Mandukya Upanishad (Gaudapa Karika and Shankara Bhashya)

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

This is verse 4.58 of the Mandukya Karika English translation, including commentaries by Gaudapada (Karika), Shankara (Bhashya) and a glossary by Anandagiri (Tika). Alternate transliteration: Māṇḍūkya-upaniṣad 4.58, Gauḍapāda Kārikā, Śaṅkara Bhāṣya, Ānandagiri Ṭīkā.

Sanskrit text, IAST transliteration and English translation

धर्मा य इति जायन्ते जायन्ते ते न तत्त्वतः ।
जन्म मायोपमं तेषां सा च माया न विद्यते ॥ ५८ ॥

dharmā ya iti jāyante jāyante te na tattvataḥ |
janma māyopamaṃ teṣāṃ sā ca māyā na vidyate || 58 ||

58. Those Jīvas (entities) or beings are said to be born. But that birth is never possible from the standpoint of Reality. Their birth is like that of an illusory object. That illusion, again, is non-existent.

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

Those, again, who imagine the birth of the Jīvas and other entities, do so only through Saṃvṛti or the power of ignorance as stated in the preceding Kārikā. The Jīvas are seen to be born only through ignorance. But from the standpoint of the Supreme Reality no such birth is possible. This1 (supposed) birth of the Jīvas through ignorance, described above, is like the birth of objects through illusion (Māyā).

(Opponent)—Then there must be something real known as Māyā or illusion?

(Reply)—It is not so. That Māyā or illusion is never existent. Māyā or illusion is the name we give to something which2 does not (really) exist (but which is perceived).

Anandagiri Tika (glossary)

1 This, etc.—The birth of Jīvas is exactly like the production of things by a Juggler. These things such as a mango tree or the hare produced by the Juggler do not exist. Similarly, the Jīvas, etc., whose birth and death are seen by us in ignorance, do not exist, when the Truth is known.

2 Which, etc.—That is to say, Māyā or illusion does not exist from the standpoint of Reality.

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