Explaining the
word "Upanishad" in his introduction
to his commentaries
on the Mundaka and
the Katha Upanishads, Sri Sankara says the
Upanishads help to release the aspirant from
all the bonds that enmesh him in life and
make him
fit to receive the intuitive
knowledge of the ultimate Truth, that
non-dual, attributeless and immortal
principle known as Brahman.
Mandukya
Upanishad occurs in the
Atharva Veda and
was discovered by the
sage Mandukya, 'a seer'-
as such
realised souls, who 'see' the Truth are
called. It has a short text
with only
twelve verses. Most Upanishads
develop the central theme
on the basis of an
episode. In the Mandukya, however, the concepts
and precepts
of philosophy are woven
around the sound symbol
(
SÖd p#t£k ) of
"Aum" (Om)- AaEm¯
( A ,
u , m ). Meditating
on
this symbol,
one is set to realise
the Absolute Reality,
as anything in this
universe is a symbol
of that
principle and permeated by
it.
Just
as Brahman is the substratum
of the universe,
i.e. everything can be
reduced to Brahman, "Om"
is the substratum
of all sound and could
be reduced to it. It
is also known
as "Sabda Brahman" and
the symbol on which
the saints meditate.
Meditating on the first
letter A ( A ) of
the syllable "Aum", is equivalent
to meditation on the
totality of
all physical existence. The
next letter U (
u )
of the syllable represents
the totality of minds in
the universe.
The third letter M(
m )of the syllable represents
God or Brahman,
associated with Maya. Realising
all these
three will still leave
the spiritual seeker in
the realm
of Maya or ignorance.
These three stages also
represent
the three states
of flux - the waking(
jag#t ), the
dreaming (
Þvp" ) and
deep sleep ( s¤x¤¢çO
) states. Going beyond
these, one
is in the Turiya or
Amatra state, i.e. the state
of
non-duality. The
following Karika brings this
out:-
Ana¢dmayya
s¤çOaE yda j£v:
p#b¤ÒytE .
Ajm¢nd#mÞvpnm¹Wt|| b¤ÒytE
tda ..
(1-16)
Gaudapadacharya
has explained the import
of this
Upanishad in 215 verses,
in a form known as a 'Karika'. This
type of
work may be regarded as a commentary
in verse. The aspirant
world is ever indebted
to this Acharya for lucidly
laying down
the principal tenets of
Advaita philosophy, through
these Karikas.
This was perhaps the
first attempt
at systematising Advaitic thought,
which paved the way for the
later philosophers like Sri
Sankara to
develop on them, in their
treatises and commentaries.
Acknowledging
this deep debt of gratitude,
in his own commentary on this great work of Gaudapadacharya, who
was his own preceptor's preceptor, Sri Sankara pays reverential
homage in
the following
lines:
p#åOavWSaKvEDX¤¢Btjl¢nDEvIdnaØnaE{ÓtrÞT|
B¥taÓyalaEÀy mg"aÓy¢vrtjnng#ahGaErE
sm¤d#E .
kaâÎyaѤêDaram¦t¢mdmmrWѤIlIB|
B¥thEtaE -
- yIÞt p¥Çya¢Bp¥Çy|prmg¤âmm¤|
padpatWnItaE{¢Þm ¡
A free translation
of this verse would run thus :
Bowing
down and falling at the
feet of my
preceptor's preceptor, most revered
among the revered,
I offer my reverential
salutations. For it was
he observed mankind submerged in
the ocean
of misery (the world) teeming
with ferocious
marine monsters, in the
form of repeated cyclic
births;
and overcome by a sense
of pure
compassion, he brought out this
nectar (of Advaita
Philosophy), rare even for
the celestials, which lay
embedded on
the vast ocean beds of
the Vedas, by stirring vigorously
the deep waters of the
ocean,using
his illumined and scintillating
intellect as
the churning rod.
In
Gaudapada's Karika or commentary
on the Mandukya
Upanishad, his central focus
is on establishing by rational
experience and logic, that
Brahman is the ultimate
non-dual
reality. While
the Upanishad itself is
set in a total
of 12
slokas, the Karika runs
to a total of
215 slokas
distributed over a sequence
of four Prakaranas or chapters
as follows:
Agama
Prakarana
- 29 slokas
Vaitathya
Prakarana -
38 slokas
Advaita
prakarana
- 48 slokas
Alatasanti
Prakarana -
100 slokas
Total
215 slokas
The Agama Prakarana,
as its name suggests,
starts with
the scriptural explanation of
"OM", as the symbolic
representation of the non-dual
Brahman. The next chapter
on
Vaitathya or
unreality, takes the argument
forward with
explaining the unreal nature
of perception and
experience. The
Advaita Prakarana
continues with arguments
drawn from
scriptures and reason, to
the inescapable
conclusion that the Ultimate
Reality must be non-dual.
Alatasanti means
extinguishing a burning torch, and
the last
chapter bearing this name,
refers figuratively to the
fire that burns the
world. The fire springs
from ignorance
which brings duality into
play in all perception
and experience and leads
man into constant conflict
and contention.