cause of the dream is the deep-seated desires called Vasanas or hidden tendencies in the mind. One may also add to that the restlessness of the mind.

ii) Waking State is More Real:

3 There is a subtle distinction to be noted between dream and waking experiences. Waking experiences can be shared by many others, e.g. spectators watching the same match all at once. But dreams can only be seen by the dreamer himself. Others have no access to them. It is a totally private experience. It leaves behind not a trace of evidence. 

Even the smartphone, however smart, cannot be used to record one’s dreams! 

4 Due to this last fact which restricts dreams only to the dreamer, the waking state quite reasonably appears more real to others than one’s dream-world, certainly as far as transactions and the law are concerned. Dreams have no utility to other people. No one is interested in what you are dreaming.

A Note of Caution in the Bhashyam:

The Bhashya of Sri Shankaracharyaji adds an interesting fact at this point. We have just said that the waking experience is more a shared experience whereas dreams are totally private. That is not necessarily so, says Sri Shankaracharyaji. Even waking experiences are totally private for the one who is experiencing them. Everyone sees the world in their own way. Even spectators at the same match see the same game in their own way!

The idea behind this suggestion in the Bhashya is to remind us of what we learnt in Chapter 2 about the Unreality of the waking state. It is a grim reminder to us never to be duped even for a moment into the belief that this world is real. 

Such is the nature of this text! It is not a novel. Readers are reminded to keep in mind the Non-dual Reality at the end of every paragraph, if not every sentence!

*****

Next

Mantram - 4.38: Why Creation is Declared Unreal

Continued

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