Mandukya Upanishad (Madhva commentary)

by Srisa Chandra Vasu | 1909 | 15,464 words | ISBN-13: 9789332869165

The English translation of the Mandukya Upanishad including the commentary of Madhva called the Bhasya. The describe the secret meaning of Om as the four names and aspects of the Lord (Vishva, Taijasa, Prajna and Turiya). This Upanishad is associated with the Atharva Veda and contains tweelve verses although Madhva reads the Gaudapada’s Karikas as ...

Karika verse 2.3

3. (K11) Both Viśva and Taijasa are held to be bound by cause and effect both, Prājña is bound by the chain of cause alone, but neither cause nor effect has any validity in Turīya.—18.

Notes:

[Note.—Kārya—effect, illusion, the waking state, because it is the effect of nescience, by which one gets the false notion of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. Kārya-baddha would thus mean bound by the idea of ‘I’ and ‘mine’.]

[Note.—Baddhau—bound by the chain of cause and effect—existing in the sphere of causation. The Lord as Viśva and Taijas binds the Jīvas in the chain of cause and effect.]

Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:

The Lord as Viśva and Prājña is said in the Scriptures to be bound, by which it is [?]eant that the bondage of the Jīvas in the chain of cause and effect is under His will and control. For how this Supremo can ever be bound? He by whose command everything [?se] is bound, He who is the Lord of bondage, the Self of knowledge can not be bound. As [?ys] the Kauṣārava Śruti: The phrases—“He is bound, He is sorrowful” when applied to [?ari] mean He causes the bondage, He causes sorrow (to the sinner). So also the phrases [?e] is Jīva, He is prakriti, mean ‘He causes animation or Jīva-hood (Jīvāyati). He fashions [??e] world (prakaroti).’ So also the phrases ‘He is the inferior, He is non-eternal, mean [??e] makes others inferior, He makes them temporal.’

The same idea is conveyed by the following speech of the goddess of learning, Sara-[??]ati, addressed to the Devas in Mahopaniṣad:—“O Mighty Devas! my duty ever is to [???claim] the glory of Viṣṇu (in songs and poetry) and when I sing out the praises of others [??e] Brahmā, &c., that also refers to Viṣṇu, for they derive their glory from Him. But if [anything?] be found anywhere apparently derogatory to Viṣṇu, know that I could never have [??ended] it, for I am called Sarasvatī because I always flow (sarana) towards Him [??nifying] and proclaiming His greatness and remove (sarana [saraṇa?]) all ideas derogatory to [??] glory. Therefore know that the scriptural phrases must be so interpreted as to [??ound] to the glory of the Lord.

Note.—In the waking state, the Lord as Viśva produces double bondage in the Jīva, [???] the universal bondage of avidyā (the cause) and second the bondage of the effect [???idyā], namely, the illusion of one being an independent agent, &c. Similarly two-fold [??e] bondage in the dream state also. In deep sleep, Prājña causes only one bondage [??e] bondage of the mūlā avidyā—the Universal Nescience, the cause. In the Turīya [??e] is absence of both. This is the state of non-bondage, freedom. The very fact that [??] Jīva awakens from the deep sleep back to the world, shows that the seed or the cause [???]atent in him, to bring him back to the world of effect. The Turīya is, therefore, the [???] of wisdom and mukti.

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