Upanishad Series - Ep. 8 (Mandukya Upanishad)
Why are Hindus so fascinated with this Aum symbol - what if I said it holds the key to the Highest Truth? Here’s the tea.
Welcome to Ep. 8 of our Series “Vedanta Thursdays,” today we’re simplifying the Mandukya Upanishad.
Mandukya translates into frog, how it withdraws from the outer-world in hibernation & then makes a leap across the ocean of consciousness.
It is found in the Atharva Veda, containing only 12 verses, which make it the shortest text in the canon of 108 Upanishads.
But despite its conciseness, it packs such huge, heavy, high philosophies that Sri Ram tells Hanuman in the Muktika Upanishad that the Mandukya alone is sufficient for moksha.
To help us make sense of the message logically, Sri Adi Shankaracharya’s guru’s guru, Gaudapada, wrote the Karika, a collection of 215 verses decoding the Mandukay across four Prakaranas or chapters.
Shankara then wrote a Bhashya on the text and his super-boss’ explanation of it, giving us the complete text we know it as today.
The core essence of the Mandukya is that it firstly establishes our Aum (ॐ) as the direct visual representation of the True Self, like a puzzle to help us understand who we really are.
To get there, we go through 3 states, the “Avastha Traya Viveka” of existence.
The first aspect of us, represented by the letter “A,” is Vaishvanara, which acts in the waking state, Jagrat, the one you’re in right now. Our physical body interacts with the material world.
The second aspect, represented by “U,” is the Taijasya, who operates in the dream state, Svapna. The physical body is paralysed by the subtle mental body continues to think & operate.
The third aspect, Prajna, associated with “M” is extremely deep, dreamless sleep, Sushupti, an unconscious state. Our mind ceases to process - its a gateway to the beyond but not completely there yet.
Beyond these three states, and beyond the veil of Maya, the illusion that makes us believe this physical world is real, is the Turiya state, literally, the Fourth. It is the absolute, unchanging, unending, unborn state, our true nature, where all other states collapse, it’s beyond our explanation.
The Mandukya not just takes us on this journey of consciousness, from gross to absolute purity, but it states upfront that at our core, our inner Atman is literally identical to the divine, called Brahman. Ayam Atma Brahma = The Self is Infinite.
More importantly, Gaudapada in his commentary pushes us to realise Ajatavada - he says there is no journey to be made because there was never any creation, destruction or bondage - you are already free, so there’s no need to stress out.
The Mandukya, if read with its Karika and Bhashya, is a mind-splitting text & it manages to do this in just 12 verses, so imagine how powerful it must be.