Mandukya Upanishad (Gaudapa Karika and Shankara Bhashya)

by Swami Nikhilananda | 1949 | 115,575 words | ISBN-13: 9788175050228

This is verse 4.38 of the Mandukya Karika English translation, including commentaries by Gaudapada (Karika), Shankara (Bhashya) and a glossary by Anandagiri (Tika). Alternate transliteration: Māṇḍūkya-upaniṣad 4.38, Gauḍapāda Kārikā, Śaṅkara Bhāṣya, Ānandagiri Ṭīkā.

Sanskrit text, IAST transliteration and English translation

उत्पादस्याप्रसिद्धत्वादजं सर्वमुदाहृतम् ।
न च भूतादभूतस्य संभवो'स्ति कथंचन ॥ ३८ ॥

utpādasyāprasiddhatvādajaṃ sarvamudāhṛtam |
na ca bhūtādabhūtasya saṃbhavo'sti kathaṃcana || 38 ||

38. All these are known as unborn, as their creation or evolution cannot be established as a fact. It is ever impossible for the unreal to be born of the real.

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

(Objection)—Though the waking experiences are the cause of the dream ones, still the former cannot be unreal like the latter. The dream is extremely evanescent whereas the waking experiences are seen to be permanent.

(Reply)—This1 is true with regard to the people who do not possess discrimination. Men of discrimination do not see the production2 or the birth of anything, as creation or evolution cannot be established as a fact. Hence all this is known in the Vedāntic books as unborn3 (i.e., non-dual Brahman). For the Śruti declares, “He (the Ātman) is both within and without and is, at the same time, unborn.” If you contend that the illusory dream is the effect of the real waking state, we say that your contention is untenable. In our common experience, we never see a non-existing thing produced from an existing one. Such non-existing thing as the horn of a hare is never seen to be produced from any other object.

Anandagiri Tika (glossary)

1 This, etc.—It is true that the time standard of the waking state does not apply to the dream state. But the standard with which the dreamer measures the time of his dream experiences seems to him perfectly consistent in the dream state.

2 Production, etc.—That is to say, wise men do not believe in causality.

3 Unborn—That is to say, wise men see everywhere the non-dual Brahman alone which has no birth or change.

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