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 4.4
4. (K26). The Prāṇava is the recent manifestation of Brahman, the Prāṇava is the oldest manifestation of Him as well. The unchanging Prāṇava is the Causeless, the Inmost, the Uttermost, the Uncreate and the Changeless.—38.
[Note.—Brahmā—the Brahman, the Great. The manifestations of Brahman as Prāṇava, i.e., as Viśva, Taijasa, etc., are subsequent or apara in order to His manifestation as Vāsudeva, etc.]
[Note.—Anantaraḥ (Anantara)—destruction-less: antara means destruction. Or the Inmost; there is no other object in the universe as Inmost as He, for He dwells in the hearts of all.]
Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:
The same four-aspected Prāṇava is called Brahman also because of its greatness (the root meaning of Brahman is great).
The Lord is called Oṃkara, because He is designated by Om. The meanings of Om given in the Śruti as “that which has a beginning,” etc., should not also be rejected, because the Śruti expressly teaches it so.
The Prāṇava is called apūrva because He has no one pūrva or prior to Him. He is called Anantara, because He has no antara or loss or annihilation. lie is called Anapara, because He has no one else above Him, He is perfectly independent; there is absence of dependence on others in Him. Literally it means, He who has no other (apara) as His preserver. (He is not only self-existent, but stands in need of no one else to preserve and continue His existence). He is called “abāhya” or having nothing outside of Him, because He is all-pervading. He who knows Prāṇava as such gets complete liberation.
(Lest one should fall into the mistake that Vāsudeva, etc., are anterior avatāras of Viṣṇu and consequently of greater power, than Viśva, etc., the subsequent avatāras, the commentator quotes Brahma Tarka).
“When the one and the same Viṣṇu is called Para and Apara, it does not mean the Higher and the Lower Viṣṇu: nor does it mean that the past and the present manifestations of Viṣṇu differ in efficacy and power. There is no such difference at all. A manifestation prior in time, is called Para, and one subsequent in time, apara. In fact these two words do not mean here the Higher and the Lower—but the anterior and the subsequent.” (Brahma-Tarka).
The sense of the verse “the Prāṇava is the Apara Brahman,” etc., is that all the avatāras are full, whether Past or Present, there is no deficiency in any, nor superiority of one over the other. All are infinite.