Introduction to the Mandukya Upanishad

This is an Upaniṣad of the Atharva Veda. It has not been translated by Max Muller, nor it is referred to by Śaṅkara or Rāmānuja in their commentaries on the Vedānta Sūtras. It is, however, one of the classical Upaniṣads and Śaṅkara has left a commentary on it. It has been translated into English by Dr. E. Roer in the Bibliotheca Indica series.

According to Madhva, this (Māṇḍukya) Upaniṣad is called Māṇḍuka because it was revealed by a frog (Māṇḍuka). Varuṇa, the Lord of the Seas, assuming the form of a frog praised Hari with the hymns of this poem.

This (Māṇḍukya) Upaniṣad contains twelve verses. But Śrī Madhva reads the Kārikās, passing under the name of Gauḍapāda, as part of the text itself. The Kārikā verses are shown here as K¹ etc.: while the Upaniṣad verses are indicated by U², etc. Altogether there are 41 verses.

This short Upaniṣad gives the secret meaning of Om, which is the name of the Lord. The Lord has four aspects. In His aspect as Viśva, He makes the waking consciousness of the Jīvas, and establishes relations between the Jīva-consciousness and external objects. In His aspect as Taijasa, He withdraws the Jīva-consciousness from the external objects, and revives the internal impressions and makes him see dreams. In His third aspect as Prājña, He stops all consciousness of the Jīvas and makes them enjoy rest and bliss. In His aspect as Turīya, He gives them mukti. The letters “a”, “u”, “m”, and the Nāda correspond with these four aspects. When a note is struck the overtone which merges into laya is the Nāda of that tone. When Om is properly pronounced the vibration produced by it is the Nāda. The mystical powers acquired by the right use of AUM are eightfold—four relating to the vehicles or bodies and four relating to consciousness or Life.

This (Māṇḍukya) Upaniṣad gives an analysis of consciousness on all planes. When a monad perceives the objects of a plane, that is called waking consciousness—whether those objects exist on the physical or astral or mental or any higher plane. When external objects are shut off from consciousness, and there is a revival of the impressions existing in his vehicles—in his brains—whether physical, astral, etc.—that state of consciousness is called svapna or dream. Of course, sometimes in sleep the soul goes out of the body and sees things existing in other places and times. These visions appear like dreams, but psychologically they are not dreams. The soul perceives here something external, and so it is a waking consciousness.

The third state of consciousness is the sleep or neutral or absence of consciousness. It is the laya centre of consciousness—a point which the consciousness must cross in order to pass to a higher state.

The fourth is that higher state of consciousness—it is called Turīya or Fourth.

Thus when passing from the physical waking consciousness to astral, the stages are—1st, the stoppage of physical impressions, 2nd, Revival of brain impressions or dreams, 3rd, Crossing the neutral line, the line or point between the physical and the astral, 4th, Waking up on the astral plane, being Mukta or free from the trammels of the physical consciousness altogether.

Similarly when passing from the astral consciousness to the mental, again there are these stages. Here the waking or jāgrat is the astral consciousness. The Jīva that performs Samādhi on the astral plane, first puts stops to the astral waking state, the objects of the astral plane do not make any impression on his astral senses. Then his astral brain becomes active and he dreams astrally. Then the neutral point is reached, the point between the astral and the mental planes; and here an inversion (to borrow a figure of speeeh from Optics) of consciousness takes place and the mental consciousness is reached. The soul becomes mukta from the trammels of the astral consciousness and wakes up on the mental plane. He perceives now the objects of the mental plane, and this is his Jāgrat consciousness. The Jīva now practises Samādhi on the mental plane, and through the above steps rises to the Buddhic plane. Thus in passing from one plane to another, these four and only four stages occur. The consciousness of a higher plane is Turīya, the consciousness of the plane lower to it is Jāgrat: between these two is the dream and the mental consciousness. These terms—‘waking,’ ‘dreaming’ ‘sleeping,’ ‘transcendental—’ are therefore relative terms. These will have a higher or lower meaning according to the plane on which the Jīva is consciously awake, and the degree of Mukti (or Initiation) he has attained.

S. C. V.