Mandukya Upanishad (Gaudapa Karika and Shankara Bhashya)
by Swami Nikhilananda | 1949 | 115,575 words | ISBN-13: 9788175050228
This is verse 3.29 of the Mandukya Karika English translation, including commentaries by Gaudapada (Karika), Shankara (Bhashya) and a glossary by Anandagiri (Tika). Alternate transliteration: Māṇḍūkya-upaniṣad 3.29, Gauḍapāda Kārikā, Śaṅkara Bhāṣya, Ānandagiri Ṭīkā.
Mandukya Karika, verse 3.29
Sanskrit text, IAST transliteration and English translation
यथा स्वप्ने द्वयाभासं स्पन्दते मायया मनः ।
तथा जाग्रद्द्वयाभासं स्पन्दते मायया मनः ॥ २९ ॥yathā svapne dvayābhāsaṃ spandate māyayā manaḥ |
tathā jāgraddvayābhāsaṃ spandate māyayā manaḥ || 29 ||29. As in dream the mind acts through Māyā presenting the appearance of duality, so also in the waking state the mind acts, through Māyā, presenting the appearance of duality.
Shankara Bhashya (commentary)
How is it possible for the Reality to pass into birth through Māyā? It is thus replied;—As the snake imagined in the rope, is real1 when seen as the rope, so also the mind,2 from the standpoint of the knowledge of the ultimate Reality, is seen to be identical with Ātman. This mind, in dream, appears to us as dual in the forms of the cogniser and the cognised through3 Māyā, as the snake àppears to be separate from the rope through ignorance. Similarly, indeed the mind acts (in a dual form) in the waking state through Māyā. That4 is to say, the mind appears to act,
Anandagiri Tika (glossary)
1 Real, etc.—The snake is unreal when we try to see it as separated from the rope. Blit when the real nature of the rope is known then it is realised that the snake, which appeared, is really identical with the rope. The substratum (Adhiṣṭhāna) is the same as that which is superimposed (Āropita) upon it.
2 Mind—The mind as the substratum of the dream experiences, is identical with Reality or Ātman.
3 Through Māyā—In dream we have the experience of the separate existence of the perceiver, the object of perception and the act of perceiving. But in the waking state we know these three-fold experiences to be nothing but the mind so appearing. The idea that the dream experiences are different from the mind is due to the ignorance which exists in the dream state. The knower of the real nature of the rope finds it to be identical with the snake.
4 That, etc.—For, in reality Brahman does not act. The action of the mind is due to Māyā. The Śruti also says that mind in reality is Brahman.