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 ...
Mantra 4.1
1. (U12) The partless fourth is not an object of experience to the unredeemed. He who knows Him, resembles Him in becoming inscrutable to the unredeemed; in becoming a destroyer of all bodily bonds; in getting bliss, and in destroying false knowledge. For such is Oṅkāra. He who knows thus, becomes an Ātman pure and simple, and through the grace of the Supreme Self enters into that Supreme Self.—35.
Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:
The phrase “ātman even”—“ātmaiva” of the Upaniṣad text means becoming even the Self, i.e., experiencing that the Self is not dependent upon others and renouncing all wrong notions about it (such as identifying it with body, etc.) The phrase “through the self—“ātmanā”—means ‘through the grace of the Supreme Self.” The worshipper enters into the Supreme Self, the Turīya, through the grace of the Supreme Self Himself.
(Note.—This khaṇḍa establishes that the Turīya is nāda. It also declares what is the result when a person realises the Turīya as Nāda).
(Note.—In the previous part of this Upaniṣad in verse 7, the Turīya has been described as avyavahāryam and transcendental, etc., and now the present verse reiterates the same idea by saying that Turīya is transcendental. Why this tautology? This objection is answered by the commentator thus).
As in the previous mantras, the similarity between the attributes of the Viśva, etc., and of their worshipper was shown (such as since the Viśva is ādimat the worshipper of Viśva also becomes ādimat), so io complete the description, it was necessary to point out the similarity between the Turīya and His worshipper. Therefore, the repetition of the words “transcendental, etc.,” in this verse. (The worshipper of the Turīya who is avyavahārya, becomes himself avyavahārya.)
(Lest the phrase “advaita oṃkāra” of the verse may be mistaken to mean “the undivided entire Om denotes Turīya” the commentator says.)
“Knowing Hari the supreme goal as the Turīya called also the Nāda, the worshipper enters into Him alone, being pure in form and similar to Him in his soul, (with this exception) that his knowledge, bliss and power arc never equal to those of Hari, but inferior to Him, for even a soul in the state of mukti is still under the dominion of the Lord, and is not absolutely independent.”