Mandukya Upanishad (Gaudapa Karika and Shankara Bhashya)
by Swami Nikhilananda | 1949 | 115,575 words | ISBN-13: 9788175050228
This is verse 3.32 of the Mandukya Karika English translation, including commentaries by Gaudapada (Karika), Shankara (Bhashya) and a glossary by Anandagiri (Tika). Alternate transliteration: Māṇḍūkya-upaniṣad 3.32, Gauḍapāda Kārikā, Śaṅkara Bhāṣya, Ānandagiri Ṭīkā.
Mandukya Karika, verse 3.32
Sanskrit text, IAST transliteration and English translation
आत्मसत्यानुबोधेन न संकल्पयते यदा ।
अमनस्तां तदा याति ग्राह्याभावे तदग्रहम् ॥ ३२ ॥ātmasatyānubodhena na saṃkalpayate yadā |
amanastāṃ tadā yāti grāhyābhāve tadagraham || 32 ||32. When the mind does not imagine on account of the knowledge of the Truth which is Ātman, then it ceases to be mind and becomes free from all idea of cognition, for want of objects to be cognised.
Shankara Bhashya (commentary)
How does the mind become naught? It is thus replied:—The Ātman alone is the Reality like1 the clay; as in the Śruti passage, “All modifications are mere names arising from efforts of speech. The clay alone is real.” That knowledge of the reality of Ātman comes through the Scripture2 and the teacher. The mind having attained to that knowledge does not imagine, as3 there remains nothing to be imagined. The mind then is like fire when there is no fuel to burn. When the mind thus does no longer imagine, it ceases to be mind, that is, the mind, for want of any object to be cognised, becomes free from all cognition.
Anandagiri Tika (glossary)
1 Like, etc.—The only reality in the pots, jars, plates, etc., (made of clay) is the clay. The names and forms, on account of their changeability and negalability, are unreal. Similarly the only reality in this universe is Ātman; all other objects which are mere acts of mind, being changeable and negatable, are unreal.
2 Scripture, etc.—The Scripture and the teacher only tell the student what is not Ātman. They follow the negative method for pointing out the Reality, which is the rational method pursued in philosophy proper.
3 As, etc.—The acts of mind which conjure up the world of duality belong to the empirical realm, i.e., to the realm wherein the duality of the subject and the object is recognised. But such action becomes impossible in the absolute state where there is no consciousness of subject and object. In that state Brahman alone is realised and hence the mind, consisting of determination and volition, ceases to exist. Then mind becomes identical with Brahman which is free from all duality of cognition.